*Disclaimer: I AM A FAN OF BIG BANG!! I’ve been following the success that is Big
Bang and all of their members since their debut in 2005, when news of K-Pop groups
were even HARDER to find in America. But, having been into H.O.T. waaaaay back
in the day, the moment I heard Big Bang’s sound, I knew I’d love their stuff,
and I have, for the past decade! So, seeing them in concert for the first time
EVER was simply amazing!! And then, seeing them BOTH NIGHTS, in LA (10.03.15 -- Staples Center:
#BigBangMadeInLA) and Anaheim (10.04.15 -- Honda Center: #BigBangMadeInAnaheim), was even
MORESO MINDBLOWING!!! But, as most older fans are, I was turned off by their
exteme style after their ‘Alive’ album. ‘Made’ was just strange.
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| My Seat @ Staples Center |
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| My Seat @ Honda Center |
Although
the Anaheim concert started later due to ‘traffic’ and had more encores, the
boys of Big Bang had more energy for the larger audience at the LA concert. It’s
tough to judge on which concert was better, but if I had to really pull in all
the factors, I’d say that the Anaheim concert was just a bit better because
they performed “Lies” as an encore song, which brought me back to my collegiate
days… which also brought tears to my eyes. Proving once again, the power of
music.
To make
this as painless as possible, I wanted to do reviews on each member instead of on
a song-to-song basis. Mainly because their music set for each night was
different. So bear with me and I’ll do my best to bare my thoughts about them
in an equally unbiased tone… if possible.
The leader
of the pack, G-Dragon looked tired. From the beginning of the LA concert, he
seemed quieter than the rest and that was a bit disappointing. But
understandable because he did his best not to out-shine the other members of
the band. And it did help give DaeSung and SeungRi more of a voice, but I’ll
get to them later. And, unfortunately, the superstar looked even more under the
weather during the Anaheim concert. And though the others seemed to try to pick
up the slack, I guess it takes one to know one… Howeover, rumor has it, his
father was in the audience? Not the only parent to be there, might I add.
Still, a great performance, as usual, from G-Dragon; the ultimate love-sick
boybander ever.
The 2nd
most screamed for of the night, T.O.P. set a different precident for me. Having
always viewed him as the cold, quiet, and mysterious character of the bunch, he
was open, visibly happy, and quite enjoyable to watch. Although it was obvious
he was uncomfortable dancing with the other guys, being so much stiffer and
still, his solo performance with his singing and rapping blew me away. The man
doesn’t need to dance. His rap-ability is that which is coveted by most of the
new boybanders today. The king of Rap and bad-buttedness, for shizzle.
The
English connoisseur of them all, TaeYang was brilliant with his fluid dance
moves and English speak-ability. I didn’t agree with his choice of solo
performance song, having so many great hits in his pocket, he chose the one
that has been overplayed on countless occasions. I guess it’s easier for them
to perform their biggest hits, but… that’s not always the one the audience wants
to hear. I feel he could have performed something more ‘Usher’-like and the
response could have been phenomenal, as opposed to the “WOW” it was. Still,
that’s his decision and I guess, that’s just his love song to the fans who love
him! He’s, for rillz, the smoothest of them all… and the sweatiest I think…
NOTHING
beats the cuteness and fun-lovingness of DaeSung bringing and pointing out his
mother at the Anaheim concert! NOT ONLY THAT!! While I stood in with with some
others, someone who looked a lot like DaeSung ran from the Honda Center and
hurried into the parking lot. The kids behind me screamed after he passed and
it wasn’t until later that I realized that the familiar face beloned to
DaeSung!! How wonderful it was to see him in person and not recognize him until
hours later!! I wish I did notice the moment he appeared, but he was in such a
rush, he was gone in seconds! But his performance was sweetened all the more
knowing that his Mom was there in the crowds, cheering him on. He’s, defintely,
the most loveable of all the members!!
