Of Lovely Coincidences, Concerts and Much Squeeage
Having gotten the sleep I wanted (1PM sleep-in ♥), I figured I should type this out before my amazingly faulty memory forgets it on my behalf.
And boy, I do NOT want to forget this. Apologies for any stilted writing - it's been awhile since I've typed up a properly long journal entry. ;)
So, I managed to attend the DiGi Kpop Live concert on the 13th of January. Pretty remarkable in itself even without considering the amazing series of events that led up to my being able to attend said event. As it was, not only did I get to attend the concert, I got access to the Platinum Zone for free.
Yes, seriously.
It all started when I got an SMS from DiGi, promoting its DiGi Kpop Live Concert. Now, I've been a Kpop fan for some time now - it whacked me on the head some time during my incredibly long LJ hiatus and burrowed its way into my brain. So when I got the SMS, I may have bounced around happily for quite a bit. I mean, G.Na? 4MINUTE? _B2ST_? SQUEEEEE!
Unfortunately, logic soon sunk in: considering these groups are pretty popular (B2ST in particular have had sold-out concerts), I expected all the available tickets to sell out pretty much within the next few days of me receiving the SMS. yuncyn, ever the pragmatist, agreed with me and I reluctantly pushed thoughts of the concert out of my mind and went back to focusing on my work.
Over the span of the next few weeks though, DiGi persistently sent similar promotional messages to my phone, crumbling my already weak resolve. It turned out that the concert was a DiGi-exclusive event and hey whaddya know, there were still tickets available! My mom didn't see any problem in my going, so I poked Denise and we trotted over to Pyramid's DiGi store to check out ticket prices. Again, reality crashed in: all the tickets for the Silver Zone (the cheapest set) were already sold out, leaving the much pricier Gold and Platinum Zone. Denise again pointed out that the concert would start at 8PM in Stadium Negara and we ended work at 6 in Cyberjaya - quite a ways from KL. Trumped again, I resigned myself to watching eventual fancams of the event.
Then, one day before the concert, I got an SMS from DiGi, congratulating me on my birthday and offering me 2 free passes for the concert if I was amongst the first 500 people to show the organizers that SMS.
WELL, HELLO INCREDIBLY AMAZING LUCK. Plz to be sticking around. ♥
It was almost as if some unknown force was insisting on my going to the concert. Well, I'm not one to disappoint - nudging Denise again, we begged a ride from a colleague to Putrajaya's Park and Ride, where we caught the KLIA transit train to KL Central then hopped onto the monorail to the Hang Tuah station. We got horribly lost trying to walk to the stadium though and ended up catching a taxi to the area. We arrived at 7.55PM, pretty much in the nick of time.
The SMS clearly stated that the free passes would only be given to the first 500 people and that the ticket redemption counter would be open at 10AM. Truth be told, I was half-expecting to be informed that I was too late when I popped over to the counter with my SMS, with dinner plans in Times Square (which was nearby) already formulating in my head. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained after all.
Well, incredible luck struck again: I was the 15th person to redeem my tickets. ♥
And if that wasn't enough, the guy called over for the Platinum Zone tickets book. PLATINUM ZONE. As if free passes weren't enough, they handed me tickets to the most expensive zone available to the public.
God, you are epic. Thank you. ♥ DiGi, I owe you one too.
We were about 4-5 people away from the stage and standing around the center, which offered a really, really good view of the performing Kpop artists. Admittedly though, a good part of that view was blocked with hands holding cameras/videocams/ DSLRs sticking up in the air, frantically snapping photos or videotaping the performances. We ended up having to zig-zag our heads here and there to actually see some of the performances (especially for B2ST). Talk about irritating.
Then again, I really shouldn't complain seeing that I was, er, guilty of snapping a few photos myself with my phone. In my defence, I only snapped a few photos during the beginning before keeping my phone back into my pocket, though I couldn't resist another one or two when the artists approached the central runway area and I'm probably just digging myself into a deeper hole here whoops.
