Bigbang Big Show 2011

I know I said I would keep this mostly kpop free since I started www.reallywally.tumblr.com but this is like the most exciting thing that's happened to me in Korea ever. So here's the post:

So. I went to the Big Bang Big Show Friday night.

I know I might get bricked by some VIPs for this but my review will have some negatives.

That being said, there will also be a whole lot more positives.

I went with my boyfriend who is not a huge Big Bang fan, but he loves me, so he will go anyways. His first concert ever in his life was YG Family Concert, and this show is number two.

Actually my day basically went wrong in every way humanly possible before the concert, so I actually wasn’t that excited until we basically were in the hall. To list my problems: we lost our plane tickets for our summer vacation home because the travel agent essentially lied about the price and we cannot afford them, my two kittens still haven’t met, and I had to go home before the concert to feed them, my usb drive broke, I had to go to the other side of town to get the Big Bang cd, and I realized I left my Big Bang lightstick at home roughly five minutes after it was too late to turn around and go get it.

But, enough on that. We got to the stadium and thats when everything started to get better. My boyfriend (who used to take lifeguard training classics at the olympic swimming ppol next to the main olympic stadium) found us some secret bathrooms that had no line as opposed to the 50 person line in the concert provided toilet stalls.

Got in line, where everyone was pretty friendly if not moderately terrified of how tall we are. They all were nervous about standing behind us.

We waited as the sun set and they slowly began to let people in to the standing sections. We were in section 5, which is , if you are looking at the stage, to your left a ways, but still standing and relatively close. We managed to get right into the corner where two walkways would meet, so we thought we would be able to get lots of close-ups with Big Bang walking by.

It got pretty hairy as the rest of our section poured into the standing area. I would say about 60-65% of the fans were really young (high school or younger) and the other 35-40% were about my age. Anyways, a group of middle school or so aged girls ended up standing right behind us (foolish move) and proceeded to complain loudly about how they can’t see in Korean as if I couldn’t understand. Then they said to my boyfriend that they couldn’t see, and I firmly informed my still green concert going boyfriend that we would not move for anyone, regardless of how short or whiny they were. If one person gets in front of us, we may just throw up a neon sign that says, step right up. The girls were pretty unhappy with me, but there’s nothing I can do about that.

Just before the concert began, some very severe pushing started within our section. It was pretty horrible, and I just thought plain unnecessary. Everyone was just temporarily out of their mind and shoving everything within sight to get as close as possible. It was really frustrating and before the show even started, I saw a girl get carried away by security because she had passed out. That’s how intense it was. In the course of the evening I personally saw about 6 passed out girls carried away, as well as one illegal camera use escorted out.

Anyhow, the security was super tight around me so I didn’t manage to get basically any pictures or videos, which is a total bummer. But, I was really close to the stage, so that was lucky, or at least I thought it was.

There are other posts that tell the exact line-up, I’ll just say my best memories:

1. The show opened with a revealing of the GD&TOP 집에가지마 video which was just spectacular and retro and so perfect for them. after the m/v, my boyfriend kicked something on the ground. He asked me what it was because it was a cylindrical box of some sort, and I looked down and discovered a box for big bang merch. I didn’t actually get to the merch table, so even though I knew the kind of stuff they were selling, I didn’t see any of the packaging to know waht would be in the box. But, regardless, I thought, that’s MINE now. I carefully picked it up and put it under my arm as the next song began. The pushing started back up again as people attempted to get every millimeter of closeness possible. In the next lull, I opened up the box and discovered, to my extreme joy, it contained the new edition of the light stick which I had been whining to my boyfriend that I wanted to buy since I left my old one at my house. So basically not only did I get standing seats to the concert, I also snagged a free brand new light stick.

2. Secret Garden parody was the best thing ever. They mimicked the scenes so well, and with such nice comedic timing and I really enjoyed it. There was lots of kissing, and lots of GD grabbing his fake Gil Ra-Im boobs, and Taeyang wearing a hilarious wig, and Daesung being the perfect mother of Joo-won (TOP) and the perfecrt recreations of all my favorite scenes: situps, cafe kiss, oska socks, I’m Gil Ra-Ims fan, farewell letter (omg, TOP CRYING), Seungri’s hair for Oska was perfect. Seriously perfect.

3. Taeyang’s solo performance of Where U At and I’ll be There. I wasn’t sure what he would perform or even if he would perform, so this was nice. Where U At is my boyfriend’s favorite song by Taeyang/Big Bang so he got really excited. Downside? As most people mention in other fan accounts, no shirtless-ness from Dae the ENTIRE concert. Major let-down.

4. 뻑이가요 performance by GD&TOP complete with segways, ridiculous suits, and a big ass tank on stage which GD climbed up on. Also, Oh Yeah featured Bommie live, which was great, and then High High all the boys came out on stage, which was also really exciting.

