Here’s a short recap of the two concerts.  Sorry if the picture quality is not too high, I took them only with my cellphone camera.

First was Grammy nominee Foster the People (promoted by 3 Ocean Live) on January 11th.  The venue is the newly re-painted Tennis Indoor.  The cold conditioned air seemed to vanish as heat radiated from the enthusiastic crowd.  The crowd was amazing, and so was the band.  They presented a very energetic show – frontman Foster sang and danced and jumped and played instruments like the Devil himself.  My favourites were I Would Do Anything For You and Call It What You Want - and of course the closing song, the longer, reworked Pumped Up Kicks that sent everyone to their feet.  Well, in fact, Foster had asked everyone who were sitting on the ‘tribune’ seats to stand up and dance.  Even if he hadn’t asked, how could they stay seated with something as hot as that song?

The crowd’s insane – fancams of the concert stood as testimonies: the singalong was so thunderous and moving!  Satisfied look reigned on the faces of FTP’s members.  Foster said they’d never been as South as they were now, and they were surprised by the audience!  Well, I too was very, very satisfied.  A very fantastic gig to open 2012!

2 days after that, I and my hombre Tessa (who was also with me in FTP’s gig) were now in Fairgrounds, SCBD, for the Jakarta-leg of British Council-sponsored/Soundshinevent-promoted The People’s Party 2012.  The other shows were held in Hongkong, Taipei, and Singapore.  Jakarta was very lucky to get the Party!

Fairgrounds used to go with the name bengkel - why they had to change the name, I do not know, because I think ‘Fairgrounds’ is rather bland.  Thank god they didn’t take away the iconic bengkel signboard.

The Party was opened by local rising stars Roman Foot Soldiers.  They gave a good performance, quite solid – would love to see how they improve after some more experience.

Next came New Zealand‘s The Jezabels, who was, if I may say, underrated.  Looked like many people were thinking of coming later for ‘bigger acts’ like Metronomy, but if they were not there for the Jezabels yet, they’re missing something big.  Hayley Mary’s voice was just amazing – piercing high into the skies.  Reminded me a bit of Karen O’s, but I don’t mean that Hayley is just a pale copy of her.  She’s probably one of the best frontwomen to rise in the past few years!

Next is Tessa’s favourite, Bombay Bicycle Club.  Now the room became really, really heated.  Girls screamed Jack Steadman’s name, one even shouting “JACK I’M READY TO DO ANYTHING FOR YOOOUUU~”  BBC burnt the audience with their explosive performance, supported by the blindingly beautiful lighting.  And Jack’s such a babe, he was walking out of the stage when he saw a girl holding up a paper with ‘SETLIST PLEASE’ written on it.  He turned around and took a setlist and tried to give it to her – although I thought somebody else snatched it.

The girls didn’t reduce their crazy screaming when the next band came onstage – The Naked and Famous.  This time the boys joined, because the screamings were meant for the pretty Alisa, the singer/keyboardist of TNAF.  She’s just so cute!  Well, I loved her voice, her hair, her clothes, her movement.  Girls around me kept on saying “Aduh lucunya, lucunya…” (“So cute, cute…”) while some boys wondered where Alisa’d been in their lives.  Songs like No Way and Young Blood kept the audience’s atttention glued to the stage.

Then it’s time for the night’s main act – Metronomy.  They showed us that their being Mercury-shortlisted was not for nothing.  With IronMan-like lights on their chest, they began to bombard the audience with their songs that defied you not to dance.  Oscar, the keyboardist, stole the headlights with his quirky performance!  Indeed I think that night the keyboardists stole my heart!  The Bay was so brilliant that the girl near me said “Oh, I don’t mind them playing it once again tonight!”

I went home with a euphoric wide smile.  In the space of 3 days, I’d been to two big contenders for Gig of the Year.  Looking forward to a fantastic 2012 in concerts!

When one of his brothers was sick, Uto – our nickname for him – would accompany him, lying next to him although the other, healthy brother kept on playing as if there’s nothing wrong.

We did not know exactly why he left home.  Perhaps he was jealous of the next batch of kittens that we kept.  Anyway, here’s a post to remember him, the cat who liked to sleep everywhere!

We miss you Uto!

Gosh.  I wish I had written that first.  Because that’s what I exactly felt during the gig.  And after that.  Long after that.  Yes I was electrified.  And there was so much awesomeness they all swirl in my head I’m not sure I can put them into words.

