Perhaps you’ve seen this once or twice in your travels.
It’s been a rough year for us and a vacation was exactly what we needed. Unfortunately our time constraints led to constant postponement of plans, leading eventually even to postponing the planning of our plans, and eventually everything we’d hoped to do over our short break this summer fell through entirely. We ended up opting for a “Stay-Cation” which proved the wisest choice for us. We spent a lot of time catching up on things we just hadn’t had time for during the teaching week. These were things that were very important to us that had been forced onto a back-burner; things like studying the Korean language and keeping up with this blog (you may have noticed a month or more of a delay on a handful of our posted events. We are pretty drastically behind and I apologize to the handful of readers I know of who look to us for a first-hand glimpse of events related to Boys Republic or other similar groups we follow). We spent the time relaxing, recuperating, getting our spirits back up to a manageable norm, and just getting out of our apartment and the immediate area for a while.
We heard about an event going on in the very heart of Seoul which would serve as the perfect capstone to our vacation, as it fell on the last day of our break and couldn’t have been a more appropriate last hurrah for a pair like us. The Korean Tourism Organization was holding an event on the City Hall Lawn called the 2015 Summer K-Pop festival. People were literally flocking from all over the world to see this show and the line-up was impressive and extensive. Not only that but the boys would be there so Jessy felt an unnatural obligation to attend, no matter what the cost.
The MC Team: Hongbin, Takuya, Jiyeon, Zhoumi, Kangnam
I have been battling with an unfortunate tooth issue (a story for another time) and actually had a dentist appointment scheduled for that morning. This brought us into Seoul at about mid-day and I wrapped up my appointment in the mid-afternoon. With a freshly agitated molar driving me up the wall (Root canals aren’t fun in any country, let me promise you that) we moved from the Apgujeong area to the tourist-hub around Seoul’s municipal district in the city’s epicenter just north of the Han River. We arrived at the City Hall lawn at about 3PM, stepping out of the subway car into an absolutely unrelenting beast of a day. It was a muggy, humid, awful, sweltering mess of an afternoon that wouldn’t quit, and Suzie and pals were already assembled topside at the end of a long, long, long line of foreign tourists waiting for their passes into the ground seating area for the big show. I cursed my dental luck yet again, since we could have camped out for better seats if we’d come earlier, but even then I wasn’t sure I wanted to stand out in this sticky sun any longer than absolutely necessary. The line slowly wound back and forth and it took the better part of two hours to get our little lanyards granting us admittance to the Ground area. We were among the very last to be admitted and there was actually some scrambling from foreign fans that realized they were being cut off. It made for a very annoying end to this already somewhat annoying wait, as we had to fight for the spots that were rightfully ours. Security was pretty good about keeping the line as it was meant to be, but of course at least a few people snuck in where they weren’t supposed to be. It’s not like you couldn’t still watch the show without the lanyards either, you just didn’t get a chair. Anyway, as we waited for our badges of entry we had the good fortune to catch a few of the mid-day sound checks on a few groups, including the rock band Daybreak, T-Ara with their debut stage of their latest single, the ever -quirky and cute Crayon Pop, and Infinite, the blockbuster headliners of the night.
We got our badges and I had to be dragged away from the booths that were literally handing out free stuff (I can never pass up free) because the rest of my crew wanted to stake out seats without any delay. Outnumbered, I left behind the mounds of complementary gifts to head to the Ground area.
Grandpa-Gyu
Our seats were nothing to scoff at. We were seated a good way back from the stage but we were fairly centered and Jessy and I were on the two seats immediately flanking an aisle. This gave us a fairly solid thoroughfare into which we could look with our camera lenses should the opportunity arise. We both were armed with our photography equipment and sat with memory cards locked and loaded to rack up a solid take-home cache of fresh photos.
We did end up doing a little wandering but kept things mostly business-oriented. We’d eaten very little that day, circumstances of the morning being what they were, so we had Suzie stand guard over our things and our seats while we ran off to grab some quick energy boosts in the form of some bananas and some snickers bars from a local convenience store. We hit the bathrooms to make sure we wouldn’t have any distractions during the long string of performances, and we even ran into our one supervisor from the school – a long time fan of Jung JunYoung who had come to see him perform his latest work live with his band. We returned to our seats and killed the remaining time until seven PM when the festivities would begin in earnest. As we were sitting down, Boys Republic’s ever lovable fan manager appeared. She came over excitedly and chit-chatted for a couple minutes. (We had also run into and chatted with a few other regular fans throughout the waiting period, and it will probably never stop being awesome just how much a part of this fandom we are.) She pointed out that our seats were actually a bit better than the fan club section and gave us all some crap about not being able to attend the upcoming Idol Sports filming because of work. We would rather be there with you fan manager, I promise. The evening was beginning to draw on and the excitement was quickening in the heavily foreigner-infested audience. It was going to be a very different K-Pop experience for us, for better or for worse.
Whoah, chill bro!
