My First Concert Ever: 友＆仁 YOU&JIN -- 2010年6月19日 -- First Showing
So I have to admit…I was not completely excited about going to the concert, but it made me more excited to know that it was Jin. It was Johnny’s. It was like being a degree away from Arashi, because Arashi is my true ichiban. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I really love KAT-TUN as a group and still do, but Jin is not one of my favorite members. I guess it has to do with the fact that lately he seems to be more stuck up than usual. I miss the old Jin, back in 2006 and 2007 when he was silly and all. Knowing how he had been recently made me be less excited about going to it, but in the end I have to admit I was surprised and happy I had the opportunity to go, because I know there are many, many fans out there that would’ve loved to have gone, but didn’t have the chance to.
So the day of, it felt like any other Saturday, (since I did go to the first show he had), but it was not till later that I started to feel more excited and more high tensioned. I live in North Hollywood and since my friend Tracy had agreed to accompany me, I went to her house in Hollywood and drove from there. Luckily, we had seen beforehand that the freeway had traffic so we just took the street to get there faster and it only took us like 20 minutes to get there. I was a little worried because on the ticket it said that the event was at 5 and it was already a bit past 5.
As my friend Tracy and I arrived around the Staples Center/Club Nokia, we saw there was a huge ass line that twisted around the building. It worried me a bit because I wondered how long it was going to take us to get in. It sucked too because we spent about 10 minutes just looking for parking, since we didn’t know where to park. At last we found the garage that was directly under where the line was at. As we proceeded to the end of the line it started moving, so it made me happy. I felt a little out of place because everyone there looked/was Asian! And it was only my friend and I that were Hispanic. I ended up seeing some few people there that weren’t Asian though, so that made me feel less out of place.
As we got closer and closer to go in, we saw various signs that said in Japanese and in English that they didn’t allow cameras inside. I started to get worried because as we reached the upper lever to the actual entrance, there was a bunch of security guards checking people’s purses and having them walk through those devices that beep when you have metal or something on you. I was worried that they were going to find the camera and take it away for good, or worst, throw it away right in front of me! They were being so strict, they didn’t even allow people to bring in any bottled water either. Luckily, the guy who searched my bag just sorta put his hand in the bag and felt around. Since I had various things in there, I guess he didn’t realize that there was a camera in there as well. I had gotten really worried because technically I had like 3 different ways to shoot video if I would have wanted too, since I had my camera, iPod and cell phone, lol! But I had no intentions to record anything anyways; I just wanted to take a picture of the stage for memories.
So after going through the security check-up, we headed through the entrance and the people there told us where to go. Since we had the cheaper seats at the balcony, we ended up having to climb up a bunch of stairs. When we finally reached the top we went in and some usher girls told us where our seats were. I was a bit surprised at how it looked. I was not really expecting what I saw. It looked pretty big and the stage was pretty visible from where we were at. It was not till later that I realized that the whole big area we were at was the whole balcony; what I mean by that is that I had pictured the balcony area to be just where I was seated and above, like maybe like 10 rows or something. Instead it was a really huge area. The bottom, front row looked…how should I say, less appealing maybe. Where we were at, the chairs were pretty comfy and almost looked like theater chairs, but the bottom ones where just regular folding chairs, although the view from there made up for the crappier chairs.
After maybe 20 or 30 minutes after we had arrived there, the show started. First these two guys came out, Juice and Boobie, the MCs. They started talking and started getting the crowd pumped up. Shortly after they introduced a video of Jin where it shows him just kinda walking around L.A. and what not. After the short clip, the two MCs came out and introduced this guy named Joey Tee, I think, who was, I believe 16. He was the first opening act and basically he just danced, but really good! I fairly enjoyed it. I think they said that he was born in Japan but raised here. He was a good pop and locker! After Joey they introduced this guy group, the Striker All-Stars, who were on I think America’s Got Talent or something like that. They were from Florida and they were pretty good too. I think Tracy enjoyed that the most since I had just made her go with me, not knowing what to expect, since she has no idea who Jin was, lol. After the guy group they introduced this guy named Dominic, who supposedly helped Jin write some songs. He sang two of his single songs or something like that. Honestly I wasn’t really paying much attention to him because I just wanted to show to start. The songs were like “ehh”, reminded me of typical “hip-hoppy/r&b” type songs. After he performed, they showed one last clip of Jin, while the people set up the stage. This time the clip was longer and it basically showed Jin doing all the preparations for the concert and picking out his dancers and learning the dance moves himself.