Let’s try, as always, to do this chronologically.  I’ll try.  Although in the 2-hour or so during the gig, I lost count of time.  I was somewhere else timeless.  I was not really sure what’s going on, so awed was I.

(And pictures put here are not necessarily in a chronological order.)

Despite warnings from the promoters, people had started to queue in the venue – JITEC Mangga Dua Square, Jakarta – since early morning, although the doors were supposed to open at 6.  I could not leave work early so I went to Mangga Dua after work in the afternoon, checked-in to Amaris Hotel (which is situated in the same building with JITEC), took a bath, and went to the venue.  JITEC is on the 8th floor, but queueing started at the 3rd floor.  The crowd control strategy was to allow people to move upwards floor by floor in batches, not in bulk.

People crowding around the official merchandise booth.

Those who were not lucky enough to get access to the fansigning could take their pictures with 2PM here. Well, of course this can't compare to a fansigning, but still...

I was not hoping much when I finally reached the 8th floor.  Any spot will do, since I arrived so late.  To my surprise, the standing space to the left of the stage was still quite empty, so I managed to get a place very close to the front of the stage extension.  It turned out that the people who came earlier were put into the right-side space which quickly filled up – and we could hear angry protests while we on the left chitchatted warmly and enjoyed the free mineral drink provided by the promoters.  I was glad I didn’t hurry.

The concert started late than promised, but it started with a BANG (and screams from the audience).  Then the madness began with Hot.  I saw the female of the species crying and fainting.  There were members of man-kind too, admiring the boys’ bodies.  In short, everyone had their share of fun.

This was what happened to us:

2PM gave us Electricity (220 V remix), and when suddenly the lights went off and the boys stood in line swinging fluorescent lights around their bodies, the right words to define what I felt were I JUST CAN’T.  Surprisingly, the third song was the party anthem Hands Up – which got everyone putting their hands up, of course.  People were so excited that the sitting ones started to use their seats to stand instead of to sit so that they can see better (to the dismay of the ones sitting behind them).  2PM felt the need to give warnings for the audience not to stand on their seats because it’s dangerous.

This. I just CAN'T.

Some frank facts first here.  Technically, the concert was not perfect.  The lighting was amazing, yes, but there were some problems with the sound system and crowd control, but 2PM’s performance was so explosive that I don’t think too many people cared about the shortcomings.

The boys introduced themselves using Indonesian: well, that’s easy, just say “Saya (insert your name)”.  But Junho managed to pull a longer sentence, “Terima kasih atas kedatangannya (Thank you for coming)”.  While the others remembered words like “panas” (hot), “aku bahagia” (I’m glad), “Senang?” (Happy?) and “terima kasih” (thank you).  Sometimes they had to push Chansung to talk though.  ”Chansung, say something!”  The maknae seemed a bit shy!

Funny and cute moments coloured the show.  When Nichkhun and Taecyeon were preparing backstage for their duet, Junsu (who has quite a good command of English), Junho, Wooyoung and Chansung chatted onstage.  Junho and Wooyoung showed their skill in dancing with so much energy, but when the other boys asked Chansung to do the same, he refused, because he’s afraid his trousers would rip.  Instead he did a cute dance that made us laugh.

Who wants to be their Valentine?

They also showed us a VCR called ‘The Real 2PM’.  Chansung was shown doing his sword training, but could not cut even a big cassava.   Junho dreamt a vulgar dream about a girl and wrote a vulgar song about it, but it was turned down.  He had to do many revisions before his song was accepted.  Wooyoung was a fan of Michael Jackson that he didn’t believe Michael had died.  He wrote a letter started with ‘HELLOW’ and asked the manager to sent it to ‘Michael, USA’.  He got a reply, but it only contained the words ‘THANK YOU’.  Taecyeon tried to sell undershirts with badly-drawn OkCat designs for a very expensive prince.  Junsu was a stingy who charged his friends for the pizza he bought.  While Nichkhun made the audience go “Ooooh” to see his almost-crying face, because he was dieting, only allowed to eat cucumbers and chicken fillets.  But while his friends were away watching Miss A’s comeback, he stole Junsu’s pizza and pretended to know nothing afterwards.

As for singing and dancing – no need to doubt the boys.  They sang live the whole concert, and who could stand still when they performed songs like Heartbeat and I’m Your Man?  Their solo performances were also good, especially Junsu (Jun.K) and his Alive.  He moved so much I couldn’t get his pics right during his energetic solo!  Chansung gave a rather different solo performance; he showed off his sword skill onstage.

The boys gave out roses to some lucky people among the audience.

Nichkhun flying high!