One of the most immediately apparent differences was contrary to what most people would expect in a K-Pop concert. We had spend over 2 years in Korea and had more or less learned the ropes when it came to attending concert events as a fan in Korea. being a fan here is a very different game than being a fan elsewhere and there is a notable difference between the domestic Korean market and the fans it caters to than the international market. Learning to “blend in” was part and parcel of being able to enjoy these artists to their fullest potential. We also had seen a good number of these groups before so we weren’t still filled with that sort of virginal excitement that comes with finally being able to see these artists after being half a world away from them for who knows how long. The foreigners that were cramming the seats to capacity, however, were going to behave as they naturally would in a western concert, had very varied notions of what is expected or customary in Korean audiences, and were all hyped up with the thrill of seeing these out-of-reach artists for the first time. There was a sort of bittersweet taste to the whole affair. There were bound to be embarrassing moments where the wacky foreigners went over the top or stepped out of bounds. These would be moments when I would begrudge being lumped in with the cluster of foreigners, having gotten past that kind of stuff and having learned what is and isn’t acceptable. There would also be moments where the foreign fans would be more fully immersed in the music, being generally louder, more into songs, and more apt to really demonstrate their appreciation than the generally quieter, more reticent, camera-shy, and conforming Korean fans. It was a double-edged sword and it would be interesting to see how the night would pan out in light of this fact.
Performances proceeded as follows:
Cross Gene
Cross Gene at standby
Without any kind of intro or lead-in of any kind, the music hit immediately and the members of this fairly rookie boy group rose up from the inside of the back end of the stage. It was good to see Cross Gene again. It has been a while for us and we really like them. They have been spending a lot of their time in Japan doing promotional work so I don’t know if that’s why they haven’t been doing much in Korea or not, but it was still good to see them again. They performed their “mental disturbance” song, “나하고 놀자 [Play With Me]” which I remember really liking for both its concept and for the song itself. It’s a really lively and uptempo track. Early in the show we had to kind of fight for a good view of the stage so it was a little difficult leaning this way and that, but that was something that settled out for us as the show progressed. In the meantime we were amused at the hundreds of dragonflies that seemed to be divebombing audience members everywhere you looked. It was hilarious seeing the aerial assault to the backdrop of Cross Gene. There was a brief MC cut wherein Zhoumi of Super Junior along with T-Ara’s Jiyeon and Hongbin of VIXX announced the coming show and the first few sets to perform. Later Kangnam of MIB and Cross Gene’s own Takuya would also be speaking on behalf of the show.
“Super Power”
I’m still not entirely sure what to make of this stage…
The MCs announced a special volunteer stage first featuring the gagman 김영철 [Kim YeongChul] leading a team of like-dressed foreigners in a crazy flashmob of sorts to a mildly unsettling song called “Super Power,” It was really short and the moves were all exceedingly simple. It was all kind of a goofy distraction overall and I didn’t know what to make of it. I’m not too familiar with the gagman either so I couldn’t get too excited for his appearance onstage. We looked at each other in the seats with a “What’s all this then?” sort of expression and shrugged. When it was over, 김영철 joined the MCs to introduce the lead-in line-up of all the newest rookie girl groups to hit the K-Pop scene, starting with…
WannaB
WannaB’s rapper, and likely my favorite member, just going for it.
WannaB is brand new and I really like them already. We’d seen them live a few times earlier and noticed they are already starting to polish the rookie roughness around the edges and become more confident on stage. With a punchy and attitude infused song like theirs it really helps to hear that confidence coming through. The effect of the song is multiplied and really hits home all the more when you have some conviction behind the words. The song performed is their debut (and only) song, “Attention,” which has a soldier-ey feel to it overall. The performance was really clean and carried really strongly over the huge concert speakers. Some songs just sound way more impressive when heard over such a sound system, and WannaB’s “Attention” is definitely one of those. I have yet to learn members and their personalities, but if their follow-up release is as good as “Attention” this will definitely be a group I would like to follow consistently. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
PoTen
PoTen (formerly 4-Ten), a rookie girl group.
This group, originally referred to as 4-Ten before changing their name to completely embrace the hangeulification of the number four (it sounds like “Po” using Korean phonemes) came back not long ago with a track called “살살해 [Go Easy].” I really enjoyed their debut single, “Tornado,” and this track was a good follow-up. It’s a dance track that sounds deliciously retro – specifically reminding me of some mid-70’s disco tracks from the states, oddly enough. Performance-wise there’s not much to say about the song. The dance isn’t terribly complicated and it’s actually very straightforward, as choreographies go. Still it was cleanly performed and I enjoyed it overall. The crowd reception was lukewarm but this is still a fairly new group and largely unknown to most, so that’s not too surprising.
LaBoum
Cutie girl rookies, LaBoum
LaBoum has had a handful of releases and I quite enjoyed all of them so far. While my favorite song release to date is, without contest, their earlier single, “어떡할래 [What About You?],” the song performed today wasn’t bad either. It’s a really lighthearted and easy-going single and the relaxed nature of the song tends to extend to the performance as well. I’ve seen “Sugar Sugar” performed a handful of times and every time it seems like the girls just have fun on stage with the song. This is a huge selling point for me. I really appreciate when artists can just let loose and be themselves while performing. There is a lot of emphasis in Korea about knife-like choreography and hyper-practiced, super exact dance moves. This isn’t nearly as important to me as being able to see the individual in the performance and really drawing out who the artist is rather than what they are able to imitate. It makes the stage feel more human and makes me like the performers more in almost every case. LaBoum definitely plays around with this song and has a ball on stage, so it comes off as very appealing to me. There was even a point when one of the members pulled a giant stuffed bear across the stage and sort of pounced on it. It’s little quirks like that which, to me, set a group apart from other groups who all work incredibly hard to, effectively, be exactly the same product. Tip of the hat to LaBoum.
“Sugar, Sugar” might not be the most intense song but it gives them a chance to show a lot of personality on stage.
