●DIR EN GREY opened 2017 with the 4th tour from the 2 years series “TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________”: “TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of UROBOROS]”. The tour started with two live shows held in Zepp Nagoya on January 13th and 14th followed by performances in Hyogo, Osaka, Shizuoka, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, and Tokyo touring these 7 cities for a total of 9 shows. The tour final was held at Tokyo International Forum Hall A, bringing DIR EN GREY back to this venue for the first time in 4 years, since the performance from their “TOUR2012 IN SITU” back on Dec.25th, 2012.
●In March, the band released three LIVE Blu-ray & DVD limited to Official Fan Club 「a knot」 Members: 『TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of VULGAR]』, 『TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of DUM SPIRO SPERO]』 and 『TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of 鬼葬]』, featuring live footage from the same-title tours from the series “TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________” held the previous year.
●In April, DIR EN GREY held “TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO [mode of THE MARROW OF A BONE]”, the 5th tour for the series “TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________”. The band toured 8 cities (Sendai, Sapporo, Osaka, Kanazawa, Nagoya, Tokyo, Oita and Okinawa) for a total of 11 show, marking the first performance by DIR EN GREY on the stages of Zepp Osaka Bayside (Osaka) and Okinawa Music Town Oto Ichiba.
●DIR EN GREY also performed to 『THE GREAT ROCK’N’ROLL SEKIGAHARA 2017』, a festival hosted by Kishidan, who celebrated their 20th anniversary, VAMPS and 10-FEET on April 15th and 16th at Chiba’s Makuhari Messe. DIR EN GREY performed on the first of the two shows, titled “Kishidan Banpaku vs VAMPARK FEST”, taking part in an exciting collaboration performance with the “VAMPARK FEST Troops”.
●On the 7th and 8th of July, a special live show with PIERROT titled “ANDROGYNOS” was held at Kanagawa’s prefecture Yokohama Arena. This event gathered a lot of attention since its announcement as it was going to bring on the same stage for the first time ever two bands who have never worked together since their foundations back in the 90s. DIR EN GREY performed in the first half of “a view of the Megiddo” on July 7th, and in the second half of “a view of the Acro” on 8th, bringing on the stage different songs for each show, expressing fully their unique world view. A Blu-ray & DVD featuring both the shows were released as a made-on-order only piece available at Lawson Ticket HMV.
●Starting from July 15th, the band held “TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of MACABRE]”, the 6th tour from the “TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________” series. This tour brought back on the stage DIR EN GREY’s 2nd album 『MACABRE』, released back in Sep. 2nd, 2000 and had DIR EN GREY performing in Kochi Prefecture for the first time since Apr. 2013 with the “TOUR2013 TABULA RASA”, and marked their comeback to Osaka International Convention Center after “Souten No Hekieki” held back in Aug. 2001. Along with usual venues such as Zepp Nagoya and Nakano SUNPLAZA, this tour had DIR EN GREY performing for their first time in BARKUP FUKUOKA, and in Die’s home town at Iga City Cultural Hall (Mie Prefecture). The tour featured 9 live shows in 6 cities all around Japan, and, consequently to the sold out of both the Nakano SUNPLAZA shows, an additional show was held on July 31st at Zepp Tokyo.
●“TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of Withering to death.]” started from Sep. 2nd, as the 7th tour from the series “TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________”. This time, the tour started with 2 shows at ROHM Theatre Kyoto Main Hall and brought DIR EN GREY to Miyagi’s Sendai Civic Auditorium TOHKnet Hall, Hokkaido’s Zepp Sapporo, a 2-days show at Aichi’s Zepp Nagoya, Osaka’s Hirakata Civic Hall and a 2-days show at NAMBA Hatch, Okayama’s OKAYAMA CIVIC HALL and Tokyo’s 2-day show at SHINKIBA STUDIO COAST making a total of 12 shows held in 7 cities. An additional -｢a knot｣ & ONLINE only- show was held at Zepp Tokyo on Oct. 12, successfully closing the “TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________” project the band started back in June 2016.