But anyway! :D
I'll confess I missed the name and most of the info on the opening act, who seems to be a Malaysian(?) act. He did an admirable job though and got a number of cheers. The crowd were mostly waiting for the Kpop acts though so no one was particularly disappointed to see him leave the stage.
The host of the night was Ben from Fly.FM, who kept up a steady stream of conversation while buying time for the first act to prepare. He was a pretty engaging person who managed to fill the time gap with lots of chatter, keep the tension up and promote Digi all at the same time - kudos to him on that juggling act! Eventually though, he yielded the stage to the first K-artist...
G.Na!
She kick-started the night with 'I'll Back Off So You Can Live' (which earned quite the round of screams when JunHyung popped up to do his cameo rapping) - such lovely, powerful vocals hidden in that skinny frame! She was also the only act who was fluent in English and didn't require a translator when talking to the emcee. She introduced most of her songs and talked the most of all the acts that night.
Her rendition of Rihanna's 'Take a Bow' was awesome and, followed by 'Supa Solo', I think it's safe to say she had another fan in me by the end of the night.
4Minute came out next, bursting onto the stage with HuH. Fierce girls are fierce. And sexy, but I mostly noticed the fierce. (The guys around me clearly were very into the sexy though, if the screaming and whistling was anything to go by). Most of them looked way better in person, especially my personal favorite bias, Sohyun. Honestly, their performance was so smooth, one wouldn't be able to tell that the leader, Jihyun was sick that day.
They performed around 4-5 songs, including crowd favorites like 'Hot Issue', 'MUZIK' and 'I, My, Me, Mine'. They also encouraged the crowd to sing certain refrains with them (though admittedly, the very enthusiastic crowd clearly needed no encouragement - at that point, we were singing along to the whole song, goshdarnit). Some of them, like Hyuna were a little on the soft side - could barely hear her rap and I suspect she was heavily supported by the backing track. But props to to the others, especially Gayoon for powerhousing their way through their performance! Nice to know that lip-syncing was not part of the program that night. :D
By the time they left, the screams were threatening to bust my ears. For the only act left was...
Yep, B2ST. or BEAST. Or 'HOLEH-MOTHER-OF-OMG-I-FRIGGING-LOVE-YOU-SO-IMMA-BUST-A-LUNG-FOR-YOU' B2ST/BEAST, if the decibels were anything to go by.
(Okay, okay, I confess - I was screaming my lungs out too. ♥)
At this point, a lot of things rushed by too fast, as far as I was concerned. B2ST was amazing - was totally worth the rush from Cyberjaya and the chance taken to get to that point! Kikwang wasn't there (the others said something about filming and told us to 'not feel sorry for him') but the others more than made up for him, running right, left, front and even sitting down at the edge of the stage near the VIP zone.
The dancing was slick, but what I really enjoyed watching was when they goofed off with each other, grinning and bouncing up and down. The whole atmosphere felt more relaxed than some of the fancams of other concerts I've seen (well, relaxed in B2ST's end anyway - the crowd was anything but relaxed) and it was really, really fun to watch them just enjoy themselves.
B2ST performed a few songs - also 4-5-ish? My memory is clearly funked - amongst them Shock, Soom and Beautiful (complete with shameless fanservice, which we equally-shamelessly cheered on). Theirs was the only group that came back for an encore (probably because they were the only group for which the crowd shouted for an encore but anyway) and they ran back in with 'V.I.U' and even more fanservice, yay! Seriously, Dongwoon's little 'saranghae' heart may be the death of me yet. Doojoon stripped off his jacket, to the delight of everyone and Dongwoon was coaxed into doing the silly V.I.U dance he did in the practice vid and Axtar can now die a happy person, yes.
All in all, was it worth it?
FRIGGIN' HECK YES. ♥
Free passes aside, I'll concede that it was a little short - the event ended at around 9.50PM, making the concert around 1-and-a-half-hours long. Still, considering the size of the stadium (large enough to fit a crowd, small enough that the performers don't look like microscopic bacteria even if you sit all the way at the back) and the acts brought in, I think that if I had bought a ticket, I wouldn't have regretted it either. Kudos on the event, DiGi, and long may you keep it up!
