Legions of fans flocked to Toyosu PIT on October 31st for the second consecutive day of the GazettE’s special Halloween concert, THE DARK HORROR SHOW SPOOKY BOX 2. The show began when a screen lit up in the packed venue, displaying a warning that “This film is rated R”.
While the day before had the members take on the role of mad scientists at a derelict asylum, the theme this time was “LUCY”, featuring the band as a pack of villains out for blood. The video showed profiles of each of the characters for the night, prompting thrilled screams of excitement. Drummer KAI was the “Phantom Ripper”, bassist REITA the “Psycho Slugger”, guitarist AOI the “Deadly Craw”, URUHA the “Mad Sister” and vocalist RUKI the “Chain Killer”.The heavy riffs of “RAGE” signaled the start of the show and a gauze curtain that was obscuring the stage, dropped dramatically as the music blasted through the venue along with RUKI’s guttural screams. “DAWN” followed immediately and the lights dyed the area a deep, sinister red. RUKI urged the crowd to go harder with a call and response and the rest of the band scattered across the stage getting the venue even more excited. At the end of the first performance, RUKI yelled, “Let’s get messy!” as the harsh opening of “HEADACHE MAN” had the fans falling forward in perfectly synchronized headbanging. They continued with “BEFORE I DECAY”, a song that they don’t usually perform and which had the crowd screaming in excitement.
“Welcome to Hell” was the greeting that RUKI used when they finally paused for a breath. “Tonight, we’ve come to cut off your precious heads. Are you gonna die tonight?!!”
The crowd yelled in response, getting fired up once again. True to their words, the band was out for blood, performing song after song that pushed the fans to let loose and go as crazy as they wanted. “GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS” and “VENOMOUS SPIDER’S WEB” are always extremely fun performances, with a multitude of colorful flashing lights and an intensity that had the fans and the band feeding off of the other’s energy. The spotlight switched to KAI for the opening of “CLEVER MONKEY” then RUKI let out a sinister cackle before the rest of the instruments joined in. The members went all out during this performance, particularly REITA who was crouched down low, slapping the strings of the bass in a high-speed frenzy. It ended with each of the members silhouetted in a red spotlight before it faded to black.
They paused again before doing another call and response with the crowd and flowing into the next song, “Maggots” led by URUHA and AOI's frantic and aggressive riffs. RUKI asked the crowd, “Can you jump?! Let’s all jump together and go wild!” With that, they performed “COCKROACH” followed by “VERMIN” and everyone jumped and threw their hands in the air along with dancing and moshing.“You guys have gotten pretty messy but we’re coming for your heads again!” screamed RUKI. He led the crowd in a call and response asking them, “Are you ready to die?!” over and over.
“We’ll kill you guys just like you asked” he said before cackling and hopping onto the platform at the center of the stage for “The $ocial riot machine$”. As an old favorite, the song never fails to double the crowd’s energy. The music lingered and without a break, the intense intro of “UGLY” had the entire room writhing with barely restrained energy. The band continued to pull their fans along without giving them a chance to ever catch their breath. After “BLEMISH”, RUKI told them, “Let’s have a lot more fun. You came here to die right?!” From there they continued with “DISCHARGE” with RUKI keeping them going by screaming, “You can’t die just yet. Come on!”
The energy reached its crescendo at the final song, “関東土下座組合 (Kanto Dogeza Kumiai)”. RUKI yelled out “Welcome to the real hell!!” and the fans dropped low and began to headbang with abandon. They did round after round with each of the members hopping onto the platform to get the crowd riled up. When he wasn’t at center stage, RUKI carried a bottle of water, spraying and spitting it over the overheated fans. When it seemed like they couldn’t go any more without collapsing, they did a final round of headbanging before the band took their bows and left the stage.In no time at all the fans were ready for an encore, they called out and the band returned to the stage. KAI told the crowd, “Without worrying about the concept this time, just go as wild as you always do.” He got the crowd fired up once more and the room began dancing for the performance of “INSIDE BEAST”. They followed with “Psychedelic Heroine” which had KAI singing backup vocals.
“First of all, we’re happy to have shared this hell with you all.” RUKI told the crowd when the paused for a breather. He jokingly asked the crowd, “Are you alive?” and then asked them what they thought of the two concepts that they had challenged for SPOOKY BOX 2. “The songs were chosen to be able to express the band’s worldview and we’re really happy to have done this. We’re visual kei so this is really appealing for us.”
He wished the fans a Happy Halloween, “Although,” he joked, “We look like we’re here to murder Halloween.”“Please look forward to our new stuff, we’re working hard to make new songs so it’s pretty intense.”
He then pulled out an actual chainsaw, which completed his costume and introduced it as, “My friend Yuuji.” The crowd was just about ready to go wild again so the band led them in a call and response before performing “Filth in the beauty”. With the first few notes, the audience was screaming in excitement. The crowd sang along to “ATTITUDE” and then they ended the encore with “TOMORROW NEVER DIES”. Despite all the playful talk of murder and dying during the live, the band conveyed their true feelings to the fans with this song. During the performance RUKI told them, “You guys are alive and that’s our reason for living!”
They left the stage again but treated the crowd to a double encore. When they returned, KAI told them, “Thank you Toyosu. We came to kill you but it was a lot of fun and we have so much planned so we’ll hold off on killing you just yet.”
The show ended with the crowd favorite, “LINDA～candydive Pinky heaven～” that had the entire room dancing, moshing and crowd surfing. The band were all running around the stage clearly having fun; AOI played a dramatic solo on the center platform and RUKI and REITA shared a quick hug during the chaos.
When everything was over, the usual emcee told the crowd on behalf of the band,
“Thank you for 2017.”
Setlist:
01.RAGE
02.DAWN
03.HEADACHE MAN
04.BEFORE I DECAY
05.GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS
06.VENOMOUS SPIDER'S WEB
07.CLEVER MONKEY
08.Maggots
09.COCKROACH
10.VERMIN
11.The $ocial riot machine$
12.UGLY
13.BLEMISH
14.DISCHARGE
15.関東土下座組合 (Kanto Dogeza Kumiai)
EN01.INSIDE BEAST
EN02.Psychedelic Heroine
EN03.Filth in the beauty
EN04.ATTITUDE
EN05.TOMORROW NEVER DIES
WEN01.LINDA～candydive Pinky heaven～
Photos via the GazettE staff
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