popliar: shaun tan (Default)
I usually do a supercut of my favourite MVs of the year (one for boy groups, another for girls) but I was feeling a bit uninspired - I liked more music than MVs this year. I might get around to doing one but for the moment, a playlist:



tracklist )
popliar: shaun tan (Default)
I saw the Ready to Be Tour earlier this year and as an arena show that was absolutely perfect. They came back for round two in a stadium and this experience was still enjoyable, but as an attendee, the lesser of the two shows.

From a setlist and performance standpoint, it was very similar and the group is still totally delightful, no complaints there. There were a few setlist changes - More and More, which used a lot of props in the arena show, was dropped, which made sense given the stadium set-up.

Jihyo's solo was changed from Nightmare to Killing Me Good, again, made sense given that her solo title track has now been released.

Jeongyeon's solo changed to Can't Stop the Feeling, which isn't a song I love but which she performed so delightfully. In the ment, the group made her do her dance break again, and then Sana, Nayeon too, and Dahyun too had to do it - it was VERY cute, so endearing.

For the encore, they spun the roulette wheel and we got Signal AGAIN (surely this is rigged) and Perfect World (very nice).

The crowd was very friendly and very into Twice, lots of fun outfits and costumes, and the group was absolutely charming, they made me smile so much.

So that's all the good.

I think fundamentally that stadium shows are just not as good as arena shows, unless you are in the lucky few who get a really close seat. I've seen some good stadium shows (Taylor Swift's Red tour was excellent, actually) but just fundamentally - you are so far away. The screens are huge, yes, but they were just tiny dots on the stage.

Specifically for this show, I actually had a floor seat at first. But within moments it became clear that I would not be able to see a single thing because there wasn't enough elevation for the stage, and I'm too short and my seat was too far away. So after the first song I ducked over to the seats and simply took a spare one. The show wasn't sold out so a couple of sections in the lower tier were unsold. I wasn't the only one who did this, plenty of people in my section did the same.

It was also a physically uncomfortable show - it was so cold and windy that Twice commented on it several times!

Random notes:

Before the show, the girl on my left was reading Sarah J Maas. The girl on my right was on AO3 reading c-novel fanfic (for a relatively small danmei fandom). And I was reading Circe by Madeline Miller. What a bunch of cliches.

To the left of the girl on my left was an older man, entirely grey haired, who was on his own and at his first kpop show too. He was too chatty for me but I did eavesdrop shamelessly. Good for him anyway, enjoy your show.

I didn't bring any PCs with me so that day [personal profile] thawrecka and I went to a kpop store in Chinatown and I bought 2 $1 PCs, one of Jeongyeon and another of Momo. Then I bought a Kuromi card holder at a cute store in Melbourne Central. So I felt I was fully equipped! At the cute store they played Twice and we started chatting to the girl next to us also said she was trying to find a card holder for her Twice PC for the show!
popliar: shaun tan (Default)
Although this event billed itself as a 'festival', there were only 3 artists on the lineup. The organisation as a whole was such a shambles - I did enjoy this show and I'm so, so glad to have seen it but I have to draw a line between the artists who were great and the organisation which was awful. But to the artists first:

Infinite opened the show, which honestly surprised me a bit as they were the most senior group on the line-up. They're mostly in their 30s now but this was their first visit to Australia - it's taken them all this time! And they've been on such a journey (I am still a bit sad Hoya left). One member was not present (I think still in the military? not sure) so it was a 5 member group, but given how small the odds seemed of ever seeing them at all, I'm really glad I got the chance and it was so nice to see so many fans in the crowd too. Infinite performed a bunch of their hits plus their newest title, and they seemed really charming and happy to be there. Dongwoo especially cracked me up, he was so larger than life and so funny.

Be Mine
Nothing’s Over
Love Letter
New Emotions
Paradise
Man in Love

NMIXX were next and it was a real hometown hero's welcome for Lily - she is not from Sydney lol but about 30 of her friends and family had flown up from Melbourne and in the ments she pointed them out in the crowd, two row of people distinguished by their hot pink vests. She is SO adorable and I am so glad she got to perform in Australia. As for their performance, I really do think they are a good group but their first couple of songs (O.O and Tank) were the ones that appeal to me least. As they progressed through the set, ending on their two most recent titles, I was so much happier. They're GOOD! JYP just needs to give them good songs!

O.O
Tank
Dice
My Gosh
Party O'Clock
Love Me Like This

Clip from Lily's sister Amy
Friends and family
Lily on bubble, getting excited about COLES AND ALDI she's so cute

Finally The Boyz! My favourites! I have seen them before, while I was on holiday in Europe in 2022, but I did not think they would ever come to Australia. So few groups do and this is not an especially strong fanbase for them. With all the troubles with this festival, I didn't even let myself get excited about it until the members started mentioning on bubble etc that they were actually going to the airport! They were getting on the plane!

They had a day off before the show and it was just SO nice that they got to see the harbour and Circular Quay - usually they joke that they bring the rain with them, but for these few days the sun was shining and the sky was so blue, so they saw Sydney at her best.

