[Concert Review] JYJ World Wide Tour 2011 in Bangkok

Caution: It’s Super LONG!

Concert Stage
The concert stage was designed in such a way that there’s a main stage, one main extended stage and 2 side extended stages, as well as a another extended portion in the middle and right at the end of it.  In short, it is a huge square boxing with a cross stage in the middle.  On each side of the 2nd portion of the extended stage, there’s an inflated platform which acts like a sub stage for the main stage. I saw that there were stairs that leads down to the mosh pit and for a second, I thought they were going to go down to “greet” the fans.  How dangerous!

Concert Seats
First of all, I am very glad that the whole venue was so filled with fans and almost all carrying a red lightstick which lights up the whole arena in red.  Level 1 is only made up of VIPs – seated beside the console system and 4 mosh pits, level 2 the 4500 baht and 5000 baht tickets and the rest of the section is at level 3.  There were helpful staff.  There are Korean, Japanese, majority Thai, Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Indonesians and more~ fans at the arena!  World JYJ fans gathering here!

Concert Adverts & Banners
There were a lot of concert adverts and banners both inside and outside the arena.  At the main “gate” before entering into the arena, there was a huge JYJ in Bangkok Concert poster.  Fan-made banners from over many countries can be found at Level 1.  Inside the concert hall, there were at least about 10 banners by fans.  There were also fan chants by fans and 411 Entertainment too!  I’m so happy they put in so much efforts to make it such wonderful memories for both fans and JYJ.

Concert Stereo Sound System
Basically, I do not like the volume (?) of the sound system because most of JYJ songs are fast tracks and most of the korean songs have heavy beats.  With that sound system, it makes it hard for me to be able to listen to their vocals.  I realize I hate the bass from the sound system right at the first song that kicked off the whole concert.

JYJ Enterance
When I was seated at my seat, I started to glance around the area because I had so much expectation in the whole staging – JaeJoong oppa was the main director for the whole concert.  I had to admit my expectation for the whole concert was indeed very high.  On the main stage, there were 3 transparent boxes placed right in the middle of the stage.  It was very obvious, that that was going to be the way they will be entering into the concert.  Thus, making me feel excited about what the first song will be.  (Note: I had no idea of the song list.  I don’t wish to know either.)  The concert didn’t start officially until 20 minutes pass the official time.  But the wait was all worthwhile.  The fans started to cheer to get JYJ on stage and getting all excited.  The concert kick off with an introduction video to the concert.  It was basically images from their “The Beginning” hair styles and outfits.  The background music of the clip manage to hit up the atmosphere a little.

Empty
It’s one of my favorite song from their English album because of the lyrics.  I think they chose the right song to start off.  It really get the fans high.  I also realized that they changed a little of their style in singing the song.  It was different from the album.  That was good and kinda unexpected.  But because of the sound system, the background of the music was actually louder than their vocals.  But I wasn’t disappointed or anything because their vocals are great.  Throughout the song, they have been moving around the main stage and making full use of the boxes by going in and coming out.  At the end of the song, they were few steps off the main stage.

I Deal Scenario
The second song is a korean song, also a fast track.  There were lasers which I thought suits the atmosphere and pace of the song.  For this song, they started travelling down the middle extended stage.  And, of course they didn’t fail to get fans at the mosh pit all excited because of that.  At the end of the song, they were at the end of the extended stage.  Somehow, the bass for this song wasn’t as bad as Empty.  I was able to hear their lyrics perfectly.  Maybe because it was in Korean?  I don’t know.

Pierrot
For this song, they were standing on an inflated platform on the main stage.  They weren’t moving much and they can’t either but it didn’t stop them from putting all that passion into performing this song.  Although it wasn’t hard to hear their vocals, but the bass was just too loud.  That was how the song is anyways.

Chang 
It was just a short verse that Jaejoong sang.  Many fans were anticipating it.  Junsu and Yoochun were looking at Jaejoong when he was singing the song and all 3 of them smiled.  I need to say, Jaejoong cheated!  He was supposed to sing the whole small verse of that 1 minute song but he only sang a couple of lines and passed it on to fans.  Did he forget the lyrics?  Maybe he did, because his smile gave him away.

Be My Girl Flash Mob
This song started out with the normal version for one verse and then it changed to the remix version.  Fans were to do flash mob with them during certain parts of the song.  The members moved down towards all sides of the extended stage to get fans to dance along. I’m sorry that I didn’t dance along because I seriously had no time to practice at all.  I’m guilty, yes.  But JYJ was totally excited about the flash mob dance, especially Junsu!  As usual, Junsu was sexy with his dance.  They were actually playful with the music and dance.  Getting all hyper.

Be the One
They were basically singing and dancing to the whole song on the main stage and from time to time, there were special effects.  And Jaejoong did a stare into the camera, acting cool?  which got fans screaming.  He succeeded if he really did want that.

Ayyy Girl
This song was performed with 6 of their male dancers.  Nothing to pick on about their dance moves.  I need to say, compared to before, Jaejoong’s dance did improve over the past year especially.  But sometimes, he need to stop staring too much at the ground. Maybe he was looking for marks on stage?  They started moving to the other parts of the stage during the rap in the middle.  And Junsu was dancing passionately.  Again, this song showcased how good they are at dancing and singing at the same time – their stamina built up over the years.