And boy, I do NOT want to forget this. Apologies for any stilted writing - it's been awhile since I've typed up a properly long journal entry. ;)
So, I managed to attend the DiGi Kpop Live concert on the 13th of January. Pretty remarkable in itself even without considering the amazing series of events that led up to my being able to attend said event. As it was, not only did I get to attend the concert, I got access to the Platinum Zone for free.
Yes, seriously.
It all started when I got an SMS from DiGi, promoting its DiGi Kpop Live Concert. Now, I've been a Kpop fan for some time now - it whacked me on the head some time during my incredibly long LJ hiatus and burrowed its way into my brain. So when I got the SMS, I may have bounced around happily for quite a bit. I mean, G.Na? 4MINUTE? _B2ST_? SQUEEEEE!
Unfortunately, logic soon sunk in: considering these groups are pretty popular (B2ST in particular have had sold-out concerts), I expected all the available tickets to sell out pretty much within the next few days of me receiving the SMS. yuncyn, ever the pragmatist, agreed with me and I reluctantly pushed thoughts of the concert out of my mind and went back to focusing on my work.
Over the span of the next few weeks though, DiGi persistently sent similar promotional messages to my phone, crumbling my already weak resolve. It turned out that the concert was a DiGi-exclusive event and hey whaddya know, there were still tickets available! My mom didn't see any problem in my going, so I poked Denise and we trotted over to Pyramid's DiGi store to check out ticket prices. Again, reality crashed in: all the tickets for the Silver Zone (the cheapest set) were already sold out, leaving the much pricier Gold and Platinum Zone. Denise again pointed out that the concert would start at 8PM in Stadium Negara and we ended work at 6 in Cyberjaya - quite a ways from KL. Trumped again, I resigned myself to watching eventual fancams of the event.
Then, one day before the concert, I got an SMS from DiGi, congratulating me on my birthday and offering me 2 free passes for the concert if I was amongst the first 500 people to show the organizers that SMS.
WELL, HELLO INCREDIBLY AMAZING LUCK. Plz to be sticking around. ♥
It was almost as if some unknown force was insisting on my going to the concert. Well, I'm not one to disappoint - nudging Denise again, we begged a ride from a colleague to Putrajaya's Park and Ride, where we caught the KLIA transit train to KL Central then hopped onto the monorail to the Hang Tuah station. We got horribly lost trying to walk to the stadium though and ended up catching a taxi to the area. We arrived at 7.55PM, pretty much in the nick of time.
The SMS clearly stated that the free passes would only be given to the first 500 people and that the ticket redemption counter would be open at 10AM. Truth be told, I was half-expecting to be informed that I was too late when I popped over to the counter with my SMS, with dinner plans in Times Square (which was nearby) already formulating in my head. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained after all.
Well, incredible luck struck again: I was the 15th person to redeem my tickets. ♥
And if that wasn't enough, the guy called over for the Platinum Zone tickets book. PLATINUM ZONE. As if free passes weren't enough, they handed me tickets to the most expensive zone available to the public.
God, you are epic. Thank you. ♥ DiGi, I owe you one too.
We were about 4-5 people away from the stage and standing around the center, which offered a really, really good view of the performing Kpop artists. Admittedly though, a good part of that view was blocked with hands holding cameras/videocams/ DSLRs sticking up in the air, frantically snapping photos or videotaping the performances. We ended up having to zig-zag our heads here and there to actually see some of the performances (especially for B2ST). Talk about irritating.
Then again, I really shouldn't complain seeing that I was, er, guilty of snapping a few photos myself with my phone. In my defence, I only snapped a few photos during the beginning before keeping my phone back into my pocket, though I couldn't resist another one or two when the artists approached the central runway area and I'm probably just digging myself into a deeper hole here whoops.
But anyway! :D
I'll confess I missed the name and most of the info on the opening act, who seems to be a Malaysian(?) act. He did an admirable job though and got a number of cheers. The crowd were mostly waiting for the Kpop acts though so no one was particularly disappointed to see him leave the stage.
