Witnessed the Wonder.
Detailed post of the Jonas Brothers' Concert!
The mass-tweeter-who-never-tweets-with-Sunye's tweeted with that message to learn the Nobody dance at like 4:30. The clouds were rolling in and there was a possibility it could be canceled due to rain, so I was hoping it wouldn't. It rained lightly for like... two minutes, but maybe that scared them so they didn't do it anymore. Which was sad, because I met a group of people who had come just for that (they didn't have concert tickets), and they left after a while.
They had some stuff going on outside so I wandered and ate some food. They were also giving out free baggies of BK apple fries (which makes no sense to me - why go to a fast food restaurant and pay for apple slices that you can slice up yourself at home?). There were a lot of screaming girls, but that was expected, I guess.
The line to get inside the venue was freaking long. Luckily, I'm sort of familiar with the Palace and I snuck around the back to another entrance that wasn't so bad. I ended up sitting next to some pretty cool people: a group of teenage (college?) girls and a mom and her two daughters. Luckily, they weren't the scream-your-head-off-every-five-seconds type. (Which, believe me, there were a lot of.)
They started promptly, like on the dot. The Honor Society was up first, and they were pretty good since I've never heard them. They played probably about 4-5 songs? Apparently they have an album coming out September 15, so maybe I should keep that in mind.
Then there was a small break as I saw them set up for WG, putting the microphones in place. The MC was really nice about introducing them as "the Jonas Brothers' friends." I heard smatterings of "Who are the Wonder Girls?" "I don't know who they are," "Asia!" and the like, but I kept my eyes on the stage. They played a clip that I think is on Youtube, pretty much a little introduction that they're huge all over Asia, and then... there they were.
They did their little introduction ("Hi, we're the Wonder Girls") and explained the Nobody dance, which, to me (as a fan), was a little confusing in itself. Yeeun, with her brilliant English, taught us, and I was pleased to see a lot of people following along (even though most of us probably only remembered the clap-clap part).
Then it was happening. It was like a daze, watching them perform. I just stared. Their vocals were pretty good, better than I was expected, especially Yeeun and Sunye. After they were done, they drew a pretty good reaction from the crowd. And then when they left the stage, I heard people still singing here and there, "Nobody, nobody but you~" and my heart swelled with this unexplainable feeling.
(Also, the Folder Min thing is real. At the end of their performance, Sunye bowed twice to the crowd, and was the only Wonder Girl to do so. Very cute, very respectful. Love her.)
I used to be against this whole breaking into America thing, but I think I've changed my mind. I don't want to be an elitist who wants their favorite artists to stay put in Asia, or brag that I knew about them first so that any noob fan feels like a waste of space. Watching the Wonder Girls there, sing and dance their hearts out, made me feel really proud. I'm not even a huge huge fan, but there was this awe that I knew probably showed on my face, my eyes watering. Even if they don't become super famous in the States, they are laying out groundwork for other Asians. Someone's gotta do it. I have so much more respect for the girls and JYP as well, who has been the coolest guy if you've gotten to talk to him on Twitter.
Oh, also I've noticed online that whenever an Asian is learning English (Rain, Se7en, BoA, WG, etc), English-speaking netizens are so quick to point out their accents and complain. Honestly, I didn't understand a word Sohee was singing, but the most beautiful part was that I did not hear one complaint from anyone in the crowd about it. And you know kids can be brutally honest, but not once did I hear someone mention that they had broken English. In fact, I heard no complaints at all about anything. That should mean something in itself. Maybe we are somewhat ready.
Jordin Sparks sang a couple songs, and she was great. I really like her, so I was able to enjoy her performances, though it seemed like she might've been sick or something since she messed up the high note in "One Step at a Time." Other than that, though, girl can sing.
Jonas Brothers were better than I thought. I actually liked some of their live songs better than when I had listened to them on CD. And I think I have a new kind of respect for them too. They do write their own music, they do play their own songs, and to be honest, their songs are pretty good. And not vulgar and nasty like most of the mainstream songs out there. They're a good influence/role model. Despite all the screaming fangirls (I did have to plug my ears a couple times, wow), they like to play music. Music speaks to people, no matter how old you are. It connects people together. And luckily, I knew a good portion of their songs (or the choruses, anyway), so I was able to enjoy it.
There were a few good touching moments, with Nick playing "Black Keys" and telling of his diabetes, and Joe holding back tears at the end of the Camp Rock song (which, I don't know if he's a good actor and if he does that at the every show, but it was heartwrenching). Jordin came back at the end to sing "Battlefield" with the Jobros playing for her (which was cute), and then I think the encore of "Burnin Up" came right after (I don't remember if it was before or after "Battlefield"). In any case, the Wonder Girls came out at the very end as everyone thanked the crowd and stuff.