After the clip was over, on the stage appeared all the dancers dressed in these weird gold, circus like outfits. A little bit after they appeared and settled into their spots, Jin appears wearing a white hoodie with sunglasses and his hair tied back in a ponytail. At that point, everyone started going crazy, screaming and all, being fangirls!! Lol! I didn’t scream but it was a little surreal to be actually seeing him in person. They had set up a drum/keyboard/guitar set in the middle of the stage. He then starts off by moving in a robotic way and makes his way to the instrument set. In a robotic voice he then speaks and says something like “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the You&Jin concert…” something like that, and all the girls go crazy. He plays a few beats on the drums and then the music starts for the first song. I don’t really remember all the songs or how they went so I’ll just write briefly about the ones I remember, but here is the list of songs in order:
♪ Christmas Morning♪
♪ Bass Go Boom♪
♪ WONDER (featuring Crystal Kay) ♪
♪ I.N.P. ♪
♪ Adjust the love♪
♪ A Page♪
♪ LOVEJUICE♪
♪ Paparats♪
♪ Hey Girl♪
♪ World Dance (performance) ♪
♪ Yellow Gold♪
♪ my mp3♪
♪ Tipsy Love♪
I don’t remember much about ♪Christmas Morning♪, but I thought it was a bit of a cool opening, but was not a fan of the auto-tune and for the first few songs he did use a lot of it. It was pretty cool how he used all three instruments though for the song.
I have become a fan of ♪WONDER♪ ever since the Break the Records concert. I really enjoy the beat to it and I really enjoy the Jin/Crystal duo. The song was pretty much performed like the Break the Records concert performance, but this time it was live, so it was much better of course!
After ♪Adjust the love♪ these 4 panels came across the stage, which were basically there to hide Jin while he changed to his next outfit. He basically did as I like to call it “A fake-out-make-out” where there was someone else dressed the same as him, randomly appearing places, giving him time to get dressed. At the end of the whole “fake-out-make-out” he came out wearing a black hoodie with some cargo shorts and his well known hat that he always seems to wear; then, the next song came…
♪A Page♪. This song has become one of my favorite songs from the Love Yourself single and just watching it live was pretty incredible. I think for the most part Jin might have sang live…I’m not completely familiar with how his live voice really sounds like, but it sounded pretty good. I think the fans fairly enjoyed this one a lot too because it was something they were really familiar with.
Then ♪LOVEJUICE♪ came one, and this one I was REALLY not expecting at all. Seriously I was almost like Tracy, and had no idea what was going on, or why I was even there. I was really surprised and even screamed a bit and let out an “OMG” because it was freaken LOVEJUICE!!!!! I was totally into this song and was even singing along. I’m no Jin expert but the moves looked pretty much the same as the ones in the Queen of Pirates performance. It was pretty awesome!
At the end of LOVEJUICE, the dancers had a sorta dance-off while Jin sat with these two girls having a drink when these other girls dressed in trench coats with cameras approach them and take a picture of them. It then quickly goes into the next song: ♪ Paparats♪. To me, it sounded a bit on the rockier side compared to the other ones, so it was different.
Towards the end of ♪Hey Girl♪, which according to some other fan reports that I have read, Ryo and Jin wrote the song together (I thought it was pretty interesting), Jin goes off the stage and appears on the screen and appears to be at a virtual bar. One by one the dancers leave too and join him. The screen goes black and then it shows a live feed of Jin at the actual bar in the floor level having some drinks with the dancers. There are a bunch of fangirls there screaming and he says a few words, sorta like an MC, and then the shows goes to a 15 minute intermission. (The intermission was basically the DJ from the beginning playing music again.)
After the intermission was ♪World Dance♪ where they introduced the dancers and then Jin appeared in this white jumpsuit where he did a show of light kinda, where a bunch of lights were displayed on his suit, along with two others, and different things appeared, like at one instance he was on fire, then he had a heart beating, and so on. He also has buckets near and when they wore them, their faces appeared on them and rotated. I have to admit it was a pretty interesting thing to watch but it looked better on the screen than watching it live, if that makes any sense. After a few more dancing happens, some people appear wearing kimonos and very japanesy-like masks, looking very kabuki like to me, and Jin appears wearing one too. They do a kinda cool show with the masks where he takes off one at a time, because apparently it had many layers. They then pull yet another “fake-out-make-out” where they try and make it seem like Jin’s there but he really is changing yet again for the next song. The whole performance was pretty interesting and new because it showed I suppose, his Japanese side?
The song after the performance was ♪Yellow Gold♪ and I don’t know why, but I really enjoyed this song at the time. I think it was because of the “oooo~” part and the chorus because they were really catchy. Also because it mentions “Tokyo” lol. Idk, but I think it was a good song.
Then came ♪My MP3♪ which I had had a listen to at the site and from what I had heard it was pretty good. I was excited to finally hear it live and it was not disappointing. It was good.
Last song performed was ♪Tipsy Love♪ and from what I’ve read, people REALLY LOVE THIS SONG. I find it good, but I wouldn’t say I LOVE IT, although it was really cute how Jin had the audience join in with singing and waving their hands. He knows the audience goes crazy over things like this! Lol! It was nonetheless pretty catchy as most of his songs were. Towards the end, even I joined in with singing and waving my hands and clapping along!
Overall, I must say I was not really disappointed because I went to the concert not really expecting a whole lot because I really had NO IDEA what I was in for. It was really enjoyable and it was REALLY nice to see Jin being almost like the old Jin. I was impressed because he did not seemed as “stuck-up” as he had been looking like recently with all the recent KAT-TUN activities. I think he really enjoyed doing his own thing and it really showed because the whole show was enjoyable and I’m sure a lot of his “truer” fans felt that way as well.
[at the end of the show as ppl were leaving]
またね～
＾-＾
～ ジャニ ～
