Although Dio doesnt have any full lenght album they are playing a europeen tout. The UK date was first set to be played at the carling academy Islington then pulled off for a smaller venue, the camden underworld (capacity of 450).
When i arrived at the venue around 6.30 a small queue was there. Later i ve been told that some fangirls camped outside to be in the first row. Too bad for them with only 94 people (i checked with the staff) everybody was basically first row and the venue looked a bit empty.
The crowd was 80% girls 20% boys, the doors opened at 7 and we had to wait 2 hours for the show, no opening act.
During this time i met up with the tour staff, 5 french people. They were only 5 on this date and will be 10 for the French date which has sold out.
Around 9 the light dimmed and the intro started. One girl from the staff made the observation that DIO’s intro sounded a lot like Dir en grey GDS, but less powerfull.
When the band entered the stage my ears almost started to bleed as all the fangirls were screaming their hearts out.
I think DIO is the most VK band i ever saw. The singer was wearing his goth/VK costume with a pair of black wings, cool when he wasn’t moving but more funny when he was.
All the member were really stylish, i didnt had a chance to see the drummer as the drumset wasn’t higher than the rest.
Every members looked really cool, each with their own style. I remember the bassist had an eyepatch, stylish but not easy to see eveerything.
The sound was great, i think they might have played all their discography, starting with their latest single CARRY DOWN. I really enjoyed this song as the single version but the live is much more powerfull.
The band really played well and communicate a lot with the audience as less than 1 meter separated them. The singer often came in front of the stage to taste the crowd, by that i mean that he was letting the audience gropping him like a pupet.
The only bad thing i can say about this gig is that the stage was too small for this band. With all the costume and the instrument the band didn’t have much space to move but this is for sure due to the low ticket sales.
They played for one hour and a half with an encore which was made of only one song, i can’t tell which one as i m not that fan but this last song rocked the audience, all the member were playing with the crowd, teasing, smiling and when the singer came on stage shirtless (and wingless) i can let you imagine the reaction of the girls.
After thanking the crowd in english the band left the stage with the usual pick and drumsticks throwing.
I stayed a little with the tour staff, talking about jrock and i learnt few fun facts like for example the gazette really have the rockstar attitude, but not in a good way. Also an cafe got a new keyboard and this guy is the victim of the band, not even allowed to talk during interviews. For last apparently Moon Kana is retarded and saw herself her fur bunny (not sure it’s the correct way to say that).
Then for some reason the camden underworld’s staff (thx for the free beers) thought i was part of the staff and locked me in. As stupid as i am i didn’t even ask if i could help unloading the stage and i left by the backdoor…too bad i didn’t get backstage this time!
I usually judge the quatilty of a gig by the days my neck need to recover from all the headbanging…that was 2 days…so it was a great gig
I found these vid on youtube, i do not own them.