There was a brief MC cut featuring all five of the featured MCs wherein they introduced the next handful of acts, a random smattering of seemingly unrelated artists. Leading the fray was…
Halo
Halo at the song’s end.
These guys are fun, and Dino looks like a guinea pig, so it’s all good whenever Halo takes the stage. They performed “Fever,” which is a really upbeat and generally positive sounding song for something named for a horrible symptom of severe illness. The song is really bouncy and easy to dance along to, and the choreography is likewise fun and generally enjoyable to watch. I feel like this group is one which we don’t follow only because our finite resources of time and attention are spread too thinly elsewhere. They are quite good and there isn’t much reason for us not to follow them. I hope to hear a lot of good things from them going forward, too. They’ve had a pretty consistent run so far and they’re in that semi-rookie level where we’re likely to see them at various festivals, events, Lotte Concerts, and the like, so as long as they keep producing quality music I will keep rooting for them.
NC.a
They grow up so fast…
I love NC.a. There’s even a running gag going on with my friends about how she’s like my little adopted K-Pop daughter. Unfortunately it seems like my little girl has grown up a bit too fast and is trying her hand at sexy concepts this time around. Everything she has released thus far has been really cute and tame, which strongly suits her as an artist because she is not only fairly young but looks even younger. She has a total baby face and seeing her on stage doing anything even remotely provocative is akin to watching one of my students do something similar. It just rattles my brain and doesn’t sit well with me at all. “Vanilla Shake” isn’t anything overtly sexy, to be fair, but her style and wardrobe has totally changed from previous releases. Whereas in her earlier titles she’d be dressed adorably and dancing around with little penguins, now she’s dressed in ass-hugging hotpants doing hip-shimmies and rather…ummm…suggestive hand motions while singing about milkshakes. Yeah… I’m not too sure how I feel about that one. It’s riding a very thin like and relies primarily on suggestion and hinting of sexiness rather than being an all-in sexy concept, but I’m still kind of surprised that of all people NC.a was the one to try it. We’ll see how it pans out for her, but I for one would be pleased to see a return to form following this release.
Legend
Legend in action
I know very very little about this boy group and hadn’t heard their song before the performance that day so I was kind of taking in their group as if for the first time. They weren’t bad, but they didn’t stand out much either. They just were. They performed a song called “Shadow” which I believe is their second release. I really don’t have much to say about it. It was standard boy group fare, their dance was all right, I guess, but nothing memorable. Even their stage outfits were kind of plain. They were dressed in black slacks and a button-up white business shirt with matching two-tone neck ties. I do credit their main vocalist for being able to strongly nail the high notes credited to him in the song, but other than that very little about their performance stuck for me.
G-Friend
Baby SNSD – GFriend
This group astounds me for how mediocre and unoriginal a group can be and yet still have such a huge response. They look and sound like a plain-faced version of Girl’s Generation immediately following their debut. One of them even looks remarkably like Jessica. Somehow they’ve managed to cutely laugh off all accusations of being a “copycat” group by thanking people for comparing them to such esteemed seniors in the industry. Smooth move G-Friend, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re really not bringing anything interesting or special to the table. “Me Gustas Tu” is their latest single and the song in question that night, and I couldn’t help but laugh when one absolutely rabid fan started screaming their fan chant at the top of his lungs all alone behind us. I have to admire his dedication, however misplaced I may find it. At least he was amusing, even if I didn’t find much to be impressed by onstage. I have nothing directly against the group, I just don’t get it, so it’s hard not to answer their performances with an eye-roll.
MCs Zhoumi, Hongbin, & Jiyeon
Jiyeon of T-Ara and Hongbin, of VIXX
MCs Kangnam and Takuya introduced the next stage, which was kind of a random surprise. Zhoumi and Jiyeon took the stage decked out in black leather (I can’t imagine how much they must have felt like dying in this sweltering heat in LEATHER) and performed a bass-tacular dance track called “Candy In My Ear.” After a mid-song dance break, VIXX’s Hongbin joined Jiyeon in the center to take things over from the middle of the song. Being as objective as possible, Zhoumi did a far better job than Hongbin. He has a kind of raspy sensuality in his voice and Hongbin’s crystal clear vocals didn’t mesh as well with the song, nor did they compliment Jiyeon’s voice as well. I’m no fan of Jiyeon, but as far as a pair that worked better audibly, Zhoumi fit the bill more readily than Hongbin. He also seemed to be more into the dance aspect of the song than Hongbin, which may very well have been the case but we’ll never know for sure.
Zhoumi, how the hell do you dance in leather in Korea in August?
Sonamoo
My ladies!
There was kind of an awkwardly long pause while the girls stood onstage in standby waiting for the music to cue. I was super excited to see Sonamoo perform, loving every second of their new song despite its admittedly odd lyrics. I understood just enough of the song for it to raise eyebrows and made the mistake of looking up the translation. Their latest single, “Cushion,” is a lyrical mess and makes me a little uncomfortable at more than one point in the song. I kind of reasoned this away though, considering that lyrics were never my draw into KPop and I’d gone years without really understanding most of what I was listening to. I went based mostly on melody, performance, and the overall feel of a song, which “Cushion” delivered in spades. Forgiving the bizarre lyrical transgressions I got totally lost in the song. It’s a really powerful and catchy track with an equally unique and powerful choreography, easily rivaling their first single, “Deja Vu.” Furthermore, my favorite member, Euijin, seems to love the crap out of the dance and always looks like she’s having a ball up there, flinging her hair every which way and basically putting everyone else to shame. They were all decked out in a yellow and black theme so they kind of looked like little bumblebees, but again, they were forgiven. There were pyro blasts from the front of the stage that lent an even more powerful effect to their already impressive performance. It was all in all a really good time.
