Electrifying Super Show 4

And so Super Junior ended another leg of their Super Junior World Tour – Super Show 4 in Singapore. Having been highly anticipated since last year when the concert was announced, the boys did not disappoint their fans with their electrifying performance with an equally impressive stage production.

Although the tickets did not sell out within 30 minutes (which was what Eun Hyuk hoped for at the last SS3 press conference, they did sell out all 11,000 tickets over one weekend for the two nights concerts.

The boys opened the show with their last hit song- ‘Superman’, loooking pretty much like superman themselves, I might add.

This was followed by songs like ‘Opera’, ‘A Man in Love’, ‘Bonamana’ and ‘You’re My Endless Love’. With these songs, the boys started fanning out to the extended stage and do what they do best- fans interaction, which of course made the ELFS at the stadium go wild. I must say I like the remix/ rock version of Bonamana. It got me all fired up and I felt like bouncing together with them. Did you feel that way too?

It was known only just a couple of days before the concert that Sulli and Amber of f(X) would be at the concert too. They performed the song, ‘Oops’ together with the boys.

But I was rather disappointed that the two girls seemed to be lost amongst all the other dancers. In fact, if I hadn’t know that they would be performing at the concert, I wouldn’t really have noticed them (well, maybe I might recognise Amber as it’s kind of difficult to missed her). Perhaps more participation in the future concerts? Still, I’m sure the girls’ fans are not complaining at the extra treat. And it was good to see Heechul..even if it was on the screen.

Of all the sub-groups within Super Junior, I love Super Junior T the most. Why? Because, they sing such happy, infectious songs and they are generally very silly when they perform the songs.

More than their synchronised dancing (which is very good), I love their I-can’t-remember-the-steps-but-let’s-make-them-up dancing. It’s goofy, it’s good fun and most of all, I think it demonstrates just how much trust (which Siwon kept saying at the ‘Skip Beat’ press conference) they have in each other. And the fans loved it..as evident by the thunderous screaming. My only complaint? The black attire doesn’t fit the mood of the songs. I believe they were wearing something more casual when they performed this song at the SS3 concert last year.

There was no flying across the stadium and fans in the concert this year but they did cycle, fly an aeroplane etc…in the air.

This is one of my favourite song and I absoulutely love the effects. Did you know that Running Into the Sun spent roughly $2 million in the production costs? That’s $2,000,000- six zeros! And I’m sure the big 3-D backdrop would have cost quite a bit. Watch out at 2:56 when Kyuhun attempted to ‘fight’ off the birds. Wahahaha!

The next 45 minutes or so was given to the individual members to showcase their talent. Henry of Super Junior started the ball rolling by showing off his talents by playing no less than 3 musical instruments. This was followed by Eunhyuk’s performance as he sang his ‘hit’ song- ‘Self Iluminous Bejeweled Handsome guy, Lee Hyukjae’. Of course the crowd knew the song and shouted his name at the appropriate moment. Funny thing was, he actually said: “My name isn’t Lee Hyukjae tonight. What’s my name?” But the crowd continued shouting out his real name, Lee Hyukjae. Where is a translator when you need one? 🙂

Both Sungmin’s and Kyuhyun’s solo performance included some sexy moves. Of course, everytime there was any hint of the slightest skinship between the boys and the female dancers, the audience would be screaming their head off. Not sure if they are screaming because:

1) They want the female dancers to get off their ‘men’ or
2) They want their ‘men’ to make those moves to them instead of the dancers

Possibly both I guess… Wahahaha!

Kyuhyun on the other hand, decided to perform an English song this year (well, he sang in Chinese last year), singing the very lovely and popular song, ‘Isn’t She Lovely’. He even donned the original’s singer’s signature sunglassses. I’m not sure how many of those young girls and boys in the audience know who Stevie Wonder is though. Still, it was sang well even if the pronounciation was a little off in some parts.

