Sparkling Concert 2009

Last Saturday and Sunday, I attended a 2-day Kpop concert at the Olympic Park Stadium!

It was pretty amazing being able to see so many of my favourite Korean artists (some of them, again!)

My concert buddy was Tiffany -- she was the one who got the tickets, too ^^
We were actually a bit worried we wouldn't be let in because we were foreigners. In short, although this concert was sponsored by the Korean tourism department to promote Korean hallyu (AKA the love for Korean pop culture), we heard that foreigners were not allowed to buy the tickets off of Gmarket (sort of a Korean auction site for everything you can imagine). Tiffany had ordered the tickets under her Korean roommate's name. In fact, foreigners had to pay double the price local Koreans had to pay and buy it from one of the sponsors in Myeong Dong (who were quite adamant foreigners would be stopped at the door if they did not buy a ticket from them) where they would sit in specific, sectioned off seats. Quite a few exchange students from KUwho wanted to go and were unable to buy off of Gmarket so they bought tickets in MyeongDong. We thought that was ridiculous! At the end, we didn't encounter any problems with our Gmarket tickets - noone checked for our ID (they don't even check inside your bags!) + we got to stand pretty darn close to the stage! We chose to stand in the blue area:
Some cheap concert goods -- flags, bandanas, balloons, name tags, and light sticks with your favourite artist's name.

**Youtube has banned people in Korea from uploading videos so Tiffany's friend helped upload them for me -- but now, Youtube has suspended her for violating uploading rules. All linked videos below are filmed by me unless stated otherwise. You will probably need to sign in your Facebook account to view the video. Sorry for the terrible sound quality and shakiness and please turn down the volume because fans do scream!**

DAY 1

At 6PM on the dot, the lights dimmed, the fans started screaming and waving their light sticks... everyone turned to face the screen. The Sparkling Concert artists flashed before our eyes in a collage. When Big Bang's picture appeared, the fans roared!
Shin Hye Sung (from Shinhwa) started off with my favourite song of his. He's a very mellow guy!
FT Island came out! It's made of 5 pretty boys but only 1 main singer (Hongki -- in the pink pants). They were great too! He has a powerful voice for his size haha -- because of their performance, I'm going to buy their mini album!
This Japanese girl I've never heard of before came out -- Sachi Tainaka. She was great! She played the piano and sang a well known Korean song I believe. She also sang another song -- nice!!
SG Wannabe - 3 not so good looking guys (in my opinion), but they sing very well. I'm not too into their voices, though, but that's just me. They're super super popular.
B to the I to the G BIG BANG!
They're so charismatic it's amazing. Super fun performance with fire and everything. JiYoung = Gdragon (guy w/ white shirt, pink pants) sent some love to a fan and sat on the stage 2 meters away from me (Facebook clip) which was a highlight. I love his new hair! They came out to do an encore with Sorry But I Love You. I couldn't help but smile real big when they performed!

DAY 2

We put our names into the draw (by artist) for a chance to win autographed CDs.
Lee Ji Hoon - this famous actor/singer guy opened up with a ballad. Pleasant voice -- he was the MC!
Theeen SHINee (said Shiny) came out! They're a relatively new boyband from SM entertainment and I really really enjoyed their performance! They're extremely charismatic and in sync... and damn skinny + tall too my goodness.
MINWOO! This guy is also a member of Shinhwa except now he does more solo activities and produces music. He's such a super performer -- so much energy and really pumped up the audience. I saw him perform @ the Hollywood Bowl concert last summer in LA.. he ripped off his shirt. Enough said.
He has a bunch of good looking dancers too!
My favourite clip --- HERE

This girl named Yuri sang a duet with the MC and also sang her own cover of Beyonce's song, Listen. Strong voice! She was pretty impressive.

The most anticipated performance of the night (or.. of the whole 2-day concert) -- Dong Bang Shin Ki (aka DBSK/TVXQ/Tohoshinki/TVfXQ)!! They're my absolute favourite Korean pop singers/dancers. They have made the Guinness World Records twice. One for having the largest fan club/fan base in the world and just a few weeks ago, they got 'The World's Only Artist With Most Photographs Taken'. They sang 4 songs: Purple Line, Love In The Ice, and Wrong Number.. and then for the encore + finale, they sang Mirotic -- LOVE!! (In thie Facebook clip, you can see them perform Mirotic from behind which is just as good ;)).

I got to witness the first time DBSK sang Mirotic with its original lyrics after its ban. The lyrics were accused for having 'harmful lyrics' that were inappropriate for youth (but gee.. can't all songs be analyzed to have these connotations?). SM won the lawsuit case.
Love In The Ice is one of my absolutely favourite DBSK song. It was amazing to hear it live -- especially Junsu's solo. Their whole performance was perfect.

Sunday's concert was much shorter than the first!
Apparently, it was a competition between Big Bang and DBSK -- see who could sell the most tickets. It was fairly empty in the Big Bang concert in the back and I had a lot of standing room, but for the DBSK concert, I felt like a sardine -- we even went early and I was still totally squished... some of the shorter girls looked like they were about to faint from the heat! Luckily, I rememebered to bring my heels which gave me some decent height to enjoy the performance without having to tip toe and look over heads. I heard that some Big Bang fans bought some of the tickets to the 2nd day's concert and didn't show up -- just so that DBSK's audience would look a bit sparse compared to Big Bang's ahha.. how immature.

This Saturday, I will be going to another concert in Olympic Park Stadium =) This one will have Shin Hye Sung (again), Big Bang (again), Super Junior (I had their Sorry Sorry music video up on the side last month), and Korea's biggest solo star, Rain. I'm very excited and am highly anticipating Rain's performance! I will then be able to cross off one of my 'must-do-before-I-die': See Rain perform in concert.
Oh and another Kpop fact is that this girl who sat with us at Hollywood Bowl last year played some sort of game and won a date with a very popular Korean artist who is currently trying to dominate the American market, Se7en! She'll have a great time for sure *