Unfortunately, I'm not Dave or Pops, so you'll have to wait for the cool accounts about seeing artists up close in the airport and at the rehearsal. So yeah, I'll be giving my take of Friday and Saturday! Skip to the Saturday section if you just want to read about the concert
Oh, and I won't put all my photos here, because they're too big and Photobucket doesn't seem to want to make thumbnails. If you want to see all the photos I took (they're not very good quality, sorry) then here's the link to the album:
http://s883.photobucket.com/albums/ac34/Deft-Monkey/Sydney%20K-Pop%20Music%20Fest%202011/Friday 11th NovemberI got to the city at around 3:40 in the afternoon to get CDs of the artists I follow who'd be at the concert. 4 albums and $92 later, I found myself walking around Darling Harbour, enjoying the sun and Sydney city, which I don't visit enough. Pops had text me earlier to say that Dave and her were going to the concert rehearsal because Dave's brother wasn't able to make it on Friday. She also said that Captain Lubey (CL from now on) would text me so we could hang out while waiting for the other two to finish up at the rehearsal. That was a fun 3 hours of waiting for a message
I burned time by walking around the city. I only stopped when I started getting foot cramps
After I finally got CL's text, I met up with her at Maloney's Hotel at around 7:20. We had a couple of drinks while waiting for Pops and ebc who'd gone to the hotel to put stuff away/change clothes. Had a good chat and some laughs with CL while waiting
When everyone was there, we talked for a while before getting dinner. Pops gave me my shirt and tickets. The shirt is fucking awesome, thanks Daiman :bow:CL got some fantastic risotto. Seriously, my mind was blown by the deliciousness
Dave showed me his airport photos taken that morning and I think I couldn't quite believe that these were K-pop idols in Sydney Airport. All I know is that I loved 4minute's Jiyoon's purple hat
At least I'm pretty sure it's Jiyoon
CL and I were relatively warmed up from beer and wine, so that made for some interesting banter that I can't quite remember. I vaguely recall saying something about someone going dominatrix and some other associated things
Just before parting ways with the three musketeers, (Dave was staying in the room next to CL, Pops and her mum) I talked shit about Pops' comfortable flats which couldn't go long distances. Possibly a mistake, but I regret nothing!
On the bus ride home, two guys (a businessman and a young guy) on the backseat got into a fight and then the young one pinned the businessman in the corner and was yelling for the guy to leave him alone and stop threatening him, sounding seriously freaked out. The driver stopped the bus on the side of the road, said she was calling the police, and then resumed driving, much to the confusion of everyone. After that, the two in the back talked for a bit and then sat quietly on opposite ends of the seat. When we got off the motorway, the driver went into the first bus stop and just waited there. We were stopped for 15 minutes and no one understood what was going on, until we saw police walking up beside the bus. They took the two guys out and had them give statement, while some more cops got onto the bus and asked if anyone witnessed what happened. According to the girl behind me, the young guy was talking to his friend in front of him loudly and the businessman asked him to shut up quite rudely. He apparently threatened the guy, saying that he was ready to pull a trigger and that he'd get off at his stop and the like. She said the businessman threw the first punch, while another guy said he thinks the young punched first because the businessman started saying that the whole thing was caught by the bus camera and that the young guy was screwed. At that point the young guy was held him down by his hands and started shouting. In the end, I got home 40 minutes later than I should have at midnight. At least it was an experience
Saturday 12th November Day of the concert! Exciting! I got up early, put on my JPHiP K-Pop Music Fest shirt, had a little brekky and then headed out to the city. I met up with my friend Chris and his girlfriend Anna. I joined them for their breakfast and when we were leaving to go to Darling Harbour, Anna yelled out "OH MY GOD!!!", making the women in front of us jump in fright. It was because she saw a giant ugg boot costume
We had an hour to kill before meeting up with the others, so we went to the Chinese Gardens and enjoyed ourselves walking around and taking in the serenity of the gardens, all the while cracking wise. The other two kept touching an old jade carriage, despite the 'do not touch' sign. Reminded me of How I Met Your Mother. They made me a little nervous though
We met up with CL at Starbucks at around noon. We decided on Japanese for lunch, but the place we then went to wasn't open for lunch
Honestly, over the whole two days, the universe was against us going to Japanese restaurants. The closest we got was CL and I getting teriyaki chicken ramen for lunch in the foodcourt of the shopping mall on Pitt St. We met up with Pops before going to the mall though. She was wearing the JPHiP SONE shirt that Dave gave her. Chris and I were admiring the
on the back
Anna looked like she was enjoying herself and she was pretty funny too, telling us how 'lesbian haircut' is now an official term used by hairdressers
Pops showed me her airport photos and vids of Soshi and Secret. Secret were so cheery! Especially Ji Eun and Hyosung
Hyosung had her arms filled with gifts from fans
Dave was off having lunch with his brother, not too sure where. We then went to Pops' and CL's hotel and hung out while the girls got changed for the concert. Pops got me to model the music fest shirt a bit. She told me to do sexy for Dai
I was working at 50% sex appeal, mang
I expect she'll upload those photos along with her other pics and vids when she gets home.
