Last week I finally met the foreign English teacher at my school who started working in March. (Well, I work at the middle school, and she works at the high school.) We have really different lunch schedules, which explains why we didn't see each other for over a month. Of course the fact that Big Bang are the best Korean boy band came up in our first conversation, and she offered to take me to the Big Bang Lush Concert, for which she had an extra ticket. (You got two tickets if you spent 150,000 won or more at a Lush store.) Of course I said yes.
The concert was at AX Hall, which is a short walk from Goangnaru Station on Line 5 (in English it's also called the 'Childrens Park Zoo' station.) We hadn't been out of our taxi for more than 10 seconds before a cute old Korean man saw us looking at a map and immediately insisted on grabbing the map, studying it, and insisting on leading us there. He walked in front of us and would occasionally look back to make sure we were still following him. What a nice guy.
We got our wristbands and had to wait about two hours before they started letting people inside. We got snacks at a convenience store and I also ate some of the food promoted by Lush that was selling outside the hall: some grilled vegetables and some fruit. Of course, since this is Korea, the fruit cup included giant tomatoes. I'm sorry, Korea, I know tomatoes are technically a fruit, but I will never enjoy eating tomatoes with pineapple and grapes, and I will definitely ALWAYS think it's weird when my bakery shop cake comes with a tomato on top.
We were let into the venue at 6:40 and ended up about 6 people away from the stage. Not a big deal since I've seen Big Bang enough times (sooo close at YG Family... almost touched TOP's hand.... aaahghhhh.) Unfortunately I ended up standing next toeh most annoying people ever, this really obnoxious couple who kept rubbing, poking, and jabbing me while they danced with each other... to the philharmonic orchestra which was one of the opening acts. Just as I was about to poke them with my Big Bang light stick, which has very sharp tips on its plastic crown, they left.
The orchestra was good and they brought out a guy to sing some songs like "You Raise Me Up." They also played a medley of songs from "Pirates of the Caribbean" which I totally knew they were going to do because people in Korea love that soundtrack.
Then there was a 30-minute break. At this point my legs were in terrible pain. The night wasn't even halfway over.
Next, a jazz quintet played, joined by a cute old Korean guy who really reminded me of Larry David. All the songs were in English. At one point he introduced his next song as "What a Wonderful World" but I heard "Water on the Floor" and thought that was a weird name for a song.
Right before Big Bang, 이소라 (So Ra Lee) played. It was just like at the YG Family concert when Gummy would come on and sing really long, slow ballad songs that just made you want to throw something at her face so she would stop singing and the fun music would come on. I know that sounds terrible, and she was an amazing singer... but her set lasted FOREVER, and she spent a lot of time going off on 10-minute-long monologues, and everyone's legs ached, so she just really needed to STOP.
Finally, Big Bang was introduced with pulsing music and a slideshow of images emblazoned with "Lust," which is a Lush fragrance, and also a really fitting description of everyone in the audience's feelings towards Big Bang. They came up behind a staircase that was set up on the stage and then descended like beautiful, beautiful angels from Heaven. The first song was "Tonight" and the pyrotechnics were out of control. Burning cinders were falling on us all. After that they did "Somebody to Love," "Last Farewell," "Lies," and "Love Song." "Somebody to Love"... eh. Not a big fan of that song. "Last Farewell" is one of their best songs, but they sang the Korean version, and I like the Japanese version better (it has more English and GD's rap is so cute). I wish they had played "Stupid Liar" but no complaints other than that.
I guess there were some sound issues and I noticed their mics cutting out two different times and after one song Taeyang even ran over to the end of the stage to talk to the sound people. One thing I noticed is how EXHAUSTED they looked. Just from reading about their activities on bigbangupdates.com (my guilty pleasure,) it seems like their schedule is particularly packed lately as they prepare to leave Korea and start a new tour in Japan. Every day they're doing a mini-concert or guest appearance or promotional event, and then performing on Music Bank or another music TV program that night. Poor guys. Seungri and TOP especially looked tired, but that's not surprising because Seungri is "lazy guy" and TOP can't dance. GD was wearing sunglasses so it was hard to tell how tired he looked but he definitely didn't act like he was tired- he was all over the stage dancing like he was popping his body out of joint. There is no way that dude is not on E all the time or else he just has severe ADHD. Daesung was always smiling.
Anyway they left after just five songs and there was no "ANG-KOR!" (encore) so that sucked... and it was hard to even see anything because of all the cameras and phones in my face (everyone was recording it) but seeing Big Bang is always a great experience. They always execute a devoted and energetic performance, and seem like really sweet, goofy guys.
Here are some pictures, and I will post my videos later!
There are better pictures here. I realized after the show that I should have asked to borrow Jae Hyun's DSLR. It probably would have broke, because Big Bang crowds are more intense than a Megadeth moshpit. I think.