And the boys knew how to please their fans well.  They ran here and there around the extended stage, they posed, smiled, waved, touched our hands, took pics… I was so glad that the distance between the stage and the audience was not what my friends and I call ‘barbaric’ a.k.a too far away.   Taecyeon took even a selca with my friend Pia’s Instax, and I was in the pic!

That priceless selca. You can see my white Samsung cellphone...

Junho took someone's Instax, but either it ran out of film or he could not use it!

When the audience asked Taecyeon to take off his shirt, he suddenly pointed to the main stage, and there... Chansung was already shirtless!

Tears must well in many people’s eyes when the audience shouted “2PM! 2PM! 2PM!” and the boys shouted back, “Jakarta!  Jakarta!  Jakarta!”  Like the said national newspaper mentioned, the audience was not merely ‘watchers’ – they were involved so deeply with the show.  And I thank you, thank you, thank you, and I love you, love you, love you – we wanted to say that to 2PM as much as they wanted to say that to us.

The stage is a catwalk for Chansung!

Taecyeon's teeth!

What did I say about catwalk?

It was a superb 11/11/11 for me.  And the fact that the boys promised to return next year with a bigger concert just made the night complete.

See you soon, guys!

You can read an introduction to the book here.

Queueing lines looked a bit chaotic.  There was not enough space to form long, straight lines at the front of the stadium, so the lines snaked out in waves.  It’s almost six pm and the gates are not opened yet.  And it was really, really hot.

Conflicting warning signs were on display.  Some said only ‘professional cameras’ were not allowed, some said all cameras were not.  Based on my experience with KMW Singapore, I decided to try my luck, and managed to get past a RELA member who was checking attendees’ bags.

Wait, a RELA member?  Yep.  Notorious in Indonesia for treating Indonesians harshly in Malaysia, these guys were actually asked to be the guards of the Korean Music Wave 2011 in Malaysia.  And boy, some of them did overreact.  But that’s for later.

As we entered the Rock Zone – the zone directly around the stages – we got a wide view of the stadium, and suddenly I felt very lucky that I had chosen to purchase the second most expensive tickets.  The seating zones were very far away from the stage.  If only I had bought seating tickets instead, I would have cried by then, regretting my decision.  It consoled my heart a bit, standing in a packed crowd in suffocating air, on grassy grounds strewn with colourful papers.  Looked like the field hadn’t been cleaned after the previous event.

The organizers said the concert would start at 7; on the tickets 8 pm was printed instead; in reality it started somewhere between 7 and 8.  A Malaysian duo opened the concert by singing medleys and beatboxing (sorry, I didn’t quite catch their name(s), if you do know please tell me so I can put it here).  Then the team of hosts – an MY FM DJ (again I didn’t catch his name), DJ Young (who had also hosted KIMCHI in Jakarta in June), and U-KISS‘s Kevin and Dongho - came forward.  They welcomed us, blah blah blah, and then introduced the first band to rock the stage, and my how they did rock: FT Island.

In KMW SG, I had come to the conclusion that this was a band to reckon, and their performance in KMW MY didn’t change my mind.  Launching into their widely-loved songs like Sarang Sarang Sarang, Barae, and Hello Hello, FT Island returned the excitement to the crowd that had lost much of their strength due to the heat.  Frontman Hongki danced wildly on stage without messing up his singing voice.  The lad’s just an amazing singer.

Next came TEEN TOP.  Somehow they had already looked far more mature than the last time I saw them in June.  And their performance was a blast, opened with perhaps one of the best comeback singles of the year, No More Perfume on You.  I also enjoy Clap and Supa Luv - the videos of which I didn’t enjoy, but the live performance of the songs were awesome.

Then we arrived at the most annoying part of the night.  When 4minute had just begun their first song, there was a commotion behind me.  Two RELA members had plunged into the Rock Zone and tried to capture a girl who was taking pictures with a DLSR camera.  One RELA member looked very fierce, shouting harshly at the girl, who appeared very afraid, and trying to snatch her camera.  The other girls around her, including me, got very angry and started to shout back at the RELA, telling him to just let it go, the concert had started anyway, and that he was no fun.  The RELA members disappeared, and we asked the girl whether she and her camera were okay.

We lost our concentration, and glanced time and again to check whether the RELA members came back.  We didn’t dare taking out our cameras for some time.  The one RELA who had shouted at the girl did come back, taking an organizer staff with him, grabbing the girl in her arm and telling her to follow him.  (Why only the girl, when there were other people with professional cameras in the crowd, was beyond me.)  Some more shoutings ensued.  They left again in vain.  I think the attendees around the girl silently decided to keep the girl safe.