The host of the night was Ben from Fly.FM, who kept up a steady stream of conversation while buying time for the first act to prepare. He was a pretty engaging person who managed to fill the time gap with lots of chatter, keep the tension up and promote Digi all at the same time - kudos to him on that juggling act! Eventually though, he yielded the stage to the first K-artist...
G.Na!
She kick-started the night with 'I'll Back Off So You Can Live' (which earned quite the round of screams when JunHyung popped up to do his cameo rapping) - such lovely, powerful vocals hidden in that skinny frame! She was also the only act who was fluent in English and didn't require a translator when talking to the emcee. She introduced most of her songs and talked the most of all the acts that night.
Her rendition of Rihanna's 'Take a Bow' was awesome and, followed by 'Supa Solo', I think it's safe to say she had another fan in me by the end of the night.
4Minute came out next, bursting onto the stage with HuH. Fierce girls are fierce. And sexy, but I mostly noticed the fierce. (The guys around me clearly were very into the sexy though, if the screaming and whistling was anything to go by). Most of them looked way better in person, especially my personal favorite bias, Sohyun. Honestly, their performance was so smooth, one wouldn't be able to tell that the leader, Jihyun was sick that day.
They performed around 4-5 songs, including crowd favorites like 'Hot Issue', 'MUZIK' and 'I, My, Me, Mine'. They also encouraged the crowd to sing certain refrains with them (though admittedly, the very enthusiastic crowd clearly needed no encouragement - at that point, we were singing along to the whole song, goshdarnit). Some of them, like Hyuna were a little on the soft side - could barely hear her rap and I suspect she was heavily supported by the backing track. But props to to the others, especially Gayoon for powerhousing their way through their performance! Nice to know that lip-syncing was not part of the program that night. :D
By the time they left, the screams were threatening to bust my ears. For the only act left was...
Yep, B2ST. or BEAST. Or 'HOLEH-MOTHER-OF-OMG-I-FRIGGING-LOVE-YOU-SO-IMMA-BUST-A-LUNG-FOR-YOU' B2ST/BEAST, if the decibels were anything to go by.
(Okay, okay, I confess - I was screaming my lungs out too. ♥)
At this point, a lot of things rushed by too fast, as far as I was concerned. B2ST was amazing - was totally worth the rush from Cyberjaya and the chance taken to get to that point! Kikwang wasn't there (the others said something about filming and told us to 'not feel sorry for him') but the others more than made up for him, running right, left, front and even sitting down at the edge of the stage near the VIP zone.
The dancing was slick, but what I really enjoyed watching was when they goofed off with each other, grinning and bouncing up and down. The whole atmosphere felt more relaxed than some of the fancams of other concerts I've seen (well, relaxed in B2ST's end anyway - the crowd was anything but relaxed) and it was really, really fun to watch them just enjoy themselves.
B2ST performed a few songs - also 4-5-ish? My memory is clearly funked - amongst them Shock, Soom and Beautiful (complete with shameless fanservice, which we equally-shamelessly cheered on). Theirs was the only group that came back for an encore (probably because they were the only group for which the crowd shouted for an encore but anyway) and they ran back in with 'V.I.U' and even more fanservice, yay! Seriously, Dongwoon's little 'saranghae' heart may be the death of me yet. Doojoon stripped off his jacket, to the delight of everyone and Dongwoon was coaxed into doing the silly V.I.U dance he did in the practice vid and Axtar can now die a happy person, yes.
All in all, was it worth it?
FRIGGIN' HECK YES. ♥
Free passes aside, I'll concede that it was a little short - the event ended at around 9.50PM, making the concert around 1-and-a-half-hours long. Still, considering the size of the stadium (large enough to fit a crowd, small enough that the performers don't look like microscopic bacteria even if you sit all the way at the back) and the acts brought in, I think that if I had bought a ticket, I wouldn't have regretted it either. Kudos on the event, DiGi, and long may you keep it up!