5. Seungri is typically my least favorite in the group. There is always something about his boasting and general loudness that I find a bit annoying. However, I’d like to officially retract all the negative things I’ve ever said about him. He was the only member of Big Bang to really show any love to our section at all. The walkways I was sandwiched between? Virtually unused. GD rolled by on the segway at the opening of 뻑이가요, Daesung walked by once. But in the middle of the show, Seungri heard our section begging them to come to our side, and he listened. He seemed to really show our section love, coming over to ourside (basically right in front of me) and pointing and singing and dancing right in front of us. It was nice that he recognized that we were getting basically no love and he helped us out. Also, his solo performances were really good. I don’t even own his mini-album, but after the concert, I’m tempted to buy it if only to express my gratitude for his concern during the show.

6. During the Encore, Taeyang stopped basically right in front of (there were maybe four people in front of me, but I’m gonna go ahead and assume he saw me and said, this is just for that sexy foreign girl right there, and he danced and sang and did this unbelievably sexy vibrating dance I am almost died right there I was so excited.

7. During the encore performance, TOP had the sexiest hip thrust I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I swooned so hard. It was right in time with 1, 2, 3, BIG BANG (jumpring down from the platform at three hard core hip thrust at BANG). I was like, yo top, come bang it over here in my direction.

8. The pyrotechnics were great! They went light on the fire and heavy on dope fireworks. The fire is awful because it severely impedes your vision and is fucking hot. The fireworks are just bad ass. There were some green ones that exploded and created really trippy smoke rings when they popped in the air. I was really intrigued by those.’=

9. Daesung’s Solo performance was the most memorable of the night. Actually, his performance throughout the concert was essentially flawless. He killed every note, and his new song Baby don’t cry was beautiful. It’s so nice to hear him sing a ballad. He was amazing. I love him.

The negatives:

1. Way too much pushing and hostility from the fans. It was uncomfortable and dangerous. A bunch of people fell in our section, and people were passing out right and left. This is common at concerts like this, but still, it’s depressing to see how fans get when their emotions take control.

2. No love on our side, including almost no attention to our neighboring walkways and a big light blocking a portion of the stage.

3. Security too close for any good pics

4. NO TONIGHT MUSIC VIDEO. This was the most disappointing thing as they announced on THURSDAY that they would premiere it and then Big Bang had to say that it didn’t get finished. They showed an unfinished version, but i actually really wished they hadn’t shown it at all. The clips were good, but they werent timed properly to the music, and it was super choppy and just disappointing

5. Serious technical difficulties before performing their newest songs. Fans shouted 괜찮아 but it took forever for them to fix the issue. Disappointing.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that.

I have to go take care of my just been neutered kitten who is lethargic and semi-depressed right now. Plus, I’m starving.

xoxo

By the way, did any of you go to the concert? What did you think?

One little kpop spam

Okay, so I've been pretty good at keeping this mostly k-pop free because, well, I started that tumblr account of mine that is pretty much strictly dedicated to all things k-culture (pop, drama, culture) and this is going to mostly anecdotes and stuff from life in Korea, food, school, activities, events, etc. If you are interested in that stuff, I recommend you head over to tumblr and subscribe/rss feed/read religiously/ask questions/etc!

But, tonight at 12 a.m. marks a major moment for me personally here in Korea. It's BigBang's comeback (after 2 years and 3 months... but who's counting?) and as lame as that may be, I am anticipating this and hyped for this more than perhaps anything in my whole life. This, to me, is more exciting than making the varsity basketball team, getting into college, starting university, turning 21, getting a bid to college nationals for ultimate frisbee, getting a job right out of uni, leaving America to teach English in another country, traveling to 3 continents in less than 12 months, and any other major life moment I can remember.

It's just that this group has really defined my experiences here. If it weren't for bigbang, I think a lot of my life he would just be lived in a state of: "this is just temporary, so don't bother getting attached" but via my love of bigbang I have been able to engage my students and initiate deep and meaningful relationships with them, have opportunities to meet people (both famous and not) that I'd never have met before, and learn a tremendous amount about the culture I am living in first hand.

If it weren't for big bang, I think I'd probably still believe that my living in Korea is 2-5 year commitment and just a break from a "real" life beckoning from America. However, this "temporary" Korean life has become so much more than that, and I can frankly say that this 2-5 year commitment has suddenly developed into a love that will last my whole life for a culture that I was turned on to at age 21 when I first saw the video for 거짖말 on youtube.

Thanks big bang for 2 years of memories and amazing experiences, and hopefully to many many more years filled with your music and concerts!!

Anyhow, here's the last teaser before bigbang has their comeback at midnight tonight. I hope you can see in it some little sparkle of love that I have huge quantities of.

p.s. In another life update, I'll add that I got my first kitten, Casanova, last friday, and am picking up my other lovely baby tonight. He doesn't have a name yet, but I will post pictures tomorrow. I promise.

p.p.s. OMG BIGBANG BIG SHOW IS FRIDAY. I'm dying.

Korea

A full update on my life was promised so here goes. The good and the bad.