It sucked, sucked, sucked.  I don’t know the custom in Malaysia, but I think if you’re holding a concert with expensive tickets, you should try to give your best in all aspects, including the security guards.  We were already willing to bear the heat and the outdoor stadium, now the guards you hired treated us like shit?  Not cool.  Couldn’t they just warn her politely?  Some people are in serious need of education in manners.

Kevin and Dongho came back to stage with their bandmates in U-KISS, and broke into their first performance of their latest single Neverland outside Korea.  Then followed their known songs like 0330 and Man Man Ha Ni – the latter always worked, with the arrogant lyrics and dance.  It’s just that, I don’t know, to me their performance in KMW SG was better, but probably it’s because in KMW MY they were still really tired, having come just a couple of hours before the show, and if I’m not mistaken Kevin was a little bit ill.

Then it’s time for my main reason to attend KMW MY, the guy who the hosts perhaps rather jealously claimed was ‘tall and thin’, to come onstage: Park Jungmin.  (I’m warning you, this part is going to be quite long…) Dressed in black tights and loose black tops, he launched into Not Alone, dancing energetically with his troupe of dancers.  He looked thinner indeed then in KIMCHI, but his voice was still as strong and clear.

He continued with Do You Know?, and My Everyday’s a Christmas, shaking his arse to loud cheers from the audience.  My friend and I were holding up the INDONESIA ♥ PARK JUNGMIN banners – he looked at us, read the banners, and winked.  I WAS LIKE WOW. WHOAH. CAN I TAKE THAT WINK FOR MYSELF?

Jungmin then proceeded to read a short speech in Malay which he had got prepared.  At least he intended to.  He searched in his pockets only to find that he had taken the wrong piece of paper.  That was just so, so… so him, making people laugh with little acts of cute silliness like that.  Somebody had to run from the backstage to bring him the correct speech, and he tried hard to read the long sentences to the audience.   He also spoke some Chinese that he had learnt during his time in Taiwan.  DJ Young asked him to do his arse-shaking again, and he duly obeyed.

His performance was ended with Missing You (the first time the song sung onstage) and Gara Gara.  When he disappeared from the stage, I realised that… that I just wanted to see more of his performance! More of him!

But the night’s not over yet, and Seungri took his turn.  He and also GD & TOP wore the same clothes as they had donned the previous night, which got me thinking about the laundry.  Their setlists were also the same – Seungri with VVIP, Strong Baby, and What Can I Do, and GD & TOP with Knock Out, Oh Yeah, and High High.

They spoke quite a lot too, including TOP, and Seungri claimed that he didn’t just want to have a concert in Malaysia, but also wanted to live there.  (Oh yeah?)  When DJ Young commented about his hair, GD laughed and said “I cut it.”  Seungri and GD did most of the talk in English though, while TOP resorting to Korean.

Their performance was even more explosive than in F1 GP – that’s probably because they felt the very excited, positive feedbacks from the audience, which was really wonderful that night.  In fact, of the three performances by GD & TOP and Seungri that I had watched, perhaps the one in KMW MY was my best!

Too bad they didn’t give us any encore like in KMW SG, nor did all the artists come back on stage like in KIMCHI, so KMW MY lacked a final kick that could have sealed the night perfectly.  People were left with a lingering feeling that they could have felt more satisfied.

All in all, I truly enjoyed the performance by the artists, but was appalled by some of the aspects of the concert.  KMW in Malaysia 2012?  Yes please, but just get the RELA out of this.

GD, TOP and Seungri took part in this year’s Singapore F1 GP, headlining the music stage in The Padang in the first day of the GP.

I arrived at the City Hall MRT station shortly before 8 pm.  I went straight to the Swissotel to collect my ticket, which, following the F1 GP standard, is in the form of a hard card complete with a lanyard.  I had purchased a walkabout ticket for a day – this means you are allowed to roam freely in Zone 4 (that includes the Padang) during the day shown on the ticket.

Everyone in the ticket collection room was very helpful, and while waiting for the officer who was looking for my ticket (it was sealed in a bubble-wrap envelope), another officer talked to me warmly and helped me find the schedule for GD, TOP and Seungri.  Although I had already known the schedule before going to the event, it’s still nice to know that the officers were willing to help.

