[News] Interview with JYJ on the Thailand Concert and Jaejoong’s Directing

JYJ, who finished their First World Tour: “We are Proud of Ourselves Solidifying Musically”

JYJ, who finished their first world tour, revealed their satisfaction: We are proud at ourselves solidifying musically”.

In a meeting with the press after the performance on the 3rd, they relayed their impressions as follows: “There are some parts which we wish had been better, but we are more satisfied (with this concert) than with any other concert. We think that we decorated a stage that was the most true to “JYJ.”  Above all, we are so proud of the fact that we were able to create a full/complete concert with only our own songs.”

Q: Member Kim Jaejoong, interestingly (T/N: literally, “unusually”), participated as executive director. What prompted this?

Jaejoong: There is an advantage in that because I myself stand on the stage and sing, I can look after even detailed aspects which the staff (who do not themselves stand on the stage and perform) do not know.  Because I thought that I could make the stage that is maximally the best since I understand both sides, I volunteered to direct.  I feel fortunate that it seems that the members, too, are satisfied.

Q: Kim Jaeoong directed — how did the other members feel about that?

Junsu: It was really great because it was a stage on which a singer could show his capabilities 100%.  Jaejoong was so enthusiastically involved in the concert—he even went to Dong Dae Moon (T/N: a large open market in Korea) himself to pick out the fabric for the stage costumes.  At the thought that I could depend on the member like this, I felt thankful and reassured/confident.

Yoochun: Jaejoong paid attention to every detail one by one meticulously and so created a great stage.  At first I called him “Kim Direct” (T/N: Yoochun teased him) but later I naturally called him “Director-nim.”  He did that well.

Q: Are there any “episodes”?

Yoochun: Because Jaejoong was so absorbed in the directing, he forgot for a bit his duties as a singer.  Even during the concert, you are supposed to look at the Q-Seat and change clothes, but he kept paying attention to the directing and only looking at the monitors.  He even forgot to change his outfit.”

Q: This World Tour is also the last promotion for the World Wide Album.  Point out its meaning.

Jaejoong: Before, it was sufficient that one puts the spoon on top of a set table (T/N: a Korean proverb which describes a situation in which one needs to do nothing because everything has been prepared for him). Because this time I had to take care of everything, I thought I would go insane, it was so difficult.  However, I think that with such process we improve ourselves.

Junsu: I am so proud of the fact that we can put on a concert with only our own songs.  But at the World Wide Album, I have a few regrets about it.  It is an album in which well-known producers such as Kanye West and Rodney Jerkins participated, and it was #5 of the “Albums of this Year” that Billboard picked last year.  But because there had been no opportunities to show the songs in Korea, the good songs did not become known.  I feel that there are many mountains yet to be climbed.  But I feel that through these things, the members become more solid– musically, and as individuals.  Also, my thankful heart for the members becomes even stronger.”

Source: 04April2011 Daily Sports

Translation Credit: JYJ3

shared by: @our_JYJ (ourJYJ/우리JYJ)

[News] JYJ, First Performance of the World Tour Shows Their Musical Growth

Group JYJ (Kim Jaejoong, Park Yoochun, Ki Junsu) turned it loose their first World Tour in the midst of the enthusiasms of their fans of Asia.

They showed off their “ticket power” by drawing 22,000 Asian fans (total 2 times) in the ‘JYJ World Tour Concert 2011’ which was held in Impact Arena of Bangkok, Thailand, on the 2nd and 3rd.  The fans who gathered from all over Asia including not merely Thailand but also Korea, Hong Kong and Japan, sang, danced, and cried together with JYJ and enthusiastically responded to (JYJ) as if they had become one with JYJ.

On the 3rd which was the second day of the Tour, the concert hall which was packed/squeezed without remaining seats from the 1st floor “standing” seats to the 3rd floor seats, rippled with the wave of red lightsticks.  When the venue’s lights went off and JYJ appeared, the seats became swept up in the roar of the Asian female fans—“Kyaa!” The three members, who bounded onto the stage with a lift, opened their first stage with ‘Empty.’  After that, they continued with ‘I.D.S.’ and “Pierrot’ and others.  When Kim Junsu said hello in Thai, “Sawadi-Kab~” the audience burst into cheering . Yoochun relayed his gladness (at seeing the fans) with the words “you’ve waited so long~.”  Kim Jaejoong reduced the distance between himself and the fans by singing for them the Elephant Song which he composed in Thai  (T/N: The reporter is wrong here; Jaejoong did not compose the Elephant Song^^).  This is Jaejoong’s keeping the promise he made in the Thailand Showcase which was held last year after the release of the World Wide Album, that he “would make a song in Thai.”  (T/N: The promise was to sing the Elephant Song in Thai, not to create a song in Thai.)

