Meeting Dir en Grey (Atlanta show, December 7th 2011)

On December 7th 2011, I braved 11-13 hours in extremely cold windy rainy weather to meet my first jrock band. Dir en Grey.  This was my third time seeing them perform, luckily I was able to snag VIP.  VIP allowed you to meet the band along with get a few goodies from the tour.

Once the time came for us to go inside, I was getting really anxious.  Meeting them was something I thought impossible, but it was actually happening. We were 5-15 minutes late going inside, then the ticket scanner wasn’t working. After things got sorted out, we got a special VIP shirt and a pre signed autographed poster. Nora (the translator) came out and told us the rules. No hugging or kissing the band members and how we would go about with the photo session. She also asked where everyone was from. Surprisingly, not that many people were from Georgia.

To my surprise, we had a short q&a. Due to the screaming fangirls, I only heard two questions.

-What would you do during the zombie apocalypse?

-Something about a rumor involving Kaoru and Toshiya. It was about before they got big, they had performed at a club and the club manager said they would never get big.

After the very brief q&a, it was photo session time. After getting a picture with the band, you could go buy merch and then go ahead to get a good spot for the show. As the line dwindled down, I was finally able to get my picture taken. Quite nerve wrecking, but it was amazing standing next to the band that got me into the world of jrock.

Standing for hours in that weather was worth it. VIP came with a increased price tag this year, although it is worth it. VIP sells out pretty fast (especially in certain cities) and even though these are hard times, I would really recommend everyone try to get VIP.  You get to meet the band, get their autograph (which is not easy outside of VIP) and have first dibs on where to stand.  I hope they continue with VIP so more fans can have the opportunity to meet them.