KMF 2009!
So, I've been back for a couple of days but haven't felt like blogging about the Korean Music Festival. Definitely not for lack of enthusiasm about it, just a general sort of laziness. It was so awesome, I want to go every single year. I will plan everything else around it.
So, we got to the Hollywood Bowl around 4:30, about two hours early, in order to get the fabled pre-concert free stuff we'd heard of. We ended up having to wait around for quite awhile, but card games were played and it wasn't too bad. We got some lightsticks, candy, and little blankets, at least.
It was, however, freezing. I wore shorts, like a total idiot, even though I've sat through years of cold night football games and field show competitions with the high school marching band. Luckily, I had the foresight to bring blankets.
Anyway, enough with the boring stuff. Have some bullets:
♣ LIGHTSTICKS! Seriously, this picture does not do the sheer size of the place justice at all.
♣ Son Ho Young was the MC, and he was absolutely adorable. I think I'm in love. Everything was spoken in Korean, so we mostly had no idea what was being said, but we didn't really need to know.
His performance was probably the most fun, to tell the truth. (Though I was most excited during SHINee's.) He had so much energy and charm, it was amazing. And to make it even cooler, two of his bandmates from g.o.d., now broken up, came out and performed some songs with him. It was a complete surprise. I don't know g.o.d. very well, but I do know they're incredibly famous, so a lot of people must have been psyched by the mini-reunion. They had awe-inspiring stage presence. I think the entire crowd got pumped up.
♣ The older guy from Coffee Prince did lead vocals/guitar for one of the bands! I like that guy, so it was pretty cool to see him in person. And I had no idea he'd be there until I opened my souvenir program and saw his picture. I loved their music, too. It reminded me of the band in The Happy Life (in case I managed to convince anyone else to watch that movie).
♣ Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter was another "older" band that came. I suspected previously that they were the ones who did "Bravo My Life" for the Fly, Daddy, Fly soundtrack, but I couldn't find any solid confirmation of that online. So when they played it for their finale, I was thrilled. I love that song, and I never thought I'd get to hear it live.
♣ ~*~SHINEE~*~
THEY WERE SO AMAZING. THEY DIDN'T LIP-SYNCH AND THEY SOUNDED SO GOOD AND THEY DANCED REALLY WELL LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO. I LOVE THEM, CAN YOU TELL?
Except that the light designers decided to blind the entire left side of the Bowl with bright yellow lights when they came on, so this is pretty much the best picture we could get.
I believe Minho is the one hiding behind Jonghyun. He had bright turquoise pants. XD (I adore their outfits.)
The not-so-great thing was that they only performed two songs (Replay and AMIGO) instead of the three to six almost everyone else got. HOWEVER, some fangirls who are creepier than I am have reported, via fairly authoritative sources, that this may have been because they got really nervous as soon as they realized what a huge reception they would be getting. Particularly Taemin. XD How adorable is that? I watched them carefully as they left the stage (I was just close enough to be able to see their faces without the screens), and they made the most adorable O: faces at each other, like they couldn't believe how crazy the crowd went over them. It must be quite an experience to fly halfway around the world and listen to an audience of 20,000 sing the lyrics of your song back at you.
<3 SHINEE <3
Ahem. The disgusting fangirl thing is now out of the way. I can't help it, guys, it's SHINee.
♣ For Maddie and Amanda, I feel I should mention SNSD here. ;p I'm not a fan, but "Gee" is slowly growing on me. The girls looked cute in their brightly colored pants, but their microphones were either malfunctioning or not turned up high enough.
♣ SS501 was the finale of the show, and they were awesome, too. You can see three of them here, but I mostly like the picture for how pretty the dome looks.
I would just like to register here that it's so surreal to see these people in the flesh. Far more surreal than seeing western musicians in concert. When you're a foreign fan of Asian musicians, movies, etc., there's such a horrible feeling of disconnect from the things you love. I still can't quite believe that I've now actually seen these groups live. I don't think it fully hit me until Hyun-joong came onstage. I've been watching him play Ji-hoo in "Boys Over Flowers" for months now, and suddenly he was right in front of me.
It's not necessarily that I was starstruck, since I tend to be cynical about famous people. It's just that I finally felt some tenuous connection with the people who create the entertainment that I've loved for years now.
/ramble
Anyway, SS501! They were good but not as good as SHINee. And of course, they were absolutely gorgeous. They wore eyeliner. They sang "Deja Vu" last, and it was a great way to end the concert.
The damn thing was almost four hours long, and it still felt entirely too short. Next year, I want to try to get even closer seats than we had. I feel no qualms about spending a ton of money on this thing; it's the only opportunity of its kind that I have.
♣ And as a random aside: Maddie and I were approached for interviews by two guys with a professional-looking video camera and and hand mic. O_O They asked us where we were from, what made us want to come down to L.A. for the festival, how we learned about Korean culture, and other such things. We figured out afterward, when they moved on to another group of white chicks, that they were only interviewing people who didn't look Korean. (We were a pretty small minority.) How funny is that? I wonder if I'll end up on the DVD. Or possibly on TV in Korea.
So that's that. And I'll tell you, I think I've had my fill of the Los Angeles/Hollywood area for the rest of the year. It actually wasn't too stressful, but it was still a relief to get out of the city and southern California.
