I’ve been spending my whole sunday uploading and updating the music section. Now, MVs to go. I don’t think i’ll be doing the caps this time since it’s too time consuming T.T I’m excited…heheh… I want to do everything at once. I’ve still got comments and requests to manage (~.~) Plus, the mp3 list really need to be updated. Before I get busy with Uni again, I’ll try my best to catch up. Whilst waiting, here’s my update about Sung Si Kyung’s concert that I attended yesterday. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside, so yeah… no photos Click Click!

성시경 Concert, April 26 2008, 이대

I arrived at 6:45pm, the concert to begin at 7pm, and there was already a crowd of people waiting outside and entering the building. Amidst the crowd, we can see Sung Si Kyung posters and banners plastered everywhere. Security guard men in sleek suits and female workers in bright fluorescent yellow tops, the countdown began. Inside the theatre, people were scrambling around the place looking for their seats. Dang, just my luck. A seat directly in front of the thick metal handrails. Unless I sat straight up with my back stiff as a rock, I could only see either the top or bottom half of his body. 60,000 won for that ticket, should have chosen another seat.

A short slideshow movie is played. Pictures of Sung Si Kyung as a child up to where he is now flicker across the screen. The audience, mainly female (some guys who were dragged along by their girlfriends) and ajumas, ooohed and aahhed, admiring the long journey Sung Si Kyung had come to be where he is now. The curtain opens and the concert begins.

The background stage effects were beautiful. The concert began with Sung Si Kyung singing a few of his most well known songs. He was damn good, great singing live. But… after a while, the excitement wore off. You know… that’s what you get from listening to too much ballad songs in succession, especially from one singer. However, just as it reached that point, as the concert organizers had expected, there were breaks where Sung Si Kyung would start talking to the audience. Although I couldn’t catch a lot of what he was saying, you knew at that instant when the audience laughed uncontrollably, that Sung Si Kyung is a funny guy. He has this sense of humour that sneaks up on people. Without seeing him in person, you wouldn’t have guessed so. He was very good at engaging with the audience. He was playful on stage, and of course, always smiling.

Mid way through the concert, the atmosphere changed when he made the audience stand up and he began singing upbeat songs of other artists. It was so funny because he said he wasn’t good at dancing and compared himself to Dong Bang Shin Gi. He said HE is only a ballad singer lol. It was a surprise to see him dancing on stage, of course, not serious serious dancing, just simple playful dance routines. Also, during the concert, we see other slideshows of famous people expressing their opinions about him, what he doesn’t do well and what he likes etc… It was hilarious because it was emphasized quite a bit that he liked drinking soju… It’s the green bottle Korean trademark alcoholic drink. I think it was soju, the pictures of the bottle looked like it. Before singing the upbeat songs, he actually did crack open at bottle of soju and took a sip. I guess it was there to make people laugh. He was ready for the fun moment. It was even funnier when he was singing a trot song. On the screen you can see bottles of soju floating everywhere, flying abouts in mid air, amusing the audience.

Every time he took a break to take a drink from his water bottle, the crowd would make noise. At first, the whole water bottle drinking thing caught on because he encouraged the very first floor audience to cheer when he drank from the bottle once. Then he made the second floor audience cheer after his second gulp of water. It became a routine, not an occasion did the crowd miss that opportunity to show their excitement.

His jokes became funnier, the audience laughing hard. He changed 3 or 4 times. Approaching the end, you can see that he has put 110% of his effort into singing and performing for his fans and the audience. He was drenched in sweat from head to toe. It reached the point where he had to take off his glasses and ruffle his hair a few times. Everyone laughed. He joked about his sweat drenched hair and the impressive style achieved by simply sliding his hand through his wet hair. He even joked about being smelly from all the sweat. Nearing the end, he basically drenched himself with the last bottle of water, pouring it over his head. Gosh, I have to admit, the hairstyle he ended up having from sweat and exhaustion, looked absolutely old school and funny. It was cute because he simply left it like that, unconcerned, focusing on singing.

Ah.. also between the performance, he read out fan comments. He read out their comments and called out their names. If it was them, they’d raise their hands and they’d get to have a short conversation with him. After, he made two couples come up on stage. This was where he played a short game with them. The two guys of the two couples had to compete with each other answering questions about Sung Si Kyung, which he personally read out. The winner couple received a box of chocolate and time on stage for the guy to make a short speech to the girl. Sung Si Kyung made things more interesting by suggesting the guy to kiss the girlfriend. It was funny because the guy just somehow awkwardly kissed his girlfriend. It was as though he just grabbed her head and then “bam!”, a kiss smack on the forehead ahaha.

For the upbeat songs, the audience all stood up and began clapping, jumping up and down along with the music. You now that tune “Bounce with me, bounce with me…..”. Anyways, I felt as though the floor I was standing on was about to break. All that people jumping up and down, god knows what could have happen.

At the end, he told the audience he would sing the next song with all his heart. It was spectacular because that was exactly just what he did. Beautiful. Splendid. He was so tired after dancing and singing to the upbeat songs (including one of Bi’s songs), that he went to take a short break behind the stage. We all thought it was finished but the audience began to chant “Sung Si Kyung, Sung Si Kyung” repeatedly, he came back and sang a song… it seemed as though it was a newly written song because there was only one guy playing the piano and Sung Si Kyung was singing by reading off a sheet of piano music. At the very very end, he thanked the people behind him playing the instruments and continued to joke that because some people got crappy cheap tickets he couldn’t really see them properly which was sad to him. He joked that because every time he turned around he would see his own back on the screen instead of the audience’s faces. He made the photographer come up on stage and take a photo of him with his back to the audience, so that the photographer can take a snapshot with the audience behind him. It was so funny because he made these cute funny poses ahaha..

After the concert when everyone was leaving there were girls waiting outside his van, excitedly waiting for him to come out and take photos. It was crazy, everyone was pushing in to get a view, waiting and waiting. Finally he came out and there was a frenzy of camera flashes. Amongst the crowd was my friend who managed to take two photos of him. Woah…. These girls, they look mature and relaxed to start off with but when it comes to idols, they go absolutely berserk. As the van drove off, there were still girls following and running after it. They waited at exactly the entrance box where the van stopped to pass through. The girls stood on the side where Sung Si Kyung was sitting, front right hand side seat, and screamed and waved wildly. Sung Si Kyung winded down his window ever so slightly and made the last effort to wave back. I’m guessing the fans that chased the van were satisfied. Woah… the extent fandom can transform girls, it’s just a bit scary and overboard sometimes. But… maybe it could be just the excitement and their way of showing gratitude. This is now way, may I repeat, NO WAY, anything near to what fans of pop stars are like. For eg. Super Junior (My friend witnessed how crazy Suju fans were when she attended their concert).

From this concert, I had learnt a bit more about Sung Si Kyung. The impressions he gave are as follows. He looks like a smart, polite and gentle guy. Although you may see him with serious expressions most of the time, if you get him to talk, he has this cheeky fun and playful expression. He seems like a very hard worker, putting all his effort and everything that he has got, to give the best performance he can possibly give. By thanking the audience from the bottom of his heart, he seems very sincere. Also, there an air of professionalism that he has. I guess it’s because he has been in the industry for so long.

Overall, excellent singing. It was a great opportunity for us to see another side of him on stage. Although the theatre wasn’t too good, we all had a great time. Sung Si Kyung is now truly in my good books, no doubt a perfect role model to look up to.