SUPER SHOW 6

WARNING: K-pop obsessing follows. Minute details painstakingly recorded. May be extremely boring for some readers. Proceed with caution.

On Saturday night (the 11th) I got to see Super Junior in concert at the Super Show 6, World Tour Encore.

Oh my goodness. It was the greatest concert of all time. People, this is not an overstatement. It was literally THE GREATEST CONCERT OF ALL TIME. *crying tears of joy*

Super Junior is a South Korean boy band that was formed in 2005. This year was their tenth anniversary and they showed a video at the Super Show of the members as young trainees- so sentimental! They currently have nine active members, with two inactive members serving in the military. The members are Siwon, Kyuhyun, Leeteuk, Ryeowook, Heechul, Donghae, Eunhyuk, Kangin, and Yesung (with Shindong and Sungmin in the military).

This concert was such a dream come true for me. Super Junior was one of the first bands that I ever listened to back in high school when I first became interested in K-pop. I never thought I would actually go to one of their concerts! Honestly, since going to college my level of interest in K-pop has waned. I don't have the free time I used to have- and a great deal of free time is necessary for following the K-pop world! New bands debut constantly and entertainment companies keep growing bigger and bigger. Honestly, K-pop isn't just "music" it's an entire culture (but that's a post for a different day...). It's hard to keep up. I still love the music, the dances, and the artists, but it's been a while since I've had the opportunity to be immersed in K-pop. However, now that I'm in Korea, K-pop is everywhere! It's playing on the radio, blasting out onto the streets from stores, and idols are used in advertising for every product imaginable. Not to mention I'm surrounded by new friends who are following their favorite bands and eager to help me learn the game again. :)

So let's just say that by the time the Super Show 6 came around I was fully invested in Super Junior once again haha. (With Choi Siwon firmly established as my favorite member- or as K-pop fans would say "my bias.")

The show was at 6pm, so my friends and I planned to meet up at 12:30 pm to print out our confirmation numbers so that we could pick up our tickets. Sounds really early, right? But thank goodness we did, because everything that could go wrong- did go wrong. First, the printer in our dorm wouldn't work. So we went to the building next door. The print shop there wasn't open. So we had to go across campus to the library. Then a few of our friends didn't realize when we were meeting and were late, so they decided to meet us at the subway. However, they ended up having to wait on us because printing at the library was a very stressful ordeal. When we finally had our confirmations printed we made the 20 minute hike to the subway station and took an hour long subway ride to get to the venue- The Seoul Olympic Stadium.

In the dorm lobby waiting on our friends.

Subway ride. Getting excited!

Immediately upon exiting the subway we were confronted with tons of hawkers selling Super Junior merchandise and cold drinks. We passed them by, intent on getting our tickets first, but ended up confused as to where we were supposed to go. Fans were everywhere, with women outnumbering men twenty to one. We saw lines to get in but all the lines led up to fan clubs that were handing out signs to hold up during the concert to support certain members and photo cards. It was an oppressively hot day. People were covering their heads and shoulders with towels to protect themselves from the sun. I don't think I've ever been so sweaty in my life. We all felt like we were melting; but at least all of us E.L.F's suffered together! (E.L.F.= EverLastingFriends, the official name of Super Junior fans. Cheesy, right? But E.L.F's are really nice! Which you can't say about every group's fan clubs...some are notoriously crazy.)

Finally, after asking a lone foreigner, we found the Ticket Box Office. But the theme of things going wrong continued... Two of our program provider coordinators had graciously ordered the tickets for us, but when we tried to pick up our tickets the ladies at the box office didn't want to give us the tickets because our id's didn't match the names of the people who purchased the tickets. Aigoo! After sweating it out in the heat, sharing bottles of water, and many phone calls and help from our lovely and kind coordinators it was all sorted out and the tickets were ours! By this time it was around 3:45 and we were finally able to go grab some food before the concert.

Where do we go? Follow the fangirls.

First view of the stadium- SUPER JUNIOR TIME!

Cute friends :) Picture courtesy of Aisha

See that semicircle shaped building far away? It was a mall with shops and restaurants. That's where we ate.

