Yo Guys! Where's the JPH!P represent? I had to look for this thread! I thought it would had been exploding by now! Mal, where you gone to?
That's all right because I did another ninja magic act and crashed the STGCC party! I was sure I couldn't attend this but a rushed family vacation to Singapore changed all that. All expenses paid man! Just get those tickets! Got to the island on Thursday... chilled. Friday to Universal Studios Theme Park... it's alright. Saturday... nervous. I don't know why. I've had experience at AFAX about a month ago. So why feel like nothing happened on prom night? Maybe because it was mostly blurry dancing figures on a stage miles away. Would this be any better though... Mumbling like a madman on the way to the convention center.
Got to the place at around 11 am. Got the tickets no problemo which also included entry to the STGCC. Burned a bit of time there. AKB was at 7 but the official queue starts at 3. 4 hour wait? A bit hesitant. I peeked at the event guide of the convention and saw that a Marvel panel will be held in the same theater as AKB from 3 to 4. Got in and had the added advantage of knowing the surroundings before the big show. The panel was interesting but was going long. The organiser/MC dude cut into the discussion and shooed everyone off the stage. He was wearing a pink AKB shirt I saw from AFAX. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Straight onto the waiting game! By the time I was ushered into the official line there were already probably under 100 people queuing up. They were all sitting chatting in a snaking line. I marched into the maze and sat at the end of the line thinking "This is it!" probably a bit
too early, as it was still just 4. Went to my trusty Ipod and listened to a couple of podcasts. The time passed by surprisingly well. I was thinking all the time where were all the local AKB fans from around the region. Every so often you would see a small group communicating with one or 2 dudes almost from one end of the room to the other. They were all over the place!
Hours flew by and the line behind me grew. Lots of late comers. Lady organiser came to us and started talking about rules and stuff and said that we all were to be ushered in at 6:30. When she left everyone stood up and waited. That's when I noticed how much people were there. Quite a good number. At the end of the queue somehow there was a Stromtrooper amongst us! AKB going global? How about intergalactic? The time came and the queue slowly moved. As we reached the theater doors, volunteers handed us some
Chance no Junban postcards.
Cool. A nice gift, not knowing the significance of it later on. Anyways I made my way down to the front of the theater to look for the best seats in the house. Most of the middle seats were taken but some kick ass side ones were available. I don't know how many rows I was away from the stage but it was definitely closer than the last time. I was bursting with crazy emotions! While the seats were still filling up the wotas were already shouting the names of their oshimens. Soon a projection of Chance no Junban and supporting song PVs were shown. I've not seen any of the PVs yet so it was a nice way to see it for the first time. I was probably the only person LOLing because of the shock that was Team K's song. 80's disco prison break theme? Nice shoulder pads. That said, Tomochin looks good in anything!
PVs all done and suddenly there was an eerie silence for a second cause we all knew it was showtime! I like that there is no warning when the overture hits. It's just like, lights off, overture full blast! When that happened I instinctively rose to my feet as did everyone. It was sooooo sweet hearing this again. Are. You. Readyyyy. A few seconds before it ended the girls marched out into the stage and we all went crazy. Who cares if Harunyan, Tomomi or Maeda weren't there? This IS AKB. They all stood still in position and BOOM!
RIVER! Another roar from crazy fans, me included. Now for a confession. During the first 2 songs I was acting like those bored, stiff, shy guys doing nothing. I did an occasional cheer but with a little restraint. Then it hit me, I had no glowstick with me! Oh the horror. There was also little action happening around me as all the cheers seem to be coming from the front and center. Fuck it, I'm gonna have fun! Legs tapping, body shaking, head bopping, hands waving, mouth shouting!
MC time and it was then I noticed how close I was. I could see their faces! I can recognise each dancer! After that were the unit songs. I loved
Wagamama but then surprise!
Himawari came on and I was like "Oh no you didn't". One of my favorite songs! If only I had glowsticks then I could show off my leet hand movement skills. Everyone was doing the normal fist pump but in
Himawari it's all about the wave baby. Another MC after the unit songs and I guess they've learn from AFAX because up on stage with them was a translator. It was cool, knowing what Ucchi, Harukyan and Tomochan were saying. After that,
Bingo and
Oogoe in english. Then finally
Heavy Rotation! Great concert song! Like the last time, everyone was into the backing vocals part. Who seriously doesn't want to scream "I Love Youuuu" to the AKB girls? After the song they did their fake goodbyes and we all just nonchalantly sat down and recuperated. Veteran crowd. We know the deal. Encore time. Pretty loud and consistent this one. Bravo.
The girls came out and we all rose to our feet once again. They were in their
Chance outfits which was a proper way to close this mini concert. This was mainly a PR event anyway so no complaints that it ended like that. But the big thing was to come. Coming into this event we were told that there was a chance to play janken with the girls and win a prize. I initially thought that some lucky bastards would be pick to do just that. But then the translator said to look at your postcards. Oh Snap! It was almost like an Oprah EVERYONE WINS A CAR moment. I was a bit confused because there was nothing on the card. But look closely.
Rock? Ohhhhhh. That means I have a 33.33% chance of winning the mystery prize. Ucchi got herself ready,
Jan,
Ken,
POM! Scissors... SCISSORS! GAH! I WON! I don't believe it. The prize? An autographed poster! Hey... don't people kill for these? I was still in a state of delirium when the translator said that the girls would send us ALL off with high fives. A high touch finale? I get to be close, touch and talk to the girls? Was it the 25th of December already? Management let everyone sweat it out for about 5 minutes as they organised the tables. I was a nervous wreak. What would I say? I was trying to remember if anyone did something on any of their TV shows. Nothing came to mind. Damn center girls taking up all the airtime! As I was doing this time just flew by. Lines and lines of people went up, met their idols and went out the door. It would eventually be me. Was I ready? AKB waits for no one. My turn. Got to Ucchi who was first and then.... nothing. High five and said her nickname. Did that to Harukyan too. And eveyone else. Damn... but then it was Sakiko's turn. It was her birthday yesterday, so I went "Happy Birthday!" She reacted. Mission Accomplished! It went by so fast I couldn't gather enough information on each individual. It was almost like shaking hands with the sun. Amazing but so bright and awesome you can't look directly at it. Erepyon's
Kira-kira catchphrase really sums up their persona. Time to get that poster now!
Would you look at that! I would be the first to admit that I am not the most worthy of such an awesome gift, but I surely will enjoy this for as long as I can remember. Now who did I get?
Birthday girl! Not too shabby. I could have traded it for someone else but why push it? It has been an amazing day so far and all good things end. Call it a day. But what a day it was! I haven't been to many concerts in my lifetime but they all can't be like this right? What more can I say? Apparently alot more but I'll just bullet point it for the sake of this already long post.
- While not the only one, I did notice Tanamin screwing up the dances quite a number of times. She also almost tripped while bringing out the mic stands for
Himawari and had trouble with them again during
Heavy Rotation.
- For my money Kuramochi had the biggest cheers during the whole event.
- While waiting for the high touch to begin the wotas started singing happy birthday to Sakippe and she kinda teared up a bit. Great to see that!
- And like a broken record, everyone looked great in person. Suuchan was so doll like. Haachan was amazing!
So in conclusion to this novel, all I can say is, I've been awfully lucky to see them live twice and come out with a signed poster to boot. It may have not been at their holy theater nor have I seen all the really top members yet but the tagline is true, they are really idols you can meet. Just try a little harder. You won't regret it. Ciao and sweet dreams.
Topic: AKB48 @2010 Singapore Toy, Games & Comic Convention (Read 5230 times)