[fanaccount] naega michyeo gayo, ijen jichyeo gayo
hi everyone!!!! i went to the big bang alive tour concert in newark on november 8th, so i'm just going to jump right in and talk about everything i can recall??? ok, cool.
i made fansigns! well, one fansign with a slogan on the front and a different slogan on the back. this was like three days before the concert so it was kind of last minute and i am the opposite of arts-and-craftsy so i was pretty pleased with how they turned out.
anyway, on the day of the concert my bus from baltimore penn station was supposed to leave at 12:45PM but ended up leaving more around 1:20PM-ish, so i already knew i was going to be late. the bus was supposed to arrive at newark penn station around 4:00PM and the sound check party was scheduled to start at 4:30PM, but i was alright with being late if it meant i could still get in and have a good time and i wouldn't be missing the actual concert anyway so i was cool with it. newark penn station is like an 8 minute walk from prudential and new jersey was fucking freezing but you know, i was seeing ~big bang~ so everything was cool beans.
except: i got my VIP tickets from will call and went to the front of the general admissions/standing area line (at this point it was about 5PM) and the venue people weren't letting people in anymore. okay, so when i first got to the line there were like four VIP ticket people waiting in front of me who actually were there at the gate at 4:30PM so they were on time! but the venue people literally would not let us in even though we paid 300 dollars to be able to access the sound check party and the VIP lounge area? and by the time they finally let us into GA for the actual concert there were about fifty other people who'd gotten VIP tickets but were late and so were summarily shafted by the fact that the communication between actual bb/live nation staff and the prudential center staff was so abysmal.
essentially what happened was that since some of us were late (these two other girls were actually KICKED OUT OF SOUND CHECK because they were sitting in the stands instead of in the standing area, even though they paid for VIP tickets???) the venue staff refused to let us into sound check but made us wait outside in the cold for another hour, then when they finally let us into the building they promised that we would be the first people into the pit so that we could be up by the barricade. that didn't happen; we were actually the last group of VIP ticket holders to be let into the standing area. we also never got to go up to the VIP lounge area to get food/take advantage of all that stuff, and we were waiting outside the building/in the ground floor area until about 7:10PM when they finally let us into GA, so we never got to visit any of the merchandise stands inside the center at all either. they just herded us straight toward GA and deposited us there at the back of the crowd, behind all the other VIP ticket holders who'd actually gotten their money's worth. at this point i was really pissed because it's not like we were people with seated tickets trying to sneak our way into VIP status? we paid at least 300 bucks for the VIP package and the only thing we got were the goodie bags (thank god we at least got that, though).
the venue staff were really brusque and obviously hadn't communicated well with the concert staff, they kept telling us that if we were unhappy we should just go to the will call box office again and get a partial refund or something. which, like, really? it wasn't until we'd been waiting there for like an hour and a half until people who were actual concert staff and not venue staff came out to give us our VIP goodie bags. HOT MESS.
SORRY FOR THOSE LONG RANTY PARAGRAPHS, LMAO, i just had to get that out. after that awful beginning though, the only way to go was obviously up!!! the actual venue/stage stuff was for some reason way smaller than i'd imagined they would be? maybe honda center/the other venues were just bigger or i magnified it all in my head because even with all the people in front of us we were really close to the stage.
there was so much room to run around! it was probably because a lot of people couldn't make it because of transportation issues (i'm so sorry for everyone who couldn't get there in time ;__; such a bummer, seriously), but GA was barely filled. a few of the other VIPs i met while waiting outside in the cold and i squeezed into stage left and basically stayed there during the duration of the concert. it was so so nice to meet big bang fans in person! i met marked_for_life which was super awesome and she was so lovely ♥ and obviously i totally bonded with the people trapped outside in the cold with me who also got shafted by the venue staff. ~misery loves company~
maybe it was because that was where we were the whole time but i feel like almost all of the guys really loved stage left?! we got a ton of gd, yb first came down into the gap between the stage and the barricade there so people could touch him, and we also got a lot of top and some daesung, and seungri pretty much flew around everywhere so he was around a lot too. at a lot of points i was like maybe in the third row of people squeezed up at the stage (sincerest apologies to everyone who was ever trapped behind my fansign, augh). i'm fairly certain everyone but gd saw my sign for him (and i think they all saw the general bb one because i was seriously right there), but then he's just the type of contrary asshole to see it and not acknowledge shit so that might just be him lmao.