The lines really died down closer to the show once the standing fans had been allowed to enter and grab their spots.

An SM Ent. photographer asked to take our picture (my friend snapped it too)- I'm guessing because we were rare foreigners.

Since there were 8 of us we separated into two groups to grab lunch/dinner/meal. I ended up eating at a sandwich place, which was actually kind of a treat because I don't think I've had a sandwich since arriving in Korea. The sandwich place was really tiny so my friends and I had to sit at a table outside, but a sweet ajumma came out of a shop and handed us a couple fans so that we could take turns keeping cool (or at least fan warm air at our faces haha). Then we all met back up at Gong Cha (a bubble tea place) for a much needed cold drink! At this point it was a little more than an hour before the show so we crossed the street back over to the Olympic stadium and bought some merchandise.

I ended up buying a cheap fan with Siwon's face on it, because it was just too hot to share fans, and because, you know, it had Siwon's face on it. :) And I also bought a light stick to wave at the concert. Super Junior light sticks are always sapphire blue (different bands have different colors) but come in different shapes depending on which tour it is. I didn't buy an "official" light stick because they were really overpriced, but I was so happy that I had grabbed a cheap one once the concert started. Fans wave them in sync with the beat of the songs and wave them as they cheer, and it looks so cool to see a sea of waving blue lights when the lights are dark! It really made me feel one with crowd and included, even though I was a foreigner.

After I made my purchases and my friends had made it through the "official goods" lines we headed into the stadium. Before entering each person had to have their temperature taken, which I'm assuming was a precaution to make sure no audience members were showing signs of MERS. It was odd though- they didn't check anyone's bag- which I feel like is a staple at any large event you go to in America. Once we were inside the excitement was really building. We forgot all the troubles of the day and didn't even mind that there was no air conditioning in the stadium (at least we were out of the sun)!

The stadium was huge, but smaller than I had expected. I had been fearful that I wouldn't even be able to see the stage and that I would have to watch screens for the entire show, but it wasn't like that at all! The stands had a sharp incline so our view of the stage was completely clear and we each had an individual seat. I wish I had been able to take pictures of every little detail, but pictures weren't allowed in the stadium. If you were caught taking pictures you could be kicked out. Although, my friends didn't know about the rule at first and just got a warning when they were caught taking pictures. Thank goodness the staff was nice! So I don't have any pictures of the show, but here's a few pictures of the venue, courtesy of my friends. 

There was so much energy in the room, especially as all the seats filled up. It wasn't a sold out show, but it was close. My friends and I were all sitting in a row, but there was one seat open in the middle, right next to me. A Korean girl ended up sitting there and she was super sweet. It felt like we were friends even though we'd never met just because we were cheering and singing along together. She even translated a couple of things for me during the concert when the members were talking to the audience. I think she got a kick out of us Americans because we screamed our lungs out cheering. At the end of the show she said "So good to meet you!" 

When the show finally started we absolutely lost it. It was so exciting. I had never seen a production like this before. It wasn't at all like any American concert I'd ever been to. The show started with what was basically the beginning of a movie that had been filmed just for Super Show 6. It starred the members of Super Junior and had some kind of storyline about a map that needed to be found to find the last piece of some mythical...something...? Okay honestly I have no idea what it was about haha. But it was cool anyway! From what I gleaned from it the members were like secret agents on a mission and the fighting scenes were especially cool. Because you can't have a concert without fighting off bad guys, right?! It was a short intro film before the concert started and then in between some acts the room would go black and the screen would play another clip that would end up connecting to the next song and the graphics on the giant screen would change to match the video and then Super Junior would appear or rise up on to the stage or the back wall would open to reveal them and they would perform again. There were special effects too- like actual fire shooting up from points on the stage, exploding shiny confetti, moving stages (my favorite was when they would form a circle facing outwards and then the stage would slowly spin so that each member passed by facing each section of the audience), and crazy light effects. Big budget stuff guys. SM Entertainment (the company Super Junior is under) has some money- let's just say that.

