annyong peeps! i’m back, i’m back… back on tiffany’s blog, that is…
after the FRILLS AND FRINGES, guess it’s time for me to blog about the concert proper, ya?
but before that, let me touch a bit on the comments and general feedback coming from the concert. i think it’s fair and safe to say the event was a success. yes, despite the glitches and stuff, it was a success. oh, c’mon, don’t think there’s such a thing as a perfect event. even the seemingly perfect-est of events will have some behind-the-scene booboos that you and i may not be able to see.
what really counts is that the event happened (mostly) the way it’s supposed to, with all the acts appearing, in the order they’re supposed to, and performing whatever they had prepared, and that the fans who came had enjoyed themselves and went home safe. and… if the performing artists too had a great showing and a fab time, and the organizers pocketed enough to cover all expenses and then some, then i think we all can be happy.
i took some time to speak with quite a substantial number of concert-goers after the event, and ALL of them declared oh-so-loudly that they had enjoyed themselves thoroughly, and totally loved loved loved all the acts!
even for those who are complaining lots about this, this, that that… i dare you to go put up a perfect show where all involved parties are perfectly happy. not an easy job, i tell you… and this KPOP NIGHT CONCERT went on rather well, taking into consideration there’re seven acts and some 8,000 fans involved. so thanks for putting together this event, PROOF LABEL
i hope the strong showing from the K-pop fans is enough to warrant the staging of perhaps one or two such K-pop concerts every year.
that said, i also wanna say one more thing… coz of how K-pop has shifted from alternative to mainstream, everyone wants to be a part of it now. organizers and event planners, seasoned or a day old, all want a piece of the action and everyone seems to be wanting to stage a fan meet, a showcase, or some K-pop thingy.
and oh, every other K popper wants to be a knop blogger or a writer/photographer with a K-pop news portal too. can you believe the number of new K-pop news portals that have been appearing in the recent few months…? and that’s not counting the individual K-pop news bloggers or aggregators.
goodness, whilst i’m all for new media and social media marketing, i’m also worried that some of these sites may spoil the market.
passion is, of course, important, and one needs to be interested in K-pop in order to run a K-pop site well. but if you’re in it coz you want the opportunities to attend press cons and want press passes, then you’re in it for the wrong reason. also, it’s important to ask yourself what skills you possess, and whether your site can provide something that the market is not getting from somewhere already. otherwise, why reinvent the wheel?
or more crudely, what makes you think you can do better than, say, AKP? or what makes you think you can blog better than, say, tiffany? (hee, hope she won’t chew my head off for this… am just trying to illustrate and strengthen my point..)
anyway, back to the concert proper. now first things first, i ain’t exactly a very big K-pop fan (yes, and that’s why i don’t run a K-pop-centric blog like tiffany does here, keke!), but i had brazenly and daringly taken up the offer of the media pass coz tiffany had said it’s alright even if I were to blog from a non-K-pop fan. it might be nice to hear some ‘fresh’ voice and hear what a non-K-pop fan thinks about K-pop after attending the concert.
let me put up some of the lovely pics that KANDACE had taken. this is just a small selection of the lovelies she’s snapped last Saturday night, and you can check ’em out on her blog, ya?
the opening act was FT ISLAND.
did you know that FT Island stands for Five Treasure Island? and yes, there’re five of them, and their debut was back in 2007. i think most K poppers here in Singapore should be familiar with them since they had been here on three other occasions to meet the primadonnas. twice in 2009 and once this year, and then yea, last weekend. that’s FOUR times, quite possibly one of the highest records by any K-pop group, me thinks…
and oh, of course, the k-drama fans amongst you would probably have watched YAB, and know that the lead singer, LEE HONG KI, had acted as JEREMY in the (cult) drama. i watched it too (though i didn’t finish… yea, I’ve this nasty habit of never, ever, finishing my k-dramas, not that i watch a lot of them to begin with… aigoo!) but i did get to the part when he was singing amidst tears onboard his special bus. i loved loved loved his husky voice… and I’ve been told umpteen times that FT Island is fantabulous coz they’re such a ‘band music’ type of group, and not your typical song-and-dance idol group.
naturally, I was soooo…. looking forward to my maiden experience of watching and listening to FT Island live. but but but… the sound system’s awful! i could not hear the singing at all, and to be honest, it sounded all bad. yea, all the way from Bing Bing Bing, to I Hope, to Love Love Love and to Flower Rock.
yes, all four songs were just bad. I think the boys would have been been disappointed as well. I could see they were giving their all, not their fault that the sound’s bad, I guess. not sure if it’s me, but the sound did seem to get slightly better later, but the opening act.. sighs, I feel sorry for FT Island, especially since they’re supposedly darned good live.
but hey, all’s not lost, shall we ogle and drool over some nice-nice pics of hong ki then….? this was during the beginning of the concert when the five boys came on.
oh, i love love love the next two pics!
yes, he did… remove the jacket, i mean, keke! (nice job, kandace!)
and oh, here’s a clip from RAZOR TV of them performing Flower Rock. fab song, btw!
a couple more pics from FT Island before i move on to the next act.
next up… The BOSS!
actually for this next group, their name’s caused a bit of confusion, or at least the English version of their name has confused some. basically they’re known as Dae Guk Nam Ah (대국남아) which means “remaining superpower”. since the beginning when they had made their debut (which was early 2010), fans had started to call them (incorrectly) D-NA, DNA, or even D-GNA!