The mildly notorious “Matrix Dance”
Taewan/P.Type/Phantom’s Sanchez
Shifting gears to hip-hop
Things changed up a good bit with the next stage as three rappers did a collaborative stage. I have to admit I wasn’t paying too much attention since pure rap isn’t my thing unless it has some reason to stand out as something distinct and special, so I don’t have a whole lot to report on this particular performance. I remember it being well done for what it was, it’s just not my cup of tea and I’m not familiar with any of the performers (except for Sanchez, but that’s just because Phantom is excellent and they seem to collaborate with damn near everybody). I kind of zoned out a bit and waited patiently for the next act.
Untouchable
TSEnt’s hip-hop duo, Untouchable
Continuing the sudden shift to hip-hop, TS Entertainment’s touchstone rap duo Untouchable took the stage and started to perform their single “Crayon,” which I’d heard and even seen performed live a few times before. As I said earlier, rap’s not my cup of tea, but I was familiar enough with untouchable from having overlapped their performances many times in the past so that I was still able to enjoy myself during their performance. I got a kick out of how insanely tall Sleepy is. Whether I liked the song or not, the dance was a lot of fun to watch and the backdancers had a really primal and intense choreography that was not only a good complement to the song but also fun in its own right. For something that doesn’t have much draw for me I really had fun with this stage, almost in spite of itself.
Sleepy and Minjae. Pat Pat Pat!
9Muses
Bit of a funny story to these pics – Sung Ah raised her arm for part of the choreo and it lifted her shirt. It got caught on her boob for a good portion of the song and just hung there awkwardly until she fixed it later on.
Things were about to take a turn. The concert was taking the sexy dial and cranking it up by degrees, starting with the model-divas 9Muses. Unfortunately they’re kind of in a sorry spot right now from where I stand. They’ve cycled out almost half their members and the ones remaining were never the most vocally talented in the group. Furthermore their new talent is kind of rookie quality from what I’ve seen. This leaves a group that had been building a lot of momentum for me in an awkward shambles that I have trouble really backing in any serious way. What I’ve seen of them live has been too reliant on the back tracks and has demonstrated a pretty amateur inability to harmonize, especially during the refrain, which seems pretty basic to me. I feel like the group revolves around the skeleton comprised of vocal lead Kyeongri and Rapper Euaerin (I have no idea if I spelled that right). Everyone else seems like a placeholder to me. The choreography isn’t bad and their studio recording was just fine. The song itself is all right, too. I think it boils down to me not really favoring them as a live group, which is sad. I used to get so excited for them live.
Hello Venus
My baby girl Lime and the impossibly pretty Nara.
Hello Venus, my 2nd favorite K-Pop girl group, has seen some interesting months after their member swap and shift to the sexy spectrum. I’m still of mixed opinion about the overall merits of the switch, but unlike 9Muses they didn’t lose so many members to render themselves unrecognizable. They also brought on talent equal to the task to stand toe to toe with existing members while avoiding any butting of heads or stepping on toes. Their latest song, “난 예술이야 [I’m Ill]” is a really punchy dance track which the girls display in full club wear and a stand-your-ground choreography which pretty evenly features most of the members, giving it a nice distribution. I, however, am heavily, heavily skewed toward Lime, so I spent most of the song paying attention to her. I love the blue/green two-tone hair coloring and thought she looked and sounded phenomenal, as always. Pardon the fanboying, but I was pretty much mesmerized during the performance.
Hello Venus dropping jaws
Stellar
Yeah… that about sums up Stellar.
Say what you will about Stellar, but I like what they’ve done. They have ratcheted up the sexy in their songs to an unheard of degree but they’ve also undeniably been producing quality songs. I’m a big fan of their recent handful of releases, whatever their visual concepts may have been. I also argue with the critics that Stellar has “gone too far.” I can name a number of other groups which are equal to or worse, conceptually, than Stellar and yet have gotten no real backlash or bad rep for the deal. Industry great Ga In, for one, is constantly pushing the envelope but it’s just accepted as something she does. HyunA is in the same boat. I king of count Stellar as the next coming of Rania – a group whose music I absolutely loved long before I saw any of their videos or promotions. Like Stellar, their songs are great, strong, catchy, and dripping with confidence. Once you see the videos, you kind of have to look around to make sure no one is around in front of whom you might be embarrassed because they do toe a certain line from time to time. Still, such things are relative considering that Korea is so conservative to begin with. Nothing Stellar has done would hold a candle to the racy material coming out of the states every day, so maybe I’m not the best person to judge if they are taking things “too far.” Whatever the case, they put on a good show and the members all seem all-in on their concept so there’s no more question of whether they feel awkward about their concept or not. They seem to be well-versed in selling it so in the interest of good music, I’ll bite. Good job, girls. Don’t let the haters wreck the party!
Stellar turning up the heat and not really caring what you think about that.
