Dir En Grey at Le Medley, Montreal- Music Vice Review

Dir En Grey at Le Medley, Montreal
Review by Music Vice contributor Elizabeth Keith - November 21, 2008

[Note: Much like how I wasn’t able to get my photo gear into the show, opening act The Human Abstract were not, apparently, able to get through the border, and did not make it to the show.]

I was not properly steeled for the level of obsessive fandom that awaited me at this show. Looking online after the fact, there is a level of infatuation with this band – not to mention, against it - that is just plain scary. Oh, god, I must be old.

Judging by the octave of the crowd’s screaming, I’ll wager that the audience is mainly female, with the average age hovering around sixteen. Don’t get me wrong, I have bled my ears out at many a punk and metal show, but that was thanks to the band, and this is just piercing. There isn’t even anyone on stage. The show isn’t even close to starting. I seem to have stumbled upon a hitherto undiscovered circle of hell. Jesus, whatever it was that I did that got me here, I’m sorry. Friends?

By the time the band finally comes on stage, I am about to throw my beer at the head of any teenage banshee that’s shrieking when the lead singer saves me the trouble by standing on a speaker and spitting his beer into the crowd. (Thank you, sir, for doing what I could not.) At least now the music will drown out the crowd – or will it?

"...anything that isn’t unintelligible Cookie Monster screamo is in Japanese...It doesn’t match the music at all, and stands out like a pony in an alligator pit."

The thing I usually hear first when listening to a band for the first time is the lyrics, with the music following after. Here, because anything that isn’t unintelligible Cookie Monster screamo (not a bad thing at all) is in Japanese, I get to hear the music first. But that doesn’t mean the lead singer gets let off the hook. I tried, really, I tried to give his singing the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t. I don’t like it. Don’t get me wrong - the band I could listen to all night long, and I actually enjoy lead singer Kyo’s more gutteral tendencies, but the wails dip into the realm of overly emotive croony pop that I just... can’t… stand. It doesn’t match the music at all, and stands out like a pony in an alligator pit.

As the night wears on Kyo’s stage antics are overemotional and frankly a little grating. When not wailing he’s faux-sexy rubbing himself – evoking an oh-so-unfortunate memory of the “What What (In the butt)” viral video – or striking a Jesus Christ Pose, which I seem to recall got the dressing down it deserved by Soundgarden, once upon a time when I was a bit younger than most of those in attendance. C’mon, I’ve mocked N’Sync for their overuse of emotive outstretched hands, so I’m not cutting him any slack.

But the band puts up a good fight nonetheless, and throws down some complex, multilayered songs that make up for the singing. There are a few songs towards the end of the show - (what songs, exactly? I have no idea, I had no lyrics to go by, and I wasn’t about to fight some neurotic 14-y/o goth kid for a setlist.) - that runs into the criticism leveled at grunge-era bands of having a predictable loud-quiet-loud format. (Listen to The Grunge Song by Weezer and you’ll know what I mean.) But the not-so-interesting numbers are outpaced by some actually quite stellar, almost prog-metal performances. About four songs in, I catch what sounds like the James Bond Theme thrown in with some heavy metal riffs, and it’s not out of place. The two guitarists string dense melodies together with the metal, are backed up ably by some ferocious drumming courtesy of Shinya.

If I’m able to tune out half the singing, and the crowd’s wailing, I could actually like most of the songs - the melodrama’s just a bit much to take seriously, though, and taints what could otherwise be a halfway decent elaborate screamo metal show; not bad, but not great, either. Consider me underwhelmed.