I then walked through Gate 3 to the Padang.  Glee-sensation Charice was going to start her explosive performance on the stage, and to my dismay I found that unlike the last time I attended SG F1 GP, now in front of the stage there is the so-called ‘fanzone’ into which only 2000 people who managed to secure a green paper bracelet may enter.  The guard at the entrance told me that the bracelets were gone already.

I decided to wait until Charice’s performance ended, and then asked for the bracelet from a family which was… not of the type that I thought would watch GD, TOP and Seungri’s performance.  I had to re-unite the ends with a Band-Aid though. (So, SG F1 GP organisers, if you read this, I suggest you make bracelets from plastic or something, so we can pass them on easily to the next person who wants to watch a performance we don’t want.)

At 11 pm, DJ Murf warmed up the night with his mix of songs by YG Family’s artists such as 2NE1.  After that, Seungri appeared on stage with his dancers and began with VVIP.  He seemed to be a little out of breath – well, the risk of appearing outdoor in a tropical country with complete suits, Seungri!

He then continued with Strong Baby and What Can I Do.  He spoke to the audience in English, and so did GD later.  TOP almost didn’t speak anything.

GD and TOP then took the stage with their explosive performance and colourful fancy coats – they must feel extra hot inside their clothes!  But they were still amazing.  They opened up with Knock Out, continued with Oh Yeah in which GD & TOP took turns singing Bom’s parts.  And their High High just made the audience go crazy!  It’s always fun jumping while together spelling ‘G H E T T O E L E C T R O’!

Oh, when I watched them in KMW Singapore in July, GD & TOP did scissors-paper-rock to decide who should sang the ‘like ninja’ part.  Now TOP just hugged GD, and GD sang the part.  Fanscreaming ensued.

The three members of Big Bang then returned with the encore, How Gee, with Seungri singing the parts originally sung by Taeyang and Daesung.  They walked out of stage with Seungri shouting, “Awesome! I love this place!”

And we love you, guys.

So: it was September 22nd, 2011, 6am.  I was already in the studio complex of the TV channel RCTI that broadcasts the daily Dahsyat, the TV show in which Hangeng would appear to promote My Kingdom.  He was scheduled to appear on segments 4 (that would begin at about 9 am) and 6/7.  I arrived early to avoid the crowding of fans at the complex gates.  Many fans had already gathered there, but I got my pass and entered quickly.

As the morning grew on, more and more fans came, but only some of them were allowed into the studio to watch the show.  And they would be rotated, to give more fans chance to see Hangeng from a close distance.  I was not put on the floor, but behind the cameras, so I had no fear of being asked to get out to give my place to another.

When Hangeng arrived, the studio exploded with excitement.  Those who watched the show from their TVs said some fans had their faces streamed with tears – I wasn’t able to see that, I was too busy paying attention to Hangeng.  He was so nice and polite, answering questions about his film with Barbie Hsu and Wu Chun and explaining about the stories behind it.  When a fan showed her ticket stubs, he asked for them, saying that he would make them part of his collection.  He even taught one of the hosts martial art.

Unfortunately, Dahsyat hasn’t got the best of hosts.  Some of them even arrived late at the set, so if there was any briefing, they must have missed it.  One greeted him in Korean – which was stupid.  He corrected by saying that they should greet him with ‘ni hao‘ instead.

One host even acted out of limits (see the records on Youtube and you’ll understand) and Hangeng was not comfortable with it.  It also looked like that there was some miscommunication about the format of the TV show between Hangeng’s team and RCTI.  In short, Hangeng’s party was not satisfied with how the show went and he refused to come back to stage for the second segment he’s supposed to be in.

Instead, he did an interview from a private room, only accompanied by his translator and one of the hosts.  He was very professional, though, not showing his bad mood in front of the camera.  But I pitied the second batch of fans who was not able to meet Hangeng in person.  After the interview, Hangeng then left for the next event in his schedule, a lunch with people from Indovision.

Then on 15.00, I was already inside the hall of Djakarta Theater for the press conference, closed except for journalists and 25 lucky fans.  A lot of people also gathered outside, and they were almost hysterical, according to my friends who stayed outside and observed.  Their screams were even heard in the hall.

Before Hangeng arrived, first PRfect (that is in charge of Celestial channel PR affairs) briefed the journalists, asking them to avoid questions about Super Junior.  After that, we watched a trailer of the film and a making-of video, and listened to explanations about the film from Mr Daniel Chen.  He had lived in Surabaya, Hangeng’s next city of destination, for 11 years – probably the reason why Hangeng had a schedule to Indonesia’s 3rd greatest city.  He explained that it took 5 years to make the film.  The script itself was made in four years with revisions after revisions.  He also told us how it was really, really cold in Shanghai when they did the filming.