later, they had come out officially to say their English name should be The BOSS, which stands for The Boys of Super Space. there are five of them…and although they kindda wanna be the nation’s dongseungs, they’re really more like the boy-version of DBSK. yes, these boys CAN sing.
let me say that again, these boys can really really sing! me likes (and i had only heard them for the first time last saturday, mind you!) they performed a total of three songs, A Bright World, Stumble Stumble (aka Stumbling) and Admiring Boy.
and now, since yours truly likes these talented boys and me thinks most of us ain’t as familiar with them.
next up… ZE:A
actually ZE:A (제국의 아이들, also known as Children of Empire) is as ‘rookie-new’ as The BOSS, since this nine-member boy group too made their debut in Jan 2010.
but i guess the local K poppers ain’t as unfamiliar with them since they were just here not too long ago. in fact, their name was added to the list of performers for the concert only after their fan sign event in September. guess they ‘tested waters’ then and saw that the fans’ response was very enthusiastic. I did hear of how the boys gave such excellent fan service during their September outing, hee!
like the BOSS, ZE:A too performed three tracks, namely Mazeltov, All Day Long and Bad Talk Sad. I’m already of ajumma-age, so I guess these (overly) young boys are just way too young for me. I just looked it up, the oldest amongst them 1988, and the youngest? 1992. O.U.C.H.
and… then Infinite (인피니트) ∞
a total of seven members, and guess what? their debut was even later than The BOSS and ZE:A! their debut showcase in south Korea was actually during June this year! but this group had gained popularity even before debut coz they’re groomed by Epik High‘s Tablo and Mithra Jin.
last Saturday night, they had performed three songs just like the other ‘hoobaes-groups’, namely, Come back Again, Wings and She’s Back.
for that night, one of the most anticipated groups to perform was the contemporary R&B group, SHINee. this five-member group made its debut back in 2008 with a song that I loved even without listening to it, keke!
huh? what’s that song? it’s Noona Neomu Yeppeo (Replay) 누난 너무 예뻐… yea, Noona, You’re Really Pretty!!
and yes, that’s the group whose member is involved in the DATING HOOHA that’s splashed across all internet tabloids and K-pop news portals in the past week. incidentally, I thought WONDERRRGIRL wrote a rather nice (and rational) piece about it HERE. love her choice of title too.
back to SHINee last Saturday night. strange… for someone who’s not exactly familiar with K-pop, i actually could recognize and even bop along all of SHINee’s songs. guess what it really means is that their songs get alot of airplay everywhere, so much so that i had been listening to their songs without even realizing it!
and yes, they did Replay, Ring Ding Dong, Lucifer and Hello. and yes, all very very very nice, keke! here’s SHINee with Hello.
and then…. SNSD
the only girl group for the night. and oh boy, they’re really really really big here, there and everywhere. not just fanboys, mind you, there’re lots of fangirls too!
don’t believe me? check out how many people love them!
I’ve to be honest, they ain’t my fave… though there really ain’t much i wouldn’t give to have their youth and those legs!
have I mentioned those legs already?! they just went on and on and on and on… miles and miles of legs! (tell me, tell me, where can I order legs like that?!!!)
okie, where was i before? ahhh… not my fave… but even though they ain’t my fave, gotta admit that they’re extremely fun to watch, and very entertaining and definitely major eye-candy! songs are very very catchy too! as with those SHINee songs, i could recognize the SNSD songs too! at this point, I’m beginning to be amazed of myself. I don’t watch k-dramas, don’t listen to K-pop much, don’t really watch Korean variety shows, where on earth do I tune in to these Korean songs then…???
anyway, picture time! i was turning into a green-eyed monster by the end of it all coz i was alternating between feeling envious of their figures and wanting to bash them up for making me look like the matronly and unappetizing ajumma with a beer belly! so don’t say I didn’t warn you, okie?
are you alright…? well, if you feel like smashing windows coz you too are going green with envy, just remember i didn’t take the pictures, KANDACE did, keke! go after her, ya?
and… yes, I truly believe the organizers have saved the BESTest for last!
from my vantage point, i could see how the fans were drawn to the performances especially by SHINee and SNSD. more than half the house were on their feet, waving lightsticks, swaying and singing along. (too bad K poppers in Singapore don’t seem too familiar with fan chants, something that i’ve always been incredibly amazed by with the Korean fans…)
anyway, when it was BIG BANG‘s time on-stage, everyone… and i mean EVERYONE was on their feet! it’s lovely seeing how everyone was enjoying themselves. it’s also possible that the night was at its peak given that we had been entertained and enthralled for the past couple of hours by the time BB came on-stage.
i think despite their lack of loud costumes, they TOTALLY owed the stage. (btw i love TOP and Taeyang best, keke!) they were also the only group with ENCORE calls, and they performed a total of SEVEN(!) songs!! what did they sing? you weren’t there?!! aigoo..! anyway, they performed GaraGara Go!, N…umber 1, Day by Day, Lie, Last Farewell, How Gee and Hands Up.
pics, pics, pics!
at the end of the concert, all the performing groups were invited back on-stage. in the background, a presentation show on the world’s issues were being played to the song of We Are The World.
me thinks it’s a bit cheesy and definitely overdone… but hey, i guess it ain’t easy to wrap up something like this nicely, ya? anyone has any brighter or better ideas to share?
meanwhile, i had a fantabulous night out though a tad lonely since last Saturday night marked the first time i actually sat through a concert alone. but it was a good night out, nonetheless. gotta thank TIFFANY for her kindness. (and thanks for the pics, KANDACE!)
and… this is BB, standing in for tiff who’s still in fish and chips land, keke!
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