Lee Teuk performed next and as if trying to rival Henry’s multiple musical instruments’ performance, did the saxophone and the piano. Now I’ve always had a weakness for the sexy saxophone. Not sure how well he played in term of professionalism, but he did well enough for me. His piano recital on the other hand, seems to be something that he had practiced very hard just for this concert. Because at the end of the recital, he actually raised his two finegrs for a victory- ‘Yeah, I managed to do it’ sign. ^^

I thought that was the end but ahhh… the leader has another surprise for the fans. He sang ‘She’ (which is a favourite of mine because it always reminded me of Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant’s movie, ‘Notting Hill’). There’s more! Armed with a basket of roses, he started handing out them to the fans on left side (my left) of the stadium. Halfway through though, he was forced to just hand/ throw them out in bunches as the fans were grabbing him and the roses. He ended the song by handing the last rose to a very lucky fan in the middle section. I’m sure she couldn’t sleep that night (or possibly for the rest of the month).

Without Heechul, Shindong was left to do outrageous, cross dressing act alone. And he didn’t disappoint. It was hilarious watching him become HyunA in ‘Troublemaker’ and ‘Bubble Pop’. Hey, but this guy has more sexy moves than me. Great performance, Shindong. Isn’t he pretty?

A Super Junior Super Show wouldn’t be complete without the guys all dressed up in silly attire and making fun of themselves. So for the songs, ‘Good Friends’ and ‘Pyjama Party’,

Lee Teuk = Hulk Hoagn
Siwon = Superman
Yesung = Chucky
Kyuhyun = Steve Jobs
Shindong = Briteny Spears
Sungmin = Marilyn Monroe
Donghae = Charlie Chaplin
Ryeowook = Gollum
Eunhyuk = White bird

They did what they do best- giving lots of fan service (Khuhyun kept throwing eating and throwing the apples…but he didn’t throw those that he ate. I’m sure the fans would have preferred that. Hehe!) Althogether, it was a totally delightful performance.

The much expanded Super Junior-M performed their Chinese hit song- ‘Perfection’. I’m sure both Siwon and Donghae’s Chinese would have improved by leaps and bounds now after their long stay in Taiwan. ^^

Although I’m not a big fan of the song, ‘Mr Simple’, I loved and was mermerised by their lighted-up led costumes and the wonderful backdrop. A thought did go through my mind in the midst of the performance- will they get electrocuted huh?

The second part of the solo performance followed starting with Zhou Mi’s song, ‘不留纪念’ (which I believe is a new song). He has a very good voice and I’m sure we will see more of him and Henry in the near future.

Siwon and PJ from the Third Wave Music performed a Christian song, ‘Your Grace is Enough’, which was a very nice break from the rest of the K Pop songs at the concert that night. The entertainment industry is extremely sensitive and Super Junior is a hugely popular groups with fans from all faiths. So I’ve always been impressed by the fact Siwon is very open and passionate about his religion. Kudos to him.

One of the most eagerly awaited solo act that night (at least for me anyway) was Yesung. He sang ‘A Man’, a song that was originally sang by Kim Jong Kook. Yesung is often overshadowed by the ‘louder’ Super Junior members but he is probably one of their best vocalist, if not the best. So it was a joy to listen to his solo act.

Dongahe ended the solo segment by singing the ending theme song for his Taiwanese drama, ‘Skip Beat/ 华丽的挑战’ (btw, he is really, really naughty during the ‘Skip Beat’ press conference. But that’s another post).

ELFS had prepared a special memorable project in return for Super Junior. During the song, Storm, the fans held up white lights (instead of the official blue) and turned the stadium into a sea of starry lights. It was enough to make Lee Teuk comment about it at the press conference the next day. Great work, ELFS!

