Saturday Recap
I spent the morning running errands--going to the supermarket, paying bills, getting a haircut. I sure as hell didn't have time for Watchmen again. After lunch, I discovered the wonders of the Best Buy musical instrument department. I can get drum kit parts, sticks, guitar straps and stands and get Reward Zone points for it. Cool! I also got my hands on some evil girl scout cookies. I love the peanut butter ones so I bought 2 boxes. I can eat a whole box in a single sitting. It's so bad for me, but they only sell these for a couple weeks during the year, so why not indulge for a bit? Got home in time to take a shower and head off to the Victory Concert.
Arrived at about 5 PM. Parking at LA Live is $20, but if you go to a parking lot one block away, it's $10. Gee, that's a no-brainer. I wanted to take a look at this LA Live now that some of the things are open. Right now, there are a lot of night clubs, sports bars, and upscale restaurants. There aren't any restaurants here that I would consider to be "cheap eats." There's Starbuck's and some ice cream shop, but you can't get a real meal at these places. Everything else is fairly upscale. The atmosphere reflects that. The crowd is mainly those attracted to night clubs and sports bars and somewhat trendy and snobby, but this is the type of crowd that they want to bring into downtown LA. I don't know what kind of reception the AX crowd will get once that time rolls around. I'm glad I'm not the one who has to find that out. I'll leave that to you guys.
Victory Concert was a fun experience. Ticket sales weren't as strong as some of the other Korean shows that I've been to. Nokia Theater was about 1/3 full. I got cheap seats, way up top, but when you walk in and the staff saw that you had mezzanine tix, they told you to go to some table and trade it in for a better one. Ended up with Orchestra Row FF which is pretty good and definitely worth a lot more that the price of mezzanine. Right before the show starts, they tell everbody to sit anywhere you wanted to. They just wanted everybody close to the front so that the floor section didn't look so sparse and scattered, because it looked kinda lame with everybody all spead out. The show was supposed to start at 8, but Korea was playing Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic and all of the video screens in the theater were showing it with sound. Everybody wanted to watch it so the concert was delayed for almost one hour so that people can watch it.
The show itself was pretty awesome. You never get live bands at these Korean shows and it's always a karaoke show, but it's still fun. It's like those shows that I've seen on TV, with celebrity announcers and cheesy backup dancers. The show started off with Clazziquai. It was a bit mellow for my tastes and it's always tough to be the first group to perform, but it was alright. Next up was Baek Ji Young. She was amazing. Absolutely beautiful voice and lots of skill. I enjoyed her set the most. Wheesung, I've seen on TV a few times. I sorta get his music and he can sing, but not really my thing. Tae Jin Ah was fun. I love that style of music. Really old school pop. Same thing with Lee Eun Mi--another older performer, but with a unique and powerful voice. Jewelry was sexy as always. It's more about putting on a good visual show for them because there music really doesn't come out well at a live show. There's too much going on vocal-wise to be able to pull it off live. SS50--boy bands aren't my thing. No surprise there, but that's who most of the audience wanted to see. Just like when DBSK did the Hollywood Bowl show last year, all the girls ran up as close to the stage as the could to yell, scream, jump up and down. When it was over, all of them left. Kim Gun Mo was last. I wasn't too familiar with his stuff, but he was a great entertainer and a good final act. He's the only peformer that did an encore. It was a good home and definitely got a lot of bang for my buck.
Nokia Theater is a great venue. I loved the lighting--tons of moving lights and used a lot of purple and blue lights. Only once did I see the stage completely drenched in those annoying red lights. When you photograph a lot of shows, it's difficult to go to a show as a spectator and not analyze things like that.
Heading out to Balboa soon. Looks like rain is going to be on/off (but it's mostly off) and it's cold. I expected this. The only way to know what conditions are at the park is to see for myself. It takes me about an hour to do a complete inspection of the park. I'll know whether it's worth it or not to try this. Since this is probably going to be the last photo outing for this cherry blossom season, I probably should give it a look. It can probably be done, but must work quickly. When in doubt, call me. That's why I leave my number in those locked posts.
Arrived at about 5 PM. Parking at LA Live is $20, but if you go to a parking lot one block away, it's $10. Gee, that's a no-brainer. I wanted to take a look at this LA Live now that some of the things are open. Right now, there are a lot of night clubs, sports bars, and upscale restaurants. There aren't any restaurants here that I would consider to be "cheap eats." There's Starbuck's and some ice cream shop, but you can't get a real meal at these places. Everything else is fairly upscale. The atmosphere reflects that. The crowd is mainly those attracted to night clubs and sports bars and somewhat trendy and snobby, but this is the type of crowd that they want to bring into downtown LA. I don't know what kind of reception the AX crowd will get once that time rolls around. I'm glad I'm not the one who has to find that out. I'll leave that to you guys.
Victory Concert was a fun experience. Ticket sales weren't as strong as some of the other Korean shows that I've been to. Nokia Theater was about 1/3 full. I got cheap seats, way up top, but when you walk in and the staff saw that you had mezzanine tix, they told you to go to some table and trade it in for a better one. Ended up with Orchestra Row FF which is pretty good and definitely worth a lot more that the price of mezzanine. Right before the show starts, they tell everbody to sit anywhere you wanted to. They just wanted everybody close to the front so that the floor section didn't look so sparse and scattered, because it looked kinda lame with everybody all spead out. The show was supposed to start at 8, but Korea was playing Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic and all of the video screens in the theater were showing it with sound. Everybody wanted to watch it so the concert was delayed for almost one hour so that people can watch it.
The show itself was pretty awesome. You never get live bands at these Korean shows and it's always a karaoke show, but it's still fun. It's like those shows that I've seen on TV, with celebrity announcers and cheesy backup dancers. The show started off with Clazziquai. It was a bit mellow for my tastes and it's always tough to be the first group to perform, but it was alright. Next up was Baek Ji Young. She was amazing. Absolutely beautiful voice and lots of skill. I enjoyed her set the most. Wheesung, I've seen on TV a few times. I sorta get his music and he can sing, but not really my thing. Tae Jin Ah was fun. I love that style of music. Really old school pop. Same thing with Lee Eun Mi--another older performer, but with a unique and powerful voice. Jewelry was sexy as always. It's more about putting on a good visual show for them because there music really doesn't come out well at a live show. There's too much going on vocal-wise to be able to pull it off live. SS50--boy bands aren't my thing. No surprise there, but that's who most of the audience wanted to see. Just like when DBSK did the Hollywood Bowl show last year, all the girls ran up as close to the stage as the could to yell, scream, jump up and down. When it was over, all of them left. Kim Gun Mo was last. I wasn't too familiar with his stuff, but he was a great entertainer and a good final act. He's the only peformer that did an encore. It was a good home and definitely got a lot of bang for my buck.
Nokia Theater is a great venue. I loved the lighting--tons of moving lights and used a lot of purple and blue lights. Only once did I see the stage completely drenched in those annoying red lights. When you photograph a lot of shows, it's difficult to go to a show as a spectator and not analyze things like that.
Heading out to Balboa soon. Looks like rain is going to be on/off (but it's mostly off) and it's cold. I expected this. The only way to know what conditions are at the park is to see for myself. It takes me about an hour to do a complete inspection of the park. I'll know whether it's worth it or not to try this. Since this is probably going to be the last photo outing for this cherry blossom season, I probably should give it a look. It can probably be done, but must work quickly. When in doubt, call me. That's why I leave my number in those locked posts.