Hangeng entered from a special entrance, to the enthusiastic greetings from journalists and fans alike.  He sat with the translator (who wore yellow and black, by the way).  I thought he still looked a bit tense, but he quickly warmed up to the event.  Some highlights of the press conference:

- Before coming to Jakarta, he thought all of Indonesia was like Bali, because Bali was the part of Indonesia that was most famous.  When he arrived in Jakarta, it turned out that he was wrong.

- While he’s in Indonesia, he only wanted to eat Indonesian food, and he enjoyed it a lot.  He liked roasted duck and sambal (chilli paste).  He also tried Indonesian dances.

- ‘The Beijing fried rice incident’.

- When asked whether he still liked to cook or not, he said that it’s a hobby in the past.  He was able to cook because he used to help his father, but nowadays usually he didn’t have time to cook anymore.  But he could still do some cooking.

- He only got to know Barbie Hsu and Wu Chun better when they started working together for the film.  He wanted to have a duet with each of them, but since Barbie no longer pursued her singing career, then the biggest chance would be with Wu Chun.

- The opera make-up for My Kingdom was thick, but the most disturbing fact was that it made the skin dry.  Worse, there were times they had to do the filming for 72-hours straight, so the make-up must be re-applied again and again!

- There were accidents during filming – getting the wrong kicks was usual, and even there was one in which he hurt his lips although he’s perfectly okay now.

- He hadn’t thought of going to Hollywood, he’s just trying to do as best as his can in his career right now.  But if there’s any chance to work with Indonesian actors/actresses, he would love to.

- A journalist asked how it felt like to be associated with Super Junior still although he had left them for years now.  Mbak Dian from PRfect asked the translator first to check with Hangeng if it’s okay to answer the question.  Hangeng said yes.  He answered that although he had learnt many things from his previous band (he didn’t mention the name), now he wanted to produce work by himself, both in acting and singing, and asked for support.

- He admitted that he had similarities with Er Kui (his character in My Kingdom) – in which they were both timid and found it difficult to express their feelings.  But “we lived in different time and age”, he joked, to the laughters of the audience.

Two lucky people who won a small quiz then got the chance to take pictures with Hangeng with their prize – signed My Kingdom posters.  Hangeng then left the conference room.  The next morning, he was scheduled to visit an orphanage (the name and of location of which were kept secret until pics were released) before flying to Surabaya for his schedule there.  (Sadly, the event in Tunjungan Plaza had to be cancelled for fear of his safety due to the overwhelming number of fans who came.)

It was very fun meeting Hangeng, and he seemed to be a professional, warm, and nice person.  Hope he can visit Indonesia again in the future, not only to promote his future films, but also do concerts!  Now here are some of the pictures I took during the press conference.

I’ll write a longer blog post when I’m home.  But I think right now I have to explain about the ‘I’m no longer Beijing Fried Rice’ ‘incident’ – if we can call it an incident.  Just to let you know, Hangeng said it with no particular expression, just some small polite smile.  And what happened was this:

There was a game in the press conference in which people who were able to answer questions about Hangeng would get signed My Kingdom posters.  One of the questions was: “What was Hangeng’s nickname?”  The expected answer was ‘King of Dance’, but some of the audience answered ‘Beijing Fried Rice’.  When Hangeng was asked to decide whether the answer was true or not, he said no it’s wrong, he used to be called that way, but he’s no longer Beijing Fried Rice, it was all in the past.

I hope this clears things up a bit – whatever you make of it.  I’m not offering any interpretations of his words, just telling you what I heard.  Just want you to know that to me Hangeng was a very sweet and kind guy.  Well, here are some pictures for you, to get by while waiting for a longer post.  Sorry if the first one is blurry, I’ll give you better pics next time.  See you soon :)

I glanced anxiously at the clock high up on the wall. It’s almost 2 PM, and Changi Immigration queuing lines had chosen this day to be this extra long. The Chinese-American lady in front of me, after getting bored with a drama she had been watching on her iPad, turned to me and smiled nervously, “It’s already an hour.” I nodded.

I did not really understand what was going on. I had a clinch that the Immigration was looking for someone particular. The moment we stepped out of the arrival gate, we had to go through an inspection directly – which was not usual. And I noticed that as we were standing to get our passports checked, the officers passed us by several times, and, acting as if it’s just a casual thing, stopped to ask for the papers of some men of similar characteristics. Uh huh, I thought, they’re looking for someone. A drug dealer perhaps. Or a conman. Or a corruptor. Perhaps the guy’s somewhere in the line, trying to hide his nervousness of being caught.