Juniel & Yu SeungWoo
Suddenly adorable
How the hell does one write a setlist taking you from Stellar to these two? Cute acoustic guitarist and musical prodigy Yu Seungwoo came out onstage, meekly bowed in, and sat near to equally harmless and cutesy Juniel to perform a shockingly well done English performance. They did a cover rendition of Jason Mraz’s “Lucky” which was really well arranged, well pronounced, and strongly presented. It was a good performance all around. As much as I love Stellar for their guts in pushing the boundaries where none other will I also appreciate the untainted innocence and purity of an artist like Yu Seungwoo. There’s merit in both approaches and I feel like these artists are a good example of the available polar options in the musical world. Face it, Yu Seungwoo is cute as a button and wouldn’t harm a fly. Plus, he’s wildly talented and endearing as hell, so what’s not to love? Juniel is all right, too, I guess. I’m just not as blown away by her as I am with Yu Seungwoo.
The Ray
This picture is the only way I remembered this guy.
I feel like my recounting of this act is a giant cop-out because I actually couldn’t remember who this was at all until I sat at my computer reviewing the pictures. The only reason I could recall the act even a little bit was the picture with a random solo pianist/vocalist and a giant sign saying “THE RAY” in huge screen letters. He played a piano-accompanied vocal ballad but, as I said, I barely remember the act even having been there so I can’t comment too far on it. Sorry, I suppose.
Baek Ah Yeon
Baek Ah Yeon looking casually elegant.
I’m almost positive we’ve seen this artist a handful of times elsewhere but she remains so much on the periphery of our attentions that I’d have to search the blog for reference of her in order to know when or where it had happened. Her current single, “Shouldn’t Have” is charting really well and it’s not too hard to see why. It’s just nice. It’s like a breeze in the summertime, refreshing and light. Just…nice. The stage is kept simple, too. It’s just her and her guitar accompaniment, her face covered in enough glitter to sparkle up a Lisa Frank binder for any willing middle school girl. She got a good response from the crowd as well, which was likewise nice. I don’t know, everything was just nice about her performance. It’s kind of a lame response but it was what it was.
Park BoRam
“No fat chicks” ~Park Boram
I’m kind of torn on Park BoRam. The song itself, melodically-speaking, is just fine. It’s nothing spectacular but it’s nothing particularly stand-out-ey either. There’s something about her attitude that crystallizes a lot of what I find wrong with Korean popular society, though, and it definitely rubs me the wrong way. She has gotten a ton of attention and takes a lot of personal credit and pride for a personal beauty transformation in which she shed kilo after kilo of weight and reinvented herself image-wise. Now she’s kind of a dive about it and her last two songs, including the performed single, “Celepretty” have basically been homages to the awesomeness of being beautiful. In Korean media, beauty trumps all and if you’re exceptionally pretty it’s likely you’ll be easily able to get away with more or less anything. I thought media standards in the west were harsh, but Korean beauty standards are terrifying at times, so pushing a song like “Celepretty” only seems to feed the issue. Not to mention the video re-release that was basically her walking around a gym stealing sandwiches from fatties and fat-shaming them into exercise. I just don’t feel right about that sort of thing. She seemed to be well-received at the show, though, so it just goes to show how much of an effect the pretty-factor has on the masses. Sad, sometimes, but true most times.
Seventeen
Hijinx with Seventeen
There was a quick cut over to the MCs where they introduced the change of pace that the concert was soon to take, as performances were to shift over to boys, boys, and more boys. First on the list was Seventeen, Pledis’ new and absolutely massive boy group which has finally hit the market after four years of prep work. Because of their extremely lengthy teasing and training phase I’ve been a little unfair to them. I’ve put up something of a mental block to them, saying that with the way they’ve been hyped, built up, and sensationalized for so long I had better be nothing short of blown away by their debut. Since they weren’t the greatest thing I’d ever seen right from the start I’ve kind of disregarded them entirely. Speaking objectively, they are actually quite good, especially live. I’d been impressed both times I’d seen them perform live despite the fact that I’m not typically sold on such huge groups, either boys or girls, and the fact that I’m not too keen on the direction Pledis has gone lately with regard to their musical artists. Seventeen has very clean dance moves and are strong onstage for such a rookie group. Perhaps that’s where the four years of prep paid off. Now if they’d release a song that stands up to the test as well I can perhaps finally admit their potential.
Cross Gene
Umm… I’ll let YOU decide what to make of this.
Cross Gene was back again and this time they came out dressed in an entirely different style to promote an entirely different sort of single. This time they came out decked in fully white suit and tie outfits, complete with white jackets that must have been absolute murder to wear (let alone dance inside) on such a blisteringly hot day. They performed a track called “Amazing,” which is a little less uptempo and lively than their earlier performance. It was still a clean and well-executed performance, and it set the girls in front of us into a buzz. They were a small cluster of Chinese fans and they were there for Cross Gene specifically. They had little light up pegboards with the members’ names and huge cameras that were on fire throughout the entire performance. I honestly don’t know if I was more amused by them or by the goings on up on the stage.
Boys Republic
Stoic and longing – a new look on Boys Republic
This was a fun stage. We had made a fast pact with each other to go buck-wild with the fan chant when the boys came out and we called out the chant as loudly and clearly as we were able as soon as the music hit. We startled the Cross Gene girls and a bunch of people turned in their seats to see what the hell had just happened. The shock turned to grins though. No one was offended, and we even got a bunch of thumbs-ups from the Chinese fans for so strongly showing our support for our group. They laughed it off immediately and everyone seemed to get a kick out of the wacky Americans (and one Iranian) going off at the random semi-rookie boy group. The performance was of their latest single, “Hello,” and was received fairly well, which made me happy. Royal Family was placed distantly from us so we couldn’t tell how they were reacting but knowing them I’m sure there was ample representation regarding the fan chant and such. They don’t tend to let us or the boys down. Plus, we had run into fan manager and a handful of the other fans earlier that day so we knew who was there and roughly where. Our boys were in good hands that day. We were unfortunately too far from the stage to even consider to be picked out or noticed, but the show itself was well worthwhile and a lot of fun.