I already can't wait for next year. :D
So, we got to the Hollywood Bowl around 4:30, about two hours early, in order to get the fabled pre-concert free stuff we'd heard of. We ended up having to wait around for quite awhile, but card games were played and it wasn't too bad. We got some lightsticks, candy, and little blankets, at least.
It was, however, freezing. I wore shorts, like a total idiot, even though I've sat through years of cold night football games and field show competitions with the high school marching band. Luckily, I had the foresight to bring blankets.
Anyway, enough with the boring stuff. Have some bullets:
♣ LIGHTSTICKS! Seriously, this picture does not do the sheer size of the place justice at all.
♣ Son Ho Young was the MC, and he was absolutely adorable. I think I'm in love. Everything was spoken in Korean, so we mostly had no idea what was being said, but we didn't really need to know.
His performance was probably the most fun, to tell the truth. (Though I was most excited during SHINee's.) He had so much energy and charm, it was amazing. And to make it even cooler, two of his bandmates from g.o.d., now broken up, came out and performed some songs with him. It was a complete surprise. I don't know g.o.d. very well, but I do know they're incredibly famous, so a lot of people must have been psyched by the mini-reunion. They had awe-inspiring stage presence. I think the entire crowd got pumped up.
♣ The older guy from Coffee Prince did lead vocals/guitar for one of the bands! I like that guy, so it was pretty cool to see him in person. And I had no idea he'd be there until I opened my souvenir program and saw his picture. I loved their music, too. It reminded me of the band in The Happy Life (in case I managed to convince anyone else to watch that movie).
♣ Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter was another "older" band that came. I suspected previously that they were the ones who did "Bravo My Life" for the Fly, Daddy, Fly soundtrack, but I couldn't find any solid confirmation of that online. So when they played it for their finale, I was thrilled. I love that song, and I never thought I'd get to hear it live.
♣ ~*~SHINEE~*~
THEY WERE SO AMAZING. THEY DIDN'T LIP-SYNCH AND THEY SOUNDED SO GOOD AND THEY DANCED REALLY WELL LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO. I LOVE THEM, CAN YOU TELL?
Except that the light designers decided to blind the entire left side of the Bowl with bright yellow lights when they came on, so this is pretty much the best picture we could get.
I believe Minho is the one hiding behind Jonghyun. He had bright turquoise pants. XD (I adore their outfits.)
The not-so-great thing was that they only performed two songs (Replay and AMIGO) instead of the three to six almost everyone else got. HOWEVER, some fangirls who are creepier than I am have reported, via fairly authoritative sources, that this may have been because they got really nervous as soon as they realized what a huge reception they would be getting. Particularly Taemin. XD How adorable is that? I watched them carefully as they left the stage (I was just close enough to be able to see their faces without the screens), and they made the most adorable O: faces at each other, like they couldn't believe how crazy the crowd went over them. It must be quite an experience to fly halfway around the world and listen to an audience of 20,000 sing the lyrics of your song back at you.
<3 SHINEE <3
Ahem. The disgusting fangirl thing is now out of the way. I can't help it, guys, it's SHINee.
♣ For Maddie and Amanda, I feel I should mention SNSD here. ;p I'm not a fan, but "Gee" is slowly growing on me. The girls looked cute in their brightly colored pants, but their microphones were either malfunctioning or not turned up high enough.
♣ SS501 was the finale of the show, and they were awesome, too. You can see three of them here, but I mostly like the picture for how pretty the dome looks.
I would just like to register here that it's so surreal to see these people in the flesh. Far more surreal than seeing western musicians in concert. When you're a foreign fan of Asian musicians, movies, etc., there's such a horrible feeling of disconnect from the things you love. I still can't quite believe that I've now actually seen these groups live. I don't think it fully hit me until Hyun-joong came onstage. I've been watching him play Ji-hoo in "Boys Over Flowers" for months now, and suddenly he was right in front of me.
It's not necessarily that I was starstruck, since I tend to be cynical about famous people. It's just that I finally felt some tenuous connection with the people who create the entertainment that I've loved for years now.
/ramble
Anyway, SS501! They were good but not as good as SHINee. And of course, they were absolutely gorgeous. They wore eyeliner. They sang "Deja Vu" last, and it was a great way to end the concert.
The damn thing was almost four hours long, and it still felt entirely too short. Next year, I want to try to get even closer seats than we had. I feel no qualms about spending a ton of money on this thing; it's the only opportunity of its kind that I have.
♣ And as a random aside: Maddie and I were approached for interviews by two guys with a professional-looking video camera and and hand mic. O_O They asked us where we were from, what made us want to come down to L.A. for the festival, how we learned about Korean culture, and other such things. We figured out afterward, when they moved on to another group of white chicks, that they were only interviewing people who didn't look Korean. (We were a pretty small minority.) How funny is that? I wonder if I'll end up on the DVD. Or possibly on TV in Korea.
So that's that. And I'll tell you, I think I've had my fill of the Los Angeles/Hollywood area for the rest of the year. It actually wasn't too stressful, but it was still a relief to get out of the city and southern California.
I already can't wait for next year. :D