i'd go in chronological order but i can barely remember the set list anymore let alone how exactly it went, so what follows is just a bunch of random observations that i made in what is hopefully a semi-coherent manner (◕‿◕✿) i'll probably be remembering things as i see photos and/or videos and fancams of the concert so i might add shit to this post later.
sorry this post is such a mess OMG
i made fansigns! well, one fansign with a slogan on the front and a different slogan on the back. this was like three days before the concert so it was kind of last minute and i am the opposite of arts-and-craftsy so i was pretty pleased with how they turned out.
anyway, on the day of the concert my bus from baltimore penn station was supposed to leave at 12:45PM but ended up leaving more around 1:20PM-ish, so i already knew i was going to be late. the bus was supposed to arrive at newark penn station around 4:00PM and the sound check party was scheduled to start at 4:30PM, but i was alright with being late if it meant i could still get in and have a good time and i wouldn't be missing the actual concert anyway so i was cool with it. newark penn station is like an 8 minute walk from prudential and new jersey was fucking freezing but you know, i was seeing ~big bang~ so everything was cool beans.
except: i got my VIP tickets from will call and went to the front of the general admissions/standing area line (at this point it was about 5PM) and the venue people weren't letting people in anymore. okay, so when i first got to the line there were like four VIP ticket people waiting in front of me who actually were there at the gate at 4:30PM so they were on time! but the venue people literally would not let us in even though we paid 300 dollars to be able to access the sound check party and the VIP lounge area? and by the time they finally let us into GA for the actual concert there were about fifty other people who'd gotten VIP tickets but were late and so were summarily shafted by the fact that the communication between actual bb/live nation staff and the prudential center staff was so abysmal.
essentially what happened was that since some of us were late (these two other girls were actually KICKED OUT OF SOUND CHECK because they were sitting in the stands instead of in the standing area, even though they paid for VIP tickets???) the venue staff refused to let us into sound check but made us wait outside in the cold for another hour, then when they finally let us into the building they promised that we would be the first people into the pit so that we could be up by the barricade. that didn't happen; we were actually the last group of VIP ticket holders to be let into the standing area. we also never got to go up to the VIP lounge area to get food/take advantage of all that stuff, and we were waiting outside the building/in the ground floor area until about 7:10PM when they finally let us into GA, so we never got to visit any of the merchandise stands inside the center at all either. they just herded us straight toward GA and deposited us there at the back of the crowd, behind all the other VIP ticket holders who'd actually gotten their money's worth. at this point i was really pissed because it's not like we were people with seated tickets trying to sneak our way into VIP status? we paid at least 300 bucks for the VIP package and the only thing we got were the goodie bags (thank god we at least got that, though).
the venue staff were really brusque and obviously hadn't communicated well with the concert staff, they kept telling us that if we were unhappy we should just go to the will call box office again and get a partial refund or something. which, like, really? it wasn't until we'd been waiting there for like an hour and a half until people who were actual concert staff and not venue staff came out to give us our VIP goodie bags. HOT MESS.
SORRY FOR THOSE LONG RANTY PARAGRAPHS, LMAO, i just had to get that out. after that awful beginning though, the only way to go was obviously up!!! the actual venue/stage stuff was for some reason way smaller than i'd imagined they would be? maybe honda center/the other venues were just bigger or i magnified it all in my head because even with all the people in front of us we were really close to the stage.
there was so much room to run around! it was probably because a lot of people couldn't make it because of transportation issues (i'm so sorry for everyone who couldn't get there in time ;__; such a bummer, seriously), but GA was barely filled. a few of the other VIPs i met while waiting outside in the cold and i squeezed into stage left and basically stayed there during the duration of the concert. it was so so nice to meet big bang fans in person! i met marked_for_life which was super awesome and she was so lovely ♥ and obviously i totally bonded with the people trapped outside in the cold with me who also got shafted by the venue staff. ~misery loves company~
maybe it was because that was where we were the whole time but i feel like almost all of the guys really loved stage left?! we got a ton of gd, yb first came down into the gap between the stage and the barricade there so people could touch him, and we also got a lot of top and some daesung, and seungri pretty much flew around everywhere so he was around a lot too. at a lot of points i was like maybe in the third row of people squeezed up at the stage (sincerest apologies to everyone who was ever trapped behind my fansign, augh). i'm fairly certain everyone but gd saw my sign for him (and i think they all saw the general bb one because i was seriously right there), but then he's just the type of contrary asshole to see it and not acknowledge shit so that might just be him lmao.