We got to ANZ Stadium at 5, just as the gates were opening. Chris and I saw some people we knew from high school and went to say hey. They said hi. It was awkward, but good
I was hoping I'd see my uni friend Jess, so I could call out to her and troll everyone, but no such luck. The line for our gate was damn long. It wrapped around halfway to the other side of the stadium entrance and that was just for 1 of 8 gates. Thankfully, it moved amazingly quickly. We were pretty close to the main stage, just to the right of dead center. It took us a while to see Lil Cazza because she was right on the opposite end of our row sitting with her friends. I didn't actually get to talk to her in person this time. Dave, his brother and their friend got to their seats soon after us, even though we saw them get there just before us
Ebc and his bro were wearing awesome Rilakkuma hats
Looking around, there were about as many people as I expected, maybe a bit more. The gold seating was pretty much packed, but silver and bronze had quite a few bare patches, while VIP had a few sections of rows here and there that were empty. It was only about 6:00 though. In the row in front of us was a whole lot of Cassiopeians, donning red all over, but they definitely put their heart into cheering all the artists on throughout the concert. This was a little bit to my dismay as the girl in front of me kept waving a fan that got in the way of my vision and camera shots.
Here's the seating plan of the stadium to give you an idea (we were in section A4):
There was a 3:00 minute countdown to the start of the concert, with a K-pop montage. At 7:00, SHINee kicked things off on stage 1 with Lucifer. Windows shattered, stars collided and the crowd screamed the boys, Shawol or not. I have to say, it was pretty surreal seeing these people who I'd only ever seen on a screen before. Minho stood out to me because he was wearing these skin-coloured pants, so I thought he wasn't wearing any at all
The boys then introduced themselves, as all the artists did after one or two songs, in Korean which was then translated by some unseen lady into English. Before anyone knew there was going to be any translating, people just cheered because they could after the first break in the group's intro
Next was Hello, which I've never heard before, but it was pretty pleasant and nice for a change of pace after Lucifer. Really cute song. Their third and last song was, of course, Ring Ding Dong. Everyone was going nuts while I took the opportunity to check Twitter. Towards the end of the song, I got up and joined in with the rest of the crowd. Chris filmed me being a downer, the jackass
Next up was miss A
They had a bit of an intro perf with a Goodbye Baby remix, then followed by the actual song. I felt the temperature rise a few degrees as soon as I saw their legs sticking up in the air
All of them were great, but Fei was so incredibly beautiful and sexy, it was difficult to comprehend. She is both a queen and a goddess
Then they came up to stage 2 and taught everyone the chorus dance moves to Good Girl Bad Girl
They were so boss
Min introduced in English. Her voice is so cute
Suzy really got into the atmosphere, smiling at full beam and waving her arms really exaggeratedly at the crowd when they were finishing up GGBG.
SISTAR started with So Cool. They followed up with How Dare You and closed up with the full group version of Ma Boy, chairs and all
Even though they were on stage 1 the whole time, I could see Hyorin's bust clearly from where I was
I was disappointed that they didn't include Hyorin's "S-I-S-T-T-T-A-R!" followed by Bora's "SISTAR!", but they shortened both Ma Boy and How Dare You. Hyorin got so much love from the crowd
2AM definitely impressed everyone in the stadium. They performed Can't Let You Go Even if I Die, You Wouldn't Answer My Calls and This Song. I've only ever heard CLYGID before, but all the songs really made an impact. A great change-up from the catchy poppy songs. Chris boy crushed all over Changmin
That said, CL and I were fanning like crazy over Jo Kwon
The first special stage of the night had SNSD and SHINee performing together. Minho and Taemin were up first, dancing away. Then things got hot when it came to Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung and Yoona's turn. They were wearing their trademark orange jumpsuits. The best part of the dance routine was when the girls were grabbing each other's bums
Then Minho and Taemin joined in the dance (after the groping finished, haha). I'm not sure what the song was. Could've been Snoop Dogg, maybe?
