LIVE REPORT: girugamesh @ Backstage, Munich [TOUR 2016 “鵺-chimera-” in EUROPE]

On May 21st, girugamesh rocked the stage of Backstage in Bavaria's capital city Munich! The show was already sold out beforehand, but those who were lucky could still get some of the remaining tickets at the venue on the night of the show. The crowd was very mixed. There was an even number of male and female attendees, many of whom were those one would usually meet at a metal or gothic concert. So, despite being a visual kei band, girugamesh succeeded in reaching out to a more diverse audience, which is something that not every visual band is able to accomplish!

Vo. Satoshi

After the band's supporting act No Need To Stay ended their performance at around 7:30 PM, girugamesh kept their fans waiting for a little more than 30 minutes. The tension was rising when at 8:00 PM there was still no sign of them, but what was awaiting the audience definitely made up for the delay!

When they finally hit the stage, they made everyone go crazy with their song "wither mind". Usually, it's hard for a band to get the crowd so excited with their very first song, but girugamesh had no problems in doing so. Everywhere you looked, you could see waving hands, and whenever Satoshi pointed his microphone to the audience, everyone energetically chanted "we don't stop it!".

The atmosphere quickly darkened when they started to play "鵺-chimera-". Blue light filled the room immediately, and occasionally the headlights turned yellow to break the almost eerie darkness. The song itself is a pretty depressing and gloomy one. Thankfully, everyone was in a very good mood, and you could hear the audience scream "time is dead!" at every corner of the hall! The band then played the first track from one of their older releases—"Go ahead", a song off of their mini-album gravitation from 2014. Everyone put their hands up at once and screamed much louder than before, especially when ShuU took Satoshi's place at the front of the stage and when Nii had his guitar solo!

"Hello Munich, we are girugamesh! Are you ready?!"
Those were Satoshi's first words (in English!) during the short break before their next song: "volcano"! Everyone was headbanging for most of the song, and just when there seemed to be a pause to catch your breath, the band's vocalist made sure that you used it to wave your hands and scream "Hey! Hey! Hey!". Clearly, there was not a single second to stand still and just watch.
The main commands for "slip out" were to clap and jump without any interruption. While the whole room was filled with red light, the audience gladly did as they were told without the slightest sign of exhaustion.

At the beginning of "FREAKS", Satoshi stood in front with his back to the audience. He then started to turn around very slowly while everyone had their fists in the air screaming "Hey!". When he finally faced his fans again during the chorus, he told them to clap their hands and showed them how it's done!

Gt. Nii

For "VOLTAGE", Satoshi pointed at the front rows and told them to form a circle pit! Meanwhile, all the other people waved their hands and gave their all, especially during the chorus. With "crime-罪-" the band played one of their older tracks that is definitely is still an all-time favorite for fans. The audience basically sang the last and very intense part of this song all by themselves which was something the band clearly enjoyed! Afterwards, there was another short pause for the members to change their instruments. While the others prepared to continue, Nii had a guitar solo together with Ryo playing on drums!

At this time, the "relaxing" part of the concert started, and the band played three of their more emotional songs. The first one was "Aimainamikaku", during which the lights turned all green. No one was able to stand still, and you could see a lot of waving hands and headbanging throughout the crowd. The slow pace was continued by "nobody". During this very sentimental song, you could see couples in the crowd turning and kissing, which clearly proves that girugamesh were able to convey the right feelings with this track!

The next song was probably the biggest surprise for most fans: "shining"!  The atmosphere brightened almost immediately, and literally everyone put their hands in the air as bright yellow lights made the room SHINE! When Satoshi told the audience to sing the chorus, every single person did so. All energy that was still left at the end of the song was used for the biggest and loudest applause of the whole evening!

During the last SE of this live, Satoshi thanked all the fans for coming and for the amazing show they had had so far. Even though he spoke in Japanese, it was easy to tell what he was trying to say.
They continued with "gravitation", a song with many opportunities for the people in the crowd to jump, shake, and clap hands! Once again the vocalist stood in front, gesturing to make sure everyone sang with him.

Another very popular song of this show was "BORDER". All four members really showed the audience how headbanging and jumping is done during this track! At the end, the thunderous applause only proved what excellent song choice they'd made. The band then played "driving time", during which the only option was to fully focus on ShuU. He moved from his stage left position to the front, while Satoshi held his microphone to his bass guitar. Nii also came over to point at him and drew attention to his playing!