The boys take the stage
Lee Ki Chan
Points if you can guess his song
Things slowed down pretty dramatically at this point as Li Ki Chan took the stage to tackle some ballads solo. He’s a male vocalist who has a really resonant and clear voice which I tend to respond well to, so even though things quieted down atmospherically it was still a good listen. The stage was basic – just him, a projected backdrop, and the music. He performed two songs, his latest, “Beautiful Tonight” and one more track called “또 한번 사랑은 가고.” The latter song was apparently a classic of his dating back to the turn of the….er…. millennium. It held up fairly well today though and might have been the first time I had heard it, and certainly the first time I had heard it live. He brought a definite change of mood and pace to the show but he was really good. I liked his stage quite a bit.
Yu Seoungwoo (feat. Louie of Geeks)
An Itty Bitty Musical Prodigy
That tiny little candy gremlin was back with his newest single, “You’re Beautiful.” Now that he was playing a genuine promotional track instead of performing an English cover, we could see him perform some of his actual music and appreciate his own talent. I really like the song. It’s a really sincere sounding and relaxed piece, though my only real qualm with it is the featuring artist. I don’t like The Geeks and it’s purely an aesthetic thing for me. The rappers have a really nasal and droney sound to their voices and regardless of how clever their lyrics might be or how well they perform I can’t help but liken their voices to nails on a chalkboard. It’s all about their vocal tone and that unfortunately is an insurmountable obstacle to me liking them. Louie, one of the two rappers, has a small rap part in the middle of the song and at that point I kind of shut down. Imagine you’re listening to a song you’ve loved for years, that relaxes and soothes you, and brings you genuine comfort. Now imagine that just as the song reaches its bridge someone starts playing a recording of someone rubbing their hands along the outside surface of a balloon, making that awful squeak-screech noise at high volume. That’s what the Geeks interlude sounds like to me. They might be talented as hell, I just don’t like to hear them.
Juniel
Juniel kicking it old school
Juniel came back again after her previous duo-mate had wrapped up his song. She strolled out with her guitar into the middle of the stage and started strumming along as she played “I think I’m In Love,” one of her promotional tracks from a little while ago. I remember thinking the song was all right and I recognized it right away, though Juniel is certainly not someone I follow with any consistency. She’s a very cute and very safe artist, for lack of a better way to describe her. She performed well, but she’s too tame for my tastes I suppose. (There’s also the strange fact that she reminded us of Gooch from Scrubs when she first debuted, and we just can’t get rid of the comparison now.) The stage was also really straightforward so there wasn’t a lot going on. I still enjoyed the song, though things would take a pretty dramatic turn going forward in the concert from this point on.
N.Flying
NFlying heads off the battle of the bands
There was an announcement from the MCs regarding the next handful of groups and stage hands started flooding the stage, dragging out all kinds of wiring and equipment to get things ready for the actual bands to perform that night. There were a good handful in attendance, but it took forever for them to get everything all set up for the groups. There was just a lot of equipment to be managed. In the meantime they played some music videos and backstage clips on the monitors. We watched about three or four of these between each group, which amounted to a good ten minutes or so of set-up for each group. It was irritating because the groups were way higher energy than the other acts that preceded them but couldn’t really keep the energy level high because the flow of the show was so interrupted. N.Flying was first, and the stage pyro was a lot of fun for these guys. I feel like I’m finally sold on their debut track “기가 막혀 [Awesome]” despite initial apprehensions. I like seeing them live, too, so that was a treat. There was something kind of off about the sound system when they were playing – like a feedback on one of their instruments or something. It wasn’t too perceptible but I noticed it from time to time when they were playing. You’ll have stuff like that with live performances though. Luckily it wasn’t enough to screw up their song, just enough to raise an eyebrow or two. The spouting fire made up for it so I didn’t even notice from then on.
Jung JunYoung Band
They don’t come much smarmier than Jung JunYoung
Jung JunYoung is hilarious. There. I said it. His group starts playing with him nowhere to be seen and he rises up from the back of the stage in the middle of a giant spotlight striking this ridiculous olympian pose, striding forward to take the stage with the mic in the center. He started into his most recent hit, “OMG” and followed afterward with a quick self-intro, during which he giggled like a big dope at himself, bringing laughter from the whole audience. This guy takes nothing seriously and I love him for that. I couldn’t help but wonder where our supervisor was during all this. For his second song (he played 2) he played “Sunset,” which seemed appropriate for the time, the season, and the overall current mood of the concert. I was glad to see him live. He’s one of those artists I really like and admire but his schedules and promotions don’t tend to overlap what we see too often, so we take what we can get where he’s concerned. It’s nice to see more of what I consider real rock in Korean music that isn’t buried in indie obscurity. Korean pop rock is far too cutesy and happy go-lucky. Anyone who cites Nirvana and Led Zep as an inspiration has got to be on the right track somehow. Thanks for throwing up the horns, JJY Band.
