Yes, I went to a concert performed by my current favorite Korean rock band, CNBlue! I wanted to do an account of this for myself before things become too fuzzy. I think I'm going to recount the entire thing from me actually deciding to buy the tickets all the way to me coming back home. This will be LONG and I won't blame you if you skip ahead to the actual concert.
So, this all goes back to early December 2013. I don't remember what day it was, but I remember seeing an announcement that CNBlue was going to be coming to America for their Blue Moon World Tour. Now, we all know how I am pretty broke and have a job that pays jack shit. Initially after the announcement, I was not planning on going at all. I wanted to go, but I always try to be responsible with my money - needs come before wants after all. I was sad to say no, but at the time I had decided and that was all she wrote. But then, I was posting on Twitter about my woes of wanting to go and never having enough money to comfortably do what I want. A fellow fan I follow then sent me a private message attempting to talk some sense into me. She asked me if I really want to miss this chance when there's no telling when they would come back. Plus, I'm still employed and can earn that money back, but I could never make the concert happen if I decide not to go. Among other things she said, her argument was very valid and worth thinking over. But I had to consult my mother, since I live with her and a lot of my income goes to maintaining our household, not just simply paying rent to stay here.
The day before the tickets went on sale, which was December 13th, I talked to Mom before she left for her job. I explained my dilemma with wanting to go and what her opinion is on it. She basically burst into tears telling me that she doesn't want me to waste my life worrying about money like she does and never doing anything I want to do. It's not a way to live and it hurts more than anything. She said she wanted me to go because she knows how much I love that band and she said I deserve it because I do help her so much financially already. I felt bad listening to her regrets and the many things she's sacrificed all of her life because of having no money, but she adamantly told me to go and not worry about our situation.
The next day I came home from work and immediately went to the site for the ticket sales. I was an hour late for it (ticket sales started at 4pm), so I missed out on all of the early entry tickets. Not one was left. Now, early entry guarantees you a good spot up close and sometimes comes with good bonuses like a meet & greet with the artist. I was sad I missed it, but the second best option was still available: general floor admission "seats." I put that in quotes because that was actually the floor area to stand in, not sit. That also meant I didn't have an assigned spot, which, come concert day, could be a good or a bad thing. Needless to mention, but I worried about that. However, I was still happy once I'd gotten confirmation of my purchase that I was going to go and was doing something pretty big for myself for once. I proceeded to buy tickets for travel and I decided on Greyhound because it was my cheapest option.
Over the weeks that followed, I wasn't particularly excited for some reason. I guess because I had a month and a half before the actual event. But once January came and the days kept passing, I grew more and more excited. My Twitter feed was almost non-stop countdowns towards Blue Moon New York City, or BMNYC. They fed into my excitement that I was actually gonna go!
Fast forward to Monday, January 20th. That was the day my bus departed on its 20-hour ride (with transfers and rest stops, mind you) to New York. Mom drove me down to the station and we arrived there over an hour before departure. I went to the counter and picked up my tickets and sat on the rather flimsy looking benches in the station. Mom had been worried the station was as ghetto and filled with bums like she remembered it, but it wasn't like that to me. We waited for a while and the bus was late and we loaded up late too. No surprise, but we left around 1pm. I don't really remember much of my ride there, but it was my first time taking Greyhound on such a lengthy trip alone. I was paranoid about getting off at the proper transfers and making it to my stops on time, so I constantly checked my tickets in the OC manner I have. But after the long ride and unfortunately not being able to sleep a wink overnight, I made it to New York City around 6:15am January 21st. That was the concert day~!