i'd go in chronological order but i can barely remember the set list anymore let alone how exactly it went, so what follows is just a bunch of random observations that i made in what is hopefully a semi-coherent manner (◕‿◕✿) i'll probably be remembering things as i see photos and/or videos and fancams of the concert so i might add shit to this post later.
- people keep saying stuff like "they're so much more handsome irl!" which is totally true, and it is of course much better seeing them in the flesh than on the computer screen, but for me personally it also humanized them in a very real way that i wasn't entirely expecting? maybe it's just because they've been almost larger-than-life for me for such a long time, and seeing them in person really does make you realize like, these are regular dudes running around on a stage having the time of their lives and being dumb with each other, which for any number of reasons is hard to imagine when all we get as online fans is their image from interviews and perfs and HQ photos and the like. i'm not saying the concert wasn't mindblowing because it was!!! and it got overwhelming at times just remembering the immediacy of the fact that i was breathing the same air as them and sometimes scant feet away from where they were standing. but the entire thing also definitely grounded the boys in reality for me. they aren't just an idea of a person, you know? they're actually real! which we all knew on an intellectual level, but you know. it's just different experiencing it for yourself.
- i had my eyes glued on gd almost the entire time because who am i, really. but yeah like a lot of people have said before me, he really is so invested in every single move he makes on stage. even when he isn't facing the audience or when he's in the back when someone else is singing, he moves with total purpose and is usually still dancing/swaying/doing something to the beat of the song. (whereas top just stands and smolders most of the time even when he's at front and center rapping, haha, bless his soul)
- during the longass encore stuff gd was the hugest tease ahaha. he kept making like he was about to throw shit into the crowd and then totally faking us out, like fingering the thin diamond light sticks in his pockets, or taking his hat off multiple times and then putting it back on, and thumbing the towel around his neck and then wrapping it around even tighter like a goddamn scarf? it was completely predictable, every time he pulled that shit i just grinned like an idiot and went YOU FUCKER in my head
- i totally lost my shit during crayon which bled into knock out and high high! at one point during high high, i think when gd was rapping his second verse up at the extended stage, top was totally imitating the female dancers and following behind one of them on the extension, putting his arm out and walking behind her all ladylike, i fucking died
- on the whole there really weren't much big duo interactions worth noting aside from a ton of gri and some minor instances of tobae? barely a wink of anything else, at least not from what i could tell from where i was standing. i'll have to watch fancams and stuff to see things from other angles.
- during one of the speaking portions in between songs (oh this was when a ton of gri happened lmao) gd was wiping his sweat away on a towel and threw it into the crowd and the girl who caught it looked so happy :')
- also gd threw one of his alive tour light sticks into the crowd during the first encore and this girl right in front of me (who was the friend of the girl who caught the towel i think) caught it!!
- oh god when yb came down into the crowd during encore at stage left i was literally like a foot away from him, and the crowd totally surged forward. but i couldn't see him at all bc he's so short/there were a couple of people in front of me?? so i just held up my sign and was like welp i hope you can see this, lmao
- also during encore, gd took a stuffed animal that was thrown on stage (i think?) and carried it around on his shoulder a bit! i couldn't see what it was because it happened on stage right but it was really cute 8)
- during one of the group songs in the encore (i'm terrible i can't remember which it was anymore) top was chooming on the long stage extension and striking dumbass poses to the beat and yb was hella laughing at him
- the gri stuff that happened! basically all five of them were at the extended stage and talking after one of their longer sets and seungri kept going I LOVE YOU GD, he's my hero, have you bought his solo album??? HE'S A GENIUS, and gd kept hanging his head in amused embarrassment and laughing. (they eventually got him to rap a bit of 1oak while some of the others beatboxed, which was really sweet!) also during one of the encores (i wasn't paying attention bc i was looking at like top and yb in front of us @ stage left) seungri was dancing around at the extended stage again and gd was egging him on as per
- during the same speaking section that i just talked about gd went like TOP HYUNG~ HOW YOU FEELIN' TONIGHT~ and top was like ~~fantastic~~ which was like my one moment of gd/top the entire night, though there was one bit from like stupid liar or one of the other group songs where top was rapping in the middle on the main stage and gd was behind him/closer to us on stage left and kept pointing at top's backside as he did his verse ʘ‿ʘ thx gd. they really don't interact that much on stage aside from their gd/top performances which i kind of expected, but me being me i was like (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) whenever they were even near each other so. yes.
