Wow! Fantastic, baby!

BIG BANG ALIVE TOUR 2012 – Honda Center, Anaheim, CA (Friday, November 2, 2012)

Not a lot of people know this about me, but I’m a fan of K-Pop (Korean Pop music). And the first artists that I listened to, and eventually got me into it, was Big Bang. Big Bang are a 5-member hip-hop/r & b/pop group who are part of YG Entertainment, one of the 3 big entertainment companies in South Korea, which also happens to be Psy’s (yes, “Gangnam Style” Psy) label. The members are Kwon Ji Yong/G-Dragon (group leader, rapper, main songwriter, arranger and producer),  Choi Seung Hyun/T.O.P. (rapper, songwriter), Dong Young Bae/Taeyang/Sol (vocalist), Kang Dae Sung/D-Lite (vocalist), and the “maknae” (the youngest) Lee Seung Hyun/Seungri/V.I. (vocalist). I’ve listened to Big Bang since 2007, liked a lot of their music because it’s not typical of what you’ll hear in K-Pop. It’s very “western”. If you heard their music randomly, and did not pay attention to the lyrics, you would think the music is from an American artist. I wasn’t as big of a fan of BB back then as I am now. I knew who they were and developed a crush on T.O.P. immediately, the pretty face of the group (he is very handsome and charismatic, not to mention, hilarious). My 15-year-old cousin, Jaya, who was at the time, 10 years old, have always loved Taeyang. At the time, I never dreamed to see them live in concert. Didn’t even cross my mind, nor really desired to. I was just a fond listener. In 2010. I started paying closer attention to them. Not sure exactly when that started. Perhaps, it had to do with fellow YG artist Dara from 2NE1, who was known as Sandara Park when she was a celebrity in the Philippines. Started paying attention to 2NE1 and from there, starting following Big Bang closely, out of curiosity. Fast-forward to 2012, they announced that they were going to have a world tour, and that they’d be playing at the Honda Center in Anaheim, for 1 night. I got a bit excited at the news, but still wasn’t that big of a fan just yet. While they were in Asia, touring and promoting their new album, I started watching fan-cams of their concerts, and thought that it looked so much fun and that they were really, really good. Then, I finally started watching their other videos on YouTube (tv appearances on game-shows / talk-shows, other concert clips, and music videos). I found these guys very charismatic, funny, and full of personality, it made me want to see them in concert. So, I waited for them to start selling tickets to that one LA show. Told Jaya about it and that I was going to take her to see them. She got very excited, but it almost didn’t happen for us because when they finally started selling the tickets, it sold out within seconds on Ticketmaster! It shocked me because I had logged on to TM exactly at 10am when they said they would sell the tickets, but I couldn’t get any! I was heart-broken and had to tell Jaya the bad news. Not a week later, however, they announced a 2nd show in Anaheim! So, I thought this was my chance. I logged on to TM again on the date the tickets were gonna go on sale, and FINALLY, I was able to purchase 2 tickets. It cost me an arm and a leg, but the seats weren’t that great. But, I thought, “hey, I’ll take what I can get.” As the day of the show got closer, I decided to check out other ticket brokers online, just for the heck of it, and found out that they still had tickets, and at the sections that I wanted! The tickets were still pricey so I decided to wait it out. A week passed, and I kept checking daily and noticed that the ticket prices went lower. I told my self  YOLO (you only live once), so I bought tickets that were closer to the stage, but found myself with 2 extra tickets, the original tickets that I had purchased. I ended up not being able to sell nor get rid of those tickets (even when I offered it as a gift to another friend for her birthday – she couldn’t go and was very disappointed, she LOVES G-Dragon). That was a loss to me, but I thought, I helped with the tickets sales, so it’s all good. Anything to help Big Bang, right?

The day of the show finally arrived. Seemed like the longest day of my life. I couldn’t wait to get off work and get to the concert. My Korean co-workers at work, kept reminding me all week long that the concert was coming up, especially Danny, who kept bringing it up! It was too funny, and cute. Jaya got dropped off at my work and we both head back to the OC to my house, long enough for me to change clothes and switch cars with my mom. We headed to the Honda Center, which is about 10 minutes away from me. Got there and was totally surprised that there was a swarm of people going to the concert. Didn’t realized how popular they are with American audiences until that night. Got to our seats, and we were incredibly close to the stage. But, I could have gotten the VIP tickets and stood next to the stage. Sigh. Next time. Before the show even started, the energy was already electric. They were playing Big Bang music videos on the big screens, and everyone was singing along to them, at the top of their lungs, and waving their Big Bang crown sticks – the official light sticks of BB – and the place looked like a sea of yellow lights. Every time someone came out from backstage  - the backup singers, their band – screaming commenced. It was insane. I’ve been to an NSYNC concert, twice, and it was as electric, if not more, than the NSYNC concerts I went to.

