My Second Korean Concert! (First one was the Wonder Girls, in NYC in March 2009)

Because I'm a "foreigner" I and my friends were able to get free tickets to the Hallyu Dream Festival Concert. September 12, 7:00 pm. Gyeong Ju Citizen Stadium. Oh yeah, baby. Drawback? The place is about 4.5 hours away from Yonsei. T_T

I'm not going to write out the logistics of transporting eleven people to Gyeong ju and back in a day, but let's just say that (praise the Lord) everything thankfully went smoothly. We left in the morning. Went to Express Bus Terminal. Took a bus to Gyeongju, which did take about 4.5 hours. Got in line, got our tickets...

started seeing celebrities come out of their extremely, extremely, extremely dark tinted cars (Taemin of SHINee is so cute, he is so smiley and waved very enthusiastically. I hate that I'm writing about this when I'm 20 years old)...

heard screaming fans, saw tweens running around, felt old but also resolute to see this out to the end and see SHINee perform before I'm 22 (I was with people older than me and there were definitely ahjummas in the line so I wasn't out of place even though I got really exasperated at all the girls screaming all the time when anyone came out of a car. So many false alarms!)...

bought a 4,000 Won pair of plastic binoculars because I was afraid I'd really regret not buying them once I was in the stands (I ended up buying a poncho too because it rained some)...

was told to go to this line, no that line, wait get out of the way the huge bus is moving and is going to mow down some 200 fans if we don't all move out of the way (some fans are ASKING to be run over. Seriously. These stupi* thirteen year olds stood there like looking vainly for another pop star to come out of the extremely dark [all Hyundai] vans was more important than their lives. The bus was clearly beginning to move and they wouldn't budge. I began to understand why there were hordes of policemen there [yes yes, many many policemen. Even some ROK marines])...

heard the performers practicing in the stage while we were waiting and people watched (some girls are scary, I forgot how scary crazed teens are. Teens and their hormones, thank God that stage of my life is over)...

and voila, entrance! Voila, because we miraculously butted the line early enough that people didn't do anything, we sat in the best possible spot in our block! Voila, there is no real food available so we must live off chips but who cares, I am finally, finally going to see SHINee, Se7en, and 2NE1 perform!

Suffice to say the concert was awesome. The waiting sucked. But wow, even though I diss K-Pop for its lack of... well, quality, and labor regulations, and undertalented and underaged people taking the stage... my fervor has been renewed!

And yes, thank you for wondering. I will indeed continue studying diligently--what I mean is that I will listen to K-Pop more, again (I have been on a non-K-Pop streak, actually. I've been listening to trip-hop and electronic...)

Performers are way better in real life. Gikwang of B2st is so cute. I now like F.T. Island. Se7en is awesome, as expected. Onew's mic didn't record his voice so SHINee performed Lucifer twice. ^-^ I type that calmly here, but yes, I was going nuts at my good fortune. They also performed Ring Ding Dong. So three song perfs by them, woot! They were third to last, only before Super Junior and Se7en, so that tells you how much their popularity has grown. Not a big fan of 2PM although I like them, but seeing Taec's shenanigans as MC was nice. Good to know he's still the goofy person he was back when I met him at the Wonder Girls' Concert. Wish f(x) was there. Davichi sang very well! I saw miss A on Saturday, I'm glad I saw them close-up since I think they all have great voices. 2NE1 is... well, very, very marketable in my opinion. I think CL is as rad as ever, but after seeing this perf. the thing I thought was wow, they could really break into the American market, if anyone can.

If you are surprised at how calm this post sounds, now that I have been within 500 meters of my love, Choi Minho, and was breathing almost the same air as him, I am surprised with you. What can I say? I'll annoy everyone, including myself, if I unleash my feelings via blog. I will just close by saying the waiting and commute back was definitely worth it. SHINee is great live, everyone is so much more impressive live, and I'm glad I could experience a huge concert like that even if half the audience should have been in bed by 8 pm.

So long K-Pop stars. Until next time?

^-^V