A jazzy intro song brought a new kind of sexy vibe with Secret entering from behind the screens on stage 1 with canes and top hats. They did a bit of a dance number along to a simple, jazz piano tune, which was both cute and sexy. They then lost the hats, canes and even their black and white tops for their black and pink Love is Move outfits, which they performed first. It was a shame that they stayed on stage 1, because they looked absolutely gorgeous on the screens. Hyosung got all sweaty and her face was all shiny, but you could tell she was loving it from her smile. Then the crowd got loud for Madonna. Damn, that was hot
Lastly came Starlight, Moonlight, which kinda killed all the energy they'd built up
A lot of the audience sat down during this, because you just couldn't get excited over such a lofty song. I still stood up and enjoyed the song, but I couldn't really bounce along to it. I still can't believe they didn't perform Shy Boy. I would've been bouncing like Daigong on crack
Next was one of my favourite performances of the night. It was a special stage with Hyorin, Gayoon, Jo Kwon and Changmin singing Beyonce's Halo. Honestly, I never really liked Beyonce's one that much, but this was simply spectacular. They were all on stage 2, performing right in front of us. Hyorin was standing there and kept shining her gorgeous smile at everyone
Jo Kwon was giving me chills with his vocals. Poor Changmin, not only was he on the side of the stage furthest from us, he was constantly blocked out by Cassie's waving their red balloons in my line of vision
Although she's not as powerful a singer as Hyorin, nor was her English pronunciation as good as the others, Gayoon really stood out to me for the first time ever. She looked absolutely stunning, although sadly my photos of her aren't too great. After that perf, she definitely has a place in my heart
BEAST then came on with Shock, Fiction and Beautiful. Great song choices considering the audience. I already liked Fiction, but I'd never heard Beautiful before. Pretty nice
I don't know who any of them are, but the rapper wearing shades looked like a huge tool to me, sorry to anyone who likes him
That said, he's the only in BEAST I got a good enough photo of to not delete.
Guess whose turn it was now. Just guess. That's right - SNSD! Well before the end, to everyone's surprise. The crowd lost the plot. Even if you weren't a SONE, you still felt the need to scream and go a little crazy. If people had poo, they would've thrown it at a wall (if there were any nearby walls). Heaps of people ran up from the seating area up to stage 2. Security was pretty kind in that they let people stay up there for the artists they did run up for and, in kind, the fans went back to their seats after the artists either finished their exciting song or their whole performance. So first, of course, was The Boys. I'm at the point where I'm used to the song, so I was able to get into it. The girls looked incredible
Jessica is one the the most princess-looking creature I've ever seen in my life
Apparently, someone slipped during the perf (I think Yoona), so the stage crew came out to check if everything was alright, with the girls all huddling together to make sure as well. At this point, Jessi became bitch!Sica and raged at the crew about her faulty mic. She was seriously pissed off
It was one of the most amusing things I've witnessed
Just another reason why she's my bias in Soshi. As usual, she had issues with her earpiece/mic. The crew gave her a microphone to hold, which worked, thankfully
Jessica introduced in English to everyone and I thought people were going to lose their minds to the extent that the crowd would break out into some freaky orgy. I was pleasantly surprised by the next song, although it was an understandable choice. The music for Kissing You started and everyone cheered. The girls on stage then picked up bunches of roses on stage 1 and threw them out to the crowd in the standing area. That was really sweet, I thought
Then the recorded vocals stopped and the girls themselves started singing as they walked down to stage 2. Kissing You is just one of those songs where the girls like to enjoy themselves and this was no exception. Taeyeon looked especially bright and happy, which was awesome
I've also gotta give mad props to Sunny for being an absolute sexy beast with thighs and boobs showing off their grand prowess
At this point, I turned around to look at the crowd in the stadium. The seats had really filled up a lot since the beginning. Considering how much I appreciated the sight, the artists must've been really grateful for the turnout. I doubt they expected to have so many fans in Australia, but you could definitely see their delight.
(Man, I'm running out of emoticons here
)
Now another special stage! This time it was CNBLUE with Yoseob of BEAST and GO of MBLAQ. I must comfess, I went a bit batshit crazy over CNBLUE, Jonghyun in particular
I don't know the song that they performed, but it kept the energy coming from the crowd for sure. I've gotta say, Yonghwa knows how to be an entertainer. He was running about the stage and absolutely owning it like it ain't no thang
The majority of the girls in the audience (not Pops, obviously
) screamed their lungs out for Yonghwa. You can hear it clearly in fancams. As soon as Yonghwa starts singing, the girls get all aroused and scream for their hunk-a-hunk o' burnin' love. Brilliant performance
4minute then took to the stage. I think they're the only ones (apart from the special performances) who started off on stage 2. They took a different tact from the other groups to kick things off. There were backup dancers with these pink/purple fluorescent discs on their hands and they were moving them around and tripping everyone out
This started Mirror, Mirror. This was then followed by Muzik (fuck yeah!!
