WIT Life #194: L’Arc en Ciel MSG Debut!
Events, Music, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers 
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WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Last night I had fun rocking out at the concert of L’Arc en Ciel, one of Japan’s most popular bands. They were the first Japanese group to perform at Madison Square Garden, and they put on an amazing show! For me it was largely natsukashii, as I discovered L’Arc (or ラルク) as an exchange student in Kyoto my first time in Japan. During the weekly karaoke outings that I used to work on my kanji, ラルク soon became a regular part of my repertoire and for a while their song Honey was my #18 (specialty or favorite).
So I was super excited when I heard ラルク front man Hyde belt out the first 「ずっと」 that begins the song, and was happy to find that I still remembered most of the lyrics. I enjoyed other old favorites like Stay Away and Caress of Venus, but was disappointed that Heaven’s Drive didn’t make it into the playlist. With blonde dreadlocks and heavy eye makeup Hyde was androgynously beautiful, and the other band members offered humorous greetings in English. Bananas and lollipops (along with colorful commentary) were randomly thrown out to the crowd throughout the show, and the graphics and pyrotechnics accompanying the music were absolutely amazing.
In Hyde’s goodbye to the audience he said, “It took us 20 years to get here!” Definitely worth the wait, and certainly not the last we will see of this “biggest band you’ve never heard of.”
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