In another highlight segment of the show, Sungmin had to choose a girl from the audience to be his girfriend. Unfortunately, the girl he chose turned out to have the hots for Kyuhyun instead (she was holding his fancard). So in the end, these two men had to ‘compete’ for the girl (What a lucky girl). I think the girl went through much struggle between trying to be nice to Sungmin (afterall, he did give her a chance to be on stage) and to be true to her heart…her heart won in the end. ^^ So Kyuhyun thought her the steps for the song, ‘You and I’. Unfortunately, his English err… cannot quite make it. He kept saying “You know?” until Siwon had to say “You know what?” Poor Kyuhyun. But it was all really good fun and the members had the audience on their feet doing the dance as well. Talk about mass participation. ^^

The fans also sang along with the boys for ‘Our Love’. I thought it was really sweet and brought a sense of high and involvement to the whole concert. I’m sure the boys liked that too.

In SS3, the special segment was the vegetable song (which was really, really funny). This year, they did a spoof on the hit nusical movie, ‘The Sound of Music’ with the song ‘ Do Re Mi’. Again, I’m not sure how many of the young fans in the audience have watch this extremely entertaining movie. And if you haven’t, you should! So Siwon was the father and Shindong the nanny with the rest of the boys, the children. The nearly 3 minutes long video had the boys’ characters being introduced and clowning around whilst Julie Andrews’ clear voice came on. The boys performed live after that…with more clowning. I guess if they are going to sing in English and clown around at the same time, they couldn’t have chosen a simpler song than ‘Do Re Mi’. But the fans were more interested in the boys fan service than their singing in less than perfect English and frankly, I agree too. 🙂

The fans were now high and on their feet and the boys followed it up with the song, ‘White Christmas’ and spraying the fans as well as each other with ‘snow’. It was great fun!The boys were running all over the stage, doing silly things, dancing out of step and urging the fans to stand up. They were singing their ‘last’ song. Many fans had rushed to the front and waved their presents, fancards, hands etc, joining the boys. It was a very rousing affair that ended with lots of pyrotechnics, and balloons. Hehe! in fact, there was so much ‘fireworks’ that even the boys are caught off guard sometimes.

Of course, everyone knew it wasn’t really the end yet. But by then, they boys had already performed more than 3 1/2 hours, breaking last year’s record.

Super Junior came back on for the encore with ‘Sorry, Sorry’, the song that probably sealed their international status. If you remember, the boys peformed this song with lots of other backup dancers all dressed in black and white at the recent MAMA 2011. It was very, very impressive so I was kinda of hoping that they would do it again. Alas, no, they didn’t though it was still as good.

The last song for the concert was ‘Destiny/ 命运缐’ which suprised me a little. I know the song’s meaning was the reason why it was chosen as the ending song but I had thought they would choose a Super Junior song to end what is possibly the last Super Show for awhile. By now, I think all the boys were wet… if not from their sweat, then from the pranks played with water jets.

So how was the Super Show 4?

The concert was brilliant. All the nine boys were as professional as ever. They were as friendly as ever. They were as funny and dorky as ever. The fan service was as forth coming as ever. In terms of production, I think it has surpassed SS3 and any other Korean concerts that I’ve watched so far. I enjoyed the concert tremendously and the enjoyment was heightened by the fans participation. To see a whole stadium of blue and hear everyone sing along, to see everyone up and dancing…that is what I call a good concert.

But, but… and don’t kill me fans..my personal feel was that the atmosphere was less party-like compared to last year. Perhaps the boys (and especially Lee Teuk) are feeling a little sad that the next SS5 maybe some years down the road. And there was definitely less running on the extended stage. Perhaps, after SS3 where Yesung and Ryeowook were hit by flying objects in Singapore and Heechul was rather badly injured in SS3 China, they decided to cut down on the roaming part. And if so, I don’t blame them as highly charged fans who do not use their brains are dangerous fans. Still, it was a shame as the extended stage whereby the various members interact with the fans is a big highlight of their concert.

The Super Junior World Tour Super Show 4 will be going to Macau next but in Singapore, it will be the talk of the town for a long time.

With much thanks to Running Into the Sun and all the sponsors like F&N, OCBC Credit Cards for making this concert possible. For more photos, please check out my FB

Can we have a SS5 next year?