) and finally Hot Issue, though I was expecting either HUH or I, My, Me, Mine. I noticed that Hyuna's legs were shiny like some female idols' legs sometimes are. I always thought it was something like a moist lubricant, but I saw here that it was like a paint and it had dried on shiny. All girls should get some of that stuff
Now, I must tell you, I was quite surprised by the next act, MBLAQ. I actually really liked their songs (Mona Lisa, Y and Oh Yeah), which is big considering that I don't really like boy groups much. The other members got Thunder to introduce all of them in English, because he speaks it fluently. I couldn't help but notice that he sounds like a child when he talks
Also, it was my turn to have a bit of a boy crush now. GO is one damn fine specimen and I have no regrets in saying so
From his hair, to his face, to his voice - the man's got it all. I can see why he's Pops' bias. Also, after hearing their songs and seeing them perform, I could see why Caz loves them so much
Eheheheh, CNBLUE's turn then came up
I do love me some CNBLUE. It's always so refreshing to see a band that plays their own instruments. When they were introducing themselves, Yonghwa spoke first. Then he paused for a bit and then resumed, only to be cut off by the translator. I was saying that he was going to break someone for that later
They performed I'm A Loner, Intuition and Love. I was disappointed that they didn't perform Love Girl instead of Love, but all songs were amazing. The first two especially captured the excitement of the audience. Even though I couldn't necessarily hear everyone clearly, I could feel the crowd singing along to the chorus of I'm A Loner, and why wouldn't they??
I kept cheering for Jonghyun and also Minhyuk. CL noted how pretty Minhyuk is. Not sure why a drummer needs to be that good looking, but hey, I won't complain. Pops told me that they did that intro that sounds out of place for Intuition in the rehearsal on Friday, but when I heard it that night, it sounded really cool!
The last special stage of the night had 4minute and miss A performing Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of My Head. It began with 4minute on stage 1, close to us and miss A on stage 2. 4minute was performing the song solo at first with miss A just waiting in the back and then there was a break in which miss A came to the front of stage 2 to join the other girls. Even though I've never been much of a fan of Kylie, listening to them got me into an unexpectedly patriotic spirit
It was a really sweet gesture, performing a Kylie song, even though I don't think many of the people there were into her
The second last artist to perform - KARA
Right from the get-go they packed a huge punch with Step. It's like a new life got blown into the stadium, because everyone perked up more than at any other time during the night and the energy peaked. It was an awe-inspiring experience. I was going at it harder than I had at any other time during the night with Pops' KARA lightstick. My arm and shoulder started hurting so badly, but I couldn't stop except for the breaks between songs
So, MBC was filming the whole concert to broadcast it in Korea and there were cameramen going through the aisles to catch the audience. Hours earlier, before the concert had even started and we were sitting in our seats, there was a cameraman who came around, so I threw up the HiP heart and yelled "JPHIIIIIP!!!" He was probably just surprised to see a dark-skinned guy at a K-pop concert
In any case, he came back a few times to our row throughout the concert to film us. As soon as KARA came out, he rushed over because he'd seen me waving around the KARA lightstick earlier. I didn't see anyone else with one, so I felt like I was the only one in the whole stadium with an official KARA lightstick. Thanks for letting me use it, Popsgirl
The KARA girls moves were sharp and you could tell they were really putting their all into it
Not to mention their hot hot tamale train outfits
Step was like a cyclone - it blew everything away. Gyuri was just as gorgeous as she is in the MV and my one decent-ish photo of her really shows her goddess nature. Seungyeon was really working it, pulling moves like an animal!!
Jiyoung's short hair was awkward
I did get used to it as I watched more though, and she was nailing her vocals!
Hara's abs
Just
All of this I noticed in between ogling Nicole and ogling her some more. My all time bias in front of me? Would you expect any less?? The last photo in my camera is of her and it is perhaps my favourite of my pictures from the night. Pops actually liked Nicole's rap this time, which was incredibly pleasing for me
The girl was on fiyaaaa
(I think another paragraph is necessary. Too much to say!) After finishing Step, Nicole intro'd as they all walked downstage closer to the audience. She spoke in English and it went something like this:
Nicole: Hey Sydney!! How are y'all doing!!??
