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mecThis one is going to be short, as there wasn't a great deal of difference from LA, though there were a few things. I think Maia summed Jin up perfectly by calling him a pretty princess and commenting that he hadn't slept in a month. :-)
This time I queued with Becs, Rin, Maia, Saya and Carly, and we ended up further forward in the queue than Nov 2010 - past the phone booths, and not too far into the little secondary queue bit round the corner from the entrance. It was a particularly exciting afternoon, as Maia, Saya and Carly had spotted Jin while lunching at a ramen restaurant, leading to an epic phone call from Maia in which I basically just caught "Jin!", "ramen" and "Harry Potter glasses!" over the background noise. They had to fill us in later.
Of course, there were the usual questions from passers-by as to what we were in a queue for. A girl near us informed people it was for Barney on Ice. Maia decided to go for the slightly more adult approach, and told people (including a cop) we were waiting for Brazilian strippers. One guy seemed pretty interested in this! A lot of people wished us luck and told us to have fun.
After a couple of days of gorgeous weather New York decided to have a laugh at our expense. It was so cold we were taking turns to go shopping for extra layers, and hunting for hot drinks. Maia had kindly made us lovely pies, so if you see a spot outside the theatre with a lot of pastry, that was us, sorry. Also the really bad rendition of Sun Burns Down, and a lot of Fantastic Baby-ing. It was a surprisingly Big Bang-themed day.
Anyway, they moved the queue up at six, and let us in at seven. Japanese camera crews came around the line for a bit and spoke to a few people; the poor Japanese guy next to us ducked down to avoid being spotted. Not sure what they were there for; my impression was for news, though I think I heard something about a documentary?
We raced inside and downstairs after the bagcheck and landed up 3-4 rows from the front, just off to the left of the stage. I seriously need to learn to walk in high heels for concerts so I don't have to scramble between people's heads. For this show I could basically only see from the waist up, most of the time, depending on the angle. Maia managed to keep the girls behind us from barging in front. I have to say, it's an enlightening experience being around mobs of fangirls when you're with a couple of people who speak Chinese. I'm a little sad at some of the rudeness going on. We were all there for the same purpose, after all.
At 7:30 we had the first warm-up act, Paper Doll - 3 guys and one gorgeous girl who rocked the theatre for 20 mins. Jin's show may be all pop/hip-hop but his opening acts tend to be guitar-based! No idea about titles but there were a couple of really nice songs, and they performed with so much vigour and enthusiasm! Great start to the show. If you remember the movie 'Wayne's World', the singer reminded me a lot of Cassandra in the way she sang and moved.
We had a 10min interval, and then Joseph Vincent came out for about 30mins. He is such a cute, dorky creature who deserved every cheer he got. His set-list differed a bit from LA if I recall correctly, though some of it remained the same, and he stumbled a bit on the second song, pausing to ask us...something I can't read. He mentioned the people who were in line at midnight (I gather there were people there even before that).
He'd run out of t-shirts to throw so he threw a towel into the audience, once again emphasising that while he would prefer it to be caught by a lady, he would be cool with it being a guy too. I love an equal opportunity balladeer. A girl named Anastasia(?) caught it, but didn't make it to the stage, ending up down the front by us instead. So Joseph climbed from the stage to serenade her face-to-face, aww. Then he wondered how to get back up on the stage, saying it was really high!
Amusingly, when he asked where all his "fellas" were at, a whole bunch of girls in front of us raised their hands.
We had a 10min interval, during which time the serenaded girl did not return to her spot but remained where she was. While I can't blame her for wanting to stay down he front, I'm afraid it didn't exactly endear her to anyone there - we were short on space as it was.
Jin's set-list was exactly the same as before so I don't have much to add. It struck me during Sun Burns Down that he seemed to be dancing more than in LA, and that held true for the rest of the show. I don't know if it's just that he's more relaxed now the tour is underway, or that he's had more time to add things in, but I appreciated the change, and it seemed to me that he smiled more too.
This time I was prepared for Tell Me Where. Unfortunately, the melody seemed to have gotten lost somewhere, so I couldn't hear the tune. He makes such cute girly hand movements; I love it.