JJY and JJY’s JJY Band
Daybreak
Awesome stage presence and crowd control from Daybreak
After yet another lengthy wait it was time for the next group, an indie band we’d seen once before in Incheon called Daybreak. If anything can be said about these guys its that they really know how to work a crowd. The main vocalist not only has a clear and resonant voice which is perfectly suited to their musical stylings but also is a master at stagemanship. He really got people moving out in the crowd and got their hands waving back and forth as they performed their wildly popular “들었다놨다 [Love Actually].” I remember earlier summers when this song was playing all over the place and was nigh inescapable. It’s a good song and the entire audience was involved, as there’s a fairly long lead in which involves callbacks. This is repeated as the song wears to a close and by the end of the song almost everybody was participating. This song had me going “Oh yeah, oh yeeeeeah, Shalalala laaaa!” for like a month. I appreciate a good indie group, so it was good to see a band like Daybreak on a stage like this.
Buzz
Buzz capturing upbeat summer moods
Following one more lengthy instrument swap the final band of the night came out to perform. I didn’t recognize them at first, at least not until they started playing and it snapped together for me. They were apparently really well known because they had a pretty hefty following among the foreigners and a whole pile of fans seated behind us and off to the side started absolutely flipping out for them. They played a song I recognized called “8년만의 여름 [8 Years of Summer]” and it inspired a TON of crowd participation. Then again the song is pretty basic. There’s a ton of awesome guitar playing, which I appreciate, but it’s largely repetition of that extended “Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh” part. To me it was kind of a wash, but the energy of the crowd and the actual concert ethos made up for it. They played two songs, the second one starting falsely initially and then they had to do a quick reset of their equipment to perform “나에게로 떠나는 여행 [Something like “A Trip to Me” or some similar translation].” I liked this song a little more because it seemed more complex but the band itself isn’t what I look for in rock so again, it was a wash. Still it went over incredibly well, so that was a credit to the band and their performance quality.
PSY
This guy. Maybe you’ve heard of him?
If you don’t know who he is, I advise you to check your pulse and make sure everything is O.K. Psy is an international pop legend in his own time and if you haven’t heard of “Gangnam Style” you may have spent the last three years as a prisoner of war somewhere or something similar. It’s kind of nuts that we have been in Korea for nearly 3 years now, having come in just after the “Gangnam Style” phenomenon initially struck, and for all the constant following of Korean music that we do we have never crossed even the remotest of paths with PSY. This was kind of a mixed situation, though, as we were stuck in the middle of a giant crowd of foreigners whose introduction to K-Pop may very well have been through PSY. Most of them aren’t inundated with Korean music to the extent that we are so seeing PSY was mind-numbing and they were all ready to dance along to his goofy hits. We all saw it building and sort of went “Ah, what the hell” and went along with it.
PSY’s absolutely INSANE crowd response
Say what you will about PSY, the man can put on a show. He was very humble, very kind, very well-spoken, and held the audience like putty in his hands. He even cracked a few jokes about the number of foreign fans and switched to English for a little while to explain everything to us. The first thing he did was ask why everyone was seated. He’d have none of that and got everyone on their feet (though security was very obviously annoyed and worried about it). He had a quick speech about MERS and how that whole mess is over and now the foreigners are flooding back in, welcoming us back and explaining that “뒤어” means “jump.” He broke into one of his older (Pre G/S) songs (but probably my favorite of those performed that night) “Right Now.” The man was all over the stage and the audience was jumping all over to this song and flipping out almost constantly. He followed with “Entertainer.” There was a quick pause where he used his arms and expressions to rally more crowd reaction, sweating profusely by now, before he built a ton of tension for the one we all knew and could dance along with. Without further ado, the music hit for “Gentleman” and it was utter chaos. The song flowed right into Gangnam style and both dances were accompanied by a house of people on their feet doing the dances along to the music. It was kinda nuts. Seeing PSY, especially at home in Korea, is definitely an experience to remember.
Mother Father Gentleman
U-Kiss
UKiss proving once again that the shoulder dance will NEVER die
U-Kiss has had a strange run. They hit a fairly impressive popularity level fairly quickly but have kind of hit a ceiling and plateaued where they stand now for a long long time. I like some of their work and don’t much care about other things they’ve done, so they are hit or miss for me. They are wildly popular in Japan and have a very dedicated fan base. I certainly didn’t expect them to come out and bust into their old classic, “만만하니 [ManManHani]” though. The memories came flooding back as I watched them perform that crazy shoulder dance that I was so familiar with. It was a nostalgic song for me because it was a popularly promoted song back when I was first getting my feet wet in the K-Pop universe. We turned to each other in our seats and busted out laughing whenever they started into that song, going “you’re kidding, right?” before totally going all in and shoulder-dancing along with the guys. It was a blast. For some reason the U-Kiss songs were divided up and they didn’t come out again until after Crayon Pop, but once they did they performed “놀이터 [Playground],” a newer single which is much lower in tempo and much less interesting to me. U-Kiss was at its peak around the “Neverland” days to me and have sloped off a bit since then. I wish they’d do a throwback release of some kind when they have their next comeback.
T-Ara
T-Ara, arguably Kpop’s most polarizing girl group.