Audience: [cheers]
Nicole: AAAAHHHHHHHHSOME!!!!!!
I broke down in hysterics laughing. More American-sounding than most Americans
Girl's amazingly awesome
Next they took the HiP route and performed Mister on stage 2, so we got a great view
I couldn't help but shake my bum along to it
Everyone there was getting into it and you could really hear the chants of "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, do it!!!" and even some were 'la la la'ing along
To finish up their energising roll, they made like the Human Torch and fucking flamed on with Lupin
I'm pretty sure the reason why the stadium's roof was open was so that KARA wouldn't lift it off. The whole crowd was cheering, jumping up and down, waving around whatever they had. On this night, KARA reminded me just why I love them so. Even though I'm not too loud about them when they're not promoting in Korea (with the exception of Mister), they hold an irreplaceable position in my heart
Finally, the last performance of the night! TVXQ took to the stage and all the Cassiopeians made noise like they'd seen God and were only just realising it now. Still, after KARA, the crowd didn't sound quite as loud or pumped, but nevertheless, insanity was taking over many of the girls I could see. Most of the rows in our section in front of us ran up to stage 2 to get as close as possible to the two members on stage 1. Most of us in our row took this as an opportunity to rest our feet, which we'd been standing on for pretty much the whole concert, which makes the standing area now seem like less of a bad idea. Pops was constantly trying get photos for her TVXQ-obsessed mum, although she displayed a great degree of reluctance
They performed Maximum and Before You Go first and then we all stood up for Keep Your Head Down. Even though the song has a slow beat, it has a heavy-duty sound that feels pretty badass. After seeing him live, I've gotta say that Max is quite a pretty boy
I seriously hope that Pops uploads her pictures of Yunho, because they're all such quality
He's always got some fantastic facial expression going on. It was kinda sad that they were the closing act, because they completely brought down the high from KARA's performance with their slower songs. Without a doubt, they have talent, but it should've either been SNSD, the group that was meant to close, or KARA, the group that most deserved it due to their effort instead of TVXQ. Still, a respectable performance from the boys.
The reason that Soshi didn't close was because 5 of them had busy schedules, so left for the airport pretty much straight after they finished performing.
To finish up, all the groups came back on stage, one by one as they were announced. They all looked so confused because they didn't know which way to walk. Half a group would walk to one side of the stage, while the other half went in the opposite direction
Then music started playing and all the artists joined in to sing a song together, although it was one of those very casual arrangements where they sing if and when they feel like it. They all walked down to stage 1 and I, along with several others, ran up to the stage to get close and cheer as best I could. They were throwing out these coloured balls to people into the sea of people in front of them, and Jiyoung or Nicole (can't quite remember which, but I think Jiyoung) threw a pink ball my way and I almost caught it, but I fumbled it off one of my fingers :/ I saw it land pretty nearby on the ground and almost went to get it, but decided not to be nasty about it and just let one of the girls who was closer bend down and get it. Then Pops said today on Twitter that each ball had an artist's signature on it. FFFFUUUUUUU
At least now I know to be more assertive next time.
There was mad HaraSica fanservice with all the artists up on the stage
Pops has most of it filmed and Dave got photos of it
What neither of them noticed at first was something I got to see up close with my own eyes because I was standing up near the stage. Just as they were about to walk back, Jessi and Hara had a tight embrace and then when they were letting go, Jessica gave Hara a nice spank on the butt 8D
That just topped off the fanservice they were giving. Ebc unknowingly caught it on camera (as we found on the train later), those sneaky hands
When everyone was leaving the stadium, Pops, Lucy, Chris and I went to go meet Pops' mum in section A1 of the seating. She was taking a picture with the other Cassiopeians with her. When she came, she was not pleased about the seating arrangement, because TVXQ never even looked her way (although there was a girl in her section who was in tears because Yunho waved at her
) and frankly, it was a shit place to sit after paying $290 for VIP seating. She hit Pops with her TVXQ towel when Popsgirl said that KARA performed better than the two guys and deserved to close the concert. She hit the rest of us when we all agreed
As we were walking off, Pops' mum and the other fans with her were shouting out "TVXQ," so we shouted out "KARAAAAA!!!"
We bolted after that because we thought we were going to die.
Gah, I'm way too tired to recount the post-concert shenanigans now. I'm going to bed and shall finish this up later.
Topic: K-POP Music Festival in Sydney, Australia 2011 (Airport pics on pg 4) (Read 40117 times)