So, we arrive at the station and I have to climb two sets of stairs with my heavy bookbag "luggage." I get to the streets and it's still dark out and doesn't seem like it's 6am. I'd written down the directions to my hotel I'd booked because it was in walking distance. Literally, like a block and a half away. I got there and checked in without any problems, but I was so ready to just lay down. I find my room without any trouble and it was a cozy-sized single room with a nice sized bed and a small flat-screen mounted on the wall. Nothing fancy, but it was affordable and served as a good rest spot. I turned on the tv and kicked my feet up, watched the news to find out... dun-dun-DUN~ a fucking winter storm would be making it's way through the city that afternoon! The SAME day I'm going to be standing outside in line... Perfect timing and fuck my life very much -_-
I called Mom because despite me being an adult, she still wants me to check in and worries. Talked to her for about an hour then just continued relaxing and trying to prepare for the wait ahead of me. Now, for those of you that know nothing about how Korean concerts work, it's no joke! I remembered that for a different group that was performing at the same venue a few weeks before, fans starting lining up as early as 8am! For the duration of 10am, I spent my time on the 'net spazzing but also heavily debating my options. Either I could sit in my room bs-ing around in the warmth until it got closer to the time the doors opened (7pm), or I could leave very soon from my room and grab some food and a few things to help me fight the cold and wait outside... Given the lack of assigned seating in the venue, I went with the latter option. It was my first ever Korean concert and the guys in the band are fuckin' HOT, so hell yeah I wanted a good spot and I was willing to freeze to get it!
Since I'd decided on a plan of action, I mapped out a CVS a few blocks over and a Subway was one block from the venue. Perfect~ I got changed and did my hair, layered up with what little I'd brought with me and I was out the door by 11:30am. Unfortunately, it had started snowing already and it was heavier than the news said it was going to be. So when I got outside, I felt turned around and felt lost within minutes of walking. I felt like Cloud in FF7 when you go to the Icicle Inn area and have to walk through the blizzard constantly getting turned around until he passes out! Anywho, I couldn't really make out street signs at all and the wind had the snow slapping you in the face, so most people were walking with their faces covered, heads down, or even with open umbrellas. On my way to CVS, I came across a Walgreens, so I ditched my initial plan and headed inside. Given that New York buildings are tall and several crowd the streets, stores like that have several floors rather than everything being on one super wide floor like I'm used to. Didn't find any scarves on the first floor, so I went up the escalator and just browsed around there, still didn't find anything. I asked the nearest clerk and was directed to the third floor. I get up there to immediately see souvenir stuff. "I <3 New York" shirts, mugs, towels, bags - you name it! I suddenly remembered my coworker who begged me for a I<3NY shirt, but I settled on just getting her a keychain because of the price.
After walking around the third floor one good time, I found scarves but they were more fashionable rather than meant for actual warmth. Annoying >_<. Grabbed one of those along with a purple drawstring bookbag with I<3NY on it, which I bought because the band's CNBlueUSA fan staff were going to be passing out freebies to us and I wasn't sure how much we would be getting. Paid for that and left out in the direction of food and the venue. Since the snow was still relentless, I felt turned around again and just asked for brief directions from the nearest people to me. I found my way and everyone thankfully gave me proper directions. I once again came across a place different than planned, so I stepped in the McDonald's I found and the venue was pretty much across the street anyway. I ordered a meal and 2 cheeseburgers to snack on in the line. I barely ate my combo meal despite not having eaten anything since the middle of the night. I just did not feel hungry and that is odd for me, but I know it was mostly due to excitement/nerves. I sat inside for maybe 10 additional minutes before deciding to just brave it to claim my spot in line! I was NOT going through all of this to have a shitty spot, okay!
After walking in the proper direction for a few minutes I see the venue across the street from me. I'd looked at pics of the venue and it had an awning type thing with a big bright marquee to advertise performances. And of course, CNBlue was scrolling and the clips of the I'm Sorry music video kept repeating. Here's a picture taken in the evening by another fan of the outside of the venue:
Also, there was a decent line formed, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I crossed the street and got in the back of the line and there were two girls standing in front of me... Well, I'm generally not the type to make small talk with people I don't know, but since this is technically the K-pop fandom, and we all kind of have that mutual feeling in our regular lives of our friends and family thinking we're very weird for liking Korean music... I figured we should be able to chat and bond over that, at least. We understand the struggle as a non-Asian fan and now we are here to celebrate and experience our mutual interest together, so why not be friendly?! Anyway, I just started talking to them. The one blond girl was more receptive of my approach than the other one but that was okay. I asked them what tickets they got and they both said early admission. Someone a little ahead of us in line heard them and said there was a separate line for early admissions in the front. At this point, they promptly ditched me in the back. Way to go... But honestly, I'd have done the same thing, just tried not to be rude about it.