I waited a little before leaving my seat and said bye to the girls I was sitting next to (the one girl was awesome, she was totally into everything), before wandering around. Wonder Girls said they had a meet and greet somewhere, which I was mentally groaning at because walking all the way around the venue was something I did not want to do. I started walking around until the crowd literally stopped and we weren't getting anywhere. It was because the Wonder Girls were there! They made a line, and there were already some girls waiting there, most of them teenagers or older because I didn't see any moms or little kids in front of me.
I met these cool people behind me, a girl who liked WG already and her friend who liked Jobros. We talked a bit, exchanged info, and then all of a sudden it was our turn. I seriously didn't know what to do. I put my bag down, and just gave a huge bow. Then I think I told them, "I love you" a million times, like to each of them. And maybe something like, "I'm about to cry," to which Sunye patted me and put her arm around me, sweet girl. They were all really friendly and polite, and I think Sohee was trying to tell me something about standing but I wasn't half listening since I was in a daze and so focused on Sunye. I didn't want to be like, "You're my favorite and I love you to death," in front of everyone else, but I so got a hug from her first.
I can't even remember what else happened, I was so in shock. Either Yeeun or Yoobin started up a conversation with Anna about her shirt (which had some Japanese band on it), to which they replied, "Oh, I listen to some Japanese music!" Cute. I think I told Yoobin and Sunmi that they did a really great job, and I seriously think I forgot to hug Yeeun after everything was said and done because I was so shaky.
Oops, I forgot to mention they gave a little info card as we left, with little facts about each member and more details about their Youtube, Twitters, etc. Great marketing tool.
They are gorgeous in real life. Simply gorgeous. Almost like dolls. I was almost afraid to touch them because they seriously looked perfect. I'm not kidding. I didn't even think they were all that pretty before this, but they are. Sunye was glowing, Yoobin gave off this cool aura, and Sunmi was adorable, just like you'd think. Sohee was surprisingly tall, and I'd guess that without their heels they're probably around my height or an inch taller. (I'm... 5'2"? 5'3"?) They have such nice, smooth skin.
I was kind of sad that JYP wasn't there because I'd totally chat him up, but alas. The girls were more than enough. I floated all the way home and it still kind of hasn't sunk in yet. If you get a chance to go, I say go. It was an awesome experience, all of it. I know a lot of you out there aren't Jobros fans, but it really wasn't all that bad. Plus the Wonder Girls are sweethearts. You'd have a blast.
Kudos if you read all of this, by the way. I just realized how long it turned out to be. It took about an hour to write up. :)
The mass-tweeter-who-never-tweets-with-Sunye's tweeted with that message to learn the Nobody dance at like 4:30. The clouds were rolling in and there was a possibility it could be canceled due to rain, so I was hoping it wouldn't. It rained lightly for like... two minutes, but maybe that scared them so they didn't do it anymore. Which was sad, because I met a group of people who had come just for that (they didn't have concert tickets), and they left after a while.
They had some stuff going on outside so I wandered and ate some food. They were also giving out free baggies of BK apple fries (which makes no sense to me - why go to a fast food restaurant and pay for apple slices that you can slice up yourself at home?). There were a lot of screaming girls, but that was expected, I guess.
The line to get inside the venue was freaking long. Luckily, I'm sort of familiar with the Palace and I snuck around the back to another entrance that wasn't so bad. I ended up sitting next to some pretty cool people: a group of teenage (college?) girls and a mom and her two daughters. Luckily, they weren't the scream-your-head-off-every-five-seconds type. (Which, believe me, there were a lot of.)
They started promptly, like on the dot. The Honor Society was up first, and they were pretty good since I've never heard them. They played probably about 4-5 songs? Apparently they have an album coming out September 15, so maybe I should keep that in mind.
Then there was a small break as I saw them set up for WG, putting the microphones in place. The MC was really nice about introducing them as "the Jonas Brothers' friends." I heard smatterings of "Who are the Wonder Girls?" "I don't know who they are," "Asia!" and the like, but I kept my eyes on the stage. They played a clip that I think is on Youtube, pretty much a little introduction that they're huge all over Asia, and then... there they were.
They did their little introduction ("Hi, we're the Wonder Girls") and explained the Nobody dance, which, to me (as a fan), was a little confusing in itself. Yeeun, with her brilliant English, taught us, and I was pleased to see a lot of people following along (even though most of us probably only remembered the clap-clap part).
Then it was happening. It was like a daze, watching them perform. I just stared. Their vocals were pretty good, better than I was expected, especially Yeeun and Sunye. After they were done, they drew a pretty good reaction from the crowd. And then when they left the stage, I heard people still singing here and there, "Nobody, nobody but you~" and my heart swelled with this unexplainable feeling.
(Also, the Folder Min thing is real. At the end of their performance, Sunye bowed twice to the crowd, and was the only Wonder Girl to do so. Very cute, very respectful. Love her.)
