SMTown Singapore 2012
SM Town Singapore Thoughts…
So… I was very excited about SM Town Singapore… and the end results were, I was both amazed and disappointed (by my seat by my seat, not by the performance). Longass entry warning approx 3000 words but 15 pages on words with photos. All photos taken from other people’s entries, all credited. sorry the fonts are all different sizes (and type?) i sorta gave up.. at least i got the photos up!
Ticket booking, getting there and the SEATS
When I went for Big Bang’s concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, I saw a big sign - SM Town Singapore - Mosh Pit tickets sold out.. and I didn’t even think of attending the concert then, if not I would have bought the (best) tix available as they were still having presales for Samsung device owners. One day after I came back to Malaysia, I started panicking and thinking to myself, I must go for this concert! TVXQ! TVXQ! TVXQ! TVXQ! TVXQ! TVXQ! TVXQ! TVXQ! Who knows when I’ll get to see TVXQ! LIVE???
Alas, my twin who is usually my partner in crime was going to be traveling during the concert date, and I realized that I don’t have many kpop fans friends in real life! I then badgered and cajoled my friend in Singapore to go with me, and him being a good sport (and also in fear of me squashing him to death) at last relented and agreed :D but the lazy bum couldn’t be arsed to get the tix for us even though he lives in Singapore, so I waited (im)patiently for the public sales to open a week later..
On that night, I camped out at my laptop (sneaking out of the bedroom so that hubby wouldn’t know what I was up to) and hit the refresh button so many times that I lost count. The Malaysian site TicketCharge crashed, so I went to the Singapore site Sistic instead and got Row 64, seats 52&53 in the Light Blue zone, this was the 4th row from the back! Ah well, I consoled myself that at least I got tickets. The next morning, I just browsed the Malaysian site for fun, and lo and behold, Seats 34&35 on row 16 Light Blue Zone was available! Apa lagi, I whalloped.. and that’s how I ended up with 2 extra tickets @SGD442 that I couldn’t sell off :D (the week of the concert itself my youngest sis finally managed to find buyers who took them for SGD300, yippie!!)
Seating drama not over yet… a few weeks after that Ticketcharge called and told me they double sold my seats… so could they pretty please give me better seats Row15 seats 1&2 yellow zone… heheheh grins like a mad woman…
I got to Singapore on 23 Nov itself, and as everyone knows by now, it poured non stop and when the thunder and lightning started it started getting scary. It’s a rain or shine event, but if the lighting didn’t stop there was a chance of the event getting cancelled. I was seriously contemplating getting a raincoat at the citylink mall, but it was SGD100!! Silly money to pay for something that I would never wear again.. all the convenience shops in marina square ran out of plastic ponchos, and even the big transparent garbage bag, and my friend and I just decided, what the heck let’s just get wet and count it as part of the experience. 30 minutes before the event, the rain suddenly stopped and my friend and I looked at each other and went… Bomoh Hujan (we both used to work at event/pr agencies, and we used to hire bomoh hujan for outdoor events - normally we would hire them to “delay rain” for the set up + event, and normally, it would really pour a day after the event because after all, they’re just delaying the inevitable.. no one can control the weather for a long time [erm yes, I believe they can control the weather for a short time, after all it’s a money back guarantee and they would have been out of business if they didn’t deliver plus it’s a small industry so people talk]).
The queue was massive but my friend and I skipped past all that because we went in without any bags. We left everything in the boot of his car, so we had to hold on to each other in case we got separated (phones were in the bag as well). There was an express lane for people without bags J express was express… we literally RAN in….daebak!