I stood there for a few minutes debating just taking out my iPod to memorize some more of the lyrics before showtime when this guy comes up behind me in line. Great, a fanboy! I was eager to talk to him just to get a guy's perspective on being a male fan and coming to the concert. I found out he also had early entry and I told him about the line for that in the front. Then he tells me he's not a diehard fan of theirs... I'm like, "Well, WhyTF are you here then? Better yet, let's switch tickets!" I literally said this to him! Not word-for-word, but pretty much that. My anger must've come through my voice because he looked at me surprised and stammered through an explanation about liking Yonghwa then scurried to the front. Chicken shit... Yeah, so I waited alone again for another few minutes before a girl came up behind me by herself. So, I decided to try that talking thing once again. Turned out she also bought the general admission ticket, so at least I didn't have to worry about her running off. Her name's Cynthia and she was actually cool and easy to talk to and was just as pumped as me to see CNBlue. We talked about a variety things including the band, K-pop in general, her life in NY and my life in MI, our jobs... kinda anything and everything to pass the time.
I won't do a full play-by-play of the line waiting, but eventually things were handed out by the CNBlueUSA staff which was nice of them! I got a blue glowstick, two banners/signs, and two packs of custom made candy. I wanted a bracelet, but those went fast. Anyway, two other girls standing just behind her also joined in on our talks. They were pretty funny too. We just kept saying that CNBlue better appeciate the mad struggle we were going through standing outside in 14-degree weather with a snowstorm whipping around us for HOURS! One of the girls, referred to as "Tiny Tim" by her friend, had to go to the bathroom so we were gonna hold her spot in line. She also was gonna go to the nearby Starbucks and asked if we wanted anything. The others said no, but I agreed to a hot chocolate, more than willing to pay her when she got back. She did buy me one and wouldn't accept my money for it! *gasps* Such a sweetie pie and she didn't know me from Sam! Anywho, it slowly got darker and darker and the city lights were a sight, even through the heavy snow. However, I was severely freezing my 'nads off and was seriously thinking I would lose my toes and fingers because they were going numb despite the multitude of "warm up" dances I was doing! Aigooo~ my life...
Doors opened at 7pm. That was the longest wait of my life and I hope to never have to do it again! I'd never been so happy to simply enter a building! Well, it didn't take long for us to push ourselves inside. I wished they'd let us in to wait lined up outside the concert room, but I know they had their reasons not to do that. Security made a line forming from the outside the room around the wall. I dunno why, but I really liked the lighting indoors, it had a blue hue or maybe the walls were painted blue? Anyways, I asked Cynthia to save my spot in line and dramatically told her not to leave me while I ran to the bathroom across the hall, which I literally did! Oh, and inside the building, I SWEAR they were playing the lead singer's playlist! Yonghwa's a big fan of Bon Jovi, Maroon 5, and Bruno Mars. Several songs were played of theirs and more artists that seem like his music taste! I got back from the restroom and the line had shifted up quite a bit, so I panicked and started jogging towards the front, but she spotted me and was still in the line in the hall. After a few seconds I was up to the guy in the front checking tickets, got the okay, and walked inside... Here's a pic to get an idea what it looked like.
It wasn't packed just yet and most of the people were pressing against each other in the pit in front of the stage, finding their friends to stand with, or just re-evaluating their choice spot. I looked over the pit area to see if I really wanted to risk having some tall big head blocking my 5'2" view... HELL NO! I looked and saw that magical blue railing in the above pic and no one was really standing in the middle of it! I ran over and got in the middle and judged my distance from the stage... IT WAS THE PERFECT SPOT!! Most people want to get close to the stage to possibly touch the members and see them in super 3-D up closeness. I was more than happy with that spot and like I'd joked before getting to venue, once I found my spot I was gonna be rooted like a tree and that I was! I was going to be eye level with my favorite member, the lead singer, for the entire concert! FUCK YEAH, I'LL TAKE IT!