I used to be against this whole breaking into America thing, but I think I've changed my mind. I don't want to be an elitist who wants their favorite artists to stay put in Asia, or brag that I knew about them first so that any noob fan feels like a waste of space. Watching the Wonder Girls there, sing and dance their hearts out, made me feel really proud. I'm not even a huge huge fan, but there was this awe that I knew probably showed on my face, my eyes watering. Even if they don't become super famous in the States, they are laying out groundwork for other Asians. Someone's gotta do it. I have so much more respect for the girls and JYP as well, who has been the coolest guy if you've gotten to talk to him on Twitter.
Oh, also I've noticed online that whenever an Asian is learning English (Rain, Se7en, BoA, WG, etc), English-speaking netizens are so quick to point out their accents and complain. Honestly, I didn't understand a word Sohee was singing, but the most beautiful part was that I did not hear one complaint from anyone in the crowd about it. And you know kids can be brutally honest, but not once did I hear someone mention that they had broken English. In fact, I heard no complaints at all about anything. That should mean something in itself. Maybe we are somewhat ready.
Jordin Sparks sang a couple songs, and she was great. I really like her, so I was able to enjoy her performances, though it seemed like she might've been sick or something since she messed up the high note in "One Step at a Time." Other than that, though, girl can sing.
Jonas Brothers were better than I thought. I actually liked some of their live songs better than when I had listened to them on CD. And I think I have a new kind of respect for them too. They do write their own music, they do play their own songs, and to be honest, their songs are pretty good. And not vulgar and nasty like most of the mainstream songs out there. They're a good influence/role model. Despite all the screaming fangirls (I did have to plug my ears a couple times, wow), they like to play music. Music speaks to people, no matter how old you are. It connects people together. And luckily, I knew a good portion of their songs (or the choruses, anyway), so I was able to enjoy it.
There were a few good touching moments, with Nick playing "Black Keys" and telling of his diabetes, and Joe holding back tears at the end of the Camp Rock song (which, I don't know if he's a good actor and if he does that at the every show, but it was heartwrenching). Jordin came back at the end to sing "Battlefield" with the Jobros playing for her (which was cute), and then I think the encore of "Burnin Up" came right after (I don't remember if it was before or after "Battlefield"). In any case, the Wonder Girls came out at the very end as everyone thanked the crowd and stuff.
I waited a little before leaving my seat and said bye to the girls I was sitting next to (the one girl was awesome, she was totally into everything), before wandering around. Wonder Girls said they had a meet and greet somewhere, which I was mentally groaning at because walking all the way around the venue was something I did not want to do. I started walking around until the crowd literally stopped and we weren't getting anywhere. It was because the Wonder Girls were there! They made a line, and there were already some girls waiting there, most of them teenagers or older because I didn't see any moms or little kids in front of me.
I met these cool people behind me, a girl who liked WG already and her friend who liked Jobros. We talked a bit, exchanged info, and then all of a sudden it was our turn. I seriously didn't know what to do. I put my bag down, and just gave a huge bow. Then I think I told them, "I love you" a million times, like to each of them. And maybe something like, "I'm about to cry," to which Sunye patted me and put her arm around me, sweet girl. They were all really friendly and polite, and I think Sohee was trying to tell me something about standing but I wasn't half listening since I was in a daze and so focused on Sunye. I didn't want to be like, "You're my favorite and I love you to death," in front of everyone else, but I so got a hug from her first.
I can't even remember what else happened, I was so in shock. Either Yeeun or Yoobin started up a conversation with Anna about her shirt (which had some Japanese band on it), to which they replied, "Oh, I listen to some Japanese music!" Cute. I think I told Yoobin and Sunmi that they did a really great job, and I seriously think I forgot to hug Yeeun after everything was said and done because I was so shaky.
Oops, I forgot to mention they gave a little info card as we left, with little facts about each member and more details about their Youtube, Twitters, etc. Great marketing tool.
They are gorgeous in real life. Simply gorgeous. Almost like dolls. I was almost afraid to touch them because they seriously looked perfect. I'm not kidding. I didn't even think they were all that pretty before this, but they are. Sunye was glowing, Yoobin gave off this cool aura, and Sunmi was adorable, just like you'd think. Sohee was surprisingly tall, and I'd guess that without their heels they're probably around my height or an inch taller. (I'm... 5'2"? 5'3"?) They have such nice, smooth skin.
I was kind of sad that JYP wasn't there because I'd totally chat him up, but alas. The girls were more than enough. I floated all the way home and it still kind of hasn't sunk in yet. If you get a chance to go, I say go. It was an awesome experience, all of it. I know a lot of you out there aren't Jobros fans, but it really wasn't all that bad. Plus the Wonder Girls are sweethearts. You'd have a blast.
Kudos if you read all of this, by the way. I just realized how long it turned out to be. It took about an hour to write up. :)