Thanks to Nhixxie I was watching out for the body wave in Body Talk this time, and there was *nothing* subtle about it. Though by far the biggest cheer was when he removed his sunglasses. Other people have to take off shirts for that kind of reaction. With Jin, a pair of sunglasses will do! (I'd cheer too. They do look awfully tacky.)
I have no comment on Set Love Free; it's not really my kind of song. I do appreciate watching him go for the high notes, though!
I didn't notice first time around, but I guess he probably did it for all the shows - a little snorting gesture for the "cocaine" in Like You. He was sweating on people down the front by this point. It's a bit disconcerting when you can actually see the sweatdrops flying. Doesn't surprise me, since he kept himself so zipped up I could barely see the gorgeous skull shirt beneath.
Pin Dom took us until 9. I love the audience participation for this one, though I have to say the hand movements work better in a larger venue, and with Japanese audiences. People kept moving out of synch. Still, if you can't move your arm for fear of elbowing your neighbour in the head...
Jin announced that he'd be back out, and we were told there would be another 10min interval.
After the break, That's What She Said, complete with cup. I suspect I'd have disliked the performance as much as I dislike the song if Jin had been the one tying up girls, but because they tie each other up - and then tie him up, and he's the one drinking during the "swallow" parts - that somehow makes it a bit better in my mind. (Not sure what kind of message he's trying to send here, but it sure is intriguing. He looks so smug about it, too.) He chugged the drink and chucked the cup again.
Aphrodisiac was even better this time around. You can't take it seriously at all, but Jin dancing in his seat, hat on head and pimp cane in hand, does make for an entertaining picture. He looked so happy to be there. I love it when he totally throws himself body and soul into a performance and you can see how much he's enjoying himself.
When he threw his hat into the crowd, it wound up a little to my right, and the scuffle was terribly fierce. Maia reckons the almighty shriek was some poor girl getting her face ripped off. It's a used hat. C'mon. Is it worth losing an eye?
Since we no longer have Jin's friends to do our bidding and attack his collarbones, he went in for a little self-molestation around the neck during Yellow Gold. (Sorry, still can't comment on the dancers. They're extremely good, but there's no camaraderie anywhere. It's like he's dancing with six total strangers and that spoils it for me a little, because it means there's no one for him to talk to, no one to draw him out a bit. And there's no one as adorable as Aubree.)
That said, they do look more relaxed during Oowah, and Jin gave us another one of those adorable little smiles at the end.
California Rock was, of necessity, different from LA because Prophet wasn't there, so we didn't get to see Jin collapse in a heap of rap!fail this time. He just wandered around the stage during the rap part instead, making little interjections. I swear he's just taken all the robot moves from Christmas Morning and put them in California Rock.
The other thing that was different was the bra attack! He looked much more amused this time. I guess he's learning to expect flying lingerie. Is this how Tom Jones feels?
Jin and the dancers held hands and bowed, and the curtains closed on them. Cue more screams for an encore. Seasons works incredibly well as a closing number because the audience sings half of it, and you could hear it so clearly whenever Jin held the mic away and stopped singing. He muttered a couple of things I couldn't catch (luckily, Rin did), which ironically turned out to be him asking us if we understood it.
When the curtains closed again, Jin's voice floated out of the dark, advising us to get drunk...and get horny. *head-desk* MEN! Some wag to my right yelled out that it was dangerous to drink and drive.
On the way out, we paused long enough to meet Ri (hi, Ri!), who couldn't leave just yet, but the rest of us had a close encounter with the cameras by the door. I managed to dodge, I think. Maia and Carly both said stuff, however, so I'm curious to see where it ends up. It's so unfair of them to tackle people after cons, when you're so wired you'll say absolutely anything.
Another fun concert from Jin, who seems to be loosening up as the tour progresses. By all rights, he should be so laid-back in San Francisco that he can do the entire show lying down. I look forward to seeing how the night goes! I'm impressed with how he and the dancers are holding up with this crazy schedule. I'm not even doing all the shows and it's knocking me out. :-)
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