And then,
there’s SeungRi, the youngest and the one with the WEIRDEST English of them
all. I tried to be supportive and tolerant but when someone works so hard to
butcher your mother language, you can only take so much before you stop
thinking it’s by accident. And what made me hack him in last in my review was
the fact that at the LA show, either his mic went out or he didn’t sing mostof
his ‘Storng Baby’ song, which I found to be just poor performance ettiquette. I’m
sorry if it’s his mic that went out, but it was fine during the parts when he
actually did sing. But since he, also, looked tired, I guess I shouldn’t blame
him for their tour not scheduling in time to help them handle the time
difference. (mild sarcasm) Just gotta take it as it comes, eh? But, here’s
hoping he improves his English so he doesn’t sound like he’s mocking the lingo.
He’s, in my opinion, the most awkward of the guys. Haha!
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| It's their Official Sign!! |
Overall,
the most emotional song I heard on the night of the LA concert for the first
time was “If You”. It brought tears to my eyes, and not because of the
lighting, but the raw emotion on the stage moved me without understanding the
words. The feelings and connection that suddenly hit me was enough to render me
speechless. The most touching moment came from
The MVP of the night, hands down,
based on how out-shined he is in music videos, variety shows, and etc., is
T.O.P. He came out of his shell the most, showed his showmanship and impressed
the poop out of me. I’ve seen several performers, concerts, bands, groups, and so
on… but believe me when I say it… T.O.P. really stole the show.
Personally,
I didn’t enjoy the videos shown, meant as ‘creative’ storytelling and buffering
for the next acts. But, if it’s for the purpose of ‘humanizing’ the members of
the boyband, then they went off the mark by quite a bit. I wondered why they
couldn’t go with something a bit more normal instead of everything leading to
some way/shape/form or suicide. There’s nothing more disturbing than having a
group of handsome and talented, well-liked and well-rounded young men share
their darkest parts of themsleves with an audience that comes hoping to see
them in hopes of brightening their own lives. But I get where they’re coming
from, which made me also look within myself because of such videos.
Also,
unfortunately, I like reading subtexts and taking a deeper look into things,
overthinking is the term most often used, and the way I see it, I don’t think
Big Bang really put in much thought about the overseas fans. Let me explain. Anyone
can go on Youtube and search for their performances in the Asian countries like
South Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan, and immediately, these boys are
infinitely more spirited. And then you can search for videos in the states and
they look tired, sad, and pooped out. They fly over and perform right away,
disregarding the jetlag and forget that they are also hacking away at the
quality of their performance. But maybe it’ll get better in three years, when
they have another concert here? After some of the guys have gone to the army
and come back with a new sense of reality and humanity.
Your guess
is as good as mine when it comes to what they’re doing today. Whether it be
Disneyland or Universal Studios, Six Flags or Knott’s… I hope they have fun
with their dancers and band! OMG!! It’s not my first time seeing their band,
but seeing their band live was truly amazing. Every great artist can only go as
far as their band can take them and, it’s NO WONDER Big Bang has made it so
far!! Madd PROPS to their band, for REALZ.
The price
for attending 2 concerts consecutively is that, your ears will be ringing a bit
more than usual… You lose a lot of sleep and the hours spent getting to the
event and returning home add up to stolen time you’ll never get back for other
things in your life, so be prepared to sacrifice! Oh, and if you’re older than
25, you will FEEL your age by the end of the night because you won’t be
screaming your head off, dancing like a weirdo, and won’t be so star stuck, you
can barely walk straight without dissolving into a gigling mass. I did enjoy
the parking, though. For sure, because their fans are quite young, many can’t
drive and are dropped off by their parents. Score one for the oldies!
Anyhoo, OVERALL,
combining the score of their concerts [LA= 8 :: Ana=8.5] divided by 2 and you
get my total score of 8.25 out of a total possible 10. So generous… [I’ve never
rated so generously to a group I didn’t completely enjoy before. Haha. And, for
those of you who need refereneces, I’ve scored a 10 for Deliriou5, and a 9 for
the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Alicia Keys. That’s my scale. So… my score is
darn GENEROUS!!]
Mooooooving
on… Check back with me for my response to Season 5 Episode 2 of Once Upon A
Time and Season 1 Episode 2 of Quantico! And I’ll post our next podcast for
CoTangent by Thursday, I think?
