[LIVE REPORT] 25th L’Anniversary LIVE (Tokyo Dome, 2017.04.09)

Photos: Hideaki Imamoto, Takayuki Okada, Toshikazu Oguruma, Chie Kato, Kazuko Tanaka

On April 9, 2017,L’Arc-en-Ciel held their 25th anniversary show L’Arc-en-Ciel 25th L’Anniversary LIVE at Tokyo Dome.

Like the previous day, the concert began with “Niji.” Following were “Caress of Venus” and “the Fourth Avenue Café,” two popular tracks from their first million-selling album “True.”

hyde shouted to the audience, “Welcome to the 25th L’Anniversary! We are L’Arc-en-Ciel! Hello world! Hello everyone! We’re finally all together. We’re as rare as the Japanese serow (laughs).” Indeed, it has been over a year and a half since the band last performed together. “It makes us very happy to know that we’ve become 25 years old thanks to all of you.”

“Vivid Colors,” a song with a memorable chorus, and “Lies and Truth” continued. Following were “Shinjitsu to Gensou to” and “forbidden lover,” two tracks that express the deepness and darkness of the album “ark.”

After playing “Shout at the Devil,” the members appeared on the moving stage once again to move to the back. The members and fans became united as they shouted in “REVELATION.” yukihiro, who switched to guitars for this song, rocked his new look with his long blonde hair.

During the following MC, ken intriguingly asked fans about L’ed lights and fluorescent lamps. (L’ed light bands were distributed to the fans for the concert.) “It’s been a year and a half! I have lots of things I want to ask you guys! Who has LED lights? Who uses fluorescent lamps? When are you going to change those? Before our 30th anniversary?” Contrary to his all-black fashion, his innocent smile brought laughter to fans throughout the venue.

hyde continued the MC to introduce the next song. “We’ll be performing ‘Kaze no Yukue’ next. I went overseas for the first time to shoot the music video for this song!” hyde and tetsuya continued to talk about their memories visiting Morocco for two weeks. The acoustic intro to “Kaze no Yukue” brought tears to fans who had been waiting for years to hear the song.

The following song began with hyde guiding fans to clap along the rhythm. The L’ed lights lit up to show the letters “X X X” in the audience. With his police hat designed by h.NAOTO, hyde seemed to have stepped out of an 80s rock video.

After “Kasou,” “Shinshoku ~lose control~,” and “HONEY,” ken continued with a grand guitar solo. Fans sang along in unity during “MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM.” ken’s guitar and tetsuya’s bass beautifully intertwined in “NEO UNIVERSE.”

Live classics “STAY AWAY,” “Driver’s High,” and “READY STEADY GO” allowed fans to let out all their energy.

The encore began with their latest single “Don’t be Afraid,” which showed the audience how powerful L’Arc-en-Ciel sounds after 25 years.

“How are you guys doing?” tetsuya asked the fans. “It’s our 25th anniversary, and our two-day show is on April 8 and April 9. A staff member told me today that 4+8+4+9=25. What a coincidence, right? But 4 and 9 are unlucky numbers in Japan… Do you guys not mind? Well, I totally don’t mind either!” hyde quickly responded, “No, you’re really sensitive about this stuff (laughs)” “Nope! I’m super laid back! I don’t care about this stuff!” Fans continued to laugh at this interaction between the two members.

After “Blurry Eyes” and “Link,” hyde looked back on the past 25 years. In the audience, the L’ed bands lit up to show the words “25th L’Anniversary.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much. I was thinking about what changed in the past 25 years. Before, we used to chase after certain ideals, whether it be an ideal type of music or an ideal musician we looked up to. But now, there are many musicians that look up to us. We meet people that tell us, ‘One day, we’ll reach where you are.’ Meeting these musicians has made me realize that what we have done as L’Arc-en-Ciel was not a mistake. But we can’t let these younger musicians pass us, so we’ll keep going!”

“I’ve spent more than half of my life in L’Arc-en-Ciel. I hope that these days continue for many more years. It was a very long road. We took some shortcuts, but we also took many detours. But we were able to make it here today, thanks to your support and love. There were happy moments, but there were painful moments as well. Your smiles are our biggest reward. If this long journey is what brought us to these smiles today, then I believe that the journey was not a bad one. Again, thank you very much for today.”

The concert ended with the beautiful ballad “Hitomi no Juunin.” Surrounded with warm applause, the 25th L’Anniversary came to an end.

2017.04.09 SETLIST

01. Niji
02. Caress of Venus
03. the Fourth Avenue Café
04. Vivid Colors
05. Lies and Truth
06. Shinjitsu to Gensou to
07. forbidden lover
08. Shout at the Devil
09. REVELATION
10. Kaze no Yukue
11. X X X
12. Kasou
13. Shinshoku ~lose control~
14. HONEY
15. MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM
16. NEO UNIVERSE
17. STAY AWAY
18. Driver’s High
19. READY STEADY GO
20. Don’t be Afraid
21. Blurry Eyes
22. Link
23. Hitomi no Juunin

Official Site: L’Arc~en~Ciel
Anniversary Site: L’Arc~en~Ciel 25th L’Anniversary LIVE