The show finally started. They showed a quick film intro, the concept was, the world is being invaded, and it’s up to BB to save the world from destruction. They arrived in pod capsules, and when the curtain came down, and revealed the guys in each capsule, the place went BANANAS! Even I was screaming endlessly it seems. They came out of their capsules and started performing “Still Alive” and from then on the concert was a complete blur. It surprised me how much everyone knew their songs, and singing along, in Korean. I surprised myself how much  I knew the lyrics to their songs and sang along to most of it, and even knew the choreography to their songs! Highlight for me was finally seeing T.O.P. – him and his “chooming” (silly dance), and G-Dragon debuting his song “Crayon”, and giving us a taste of his new song from, what I hear was, his upcoming all-English album. These 2 boys are my fave out of the 5, with Seungri a close third. They are all good-looking boys. G-Dragon is mesmerizing. I’ve never seen anyone with that much swagger on stage or anywhere else. Swag was coming out of his pores. He doesn’t even try to be cool. He just is. Same goes for T.O.P. This guy has so much charisma, and incredibly good looking, he didn’t have to do much, he just stood there, standing tall and straight, walking like a boss and everyone would start screaming. A reviewer from NY Times even said that T.O.P. had this regal aura about him. He wasn’t kidding. They have a live band, who are AMAZING, and they sing live, no lip-syncing at all. They do, however, play backing tracks, which is normal with a lot of acts that dance around on stage. They’re very polished and on point with their choreography. It’s not too elaborate, so it looks very natural when they move. Taeyang’s a ball of energy, and I didn’t realize he was the shortest out of all of them. I heard that he’s only 5’3”, while the rest are 5’9” and T.O.P. being the tallest at 5’11”. Tae and Seungri were the main spokespeople. Their English has gotten so much better, and Seungri is quite the personality. He’s very charismatic and knows how to work the crowd. I‘ve always thought of Seungri as an over-achiever, and seeing him that evening made me believe it even more.

That evening, we all sang “Happy Birthday” to T.O.P. whose birthday was on November 4. After the entire arena sang to him, Seungri prompted Bennie, their drummer, to “drop that beat”, and T.O.P. starting dancing his “choom dance” to the delight of everyone in the crowd. That made MY night. He’s a very silly boy, and I’m glad I got to witness that in person. Actually, I believe that LA is very biased to T.O.P..Towards the end of the night, each member started to express their thanks. Each time a member said something, the whole place screamed and cheered. When it got to T.O.P., he had barely just said “hello” and the place went NUTS! I couldn’t believe it! I can’t blame them, he’s just “top”.

They sang a lot of my favourites: “Bad Boy”, “Fantastic Baby”, “Number One”, and “Haru-Haru” – which was lovely, the entire arena sang along during the chorus. But when they sang my most favourite, “Lies” – I just teared up. I love that song. And seeing and hearing them do it live was just indescribable. Of course, I sang along to it and even danced along to the choreography. Man, I felt like a teenager again.

Jaya had a chance to move down closer to the stage and got a chance to see her “baby” Taeyang, up close – took a picture of him and even a video. She got really close, he was within her arm’s reach. She couldn’t believe it, nor get over it! She came back to our seats and started screaming in my ear and couldn’t stop shaking. She also took a few pictures of Dae, who also came to where she was.

And just like that, the show ended. Was a bit sad, but mostly happy and satisfied that I finally got to see Big Bang, whom I never thought I’d see live in concert. And the best part was I made Jaya very, very happy, for her birthday, especially after the incredibly difficult year she and her family have had. I’m thankful to God that I was able to do this for her because I knew it would make her very, very happy. I told her that the next time Big Bang come to the States, we will get those VIP tickets! I am now a full-pledged VIP. Big Bang, fighting! Saranghae!