When the members sang upbeat dance song ‘Be My Girl,’ the atmosphere shot up towards its peak.  The audience all stood up and danced together with JYJ and the stage and the audience became one.

After this, the stages of ‘Ayyy Girl’ and ‘Mission’ in which one could enjoy the powerful dance and music followed, and the atmosphere of the concert reached its peak.  When ‘Found You,’ the theme song of ‘Sungkyunkwan Scandal’ which is a drama in which Park Yoochun starred as the lead, the audience all stood up and waved their arms and merged with the music.  With the heart-tugging ballad(s) composed by Junsu “Fallen Leaves” and ‘Boy’s Letter’, the planned concert finished.  (T/N: The sentence is structured so that it is ambiguous whether ‘Boy’s Letter is also composed by Junsu).  When the audience did not leave their seats but instead chanted the name ‘JYJ,’ the members again rose to the stage and sang ‘Get Out’ and ‘In Heaven,’ which were new songs, and decorated the great finale of the concert which ran about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

This concert which was held in Thailand for two days is significant, not only because it is the beginning of JYJ’s first World Tour, but also because it showed their musical abilities which had much grown.  Kim Jaejoong took charge the entirety of the directing of the concert and most satisfactorily displayed his side as an artist.  He not only (took care of) the stage directing, video, and sound, but also costumes and sensitively fine-tuned the entirety of the concert to show off a stage in which the individuality unique to JYJ was alive.  He even showed that he was passionate enough to stay in Thailand from two weeks prior to the concert in order to spread open a perfect stage.  Furthermore, by filling more than 80% of the repertoire with self-made songs, he without a doubt carved into the minds of the audience the fact that JYJ is a ‘singer-songwriter group.’

Fans paid attention to the fact that it was a stage in which JYJ’s musical abilities could be seen.  The Korean fan Ms. Jin XX, who watched both days’ performances, said: “Junsu’s self-composed song was very good. I liked that I could feel the musical growth of the members from the stage.”  Ms. Su Pumnya, who resides in Bangkok, Thailand, evaluated: “I was even more drawn by the fact that JYJ is a singer-songwriter group. It was especially meaningful because I could hear many of their self-made songs.”

For this concert, about 300 reporters from Thailand and about 400 reporters from all over Asia such as Japan, Singapore, Philippines, China, and Hong Kong, competed vigorously to cover the event.

JYJ World Tour Concert, after its stop in Taiwan on the 23rd and in Beijing, China on the 7th of May, will tour the North American e.g., the U.S. and Canada and will decorate its finale in Pusan on June 11-12.

source: 04April2011 Daily Sports

translation credit: JYJ3

JYJ Worldwide Tour, Bangkok Thailand

1. Intro: Empty 

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2. IDS

 
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3. Nine

4. Pierrot

 
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Elephant Song

 
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5. Be My Girl + Be My Remix

 
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Evolution Clip

6. Be the One

7. Ayyy Girl

MC 2

8. I love you (Yoochun)

9. Mission

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VTR JYJ

10. I Can Soar 

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11. Still in Love 

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12. Unnamed Song part 1

 
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13. Found You

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MC 3

14. Fallen Leaves

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15. Boy's Letter (new song 1)

16. You're (new song 2) 

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17. Get Out (new song 3)

 
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18. Empty - Encore

 
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Love their performance here, they're so lively... I'm so envious of the fans who were there.  Jaejoong looks so happy and satisfied with the concert.  Congrats Director Kim, good job on your directorial debut.

19. In Heaven (new song 4)

 
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credit: as labeled
shared by: @our_JYJ (ourJYJ/우리JYJ)

[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

shared by: @our_JYJ (ourJYJ/우리JYJ)

[Fancam] 110403 JYJ Arriving at Renaissance Hotel after the concert

Since we left Impact Arena before JYJ we decided to walk over to their hotel in the hope of seeing them arrive.  The hotel personnel were a bit strict towards people they perceive to be fans so I told them that we were there to eat. Fortunately, the hotel coffee shop was on the 2nd floor with a clear view of the hotel lobby... the Margherita Pizza was actually good!  We were not able to take a video of their departure for the after party but my princess was able to catch a glimpse of JJ and Junsu on their way out because she rushed out of the coffee shop as soon as she heard the people screaming... according to her, JJ was in white and Junsu was in black.   I'm sure we'll see pictures soon...

 

credit: @our_JYJ (ourJYJ/우리JYJ)

shared by: @our_JYJ (ourJYJ/우리JYJ)