So after all that drama, can you imagine how majorly pissed off I was to see this.. yes my lovelies, a huge metal structure that effectively blocked my view for the entire night…. It is hard to explain how EFFECTIVELY it blocked my view.. first of all, row 15 may be decent for most concerts but for this concert, the distance is like the last row in the Singapore indoor stadiums, you can see nuts. Then, imagine seeing the nuts through this metal grid.. it’s like almonds pixilated into sesame seeds :D
From here on, I’m going to rely heavily on other people’s photos because I didn’t even have a crappy camera phone to shoot anything…
The biggest kpop concert in singapore. The 3 tall structures at the top left is the Marina Bay Sands and at certain times of the night, emitted razer lights that matched very nicely with the concert lights :) to the right of the lotus leaf there was a building that had some kind of light and fire show, and it all fitted right in!
The main stage was far.. so the view was like looking at mites.. when the performers came over to the middle part, they looked like those harmless black ants, when they came over to the extended stage, they looked like fire ants.. I wouldn’t have mind fire ants but alas, they seem contented to mainly be mites :D
the distance from our seats is approximately like this, although we were seated on the right side of the yellow zone and this photo is taken from the left side
The concert started 30-40mins late because of the rain, but I was impressed that they were able to start at all! 4 hour concert, 50 songs
I noticed that the mosh pit were pretty empty compared to the big bang concert but I read that there were already people vomiting and fainting.
Set list
- Hot Summer - f(x)
The crowd went wild when they appeared and also when they introduced themselves, and I commented to my friend that he can see the level of popularity by the volume of cheers, and amber was number 1 hands down
- Pinocchio (Danger) - f(x)
- Pine Tree + Polaris - Kangta
Friend super impressed by Kangta.. I gave him a supershort intro to HOT and the parallel to TVXQ :(. Now I have to find Kangta’s entire discography for my (newly enamored) friend.
- 爱频率 - Kangta
Couldn’t understand his mandarin but he made an effort…
- 今天你要嫁给我 - Zhoumi & Victoria
Friend impressed again… I told him that Zhoumi and Victoria are both Chinese
- California Gurls - Jessica & Krystal
- Just The Way You Are - Changmin & Kyuhyun
I was so excited when they came out, and so proud of changmin because my friend has never even heard of tvxq and was so gobsmacked at changmin’s vocals, that I think we potentially have a new convert . I was half expecting taemin in drag again, but I think getting the fan up there was a nicer touch. I think she preferred kyuhyun though, as she was mainly looking at him during the song. Kyuhyun and changmin getting down on their knees and the somewhat awkward hug at the end of the song got all the fans in a right tizzy :D
8. Oppa Oppa - Eunhyuk & Donghae
Wow, super hyper! I didn’t get what the excitement was all about, but the Live version is really fun!!
9. History - EXO
The boys had a hard time introducing themselves because they were just so many of them… unfortunately, I was not particularly impressed (don’t dislike Exo, just don’t know them and the concert didn’t give me a reason to explore further)
10.MAMA - EXO
11. Devil's Cry - Taeyeon
She was spectacular I tell you! I know she’s a good vocalist, but I didn’t know she can rock! friend impressed again :) this concert is doing a good job of reconverting my friend to kpop (he left the fold last year)
12.Run Devil Run - Girls' Generation
13.Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) - Girls' Generation
Tight performance by SNSD, but honestly, we both felt that the chemistry was not there (as compared to f(x), and I’m not even a fan of f(x)!) SNSD seems to be 9 pretty girls vying for attention…
14.Lucifer (remix) - SHINee
Friend nearly passed out from the sexy that is jonghyun. The whole concert he referred to jonghyun as “his boy” and yunho and changmin as “my boy”. Hmm I must say that jonghyun’s body is very delicious
15. Superman - Super Junior
16. Don't Don - Super Junior
Elfs were out in full force and it was a sea of blue in the mosh pit and also in most of the audience..
