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January 19, 2013. Saturday. SM Mall of Asia Open Concert Grounds. Manila, Philippines.
Five years. We waited for five years. Finally, Girls' Generation is in the house! Finally, Girls' Generation performed in my hometown.
Girls' Generation was headlining a six-idol group KPop concert called Dream KPop Fantasy Concert, performing with EXO (M and K), Infinite, U-KISS, Tahiti, and Tasty. Of course, the Girls were set to perform last to close the entire show.
But this time around however, there were a lot of hassles during the whole experience that sorta-kinda made me go "meh" and "WTF???". From bad crowd control management to a lot of technical glitches, man, it wasn't really as fun as the first two concert experiences I had featuring the Girls. Oh well...
And as always, I will be focusing on Girls' Generation in this fan account, so I guess it's gonna be pretty short compared to the others that I wrote and posted here.
After waiting for seven hours before even getting inside the venue, and then another three hours or so watching performances from (in this order of appearance) Infinite, Tasty, U-KISS, Tahiti, and EXO (EXO even sang a Filipino song with guitars!), finally, we went bonkers when Girls' Generation was introduced on stage. Five years of anticipation and excitement literally poured out from the crowd, flooding the venue with our very own Pink Ocean, right in the heart of Manila.
After EXO exited the stage and the lights dimmed, we were all chanting, "So Nyeo Shi Dae! So Nyeo Shi Dae! So Nyeo Shi Dae! So Nyeo Shi Dae!" And then went screaming like crazy when we saw the Girls go up the stage.
The Girls performed six songs. The first up was Tell Me Your Wish (Genie). We fanchanted and sang right from the start. I think we surprised the Girls at how much we PH-SONEs went crazy in supporting, singing, and cheering for them. And of course, the highlight of the song was when we finally heard Tiffany say out loud, "Philippines, Put It Back On!!!!!!" Man, at that get-go, it was going to be a crazy thirty minutes. I found myself actually crying once more while they were singing Genie. I just couldn't believe that finally, Girls' Generation is in the Philippines, in Manila, my hometown!
The next up was The Boys. They sang the Korean version, but that didn't stop us from continuing to fanchant and sing along. We really kept the energy up.
And then Hoot was performed. Still, we kept up the energy, fanchanting and screaming and singing the whole time.
A short interview followed. Hearing them say, "Annyeong Hasaeyo, So Nyeo Shi Dae Imnida!" live and alive was particularly special. Tiffany said that they were so surprised and touched to see and feel so much support from the fans. Well, they can't blame us. We waited five effing years to see them perform in our home turf. She also added that they were so touched by our flag event. We were waving flags that said, "We Thought You'd Never Come", with the words "You'd" and "Come" highlighted in boldface before they started performing.
Jessica also gave in to the fans' request of singing a short line of her cover of Nina's "Someday" which she performed during the MBC Romantic Fantasy show. Man, even for those two lines that she sang, Sica sang so beautifully. Nina is a Filipino artist and "Someday" was a huge huge hit in the Philippines last year. Jessica even thanked the Filipino people for coming up with such a beautiful song.
And then Dancing Queen was next. Man, I nearly died seeing that cute cat dance in the flesh. Aya! I felt myself melting.
The next they performed was Gee. And it was during this song that they walked towards the second stage, near to where I was standing. Man, I was like three or four feet away from them. That was the closest I got to them todate. I died.
And then to end their performance, and the show, they set to perform I Got A Boy. There was a brief break to let them change shoes and switch to headset microphones for I Got A Boy. And then, BAM!!! By the way, I Got A Boy debuted at Number 1 in our local music charts.
And then I realized something: THIS IS THE FIRST TIME GIRLS' GENERATION IS PERFORMING "I GOT A BOY" OUTSIDE SOUTH KOREA!!! OMG!!!
As always, I ended up with a pair of sore feet, a sore back, a sore right shoulder, a sore neck, and a sore throat. In other words, I was totally tired, exhausted, and sore all over. And I had to walk back ten minutes to the parking lot (I parked at a different area to avoid the inevitable heavy traffic), and then I had to drive another hour to get home, all with a beat-up body. And then, I couldn't sleep well that night, partly because of the adrenaline, and partly because I was really sore. Writing this fan account, I can still feel the aches and pains on my legs and on my back. My throat completely gave out. But man, for thirty straight minutes, it was so totally worth it.