They only did 5 songs (which seems unfair, especially since the two other groups did 6 each) but I've never see them perform Roar or Lip Gloss before, and the other songs are all stone cold bangers that I love. It was also my first time seeing Eric! He was on hiatus when I saw them in Europe. (He did have to leave the stage briefly because he had a cramp - I hope he's okay!)

They were great headliners, they got everyone up on their feet for DDD and Thrill Ride, and it was just so good! They're performers who perform, as the kids would say. I loved seeing the unchoreographed moments too, with Hyunjae, Younghoon and Sunwoo getting sunglasses from the crowd and playing around with them, Eric and Sangyeon poking at Kevin's bare arms, Juyeon and also Kevin RUNNING back to the main stage to get to their spots in time, Jacob doing the "Aussie Aussie Aussie" chant (mercifully the only one of the night lol).

They said they were looking forward to coming back for a full concert ("30 songs!" Eric promised recklessly) and, well, I've heard that one from other groups before so I'll cross my fingers but won't hold my breath. If they do, I'll be so ready…

Maverick
Roar
Lip Gloss
DDD
Thrill Ride

Thread of fancams
Sunwoo's kiss ment: "my girls, my boys, I love you so much, I want to kiss you guys"
Hyunjae saying "why no??" so cutely when he drew an empty seat in the raffle
Hyunjae giving many hearts
Eric abs
Eric and Kevin foolish pose
Younghoon's tiny Roar

Ok now all the things that were bad, none of them to do with the artists: long list of gripes )
popliar: shaun tan (Default)
Concert film from IU's September 2022 concert. I admit I micronapped in the middle because it's 3 hours long and I was sleepy - but overall this was enjoyable.

IU has such charm and poise. It's an image but one she portrays so flawlessly - she's so warm as she performs to the crowd. And she has this star quality, this sense that we are witness to part of a bigger story.

When they wheeled out the cake to celebrate her 14 years since debut (she has spent over half her life in the public eye!) and the IU doll has a melancholy face, she laughed and said why does she look so sad? But I thought it was pretty perfect. She conveys this sense of great depth of emotion, that she has a whole life and a whole story that she brings to the stage.

Production design was great with the hot air balloon making its circuit around the stadium, and the dancers were so charming. Loved the inclusion of live band and orchestra.

popliar: shaun tan (Default)
This was P1Harmony's second time in Australia, after last year's Hallyu Pop Fest. They had a short, fun, energetic set at that festival, so it was an easy choice to decide to go to this one.

The show started 30 minutes late and after the first couple of songs, Keeho apologised and let us know that Soul was injured and would not be participating in any dancing/choreo. Soul sat on the side of stage looking a bit forlorn. I remembered him being such a great dancer from last year so it's unfortunate he couldn't perform this time.

This was a fun show. They're a group with good energy and their songs are fun and often high tempo. There was a section with member solos which were of varying interest (Theo has a nice voice, Keeho is an ace, the other varies) but still interesting. The crowd was really into it and it was a decent, solid turn out for the Hordern.

What detracted to the show for me were the long bits of filler. I'm not sure if this was stalling for time due to technical issues, or if it was just part of their schtick, but it felt like we spent waaaay too long on silly ments and games like "ok this half of the crowd, try to cheer louder than that half!" or "let's do a wave!" etc. I really would have preferred to see more songs!

Some random thoughts:
  • They opened with a song with not much dancing which surprised me. A chance to show off the live vocals.
  • Keeho cut short an aegyo ment because he couldn't stand it anymore LOL
  • The VCR was so random they were playing a board game and there was like a full SCREEN of instructions like we were watching a variety show.
  • Keeho said Theo is the prince of kebabs because he comes to Australia and has kebabs I'm in tears.
  • For a large part of the show there were this group of grown guys behind us who I guess got industry comp tickets and they were just like having a laugh in that sarcastic mocking we're too good for boy bands way? And for part of it mocking their English too? I wanted to fight them so bad.
  • One of the VCRs was a Christmas song?!
popliar: (milcob)
Twitter supercut
Youtube playlist

Seventeen - Hot
Jackson - Blow
Kingdom - Ascension
Ateez - Don't Stop
DPR Ian - Miito
CIX - 458
Moonbin and Sanha - Who
The Boyz - Sweet
Onlyoneof Junji - Be Mine
Lionesses - Will you be my groom?

Almost made it:
Ateez - Guerilla
Kingdom - Long Live the King
Verivery - Undercover
The Boyz - Whisper
Jun - Limbo

very very brief notes )
popliar: (seulgi bad boy)
Keep meaning to post this - belated, but here.

Twitter supercut
Youtube playlist

Im Nayeon - POP!
IVE - Love Dive
Billlie - Ring Ma Bell
Choi Yena ft. Bibi - Smiley
Viviz - Bop Bop!
NewJeans - Hype Boy
Red Velvet - Birthday
Kwon Eunbi - Esper
Saay - Talk 2 Me Nice
DeVita - Bonnie and Clyde
Suzy - Satellite

Almost made it:
Cherry Bullet - Love in Space
Red Velvet - Feel My Rhythm
Red Velvet - Wildside
H1-Key - Run
Chanmina - Mirror

very brief commentary )

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