COLOURS OF A DREAM

L’Arc-en-Ciel, one of Japan’s most celebrated rock bands, didn’t disappoint Thai J-rock disciples, putting on a enjoyable, high energy show at Impact Arena last Wednesday, their first concert in Thailand and the second stop on their world tour.
The quartet, featuring Hyde on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Tetsuya on bass and keyboards, Ken on guitar and keyboards and Yukihiro on drums, are bringing their epic rock – a sound that has sold over 13 million albums and 16 million singles – to Asia, Europe and the US in celebration of their 20th anniversary.
“It is like the rhythm of life from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly,” says Hyde, when asked about the band’s latest album title, “Butterfly”, before the show. “L’Arc-en-Ciel has reached its 20th birthday as surely as a butterfly.”
“All of us have songwriting abilities and we can work as a team. That means we can create our musical work all the time,” says Ken, answering a question about the band’s longevity.
At a packed Impact, the screams were loud as the lights dimmed and the gigantic screen on stage showed a graphic of the countries L’Arc-en-Ciel are playing on their world tour before switching to images of each band member.
As the stage spots shone, the keyboards rang out and Hyde swung into “Ibara no Namida” from 1999’s “Ray” then segued into “Chase” and “Good Luck My Way”, two new songs from “Butterfly”.
“Have you waited for us for so long?” shouted Hyde, before taking the audience back to the “Ray” album with “Honey” before switching back to “Butterfly” for “Drink It Down”, the number chosen for the soundtrack of video game “Devil May Cry 4”.
The singer ended the rock set with “Revelation” then cooled things down with the sweet ballad “Hitomi no Juunin”, both from 2004’s “Smile”.
Next came a slew of songs from different albums including “Tierra” (1994), “Heart” (1998), “Ark” (1999), “Real” (2000), and “Kiss” (2007).
In a well-planned set, the band once again had the audience on their feet with “XXX” and “Forbidden Lover” before going to singalong tracks “My Heart Draws A Dream” and “Seventh Heaven”. Loud screams greeted the first notes of “Driver’s High”, from the TV series “GTO – Great Teacher Onizuka”. That was followed by “Stay Away” and “Ready Steady Go”, the theme to the “Full Metal Alchemist” animated series.
Each set was separated by a solo show and laughter as the band attempted to speak Thai. Tetsuya asked, “Do you need my banana?” then threw bananas towards the audience.
“I will throw banana to the audience as my tradition. But, it seems the Thai banana are small. Tell me where I can find the big banana,” said the bassist.
The concert came to an end with an encore of “Anata”, “Winter Fall”, “Blurry Eyes”, and “Niji”.
L’Arc-en-Ciel perform in China and Taiwan before heading to the US for their sold-out gig at Madison Square Garden in New York later this month. We can only hope we get to see them again in Bangkok soon.