D - 14th Anniversary Special Premium "Free" Live (Dark fairy tale)

On April 23rd D held a free live at Zepp Tokyo on the artificial island Odaiba. The free live was to celebrate their14th Anniversary. The tickets were handed out for free on a flyer which could be taken at most visual kei shops, or they were also handed out at their oneman live in January. However, if you wanted a good entrance number and a secured place at the live you could pre-book a ticket through pia. It was still free but you had to pay the administration fees. I chose this option and ended up paying 500yen for my ticket, which I thought was totally worth it concidering how much a normal ticket costs.

Since it was a free live I didn't have that much expectations regarding the length of the live. I've seen a lot smaller bands offer free live tickets for gigs lasting 1 hour, so for D which are a kind of big visual kei band I assumed it would be a rather short live. Oh was I wrong.

Eventhough I pre-ordered my ticket I ended up with a B-number, so about 700 people entered before me :P It sounds like a lot but Zepp is kind of big, I've had worse numbers there so it was ok. I also bought the D flags for this occassion! I mentioned that a nice fan lend me one of her flags last time, so I felt like it was time to get my own set now. I also got some costume chekis.
I wasn't aware of the system D has with chekis, but both at this live and the next (which I haven't written about yet) you could buy a ticket for chekis before the live, and then you go and pick them up afterwards. With this system you buy a set, so you get 1 cheki of each member, all in or out of costume, it's your choice. They come in a nice little envelope which states the date and live, so it makes a nice memory!

Since Zepp is kind of big I was really suprised to see it seemed kind of full! I'm glad that many showed up and hopefully some who's never seen D enjoyed the concert and will go to their later too!
The stage was amazingly decorated with flowers, real and actually big ones made from fabric or similar attached to the background, matching their new dark fairytale costumes. I have to say the new theme really appealed to me, I'm glad to see that D's fantasy doesn't seem to cease.
There seem to have been some electronic issues, all of a sudden some projection started eventhough the club was all lit up. It was just for a moment though and it was turned off immediatly. Short after the club was lit down and the projection was turned on for real. What it showed was a music video, the members were all dressed in their new outfits, and as most can figure out, it was the PV for their new single Dark Fairy Tale.
I just don't get how they can keep releasing so much stuff! D really never takes a break (even when they do :P). The song was very typical D, to be honest, to me nothing special. Better than Happy Unbirthday but not a top notch song. The PV was fun though, and I have to admit I love their costumes.

After the PV the members came out on stage and the first song up was 7th Rose! I really like that and I haven't heard it live before so I got really hyped. Like always D are very energetic on stage and the fans too, that's what I love about their lives. Eventhough I'm not a great fan (I follow them and have most of their full length albums but not fanatic) their lives are one of the best in the visual kei scene in my opinion.
As the evening went on I realised that eventhough it was a free live, it was just as good and long as a normal live with D. And what was great about the setlist was that it really reflected their anniversary! I assumed they would play a lot of songs from Wonderland Saviour, being their most recent album but the set list offered a wide variety of songs. To follow the nature/fairytale theme they acctually played Namonaki mori no yumegatari which is one of my favorite songs! It was great live of course, and from that single they also played Sankaku oyane to awarena koguma. The first half of the concert was just full of my favorite songs, so I couldn't have been more pleased. Also, Yami yori kurai doukoku akapera to bara yori akai jounetsu no aria, how can Asagi sing that so well live!?

The later half of the setlist, one song written by each member was played. Asagi would first present the song and say who wrote it and also some other things about it. So, it started with Hiroki and Desert Warrior! I feel like the setlist was very well thought. Not only did they chose songs to follow the nature theme, they also included songs from all of their career and on top of that one song from each member. Hands down to D, they know how to make a good live.
There seemed to have been some technical problems later too, at some point staff came to help Ruiza with his guitar equipment. It looked rather funny as Ruiza turned around and the staff member lifted his skirt to be able to help with the thing connected to the guitar (not a technical person so I have no idea what it's called), and I could hear some fans laughing (he has some great legs though).
I was happily surprised to hear that they played Kurobara no kishi again! It's one of my favorite songs on Kingdom and it's really fun live, hopefully I'll get to hear it once more before leaving Japan. (I noticed though that some people looked a bit scared seeing the parapara for it, I assume those girls weren't D fans, hehe)

As a last song of the main setlist they played Dark fairy tale, and Hide-Zou was supposed to show us the moves. There was some headbanging in the beginning and then for the chorus Asagi asked what everyone should do and Hide-Zou thought we could go for the "fancy hand movements" (as I like to call it :P), so in a very feminine manner he began showing with his hands and people laughed a bit, Asagi too.

Like always they all say some words to the fans and wave goodbye for a rather long time before leaving stage. I think that's really sweet, especially Asagi which I sometimes feel can come across as a bit stiff. He really stays on each side of the stage for a long time to wave to everyone.

This was a great live, and too bad for those who couldn't attend or chose not to, you really missed something. Please go see D if you get the chance, if you're into visual kei I'm sure you won't be disapointed!

―SE―

7th Rose

闇の国のアリス

闇より暗い慟哭のアカペラと薔薇より赤い情熱のアリア

光の庭～名もなき森の夢語り

～MC～

Night-ship”D”

花摘みの乙女

～MC～

三角お屋根と哀れな子熊

～MC～

Vampire missa

花惑

～MC～

Lost breath

ードラムソロー

Desert Warrior

In the name of Justice

鬨の声

～MC～

GOD'S CHILD

～MC～

君が見る夢の中

～MC～

Leukocyte

黒薔薇の騎士

～MC～

Dark fairy tale　

Encore

太陽を葬る日

Wonderland Savior～太陽と月の歯車～

Pride

Dearest you

EDEN

春の宴