●On September 13th, DIR EN GREY took part in D’ERLANGER’s first tribute album 『D’ERLANGER TRIBUTE ALBUM ～Stairway to Heaven～』 to celebrate their comeback’s 10th anniversary. This album included DIR EN GREY’s version of「EASY MAKE, EASY MARK」, becoming the only new song for 2017. In the same month, the band released two LIVE Blu-ray & DVD Official Fanclub「a knot」members limited including the footage from『TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of UROBOROS]』, and [mode of THE MARROW OF A BONE] from the same series.
●As October comes, most of the details about their upcoming best album, already announced during the previous year, were revealed. The title would be 『VESTIGE OF SCRATCHES』, and it would include 3 discs making a total of 44 songs, selected by the members after opening a fan-request-poll featuring all the songs the band released up until that moment. It has also been announced that 41 of the songs were going to be remastered, and 3 of them to be re-recorded, adding some present DIR EN GREY taste to the album. The release date everyone was waiting to know was fixed for January 2nd, 2018.
No new songs were released this year: 2017 has been a year of live shows from its start to its finish point. After completing their “TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________” series during their 20 anniversary year, everyone was looking forward to seeing how will this influence their activities in 2018.
TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of UROBOROS]
- 01.13 Zepp Nagoya
- 01.14 Zepp Nagoya
- 01.20 AMASHIN ARCHAIC HALL
- 01.24 NAMBA Hatch
- 01.25 NAMBA Hatch
- 01.29 Shizuoka City Culture Hall Medium Hall
- 02.03 Hatsukaichi City Cultural Hall ‘SAKURAPIA’
- 02.05 STAR PIAA KUDAMATSU
- 02.10 TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FORUM HALL A
THE GREAT ROCK’N’ROLL SEKIGAHARA 2017
- 04.15 MAKUHARI MESSE International Convention Complex Hall 9-11
TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of THE MARROW OF A BONE]
- 04.05 SENDAI PIT
- 04.06 SENDAI PIT
- 04.08 Zepp Sapporo
- 04.11 Zepp Osaka Bayside
- 04.12 Zepp Osaka Bayside
- 04.14 KANAZAWA BUNKA HALL
- 04.18 Zepp Nagoya
- 04.21 SHINKIBA STUDIO COAST
- 04.22 SHINKIBA STUDIO COAST
- 04.26 OITA T.O.P.S Bitts HALL
- 04.29 OKINAWA MUSIC TOWN OTO-ICHIBA
ANDROGYNOS
- 07.07 YOKOHAMA ARENA
- 07.08 YOKOHAMA ARENA
TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of MACABRE]
- 07.15 Kochi Prefectural Culture Hall, ORANGE HALL
- 07.17 Osaka International Convention Center
- 07.18 Osaka International Convention Center
- 07.21 Zepp Nagoya
- 07.22 Zepp Nagoya
- 07.25 Nakano SUNPLAZA
- 07.26 Nakano SUNPLAZA
- 07.31 Zepp Tokyo
- 08.03 BARKUP FUKUOKA
- 08.05 Iga City Cultural Hall
TOUR16-17 FROM DEPRESSION TO ________ [mode of Withering to death.]
- 9.2 ROHM Theatre Kyoto Main Hall
- 9.3 ROHM Theatre Kyoto Main Hall
- 9.8 TOHKnet Hall (Sendai Civic Auditorium)
- 9.10 Zepp Sapporo
- 9.15 Zepp Nagoya
- 9.16 Zepp Nagoya
- 9.18 Hirakata Civic Hall
- 9.23 NAMBA Hatch
- 9.24 NAMBA Hatch
- 9.30 OKAYAMA CIVIC HALL
- 10.3 SHINKIBA STUDIO COAST
- 10.4 SHINKIBA STUDIO COAST
- 10.12 Zepp Tokyo -｢a knot｣ & ONLINE only-