Okay, lol, done being a spazz about that for a second. Cynthia had been behind me in line and ran right over to me telling me she was happy I picked that spot because all the other times she'd come there to see K-pop groups, she could never get that spot. Unfortunately, the other two girls wanted to get as close to the stage as possible and I'm pretty sure they pushed their way up there so they weren't with us anymore. Cynthia and I chatted some more and the woman standing on my right out of nowhere starts asking us about our interest in CNBlue and other Korean concert related things. I was confused, but I excitedly answered her. She eventually introduced herself as Annie, a writer for the online K-pop news site,
KpopStarz. I'd seen articles from there before but don't follow it regularly, though Cynthia was more familiar with it. Anyway, Annie asked us if we'd like to answer some questions she would send to us after the concert and we might get featured in her article on the concert. HOW COOL IS THAT?! I was more than okay with it and so was Cynthia, so we jotted our e-mail addresses and names on a paper and that was that.
The concert got delayed for about 20 minutes from it's 8pm start time due to the weather and concert-goers still filing in. That was okay and didn't seem that long, honestly. I was just happy to be out of the wintery death! What I do want to mention is that we were trolled a number of times by the setup people. They would dim the lights (read: check the lights) and we would think it's showtime when the lights would suddenly come back on again. Same would happen with the screen behind the instrument setup on the stage. It had the band's CNBlue logo on it, but that disappeared a few times to which we screamed, thinking shit was about to go down, but then a goddamn Asiana Airlines commercial would play, lol! So many false starts, or at least we were interpreting them as that, but then after a little while... IT WAS GO TIME!!
The lights dimmed for a final time and the screen changed to the very cool opening sequence for their Blue Moon tour concerts. It was so cool to see it live and start getting that feeling of, "OMG, it's really happening and this is real!" The song playing was a harder rock sound than what CNBlue generally plays, but I would love to see them perform it one good time!
After the video, the room dimmed briefly and we all erupted into screams as we could see their figures walking onto stage. The lights came back on and that was the closest I'd come to crying the whole concert. I've been a K-pop fan for almost 5 years and had never seen a single group live or even had a chance encounter with a member of a group. Like many other Korean music fans in the US, I'd only watched them in videos and seen pics on my laptop the entire time. And to see them, in the flesh, literally in front of my very eyes, looking alive and well and ready to rock my fucking socks off... Can you blame me for being overwhelmed?
On to the impressions of the members! Unfortunately, my phone couldn't take the cold so it died and that was the only camera I had. I was trying to obey the ticket which said, "No cameras allowed." How dumb was I to think that would be enforced. Anyway, all footage and pics are from other people.
That's the view I had all night and this is a pic Cynthia took. With Yonghwa being my favorite member and just in general being a very attractive man, I was beyond ecstatic with this view, xD I liked the more casual outfit with the black shirt and white logo and stripes. He had on blue jeans and to me, his legs looked mighty tasty! xD
I noticed that Jungshin, the bass player, is also very handsome in person. I'd always thought he was a cutie in general, but it might have been that thick, slicked black hair with that nice gray sweater he had on. He looked manly and quite attractive!
There was also Jonghyun, CNBlue's lead guitarist. He tends to usually be called the most attractive member of the group with his pretty yet masculine appearance. It was so nice to see his almost glowing pale skin in person and he was more spiffy looking than I was expecting him to be. He usually dresses down in jeans and a plaid shirt or t-shirt, but that night he looked quite hot! His hair was also slicked into a nice swoopy style and he had on a gray dress shirt with dark pants. He looked like what Edward Cullen should have looked like - a sexy vampire! He totally could have drained me dry that night looking that good! xP
And last but not least, our adorable drummer, Minhyuk. It's a shame to not get to see him quite as much as the other members. I wished he'd get more time from behind the drumset just to be able to interact with fans more. He was also put-him-in-my-pocket-worthy cute in a gray shirt and dark pants.