Love them or hate them (as so few are truly able to say they have anything but one of these polarized opinions about this group these days) T-Ara is nothing if not tenacious. I quite liked a lot of their material and really like a few of their members. There are a few I would rather kick than talk to, and a few I feel sorry for as well. Following their group’s chronicles through the annals of K-Pop history is like watching a soap opera unfold, sometimes with acting equally on par. It’s entertaining, to say the least. The good news is that usually the music, at least, is catchy and I can get into that if treated in a vacuum from all the drama. This release, “So Crazy,” however, is a dud. The song is unappealing and the dance looks like an old friend of mine’s dancing at parties (this was NOT his strong suit and he got a lot of flack for his total lack of smoothness on the dance floor. It became a running gag, but suffice it to say it’s not nearly as endearing when on a performance stage with purported top tier talent putting it on display for your viewing pleasure). The concept is also kind of random, though considering it’s T-Ara I ought not to be too surprised. I gave this song an honest shot and wasn’t impressed by nearly anything, but they can’t all be winners and even good groups flop from time to time. At least there’s still the group’s behind the scenes drama to watch eagerly, popcorn in hand.
You can shake your asses around as much as you want, but THIS is simply NOT a viable choreography. Nice try.
Crayon Pop
I feel like it was only a matter of time before they went with the magical girl concept, honestly.
I have to tip my hat to Crayon Pop for at least attempting to lean away from “Bar Bar Bar,” at least a little. Their subsequent releases, including their random Christmas track and the Strawberry Milk Subunit seemed far too much of an extrapolation of their blockbuster hit – an obvious attempt to recapture the formula that skyrocketed them to the top (a position I feel EXID currently holds and will later feel the slippage from, as Crayon Pop has, to an extent) without considering the merits of a song on its own. “FM” is very heavily Japanese influenced, which works for their business model since Crayon Pop has a massive Japanese following. It builds on tropes that I grew up on and love so I really appreciate it (What 90’s boy didn’t love the Power Rangers?) but what really hits home is the fact that they have a song that finally seems like they’re taking baby steps out of “Bar Bar Bar’s” shadow. The stage is still simple and quirky but in a different way and the song is listenable on its own without the goofy stage or dance to accompany it. It stands well alone and actually sounds pretty good. I hope Crayon Pop can continue to grow and develop without losing fans that were there only to ride the wave of fame that swept them up. They seem like a good crew that works quite hard so I’d like to see them ripen as a group if their label would allow it.
Got7
Cue giant eyeroll
Oh, here we go. This group manages to grate against my grain about every time I see them, even on an individual member basis. Until recently I was wondering where all the build-up and hype for this group was because I never heard any measure of support for these guys whenever I saw them live. I was wondering who JYP was paying off for them to act like Got7 was the hugest deal in K-Pop right from the beginning. At this concert I finally heard some notable responses to Got7, though when you consider I was surrounded by international fans it was hardly representative of their accurate standing in Korea. I haven’t liked a single song they’ve put out and “Just Right” is just… not. The back track sounds like a car alarm gone haywire. The vocals are sub-par and the lyrics are repetitive in a way that’s more irritating than catchy. The dance is buffoonish and I can’t help but walk away asking “What the hell was that mess?” every time I see it performed. I don’t get their appeal. Even their more visible members like Jackson make me want to scream “Shut up! Just Shut Up!” whenever I hear them talk. They have this swagger-drenched, I-think-I-am-just-hilarious personality that grinds my gears up so bad I think I’ll blow a gasket sometimes. I spent a good deal of the song going back and forth with Suzie, who actually quite enjoys the group, about what she likes and how witnessing those the same features of the group are like opening up a bottle of spoiled milk to me. It’s a matter of taste, I suppose, but Got7 just tastes awful to me. Sorry if you’re a fan, but we can’t all be.
Infinite
The night’s headliners – Always incredible Infinite.
Infinite’s a tough group to see so we relish any opportunity to cross their paths. I’ve said before that we kind of take this group for granted. We hear about their comeback news and we don’t even get excited because it’s a given that the group is going to put out a work of audible gold. We don’t get curious because our expectations are so high for the group that we don’t even question that the song will be excellent. It just is. Every time. Without fail. Other groups try out different things and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but at least it’s interesting to see the dynamics. Infinite has pretty much found what they’re good at and they ride that train down its track to stardom every time they put out a new song and as the engine passes their fans they can reach their arms out and collect their money in passing. It’s a great formula for success and it hasn’t failed them yet or gone stale, so as long as they keep putting out quality songs that sound distinctly “Infinite” I’ll keep listening. “Bad Girl” is one such single, and I love the song, the stage, the choreo, everything about it. It’s just good. Period. The crazy flames that spouted about for Sonamoo and N.Flying were back and Dongwoo looked like he was on fire a few times from the angle we were seated at (he was fine, he was just positioned just at the pyro nozzle so to us it looked like it was engulfing him rather than in front of him. It was a badass effect) and Woohyun looked like he would burst a vessel when he hit those high notes. It was intense and a strong performance as ever, but again, it’s Infinite so did we expect anything other than that? They wrapped up the concert with one more song, “Love Letter,” a ballad without a choreography that acted as a cooldown track for the concert, bringing us back down for a gentle send-off before we headed back to the bus stop for the long ride home. It was a little awkward though, as not everybody realized that they would be doing a second song. A lot of people had started filtering out of their seats, only to stop all over the place to watch the last performance.
No one can challenge the unstoppable force of Nam Woohyun.
It was a long night with a TON of artists but it was something we desperately needed. Our spirits renewed, we headed home to crash in our bed in preparation for the week to come. We would be returning to work the next day and that meant a tornado of stresses so we needed all the rest we could manage.
BRB, Moving To Korea 