(June 17th at Saitama Super Arena)
I thought I’d better write this down as soon as I got home, otherwise I’d forget everything.
Bigbang were, in one word, FANTASTIC. It was my second time seeing them live but the first full concert so I was incredibly excited beforehand. Our tickets were the ‘bad seats’ so I didn’t get my hopes up but when we actually found our seats they were great - high up but with a full view of the arena, and we could see the screens too. Armed with binoculars we were absolutely fine!
After queuing up for merch (which took a while…) we found our seats and only had to wait about 10 minutes for the concert to start. Sitting there surrounded by thousands of little yellow lights was such a special moment. Honestly, for those of you going to see the guys on their World Tour, just wait until that moment when the lights go down, the yellow crowns come on, and the entire arena SCREAMS for Bigbang - incredible.
Everyone started chanting Fantastic Baby until they finally came out - and what an entrance! (After an hilarious mini-film about 5 guys being cryogenically frozen in order to save the world in the future - needless to say I was in stitches over that) they descended in their pods and started with Still Alive. OH. MY. LIFE. I forgot how gorgeous they are in person, and just seeing them on the screen made my heart stop. They have such amazing energy which cannot be felt through a screen - witnessed in person, it’s quite overwhelming. Once the initial shock of actually seeing them again wore off, I was able to properly enjoy the performances.
First off: Seungri was sick. His throat was all croaky and he apologized profusely to the arena (in return he got lots of ‘OMG OPPAR ARE YOU OK???’ from everyone), but he tried his hardest throughout and kept up his usual hilarious repartee.
I think the set list was pretty similar to the other Japan concerts, with the exception that we got to see Monster live (I loathed the MV and the song on first hearing, but live it’s something else), so I won’t go into detail about each and every song. I’ll mention personal favourites though:
Knock Out was FUCKING NUTS live. I felt the bass through to my toes, and with the live band it had a slightly darker, slower feel to it and I loved it. It doesn’t hurt that it’s fucking GD & TOP up on the stage swaggering around either.
Cafe. They performed it after How Gee and a couple of others, so they weren’t in the outfits I normally associate with Cafe (i.e. those white suits with their faces on them SOB). Seungri’s part was understandably soft, but apart from that it was fab. Jiyong’s falsetto…dear lord god, hnnnnnng. Especially the high ‘uh uh uh’ at the end. Just thinking about it makes me want to weep. Oh, and Dae’s verse was golden.
Love Song. TABI SANG. Out on the front of the runway all on his lonesome. He sounded beautiful and I got all teary ;_;
Fantastic Baby. I didn’t like the song on first listen of the album but it’s a gazillion times better live. Plus, we got it again for the encore. SCORE.
Stupid Liar. Only for that glorious line by Tabi: “HOW YA DOIN’ LADIES?” I DIED.
Haru Haru. Yes, it was the Japanese version, and since Haru Haru was the song that got me into kpop, it was a bit jarring to hear it sung in a different language; however it was still breathtaking. The raps for GD & Tabi in Japanese cannot be easy but they did so well, I actually felt proud of them!
How Gee. FANTASTIC SONG, ENOUGH SAID.
Blue. I finally got to take part in Mission Blue! I know I said that the yellow crowns were beautiful - well, the blue looks even lovelier. It made the song special, both to Japanese fans and to Bigbang. The song, again, is even better live.
Feeling! Oh how I love Feeling. It’s such a feel-good song and they clearly enjoy performing it. We got it again for the encore, and that made it even better.
For the encore everyone started singing the chorus to My Heaven and that was SO moving. We actually sounded really good as an arena ;) They came back out and we got Koe wo Kikasete, My Heaven, Feeling, Fantastic Baby, AND Bad Boy. How nuts is that? The longest encore by far. By the end Taeyang was barely wearing any clothes and was super sweaty, Jiyong looked about ready to collapse and was equally sweaty, Tabi was high on life and bouncing through the VIP seats like a kid with some crazy bed-hair going on, Dae had sung his voice hoarse and poor Ri was just dancing and playing with fans since he couldn’t sing anymore. THAT was the best part. They were honestly so damned happy and relaxed and they were having fun. Wonderful wonderful wonderful.
Now, on to the ‘talking’. Seungri naturally was the MC for the night, despite his voice, and he was his usual hilarious self, although YB made fun of his voice several times (poor Ri). They seemed to be in an especially good mood tonight, and Tabi was super talkative - whenever Seungri asked him a question he got his dimply smile and looked kind of abashed, but he happily answered and even started up the talking himself once or twice. He’s clearly been practising - his accent is lovely. He even said himself that he’s improved; he crouched down and put his hand at knee height and said “that was my skill last year”. Seungri then asked what his skill is now, and he jumped up and put his hand up “Up here!” SO FREAKING ADORABLE.
In the first ‘talk break’ Seungri got the members to imitate each other. GD imitated Tabi and his hand gestures and swag walk on stage - I think everyone in the arena was in hysterics, it was so accurate! Then Tabi impersonated YB and it was just…oh my life it was spot on, his kind of ballerina-dance-walking thing he does (I have no idea how to describe it but I’m sure the fancams will appear soon). Finally, Seungri did an impression of GD’s ‘BRAH’, then Dae did the ‘ninja’ line from High High - fucking brilliant, seriously. Seeing them playing around like that was just wonderful.
In another of the talking bits, GD mentioned his solo album coming out this August, Tabi talked about his new film (bless him, he mentioned it at completely the wrong moment - right when Ri was talking about Bigbang - and the others just looked at him like “…um, hyung, now is NOT the time”). Needless to say, the screams that greeted Tabi’s announcement of his movie raised the blimming roof. I think my ears are still ringing.
Before the encore, Seungri asked all the members whether they’d enjoyed the concert. Tabi (if you can’t tell I’m a TOP-stan by now then shame on you) whined that he didn’t want to go home, then proceeded to have a mini-tantrum on stage. He gets more ridiculous with age, honestly.
A quick note about the other members:
YB stripped off his shirt about 3 times and I think by the end there were no more clothes to give him so he just pranced round half naked and no one seemed to mind.
Dae was fab. His voice live is off the wall, and seeing him flying round the arena in a pair of freaking angel wings was amazing in big sparkly letters. He also joked around a lot with Seungri and YB, and did some adorable little dance with Seungri.
GD was so sassy during Cafe, and super energetic the rest of the time. His hair is now that weird orangey-yellow but he often had a hat on so I could pretend that the mess that is his hair wasn’t happening. He sounded great today, especially during his sung bits in Blue. High High was an absolute joy to watch - in fact, HE is a joy to watch, end of. I always found my eyes being drawn to him on stage. Twice he just flopped down open-legged on stage, then got up by doing some fucking hot as hell bendy thing and oh my life it was glorious.
Seungri was a little star today. His solo was Strong Baby, and while he didn’t sing much, he danced like it was going out of fashion and it was so enjoyable to watch. His perf was utterly ridiculous - he had a freaking laser gun and was, apparently, saving the world from evil or something - and I loved it.
There are a hundred things that I’ve forgotten and I’ll remember them tomorrow and kick myself, but that’s enough for now. Suffice to say that it was the most enjoyable 3 hours I have ever spent and I only hope that everyone else gets to see them live too.
source: thatsjustnotcricket @ tumblr
OOH MYYYY THEY SEEMED TO HAVE SOOOO MUCH FUN!!! I WILL NOT MISS THIS CONCERT! BE IT HERE OR ELSEWHERE IN EUROPE!!
TAEYANG always VIP*.*
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