2,200 goths showed up for a show by the Japanese cosplayer band Dir en grey in LA, despite the fact that the band has never released a CD in the US, sings in Japanese, and has no US airplay. The fans organized elaborate, synchronized stunts via LiveJournal, and sang along phonetically with the words.
“Half the songs, I don’t know what I’m saying,” admits Joy, one of the diehards. She’s attending the show despite warnings from her doctor – a recent injury has left her confined to a wheelchair. Lauran is equally obsessed: Pulling her striped socks up above her shin-high combat boots, she recounts how she took the red-eye to New York to see the band on Tuesday, flew back to the West Coast on Thursday, and joined the queue outside the Wiltern eight hours before showtime to secure a prime spot in the mosh pit. Lauran got hooked on Dir en grey five years ago when she stumbled across an audioclip on the Web. She bought her first Dir en grey DVD on eBay – a Chinese copy that required a region 1 decoder. Others discovered the group through its videogame music or merchandise displays at anime conferences. The band also maintains a popular MySpace page with blog entries and videoclips.
Update: Tom sez, “I tracked down free, legal full-length samples of several of their songs.”
Update 2: DJ Kidna sez, “I’m a DJ for WKNC 88.1 FM in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I host a show called Made In Japan, specializing in music from Japan. Dir En Grey happens to be one of my top requests, and I play them pretty often”
Update 3: James sez, “The band has released their latest album, Withering to Death worldwide, and in the US on May 16th of this year. It’s available at most major retailers such as Best Buy.”