Micky Solo – I love you
Flowsik was there as guest appearance!  Totally didn’t see that coming!  (I didn’t check out the news.  Or rather, I couldn’t be bothered.)  There were 2 huge cages on the stage.  The dance was totally sexy.  Yoochun danced with their female dancers and it was just so sexy that I bet many fans were jealous about their dancers!  The part when he was singing right at the middle of the extended stage and 4 female dancers surrounding him dancing were just so intense.  He was singing with so much passion trying to protray the lyrics of the song.  It was a good performance.

There was a special performace by JYJ’s dancers which JYJ prepared and rested for the next song.  The special performance arrangement was great!

Mission
The song started with people playing drums and then in comes the music.  Somehow, i love the bass from the stereo for this song.  The intro dance was a great performance.  Junsu was in the middle.  I must say, his dance always surprises me.  He always gets better.  There was laser show for this song as well which fits perfectly to the atmosphere.  I, personally, don’t like the song in the album but it sounds great live.  This song is supposed to be sung live.  I love Yoochun’s rap!  It is actually difficult to sing and dance at the same time to such a song but they, JYJ, managed!  Those were powerful dance moves.

Junsu Solo – I can Soar
Junsu’s english did improve!  I feel the need to credit him for that!  Somehow his voice was a miracle that I heard his vocals so well as compared to the background music.  It wasn’t easy because it would be obvious for a slow song if he didn’t get his pronounciation right!  If he sounded so in a huge concert arena, I can’t image how good he could sound in an enclosed small area.

JaeJoong solo – Still in Love
Another favorite of mine from their english album because of the lyrics.  This boy, he really knows how to get close to fans.  He appeared on the last extended stage.  And danced in some parts with female dancers.  He portrayed the song somewhat different from the album.  He surprised me.  He took of his jacket in the middle of the song and danced with another female dancer which resulted in ear deafening screams.  He’s the most popular in Thailand afterall – but he always claim he wasn’t.

Nameless Song
I was very much taken aback when Yoochun came out rapping.  It didn’t hit me when Jaejoong started the song.  I thought it was a new song.  Yoochun started rapping at the main stage then he moved down the extended stage.  Then a sofa appeared right in the middle of the extended stage.  I wonder if Jaejoong was the one who planned that. Yoochun sat down at the white sofa and rapped a verse.  It was a perfect setting. The harmony of JaeSu’s voices with Yoochun’s rap for the singing parts was just so nice that the song was sang live.  They were totally engrossed in the song.  And it is so obviously all 3 of them put in so much efforts to sing this song to fans.  I almost cried out at the song.  I bet so many fans out there would have wanted to hear this song live.  But if only non-korean fans remembered what all the lyrics were all about.

Found You
I was totally expecting this song.  They started walking around the extended stages to make full use of it.  There were a lot of fan interactions with this whole song.  JYJ was waving non stop and staring at fans in all directions.  Especially so for the part “I love you…” for the lyrics.  They were playful with the ending of the song.  I could see Jaejoong grinning.

Fallen Leaves
My favorite song out of the whole album because of the lyrics and composition.  The bass wasn’t as loud because of the background music.  Their vocals were very clear.  The fans were cheering out to each member as they took turns to sing.  But I wondered were they able to hear it?  I need to praise Junsu for his vocals in this song.  Hearing the song live means so much to me.  I am able to appreciate the song even better now.  Because their live really touches.  Of course it was also because I understood the lyrics perfectly.  For this song, they started walking around the outer circumference of the stage.  Starting to make full use of the stage design.  I had really high expectations for this song sung live and they really live it up!

Four new Korean Songs
The songs were composed 2 by JYJ and 2 by another composer.  I love all the 4 songs that were sang yesterday.  And especially so for the lyrics and how meaningful they are.  They were all songs from JYJ to fans.  I believe so.  The 4 songs are of 4 different genres and the lyrics were well-written.  It gave me the feeling that it was well prepared over time and not rushing into the preparation of the songs.  Thumbs up for that!  But one thing i want to point out is, it’s a new song and there were no lyrics provided.  So, even if fans want to understand what JYJ was singing, they couldn’t.  And maybe because they couldn’t, they weren’t able to appreciate the song as much as people who understood Korean.  Had lyrics were given out or maybe put on screen, fans would have been able to make translations and help other fans to understand what exactly they were singing.

Encore song – Empty remix

Overall
I really need to give credits to JYJ for making this whole concert such a success.  Bangkok Day 1 was the first start and through their performance, I can see how desperately they wanted to stand on the stage and sing for fans.  They were in very good conditions.  There were still quite a number of empty seats left even 2 days before the concert.  But fans were rushing to get tickets at the venue itself thus making it a full house.  You really need to watch this performance live.  They really did make improvements over the past year and you’ll need to see and judge it yourself.  You’ll regret not going.  Jaejoong must have felt so stressful and excited about his first project as a concert director.  I believe fans' reaction and the atmosphere that night was the best answer for him.

source: @Inhye87 of withJYJ

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