1. I got food poisoning on Wednesday/Thursday. I was up all night doing, you know, food poisoning-related things, and not sleeping at all. I called in sick because at 6:30 when my alarm went off I was like oh good, I've slept a total of 40 minutes or so, and I just threw up 20 minutes ago. This doesn't bode well. So I slept all effing day and ate nothing while trying to let my body recover. Korea is dealing with some serious livestock diseases, but i don't think that's what got me. I think it was veggies that came in contact with raw meat and then weren't cooked thoroughly. But anyhow, I'm all better now thanks to lots of sleep, and plenty of water.

2. On Tuesday I bought two first floor standing tickets to the Big Bang Big Show which I am SUPER excited to see. I'm basically dying, I'm so happy. I will be among the first people to see Big Bang perform new songs live after a two year hiatus from Korean promotions. Granted, they have performed at YG Family Concerts and last year's Big Show, but nothing new, so this is super exciting. Their album will release the day before the concert and I will go get it and memorize every song in 24 hours if it kills me. Then I will buy the official Taeyang usb drive at the concert sales booth and then I will fangirl spazz for 2 hours while my boyfriend questions why he ever started dating me.

3. I bought the Taeyang Solar Concert DVD. I made a youtube video about in case anyone hear reads my blog but hasn't subscribed to my youtube channel (Uh... SUBSCRIBE NOW PLEASE). Anyways, it's awesome except for this one hilarious and awful English mistake where a page reads, "Let's get start it" which obviously makes no sense. This is disappointing because YG has tons of high level English speakers, and you'd think that for once they would check something like this. Over 100,000 of these DVDs were produced and no one thought to go to a native English speaker and say, hey, is this right? Listen, YG, I'm your girl. I can do this free of charge (except every English grammar proofreading required document must be personally delivered by either Taeyang or Se7en, but that can be arranged, right?)

4. Frisbee practice started this weekend. We had practice on Saturday and Sunday and I am sooooo tired. But it was really fun, and I'm really really looking forward to more practices in increasingly warmer weather.

5. Last weekend I played in a volleyball tournament. I've never had so much fun playing volleyball. Somehow, I think I got better at volleyball via not playing it for 8+ years. I remember kind of sucking back in my freshman year of high school and thinking, welp since I literally can't do anything except blocking (I was a beast at blocking but I couldn't hit, which made me mostly useless) I'm gonna go ahead and quit and focus on bball. And I did just that. But volleyball was awesome and it makes me wanna play a whole bunch more.

6. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I am actually pretty excited for it. Hoon and I are going to have a quiet night in. I am going to make dinner (maybe a revised hopefully even more delicious than last time tomato cream sauce pasta with garlic bread if I can figure out how to make garlic bread without an oven; can't I just crush some garlic, mix it with basil and butter, spread on a thick slice of baguette and sautee?) and give him my gift. In Korea, V-Day is different than back in the States in that only a girl gives a gift and the boy will give a gift to his girlfriend or crush or significant other on White Day which is on March 14th. So I will give a gift, which I will take a photo of and post later, and we'll do something again in another month. I like this time because Feb 5th was our 200 day anniversary (they celebrate every 100 days or at least the first couple, plus 1000, and then they stop, I think), then valentines day, then white day, then one month later is Hoon's birthday, and then two weeks after that is my birthday so it's like nonstop celebrations until May rolls around (but then our one year anniversary will be in July~ hahaha)

7. I might go skiing this upcoming weekend with Hoon and his family. Except we will go only one day and only at night, from like 9 p.m. until maybe 5 a.m. which will basically kill me (I have to go to frisbee the following day at 11) but I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully I can not totally suck at skiing so Hoon won't think I'm a completely uncoordinated loser.

8. I am trying to convince Hoon to get some of his Physical Education classmates to make a frisbee team to send to Jeju. I said I could be the coach. I think it'd be really fun and since they are all athletes (we're talking seriously jacked, run a marathon and then benchpress twice their weight, and then swim 4 miles and then take a 100 question exam on history of sports, sports rules, and human physiology without hardly breaking a sweat-type athletes... this includes the girls) they would probably dominate all the other beginner uni teams because they can run for hours without getting tired. Plus then I'd be obligated to get in better shape and practice frisbee with them too. Win-win, you see?

9. My school had graduation on Friday. I went, and it was only a little sad for me because I was still recovering from food poisoning and had to concentrate really hard on not falling over from fatigue during the ceremony. But, now that I think about it more, I'm pretty bummed. I've known all these students for two years, and they are AMAZING girls. I've gotten to known some of them (maybe about 15 or so) really well and I will certainly miss their smiles, hilarious jokes, helpful Korean lessons, sincere interest in English, enthusiasm for my class, and all-around good attitudes. The prospect of having these students in my classes later in the week helped me get through all the whiny, misbehaving, snarky students I had to deal with from time to time. I will miss them!!!

Also, in case you didn't know yet, I have a tumblr at www.reallywally.tumblr.com. It's basically 100% Korean culture all the time. Emphasis on kpop, but also with touches of food, drama, models, konglish and other interesting tidbits.

That's it.

xoxo
A