I had another reason to be nervous. In 5 hours we’re going to attend Korean Music Wave 2011 that featured big names that I love, like Big Bang and 2NE1. We had to check in first in a hotel I didn’t know exactly where and then go to a venue I didn’t know exactly where either. It’s not my 1^st time in Singapore, and I knew that transportation would not be a big problem for me, but who knew what could happen? So far, unexpectedly, Changi Immigration had caused some delay in our scheduled activities. I thought I could take a nap before getting prepared for the event. I had slept for only about 2 hours the previous night, on a flight from Bangkok to Jakarta. I returned home just to put my bags, take a bath, and leave again with another bag containing fresh clothes.

We were beaten by split seconds and the train to Tanah Merah left without us – we had to wait for the next one. Already some more minutes wasted. Arriving in Geylang – where I had never stayed before, but I had chosen because of its proximity to the Indoor Stadium – it took us some time with lunchless stomachs to find Lorong 18. And you know what – there’s a group of Thai tourists arriving just before us, and now they’re doing the check in. I almost fell down on my knees for being so tired, hungry, and half-desperate.

But in the end we got our room anyway. We still had about 2 hours to have some rest before leaving for the stadium. Now – the stadium. Studying maps, I thought that it’d be best if we walk to Mountbatten and ride the MRT to the next station, the Indoor stadium. So as we’re leaving, I asked the guy at the reception to show me the way to Mountbatten. He took a hotel card and showed me the map at he back, and drew red lines to direct us to Aljunied. No, not Aljunied, I said. Mountbatten.

“Sorry, Mountbatten is not on the card, so I cannot show you where.”

Oh.

Okay.

Nevermind, Aljunied would do, although we’d have to change lines at Paya Lebar.

Girls and boys were already amassing around the Indoor Stadium when we alighted at the station. I met my friend Debra for a promised exchange of our Big Bang mousepads, and after that I went to the Premier Entrance. The guard there took a part of my ticket… before she realised that I was not on the right gate. “This is East,” she said. “Your gate is West.” Well, there was no written sign stating that this was the East gate. Now she began to look a bit panicky and called for her superior. He told me to just bring my ticket – now in two parts – to the other side of the building.

Oh.

Okay.

When I finally, finally, was inside the stadium, I took moments to stare around in awe. A building well-prepared for concerts, with convenient seats and good acoustics. I hate to say this but it was one of those ‘if only we have something like this in Indonesia’ moments that I, maybe you, often have. But then again, Indonesian audience always makes up for what we lack in facilities with our zeal and energy – something that even that night’s Singaporean audience could not compete with.

(Now, some complaining. I couldn’t get truly good pictures because I was only using my cellphone. I was trying to be an obedient guest, and since on the ticket it was printed that we might not take pictures or AV records of the event, I left my camera at the hotel… only to find gazillions of the audience brought their high-end cameras that could even record HD videos. If only I knew! And the camera feature of a cellphone could be really frustrating with its limitations, so many times I decided just to enjoy the show and forget about taking pictures.)

But let’s get to the beginning of the concert. The event’s line up of hosts included U-Kiss’ Kevin Woo and miss A’s Min – both fluent in English and would later also act as interpreters to the artists. FT Island opened KMW gloriously. Riding on the same Hallyu wave as Korean stars of their generation, it’s easy for uninitiated people to shoo them off as ‘another K-pop act’ – especially with those hairdos… But FT Island was not ‘another act’. They’re a solid rock band with a lot of energy, materializing especially in the form of their lead singer, Lee Hong Ki. I suddenly had a thought that somebody had to invite guitar-based Korean rock bands like FT Island, CN Blue, TRAX and Royal Pirates to Indonesia. That would be just awesome!

After FT Island, rookies TOUCH took the stage. Not knowing their materials, I think the thing striking me the most was their various-colour LED jackets that changed displays as they moved. That’s surely a great gimmick to grab people’s attention and make them remember you even though they don’t know you… and it worked with me. TOUCH and Dalshabet were okay, although I wouldn’t say girlbands like Dalshabet were my cup of tea, but they still had to walk through a long way to become really remarkable.

Next came the two bands that I had watched previously in Jakarta, X-5 and The Boss. Man, I love the choreography of Fantasy – so slow, captivating, mysterious. This song was recently banned by the Holier-than-Thou Department (or something called such) in South Korea – hmmm, yeah, it sure does give us fantasy watching the taller-than-thou boys performing the dance. One thing I regretted was that, although X-5 bared their shoulders for some seconds, Ghun didn’t expose his abs again like he did in Jakarta. My luck that I watched KIMCHI then, haha.