And though I was initially close to crying as I had watched them walk on the stage, I didn't shed any tears. Oh no~ CNBlue wouldn't let me. Yonghwa greeted us by saying "New York City" into his mic and sending a kiss to the audience. And the chords of the first song started - Where You Are.
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I've been listening to CNBlue daily for almost 5 months, so I'm pretty versed in their lyrics, especially their English songs. So after having a few moments of being overwhelmed with seeing them and feeling shell-shocked, it didn't take me long to start shouting the words and dancing along with them once it started. I pulled out my glow-stick and waved it to the beat like I had seen in so many Asian concerts before. I also felt like I had a decent amount of eye contact with Yonghwa which was quite distracting and left me tingly. I really hope he noticed me singing along with him, but I think he did since there were a few times throughout the night when he'd be looking in my direction and we'd sing a few words and smile together. Talk about fucking spazziness and thoughts of "Holy FUCK, IS THIS MY LIFE RIGHT NOW?!!" when those moments did happen! *fans self* LAWD have mercy!
Anyway, on with it! After they played a few songs, there was a talk session. Even though it was probably scripted, which I wasn't thinking about at the time, I greatly appreciated the fact that they spoke to us in quite fluent (though accented) English! Yonghwa and Jungshin did most of the audience communication, but the other two chimed in as well with their cute accents! They all were understandable and I for one really appreciated the effort because a lot of other Korean acts without English speakers do not do that. Yonghwa spoke slowly and enunciated his words. He also motioned with his hands a lot after everything he said, lol, it was beyond cute to watch! Jungshin constantly asked us if we were having fun to which we screamed and responded with some form of an affirmative to then he'd say, "Thank you very much!" reminding me of Elvis xD
I gained a new love for the songs Have a Good Night and Wake Up. The former was just really fun to sing along to live and watching Yonghwa do his unique signature dances in front of me made it much more enjoyable than just playing the song in iTunes. Wake Up was fun because there was a moment in the middle of the song where they stopped playing their guitars and Minhyuk just kept tapping out the beat on the bass drum. Jungshin started with a call-response from the audience. He said "Wake up, wake up!" and we followed back a few times and he was like "So awesome!" Then, it was my bias troll's turn. Yonghwa does the same thing of "Wake up, wake up!" but progressively gets higher in pitch then has the nerve to jokingly grab his throat looking like, "Oh, that one hurt." I love him!
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Then Yong, having the wonderful sense he does, began to introduce the next song, but he started strumming on his acoustic guitar singing the chorus of a song we've all heard before... "In New York~ Concrete jungle where dreams are made of~ There's nothing you can't do~" Yeah, not even being from New York, I still got very excited and sang along and swayed with the rest of them. After playing around with that for a little more, he chuckled and introduced the real next song...
Love Light was the first down-tempo song they played and one of their most known songs. I will admit, the NYC fanchants weren't nearly as loud as I would like (learn more of the lyrics, guys!), but I sang the Korean as loud as I could. I hope Yonghwa took notice of that because I wanted to impress him for some reason. And he once again trolled us by staving off the end of the song... "Geudaen naeui sarang~..." and we sang the last word of "... bit~" but after a pause and another dose of his brilliant smile, he sang through the last verse again. I love his trolling and how much amusement he gets from us falling for it!