17. Purple Line - TVXQ!
I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard the intro to purple line, because it was not in the setlist of any of the previous smtown. Got very excited and started flailing and hitting my (very patient) friend’s thigh.. he was a bit overwhelmed at my response to the boys.. hahahahaa I was overwhelmed at my response, I kept flailing at ALL TVXQ’s appearances .. it was a powerful performance, but it was lip-synched. In fact I felt that most of tvxq performances were lip-synched that night, they must have been still tired from their seoul concert. Felt so sad that there were so few red lightsticks. TVXQ are being positioned as seniors, but the audience didn’t really see it that way. The stage presence is unmistakably superstar though my view was blocked. Sesame seed mites.
18. Ring Ding Dong - SHINee
19.Bonamana - Super Junior
Cannot remember when but during one of the talk time, Eunhyuk got everyone in stitches when he talked about being the leader during Leeteuk’s absence (omg at that point i actually remembered leeteuk saying suju wont have a leader while he is in the army.. I am reading too much kpop news). I wonder if Eunhyuk is naturally so talkative, or was he making up for the recent iu brouhaha. The rest of the members certainly didn’t talk nearly as much..
20. Rising Sun - TVXQ!
Love. Rising sun is Love
21. Juliette - SHINee
22. Love Like Oxygen - SHINee
Promotion time for Shinee World on 8 December! Onew corrected the MC who said it was in November.. Taemin was supposed to introduce the song, but ended up just kinda whispering "Love Like Oxygen"
23. Jet - f(x)
24. Open Arms - Ryeowook, Onew, Chen & Baekhyun
Exceptional performance with such strong vocals that my friend fell in love again. With all 4 of them.
25.Twinkle - TaeTiSeo
Nice nice, and the 3 ladies certainly had more chemistry than the whole group of 9 together.
26. DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love - TaeTiSeo, D.O, Luhan, Sehun & Chanyeol
27. Like a G6 - Key, Kris & Amber
Nicely done but I only kept my eyes on Amber. I have never been a fan of f(x) but I find myself very much drawn to amber J
28. Dance Battle/MaxStep - Yunho, Eunhyuk, Taemin, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Yoona, Kai, Tao & Victoria
Sigh… what to say.. delicious yunho in all his leather garbed glory and I was so glad that he danced in the middle part of the stage and not the main stage. Mainly looked at the big screen, and peeped at the ant on the stage, then at the big screen again. Currently he looks very muscular and his expressions were soooo.. excuse me while I take care of my nosebleed.
Photo taken from DBSKnights but this is from the Bangkok show. Yes. that look. I saw it with my own eyes (yeah, on the big screen, but still….)
http://www.dbsknights.net/2012/11/photos-121123-tvxq-smtown-in-singapore_24.html some more photos from smtown singapore
photos from bangkok were clearer http://www.dbsknights.net/2012/11/photos-121125-tvxq-smtown-in-bangkok_3892.html
29 Hurricane Venus - BoA
Girl’s got charisma. Crowd went wild at this song. Next song didn’t get much of a response..
30. My Name - BoA
31. No. 1 - BoA
“so..what do you think my next song will be?”… “ONLY ONE!!!!” “no, that will be much later.. the next song will be No. 1” :)
32. Sorry Sorry - Super Junior
33. Perfection 太完美 - Super Junior-M
34. A-Cha - Super Junior
Don’t know what to say but all the suju performances were very good.
35. Mr. Taxi - Girls' Generation
36. Internet War - Jonghyun & Taemin
Yessir…. I cannot overemphasize how much my friend loved this performance. Wouldn’t be surprised if he got a hard on. he left his fingernail marks on my forearm, he was that excited. maybe i should get him handcuffs for xmas.
37. O-正.反.合. - TVXQ!
38. Mirotic - TVXQ!
These are some of my fav tvxq songs and I really loved the energy though the memory of these performances are a bit blur.. I was too dazed I think.