I did have my gripes though. Bad crowd control management. The organizers didn't give us clear-cut instructions until the very last minute before we entered the venue. The lack of instruction and discretion really cause a huge mess that a lot of people complained about it. I pitied some people, especially the high school and college kids there, who lined up as early as five or six in the morning only to find out that they were in the wrong queue three hours before the scheduled opening of the gates. Also, we were shepherded back and forth, causing the queuing lines to break several times. And then the effing bouncers blamed everything on us! WTH!!!
Second, lots of technical difficulties. Infinite, Tasty, and U-KISS suffered sudden cuts in their song when the music suddenly went out. I know how much of a bummer that is and I was really pissed off about it and felt sorry for them because they prepared so hard and then suddenly this happened. Also, Girls' Generation suffered some microphone problems as well. At least the good part about it is that nobody will accuse anybody of lip-syncing that night. That person would be so dumb and so stupid to do so.
But despite those missteps, at least for the last thirty minutes of the show, I was again totally happy. When EXO was performing, I couldn't move my legs and my back at all, standing for almost the whole day. When Girls' Generation was performing, I forgot all of my aches and pains. I didn't feel a thing except excitement and happiness. Fanchanting, cheering, screaming, and singing with SONEs who are also my countrymates, flooding SM Mall of Asia Open Concert Grounds with the Pink Ocean, was a dream come true. I felt especially happy for the members and staff of Soshified Philippines, because a lot of them have seen Girls' Generation last night for the very first time. I was so happy because compared to the other artists and the other fandoms who were there for the other artists, we SONEs showed our artists, our Girls, the best. We fanchanted to every song, from start to finish, from the first song to the last song. We SONEs also showed our support to Infinite, U-KISS, EXO, Tasty, and Tahiti, but we saved the best for last for our Nine Angels.
And as always, at the end of it, I felt a lot of mixed emotions as well. I felt sad as well. As always, they would never know who I really am, they would never know what my name is or how my face looks like. I would just be this nameless, faceless SONE swimming in the Pink Ocean, one voice among the thousands that fanchanted and sang the hell out of the concert venue. I kept reminding myself that I should probably be contented with this one-sided love affair I have with Girls' Generation. It really got me right there that I just love them so much and yet all I can do is to watch them from afar... well, at least from three or four feet away... and cheer for them.
I said before that I was willing to go through all the hardships and discomforts of going through a Girls' Generation performance, and I did, once again, and ended up all beat. At the time that I am writing this fan account, I can still feel the pain on my legs and on my back.
And evenso, seeing them again, for the third time, watching them perform in my hometown, will go down as yet another chapter of how much I love the Girls. As always, loving Taeyeon, Jessica, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, and Seohyun will go down as one of the greatest things that I have ever done with my life. That night, they proved how much power they have over me. I went through a lot of hassle that tested my stamina, patience, and resolve that night. But when they took the stage for thirty minutes, I was completely happy and forgot my anger and my aches and pains. Much like Bangkok and Hsinchu, Manila will galvanize my feelings for Girls' Generation.
Being a part once again of the Pink Ocean, cheering once again with all my heart and with all my soul, "Jigemeun, So Nyeo Shi Dae, Apuroudo, So Nyeo Shi Dae, Yongwonhi, So Nyeo Shi Dae!" is and will always be such a magical and wonderful experience that I cannot fully and completely describe how good it feels. But I will always be forever thankful for being able to do so.
And as always, I know I cannot do much compared to other SONEs and other KPop fans in general. But after this, I am now determined that whatever I can do, I will do it wholeheartedly, just for the Girls. I realized that was actually worse off now in Manila afterwards compared to my physical state after the concert in Bangkok and Hsinchu, but if that is what it takes to show all my love and support to Girls' Generation, I'd gladly do it again. Seriously.
I have said it once, and I will say it again, "I Love You, Girls' Generation... And I Always Will... 'Tilll The Day I Die..."
That's me before the start of the show. Carrying the pink lightsabers and the flags.
And then with some of my countrymates at the VIP Platinum block. PH-SONEs FTW!!!
Edited by RickLovesSNSD, 10 April 2013 - 07:09 AM.
). i will surely watch it. see you there too.
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