Ba. ShuU

Blue, pink and red lights were used to make "Horizon" become an even more powerful live track! There was only one important thing everyone had to do during this song: clap and keep doing so as long as girugamesh told them to! Before the band started to play "Another Way", Satoshi taught everyone how to sing the song: "Can you sing with me?!" He sang the melody, and the audience had to listen carefully to it in order to do it completely right. Of course, it worked out perfectly when they actually played it! "evolution", one of their most popular live songs, was song number 17! Every fan knows the lyrics to this track, so the band had the whole venue sing along to it!

The band then took another short break before playing their last song. During this time, a fan shouted "Stupid!" hoping the band would play this track. (I probably don't have to mention here that some people actually took this as an offense, not knowing that "Stupid" is in fact the title of one of their songs.)

The band's choice was another one however: "END "was the last song to be played, and everybody was very happy with this decision! Satoshi covered his eyes with his hand for a lot of the song. You could clearly see all four members' feelings during this track by looking at their facial expressions. It was definitely an emotional, almost heartbreaking ending song!

Fortunately, there were actually three more tracks in store for us! The audience screamed for an encore, and the band reappeared about five minutes later. While going back on stage, Яyo even made the attempt to jump over the railing above the spectators area! As a way of saying "thank you!" to girugamesh, fans held paper hearts in the air, creating a huge sea of red hearts for the band to see as they came back on stage! Delighted by this wonderful idea, Satoshi immediately took out his phone to record a video, which you can see on his Instagram now (here)! As the band started to play "Zecchou BANG!!" the crowd became as energetic as the dancers in the song's music video, and although no one did the actual dance from the video, the audience was nevertheless clapping and swinging their hands.

Dr. Яyo

During "Drain", the crowd gave all they had and headbanged together with the band! At this point one very popular song was still missing from the set. The band had waited until the very last moment, but they finally played "Break Down"! Nii and Яyo both admitted to being very proud of this song in the interview we had with them prior to the show (here). You could really feel the audience's relief when girugamesh finally played it!

At the end of the performance (which lasted one hour and 45 minutes), all four members came to the front of the stage to thank their fans for this amazing evening. While Satoshi expressed his gratitude in Japanese, Яyo took the microphone for one last sentence in English: "I love you guys!".

At this point, I also want to thank the band for this amazing show and for 12 wonderful years! I'm pretty sure I'm speaking for all of us when I say that I hope we will see them in new bands again after girugamesh disbands in July 2016. Keep on rockin', guys!

Setlist:
SE
01. wither mind
02. 鵺-chimera-
03. Go ahead
SE
04. volcano
05. slip out
06. FREAKS
07. VOLTAGE
08. crime-罪-
SE
09. Aimainamikaku
10. nobody
11. shining
SE
12. gravitation
13. BORDER
14. driving time
15. Horizon
16. Another Way
17. evolution
18. END

Encore:
19. Zecchou BANG!!
20. Drain
21. Break Down


We'd like to thank Kaine Sano for taking these amazing photos! You can visit his Instagram account by clicking here, so check it out! And of course, thank you to GANSHIN for this opportunity!

If you haven't bought girugamesh's most recent mini-album Chimera yet, then here is your chance to do so:

chimera [TYPE A] (¥2,500)
[CD]
01. Introduction
02. slip out
03. chimera
04. wither mind
05. Horizon
06. END
07. Big Bear Remix from gravitation

[DVD: 2015/3/14 Live at Studio Coast]
01. gravitation
02. Go ahead
03. driving time
04. Not Found
05. suiren
06. crime-tsumi-
07. Drain
08. VOLTAGE
09. Omaeni sasageru minikui koe
10. Zecchou BANG!!
11. arrow

*Purchase it on CDJapan

chimera [TYPE B] (¥2,500)
[CD]
01. Introduction
02. slip out
03. chimera
04. wither mind
05. Horizon
06. END
07. Big Bear Remix from gravitation

[DVD: Documentary]
01. girugamesh 2015 documentary

*Purchase it on CDJapan

chimera [European Edition] (¥2,500)
[DISC 1]
01. Introduction
02. slip out
03. chimera
04. wither mind
05. Horizon
06. END
07. Big Bear Remix from gravitation

[DISC 2: BONUS]
01. Go ahead
02. gravitation
03. Not Found
04. reflection
05. Vortex

*Purchase it in-store (EU)

Share on Google Plus