SMTown Live 2008 in Korea, Part 2

PLEASE DON’T HOTLINK ;__________;.

(Thanks so much to all you lovely people who actually read this crap and like it lol ♥. I can’t respond to all the comments individually atm, but I’ve read them all and just … thank you ^____^. And thanks for being so lovely and supportive ♥; I am having a wonderful time in Korea (I wrote about it at the end of this post) and basically, you guys are awesome and I love you all so much and you people are the only reason I jostle with other fangirls to get good pictures lmao and damn this a run-on sentence.)

So after that hour of insane excitement, the concert started off with fireworks. Which really scared the crap out of me lol; wasn’t expecting that. But you really can’t underestimate SM in general, I think. I was so impressed with the whole concert and the way it showcased everyone so well, not just as groups but individually as well. Case in point: the lovely ladies of CSJH, who were first to take the stage. I could ramble all day about this, but yeah, they’re my favorite girl group and the concert just reinforced that all of them are so individually talented. Which makes them, as a group, a freaking POWERHOUSE. CSJH FOR WORLD DOMINATION. Sunday opened the concert … I THINK SHE WAS SINGING THE TRAX’S ‘ANGELS’ (from the Billie Jean, Look At Me OST). Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, although I really hope I’m not cause IS THAT A HINT AT A TRAX COMEBACK! (I must also take this opportunity to mention that my friend and I wore TRAX t-shirts to the concert and we walked back and forth in front of the security guards and official-looking people a bunch of times. I don’t know why we did that (and actually I now see it might’ve been taken the wrong way), but it seemed like a good idea at the time ^^;;. COME BACK, TRAX ♥♥♥!) But anyway, it is a very beautiful song and Sunday is a very wonderful singer. Beautiful, well-controlled voice and essentially a great opening performance that set the calibre for the rest of the concert. Like Sunday, Dana was also a solo singer before she joined CSJH and while I wasn’t familiar with the song she sang, she was wonderful. Very strong and clear voice ♥.

Sunday and Dana were joined by the other two members of CSJH, Lina and Stephanie, and then Kyuhyun. And then I almost cried. God I know I am so lame, but it was really something else. In a concert chock full of amazing performances, this was one of my favorite ones. Just For One Day (with Kyuhyun) isn’t just one of my favorite CSJH songs, it is one of my favorite songs EVER, in any language. And they’ve never performed it live before (I think Kyu got into his terrible car accident around the time they would have promoted it), until this concert. IT WAS GLORIOUS AND OVERWHELMING AND EVERYTHING I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE AND MORE T______T. Kyu sang so well, really. His harmonization with the girls was just exquisite. It sounded even better than the CD version, which is already perfect so I hope that conveys the idea of just how WOW this song is in a live performance. The girls looked beautiful all in white, looking like angels. Really loved Stephanie’s strapless dress in particular. THEY WERE AMAZING, BASICALLY. Terrific voice control, especially when they all sing “just for one day~”. Lina, especially, can really belt out her notes *_____*. Very happy to see all the support for these girls too, despite their lengthy time away from Korea. I mean, yes I wish it could have been louder and that they received as many screams as Kyuhyun did, but some of the girls sitting around me were freaking out and shouting cute stuff like, “Unnie!!! UNNIE SARANGHAEYO!!!” (I hate that I have so few pictures of this wonderful performance, but a huge and stupid camera was in the way + there was a staff member who was blocking most of our view ;___;.)

After that tremendous performance, Kyuhyun left the stage and the girls sang ‘Too Good’, which is one of their most underrated songs imo. Seriously, the duets (Stephanie/Dana, Sunday/Lina) in the bridge of this song are TO DIE FOR. I could only get one good picture of them here (and that damn camera was in the way; that’s the ugly bar you see in most of the performance pics; WOE), but I LOVE WHOEVER WAS FILMING THIS PERFORMANCE. So many good close-ups of the girls on the video screen and alskdjf they are real beauties. They all look especially beautiful when they sing T______T.