39. Humanoids - TVXQ!
Changmin smirking when saying.. next song, is our new song.. I love changmin smirks
Havent gotten into the groove with this song, gotta take a few more listens
40 Why (Keep Your Head Down) - TVXQ!
Again, memory of the song was a blur. Part of it was because I was too busy fangirling, part of it was because I was too busy being damn pissed off that my view was royally blocked during all these performances. TVXQ hongkong venue is also supposed to be really lousy .. sigh, I hope I can get tickets and more importantly, take leave!
41. Gee - Girls' Generation
I think it was this song that they came over to the small stage nearer the audience. Much appreciated.
42. Kissing You - Girls' Generation
43. Dancing Out - Super Junior
44. Only One - BoA feat. Sehun
Hehehe didn’t know it feat Sehun coz I don’t recognize him.. thought it was one of the dancers.
It started raining at this point, and by the time f(x) came out with the next song, it was pouring.
45. Electric Shock - f(x)
46. Sherlock - SHINee
A few of the audience started walking out at this point as the rain was getting heavier, but f(x) and Shinee continued the performance in the middle part of the stage, so professional ! I dragged my friend to the empty seats in front of me, and by the time they finished Sherlock we were sitting 3 rows in front, and in the middle of the block (hurray, no more blocked view!).. only thing is, we couldn’t see much through the rain.
47. The Boys - Girls' Generation
48. Sexy, Free & Single - Super Junior
49. Catch Me - TVXQ!
By the time they performed Catch Me, the rain was at its heaviest, and since I didn’t have a cap, I had to cover my specs with my hands, kept taking off my specs and wiping them but it didn’t help much.. the kind people next to me gave me a plastic poncho and I shared it with my friend, just to cover our heads. We were thoroughly soaked by then but at least with the poncho over my head, I could just squint pass the rain..
50. Hope - SMTOWN
Some fans wrote that the rain stopped at this point, but I think it was still raining hard enough that my specs were still full of water. I kept looking for “my boys” and my friend wasn’t any help coz he kept looking for “his boy” (I think he couldn’t recognize jonghyun with his shirt on hehehehe). Suju, stayed the longest, after all, they had the most fans there.
Random thoughts.
- The production was amazing. We ooh and aah over everything. In fact when I shared my experience with hubby, ‘amazing’ featured heavily in my vocab.. must use thesaurus
- The scale of the production is super impressive
- The 2 large screens were super high definition. About 1 hour into the concert one of them failed (intermittently at first, then totally by the end). As a concert goer, I was a bit irritated because the failed screen was on our side. As an event organizer, I’m amazed that they were even working after the heavy downpour. The rain was really no joke, my friend saw a car spin, hit the curb and the tyre burst while driving to meet me. The storm at the bay even made the news. At the end of the night, the cloth covering the projection fell off and you could see the mesh screen behind it. I was very worried about the state of the equipment for the Bangkok concert.
- If they took 96 hours to do set up, does it mean that they have a different stage for Bangkok?
- I’m able to make my own smtown Singapore playlist from the songs in my office laptop - 20songs out of the 50 :)
SMTown Singapore by numbers
40 performers, 150 stylists, dancers, make up artists, 40 artiste managers, 250 security personnel, 500 ushers, 23,000 audience, 50songs, 96 hour set up, 40 racks of clothes, 286 room nights at Ritz Carlton, 500 towels, 1776 bottles mineral water, 1616 cans of energy drinks, juices, soft drinks in 21 big coolers, 192 cup noodles, 41mirrors including the 9 full length mirrors with light bulbs for snsd.
Photo credits:
With kpopstarz watermark - from Running into The Sun (The organizer in Singapore), original article written by Koh Yi Wei but I’ve replaced the article with my own comments instead
http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/17592/20121126/smtown-world-tour-iii-in-singapore-draws-26-000-fans-on-unique-water-stage.htm
With beautifulbuns watermark - with permission from https://beautifulbuns.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/event-smtown-concert-in-singapore/#comment-1231
With Mirza A.H watermark - with permission from http://runningmanpro.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/smtown-live-world-tour-iii-in-singapore/