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Another song I was dying to hear live was Feeling! Ever since I saw the performance of it from their concert in Saitama, Japan, I wanted to see it for myself. Yonghwa abandons his beloved guitar and gets on the keyboard to play a beautiful song. It starts off slow with him playing the notes on the piano alone, but eventually he starts the first verse. Now, for our concert, we were quite loud while he was playing. A lot of fans wanted to shout their love for certain members as we are overpowered by each other and the music throughout the rest of the set. So a lot of people shouted things like, "I love you!" "You're so sexy!" or shouting the other members names so they would be recognized outside of just Yonghwa. I didn't say anything, but I did laugh at some of the things I'd heard. Looking back on it, I wish we'd been more respectful and quiet during the intro, but thankfully none of the members seemed offended by our shouts. Actually, Yonghwa even smiled at a few things he heard :)
Then when the band joined in and played the instrumental for the rest of the song, I felt so happy. I was very focused on Jonghyun strumming out his guitar solo looking gorgeous all the while. That is a song with broken English lyrics that is just so pretty to me that I don't even mind the errors. Sometimes, I honestly just think of it as art rather than just being insulting that their English isn't perfect. I wouldn't change any of the words to the song because I like it through and through. "It’s just a feeling~ It’s just a feeling~ That is just a faint feeling~ It’s just a feeling~ It’s just a feeling~ Just a feeling, change of mind~"
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LOL and after a few more songs, Yonghwa announced that it was time for some "DSM." DSM is an acronym he created that stands for Dark Sexy Metal. He's too cute sometimes! But that meant they were getting ready to play songs with a stronger rock feel. The songs for that section were Y, Why... Tattoo (which is my go-to sexy song), and In My Head. All were fantastic and had me dancing and singing right along with them!
After that, they had another talk bit, which was quite funny. Yonghwa starts singing "I'm in a New York~ state of mind~" and in a very cute way starts playing around with his voice while singing it. Goddamn, even when Yonghwa is fuckin' around or playing when singing, he seriously still sounds good! His voice is golden to me. So versatile and can fit a lot of genres, but I prefer him in rock. Anyway, he eventually tells us there's only a few songs left, but this is not the end... which leads him to play once again. "This is not the end~~" then asked us if we knew the song. He starts off, "In the end~..." "It doesn't even matter!" we completed the rest of the lyrics. Then he cleverly switches to Jay-Z's Encore. "Can I get a encore~ Do ya want more?... So for one last time I need ya'll to ROAR!... IT'S YA BOY! YEAH!" Yeeeeah, he was feelin' it, lmao! But he promised they will come back and I will try my best to be there when it happens.
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They got into a few of my other favorites, Intuition was first then I'm a Loner. By this time, Yonghwa was really hyped up from performing and seeing us responding well to them. He became a lot more playful by this point of the concert. Even more dancing, more pointing to people in the crowd, and more kisses sent out to us. I was on cloud 9!
The "last song" was I'm Sorry, one of their biggest hits in 2013 completely written by Yonghwa. He even shouted "Sorijilleo~!" to us which means "Scream!" They were all hyped and I got to see Yong's infamous arm dance during the verses. I would laugh at it before like, "WTF is he doing?" But as time went on and seeing it right in front of me, I just got very excited and almost did it with him. In the middle of the song, because Yong tends to jump around a lot and covers the whole stage, his guitar strap broke. He handled that shit LIKE A BOSS and caught the guitar before it could fall and just held it steady. The sound guy acted quickly and ran out to collect it. Instead of standing there trying to fix it, he just took it away and Yong was left with no instrument. This is testament to CNBlue performing completely live too, something they were accused of not doing when they first debuted. I noticed that after the guitar was gone, while you can still hear Jonghyun's guitar blazing his parts, Yong's rhythm guitar was gone and I could hear the difference. But he didn't freak out or let that stop him at all. He grabbed the mic from its stand and continued bouncing around and singing the words like nothing happened. OMG, I. LOST. MY. MIND! The professionalism these guys maintain no matter what happens is phenomenal! I could name a few people who need to learn from them.
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They finished the song and thick white streamers exploded out from the stage. They thanked us and went backstage, but I knew it wasn't the end. Some key songs were not played yet, so I knew they weren't done. Plus, they always have an encore. But we still shouted for them to return, shouting their name several times. There was even a moment where the right side of the audience chanted "Ka-ji-ma, ka-ji-ma!" which means "Don't go" in Korean. We didn't wait too long though. The screen came back on and a short slip with a rock instrumental played again and eventually the letters on the screen came together to say "CNBlue is Back!" We screamed our heads off!