Then this guy came out; I dunno who he was, but he played the guitar and sang very well and was basically awesome. He played an acoustic version of SuJu-T’s “Nobody Like Me” and it was fantastic! The crowd then started chanting “Lee Sungmin! Lee Sungmin” and what do you know, Sungmin comes out with his guitar :DDD. Again, SM artists with their individual talents = definitely needs to be exploited utilized more. (There needs to be a Super Junior band like yesterday! Siwon on drums, Sungmin on guitar, and Ryeowook on piano.) The two of them sang and played ‘Just When I Needed You Most” (I think). Sungmin has a really nice and clear singing voice :).

The next performers were SHINee, coming in blazing hot with a performance of ‘Run It’. I WAS REALLY CLOSE TO LOSING MY HEAD COMPLETELY. TAEMIN T______T. Actually, his top was kind of hilarious, but he was rocking those red skinnies and THAT HAIR OF ABSOLUTE WIN. (And then it rained in the last hour of the concert and he was back to that bowl cut by the end lmaoooo.) He’s really a remarkable performer; absolutely fearless onstage. I wish I had half the confidence he has onstage. He makes great ~charisma~ expressions while he’s performing too, always knowing when to smirk, to smile, to pout, etc. (As much as I love the smiling sundubu leader, ONEW PLEASE TAKE HINTS XD.) It was a slightly modified ‘Run It’ performance, I think; the dance was noticeably different. Still fantastic though alsjdkflds ♥♥♥.

And then a performance of ‘Real’!! That song had a great dance (who choreographs this stuff for them?!?! It is genius~) and the boys looked amazing. Key and Minho did a WONDERFUL job with the rapping in this song. Onew was smiley and bouncy and his hair was just flying all over the place XD. He sang very well too. Taemin … well, I couldn’t quite take my eyes off of him ^^;;. I really don’t like where this is going *clings to Onew cause he’s legal lol*. As for Jonghyun, there is really no doubt in my mind that he is one of the best singers in all of SMTown. There, I said it. His voice control is ridiculously perfect. And he even held his own against Kyuhyun during their duet, imo, which is saying something. That’s not an easy feat.

Next, the lovely Zhang Li Yin ♥. She is soooo tiny and petite. It was kind of astounding to hear such a biiig voice coming out of such a petite person, idek XD. She sang the Korean version of ‘I Will’ and it was wonderful. She still seemed slightly nervous/scared on stage ^^;;. (Definitely made up for it with her performances of ‘One More Try’ and ‘After’ later in the concert, though.) Her lives are so much more stable than they were only a year ago. Wonderful ♥.

HAHAHAHAHAHA THE NEXT PERFORMANCE WAS ULTIMATE WIN. And very, very good promotion of the upcoming musical Xanadu, featuring Kangin and Heechul. (I saw a poster for it today; apparently, the first show is on September 9th ^^.) Heechul and his fellow cast member came out first; they were wonderful ♥. There was a part where they begin to lean their heads together before breaking away and my heart kind of jumped in my chest lmao. But not in a bad way, more in the YOU-GO-HEECHUL way. You see, I actually want Heechul to find a really nice girl that will make him happy so he can stop writing emo cyworld entries… Then Kangin and another cast member; they intertwined their fingers for real and it was just so cute and adorable. Awww, Kangin ♥. Then the five of them (Kangin, Heechul, three cast members) all sang together :DDD. It sounds great already! I hope Heechul and Kangin have sorted out the problems they were having with actually roller-skating though XDDDDDD.

NEXT UP: DBSK. HOMG. They popped up on the middle stage, which was the closest one to where I was sitting. GUH SLDKFJKSL. And besides the fact that they were so close and I could see them clearly, you know what else killed me? THEY WERE WEARING SCHOOL UNIFORMS. OMGGGGGG. LIKE THAT SOUNDS TOTALLY SILLY, BUT I LOVE PEOPLE WHO CAN WEAR A SCHOOL UNIFORM IN A CUTE YET SEXY WAY. They sang ‘Hug’ which was totally awesome and so gush-worthy. That’s one of my favorite songs by them! Everyone sang very well. I know people have been coming down pretty hard on Yoochun’s voice in recent performances (and to a certain extent, I quite agree with some of the criticism), but he sang very, very well that night ♥. Plus, I’ve never seen him look this happy in ages. He was so dorky and cute and happy throughout the whole night. He never looked tired, not a bit.