- yb kept singing random bits of empire state of mind, ofc. at one point doing the encore he just let loose and did this running 360 flip from the main stage to the extended stage. also you know i was definitely like I WON'T CARE IF YB TEARS HIS SHIRT OFF, HE DOES IT EVERY SINGLE TIME, but. i cared. I TOTALLY CARED LMAO
- HOW GEE WAS SO GREAT? I WAS SINGING AND RAPPING ALONG TO EVERYTHING, RIDICULOUS LYRICS AND ALL. gd/top came out on their MCM segways and yb was RIDING A FUCKING BIKE ON STAGE
- after the first set (like three or four songs iirc) gd and top disappeared to get ready for crayon-knock out-high high so daesung yb and seungri hung out at the extended stage talking to everyone and for some reason that escapes me now seungri started shouting, I'M THE FUNNY GUY! and yb was dying
- at one point seungri started chanting THE ROOF IS ON FIRE except it totally sounded like he was saying THE LOOP IS ON FIRE ten times in a row so i was just like ???_??? oh child. he also definitely said something to the effect of "it's so cold here right now... SO WE'RE GONNA MAKE YOU HOT"
- they were all really sweet about the weather woes the east coast has been having. yb was like ~we wanted to keep our promise, even though we changed flights three times just to get here, we didn't want to disappoint you~ and seungri was agreeing vehemently with him, lmao. they seemed really happy about those of us who could make it anyway
- their english was pretty good! yb's sounded the most natural and seungri just never stops talking, bless. daesung and top didn't speak as much comparatively. during the first round of fake-out goodbyes gd and top both lapsed into korean, hopefully someone has audible fancams so ppl will figure out what they said lmao
- also during the first round of goodbye speeches, they went in order (gd, yb, seungri, daesung, then top) and seungri kept talking for forever (like he does). top was hanging out around stage left where we were and i was holding up my sign and we made eye contact multiple times because i kept silently laughing at seungri's life and then top fucking ROLLED HIS EYES AS SEUNGRI KEPT TALKING, I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT? i totally felt a soul connection w/ him in that moment because yeah dude yeah I KNOW THAT FEEL. basically the takeaway from all this is that seungri never shuts up. he's a total moodmaker tho so bless his heart. and haha there was this one fan jumping up and down in the stands on stage right and seungri was like "WAIT NO STOP, DON'T DO THAT... i love you but don't do that"
- i think the only two times i legitimately teared up was during daesung's solo stage and then during haru haru when we were all singing along. idk like i said before i obviously freaked the fuck out during the gd and gd/top stages but their music is not... lmao, it's go wild and dance your ass off music, not omg :'( emotional :'( music like wings and the acoustic version of haru haru are, ykwim
- daesung and yb's voices were SO GOOD LIVE. i loved yb's wedding dress stage, it was funny to me because he's all decked out in baggy jeans and loose shirt and the cornrows and bandanas and he's singing/doing wedding dress? but his voice, goddamn. *__*
- oh god the weird cgi stuff that kept happening in between sets was so cheesy, but then big bang can be incredibly cheesy so it kind of fits i guess
- the band was so great! as were hi-tech and crazy 8) recognized quite a few of them which was really nice!!! (they're real people!!!)
- they keep promising to come back! which realistically speaking is probably what they have to say to everyone but wow i am totally holding you to that because COME BAAACK. i really hope this entire tour was as amazing for them as it was for us because i want them to tour more! don't work yourself to death but ;_; come back ;_;
- one of them started singing the iconic chorus from "na na hey hey kiss him goodbye" when they were finally leaving for the last time and we started singing it along with them ofc. yb lingered on and danced around for the longest at the end.
sorry this post is such a mess OMG