They came back out and immediately started performing Hey You. They'd all changed shirts into their official Blue Moon tour shirts. They were all smiles and happy faces over our enjoyment. You can just tell when an artist loves to perform and basks in the audience's screams and hollers of approval. That was them all night and they were really happy looking throughout the encore song list.
Another song I was very happy to hear live was "Neon Naege Banhaesseo (You've Fallen For Me)" I was a little surprised it was in the setlist because it's not an official CNBlue song, but a song that was made for the drama
HEARTSTRINGS, which Yonghwa starred in. However, they have performed it at many concerts since the drama aired in 2011 and it was included in the world tour setlist. Yonghwa asked us, "Sing a song with Jungshin?" and we all happily agreed. I love-love-love when he has Jungshin do the first verse of the song! And then he started... "Uyeonhido~ Geureokke uri shijakdwennabwa~" and I sang the rest along with him! Then when it came time for the chorus, Yonghwa and the guitars joined in, "One, two, three~ Neon naege banhaesseo~ Banhaesseo~" Ooooh, I was so high off the energy at that point and wanted to hop on stage with them, ommfg! I love that song!
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Before the opening of another favorite song of mine, Love, there was a mini talk in which Yonghwa spoke Korean to us. Nothing too complicated and most of the crowd seemed to understand. He said, "Jaemisseo?" which means "Is it fun?" and we replied, "Yes!" he then said, "Jinjja?" for "Really?" and we again agreed to which he said, "Daebak!" which is like Korean slang for "Big hit!" or in more American terms it's like "Awesome!" I dunno, that little bit made me super happy because I wasn't expecting him to switch languages to even say something simple like that...
Sooo, onto the Love performance! Before it really began, Yong had us do some more call-response by having us repeat "Love, love, love!" and "Clap, clap, clap!" like in the song. Then there is a small beatboxing bit in the middle of the song that he once again trolled us to imitate! But then he coolly switched from the beatboxing in Love to Snoop's Drop It Like It's Hot! He sounded SO good! I swear, I can't take this man and his many talents sometimes! When the song did start, I did as many of the little hand motions Yong would do during their promotions of the song on Korean music shows. I think he noticed me at the end during one of the last lines of his rap, "Sesaengeul da gajin geot gateultende!" He does this thing where he brings his hands together and forms a triangle with his fingers. We both did it at the same time and he was looking dead at me. I even found a fancam that shows it (him doing it, not me, lol), but since I was right in front of him doing the same thing... yeah. I'm keeping it forever~~! Such a small thing like that is so important and memorable for me! xDDD I CAN'T EVEN!
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Not too long afterward, it really was time to say goodbye with the last song, Try Again Smile Again. They did the English version of it and despite it being the last song, I still did not cry. I swayed with them. I watched as fans threw their gifts on the stage. The first thing to hit the stage was a snapback hat which Yonghwa picked up and swiftly put it on his head. Stuffed animals and Simpson's characters soon followed. Some individual roses were also given and Yonghwa collected them and handed one to each member. Nearing the end, confetti exploded out and fluttered so prettily down on us. There was so much of it and seemed like it wouldn't end. I was like a kid looking up at the sky when snow first starts to fall. I had my hands out and wanted to collect as many pieces as I could because it would remind me of that special night. They thanked us and bowed at different parts of the stage... It was so wonderful and I'm glad so much of it is still fresh in my mind...
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And that was the end of it. Cynthia and I reminisced on it a little also asking each other like, "Was it just me or did you think Yonghwa gave us a lot of contact?" That confirmed that I wasn't crazy and she saw the same things. Annie said that she'd been to many, many K-pop concerts and CNBlue's concert easily sits in her top 5 now. This was her first time seeing them live as well and I'm sure many people who only casually liked them became bigger fans that night.
Annie also did e-mail the questions the next day and she featured a few of my responses in the article she wrote!
The article is here if you wanna read it (please do)!
I do have more to write about my trip home, but I'll end it here for now so I can share my account. Sorry this was SOOO long, I just wanted as many details here for when I don't remember it so well in the future! It's nice to write about something happy here for a change :)
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