They had a short talk, of which I understood nothing as usual, but it gave the fans time to stare and take pictures XDD. Then they went straight into ‘Through The Forest’ (I think, from the SMTown Summer 2004 album) and ‘Love Is’ (one of my favorite tracks off their Rising Sun album), both of which was really lovely. Fans were going absolutely nutso at this point because Junsu and Yunho walked off the stage and around the track to get closer to the rest of the audience. Junsu was on the opposite side of me so I didn’t get to see too much of him at all T___T, but YUNHO WALKED RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME AND I KNOW I’M REPEATING MYSELF, BUT HE IS SOOOO HANDSOME UP CLOSE. Pictures can’t do him any justice at all. He was really cute and friendly when he walked by, too. Fans were shouting “Oppa!!” and he waved back and smiled, which only set off another round of screaming HAHAHAHAHA. He was walking too quickly, though! LOL ADD!YUNHO ♥. I could only get a picture of the back of his head ;__;.  Ah and I almost forgot to mention; remember that big camera that was blocking most of my view?  It was pivoting around trying to film DBSK and came dangerously close to Yunho’s head LMFAO!  It was so funny XDD.  He looked kind of surprised to see it like right next to his head and then he stuck his face in front of it ♥♥♥.  Yunho ♥___♥.

This post is now over 2000 words long, which is a cue to stop, lol. Will write more tomorrow … the next few performances were among my favorites, what with all the EPIC Dong Bang Junior that went down ♥. I’m sorry this is so stupid and long, but I really like details and I have to write them all down now so I’ll never forget this. Another thing: the concert was 6 hours long and I don’t process stuff too clearly when I see naked Dong Bang bodies, so some things are probably jumbled (like the order of the songs and song titles and performers) … I apologize for that in advance ^^;;.

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So I promised I’d also write about my trip here ^^;; … BASICALLY I REALLY NEED TO BE STRAPPED DOWN AND KEPT AWAY FROM STORES SELLING ALBUMS OMG OMG. Today we went to Myeongdong and shopped and ate and omg so fun. The record stores sell pretty much everything DBSK, Super Junior, SS501, etc have ever done — albums, singles, DVDs, photobooks, posters, other merchandise, concert stuff, etc. And everything was so cheap too! I’m gonna have a hard time buying stuff off from yesasia after this… alsksdjfk and I saw those ‘O’ tour character shirts too! I HAVE WANTED ONE OF THOSE FOR THE LONGEST FREAKING TIME. Also saw an Evisu store with pictures of Siwon plastered all over the outside and … it was kind of embarrasing tbh cause we were taking pictures with the Siwon pictures (you would too, don’t judge XD!) and the fangirls (we met some really nice fans at the SM concert and were hanging out with them today lol) we were with laughed at our Siwon love. Lots of gorgeous pictures of Lee Jun Ki (and Victoria Song, that hot girl from the SJ-M “U” and SHINee “Noona Is So Pretty” music videos) at a Spris store we stopped by. That was also kind of embarrassing because I must have looked rather dreamy just staring at the huge Jun Ki picture on the wall (it covered the whole wall of a two-story store!) and the saleslady just asked me, “You like him?” XDDD;;. Saw Hyunjoong of SS501 in some ad for … face cream or something XD. Pretty much every single store we went into or passed by was playing Big Bang’s newest mini-album or Hyori’s 3rd album, although I did hear a boutique playing Zhang Li Yin’s “Lovers”, a shoe store playing DBSK’s “Sky”, a jewelry place playing V.O.S’s “Beautiful Life”, and a makeup store playing Epik High’s “Breakdown”. IT WAS GREAT :DD. We also got chocopies, bought a few pairs of those crazy character socks, ate a lot of really yummy food from street vendors, etc. Ahahaha and the fangirls were trying to teach us Korean, but the only thing we know how to say, quite well if I may add, in Korean is “YOU CRAZY?! YOU WANNA DIE?!?!?!” Um, thank you, Super Junior. I think XD.