DIR EN GREY
ISLINGTON ACADEMY,
LONDON
02.08.07
KKKK

YESTERDAY, THE first night of Dir en grey's two night stand at the Islington Academy, the audience was so impressed that hundreds of its members left the venue and immediately began queuing for tickets for tonight's performance. The band they wanted to see (again) has never before visited the United Kingdom. The band has never released an album here. The lyrics of the songs are sung almost entirely in Japanese. In fact, virtually the only words of English spoken tonight are "UK!" and "Last song!"

This might not quite be a phenomenon but what you're seeing is hugely unusual. Back East, Dir en grey have six albums and 10 years of slog behind them. Here they have made virtually no attempt to court the attentions of a potential audience, and this might just be why people like them. Love them, even.
Tonight the chants of "Dir en grey!" are bouncing off the walls half an hour before the group appears. A mixture of ages and looks, the gathering is then held captive until, 90 minutes later, the band don't say goodnight. The effect is part performance, part magic.

Or, at least it's an illusion. Away from the energy of the moment, Dir en grey's appeal is - what shall we say? - perplexing. This evening there are moments when frontman Kyo is so out of tune it's as if he's singing a different song for a different group in a different venue in a different city in a different coutrly. Some of the band's styles sit together at odd angles. Amid the confusion, the only thing missing, really, is a sense of anything memorable. Much of what's played is as forgettable as the Japanese for "can you give me the number of a decent songwriter?"

For tonight at least, though, this argument is difficult to sustain. As Dir en grey leave the stage there are 900 mouths and 1,800 hands making the kind of racket you don't normally hear.
London is a spoiled city, its concertgoers often indifferent. American bands with fresh tattoos and toothpaste smiles are up as often as Heathrow can unload them, and then they're gone, as if they were never here. Dir en grey offer something different. Tonight the audience is made up of fans in the proper sense of that word. That is, they're fanatical. And this is a fact that cannot and should not be denied.

Ian Winwood