Super Junior was even better in person than in their music videos. They were such great singers, dancers, and performers. We really got to see their personalities shine through. They're super goofy and tease each other a lot. I mean, they've gotta be close- they've been together for ten years. They're also super appreciative of their fans. They bowed to us (a way to show respect in Korean culture) and thanked us for supporting them often, as well as blowing kiss to the audiences and the more aegyo (sort of like "cutesy") members holding up their arms into a heart. They took a lot more time to talk to their fans than I'm used to at concerts. I couldn't understand what they were saying but they would talk for a while and ask the audience questions (which the audience would loudly answer in unison) and make the audience laugh and seemed to really treasure this interaction with their supporters.

The concert was about 3 hours and 45 minutes long- with no opening act! Just hard working Super Junior giving their best for their fans! They performed nearly 40 songs and some of my favorite songs that they performed were "Mr. Simple," "Bonamana," "Sorry Sorry," and "Mamacita." Super Junior also has a new single called "Devil" which hasn't been released yet- but they performed it at the show! It was insanely catchy and was stuck in my head for the rest of the night. 

Of course various members had breaks at different times during the concert because there are a lot of sub-groups within Super Junior. There's Super Junior M- which is a Mando-pop group that performs songs in Mandarin and makes Korean versions of their songs- and they performed as well. There's overlapping members Siwon, Sungmin (currently in the army), Ryeowook, Kyuhyun, Donghae, and Eunhyuk, as well as two member who are not in the regular Super Junior but only in Suju M, named Henry and Zhou Mi. After Suju M performed, Henry addressed the audience in English for the few fans there that spoke English, and it made me so happy to hear his thanks to us in English! And I was also so happy that they performed because "Swing" is one of my favorite songs right now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5m3l65Lp0I

D&E performed a couple of their songs as well. That's the subgroup duo of just Eunhyuk and Donghae. My favorite song that they performed was "Growing Pains." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs2NibgZgR4

Super Junior K.R.Y. also performed- which is Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung. They performed some songs together and then each performed a single. Kyuhyun performed "At Gwanghwamun" which is a really beautiful song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUbq_IXBaYg

A couple other members performed singles as well. Zhou Mi sang "Rewind", which was really good, and Henry sang "Bad Girl." 

And then...my favorite member...Choi Siwon...performed "Lost Stars." I was so excited to actually be able to sing along to the whole song! And his English was perfect! He has such a great voice! Even better than the original version in my opinion haha. ("Lost Stars" is a song by Adam Levine from the musical rom-com drama "Begin Again.") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGlyDpIqavY

Another one of my favorite parts of the concert was when "Chok Chok" was performed. The music came on and the members started dancing and singing and the audience freaked out and danced along, but then the music abruptly stopped. Everyone was disappointed and calling for them to perform it...and then it started again! And stopped again... They teased us like that a few times and each time it would play a different member would dance down the stage- it was hilarious. They're so funny! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNxdSYXNEtw

Well I think I could write about this concert forever, but as this post is getting unbearably long I better wrap it up.

After the most amazing and fun concert ever we were able to get a fellow E.L.F. to take our picture for us. As she started to take it a security guard objected and made her stop, which was silly because Super Junior was gone and the concert was over...but as soon as he walked away she hurriedly motioned us to get back into place haha. 

Bad lighting, but what a wonderful memory!

We had all sweat buckets during the concert, so I can't even imagine how Super Junior felt in their various outfits and costumes singing in that intense humidity and heat! We stopped by a very crowded convenience store to buy some drinks and then went to the subway station. Um. Wow. It was crazy packed. It was one of the most miserable, smelly, and hot subway rides I've taken- but at least we were all on a happiness high from such a great concert!

The most crowded subway I've ever seen.

It was hard to go to sleep that night since we just wanted to keep gushing about the concert and had all the songs stuck in our heads, but I finally dozed off around 3 am. Thankfully on Sunday my friend and I went to mass in the evening so we got a chance to sleep in. Then it was homework time...but at least I had my Siwon fan to keep me company. ;)

Siwon keeping me company- haha!