And by that time I was already missing the atmosphere of Jakartan concerts. The loud cheers we give to performing artists, whoever they are – the way we call together the names of the artist whose turn is next – our screams and shouts that San E love so much (haha)… Realising that probably this was just probably because I was in a different cultural setting, it did feel a bit strange to be surrounded by so many people that could have sounded louder. And I wonder whether the artists felt that too.

No abs-baring? Oh well...

Perhaps. I don’t know. But I was thinking that ‘X-5 and The Boss looked more energetic in KIMCHI’. Maybe it was just a biased opinion. I still enjoy their performances though (and Karam is still cute with his oversized sweater sleeves). I liked The Boss especially when they performed New Boyz, but their stage act and even their clothes were so similar to what they had in Jakarta. I was expecting something noticeably different.

TEEN TOP was a fresh act to me, and although so far I hadn’t enjoyed their singles or MVs, I was eager to watch them perform live. Many bands always do better on stage than in the studio. And yes, they were entertaining enough, and the rapper had this deep, rich voice that made me think “He can be the next TOP.” Oh well, they’re TEEN TOPs anyway…

For some unknown reasons, I have lots of TEEN TOP pics.

By that time, Min was already missing from the host line up. She was preparing for her performance with miss A, which would be my second time of being in the audience for these fantastic girls. Not only they’re sweet and natural-looking (just look at how muscular Min’s thighs are!), they also sing and dance well. Their setlist was shorter than in Jakarta, but it’s understandable because they were the main act in FantastiKPop while here it’s Big Bang. We (including Kevin Woo, I bet) just loved gesturing ‘you don’t know me, shut up boy!’ with miss A.

After Min, it was Kevin’s turn with his mates from U-KISS. They seemed to have such a huge fanbase in Singapore, because now the audience was becoming really, really hot. I don’t know much about U-KISS, but judging from the way they handled the stage, it’s clear that they had had a longer experience to boast of than some of the other bands. They managed to raise the tension of the event.

By that time, it was still felt more or less like a floating dream. I was enjoying the night, but it only really hit me home when 2NE1 appeared. Oh my god! Yes, I’m in Korean Music Wave, a long way from home, waiting for Big Bang – I am alive!

And what can I say about 2NE1? They’re drop-dead gorgeous and such a strong presence. They’re everywhere on the stage, taking us dancing on our feet and clapping our hands to their hits like I Don’t Care, Fire, I’m The Best, and Lonely. CL was so sweet, at a point she seemed to realise that they hadn’t greeted the audience at my side of the stage, so she drew Sandara’s attention to us and they both waved and smiled at us! Wait… was it Sandara? Or Minzy? Or Bom? Dammit, I can’t remember, CL’s beaming face was imprinted so strong in my memory, it erased the face of the one standing next to her! Too bad they didn’t perform a favourite of mine, Bakseuchyo, but it didn’t really matter – I’d got to watch the girls was already a great blessing!

Then it’s time for the one everyone had been waiting for, and whoa – yes – it’s not a dream. It’s a reality that my five senses could feel, and this reality I wanted to be immersed in greedily. But even I was surprised with how close I was to Big Bang, who took the stage with a storm. Launching into Tonight, they had to make do without Daesung due to the accident case, and Seungri took over his parts. They didn’t perform the full choreography, but GD still smashed a guitar on stage. The audience was now simply crazy, jumping and screaming.

Let's just hope it's not an FT Island guitar that GD smashed.

GD has brown hair now!

Big Bang was entertaining not just because of their singing and dancing, but also because of their talks. When asked how he thought about Singapore, Seungri tried his luck with English, but stuck with ‘awesome and cool and… and… awesome’. When asked what’s his favourite Singaporean dish was, Taeyang (who’s supposed to answer chilli crab) lost it and answered honestly, “But I don’t know much about Singaporean food…” He quickly amended it by asking for recommendation. But Seungri, always ready, cut in with “I love Singapore beer”. GD, laughing, almost dragged him to the backstage.

Strong as a group, and also as individual performers, that’s what Big Bang is. Seungri made the audience go crazy with Strong Baby and Naneojjeorago, although he seemed to be struggling with his breath a couple of times, probably the result of having to do Daesung’s parts also. Taeyang caused a small fight in Pen A when he threw his red jacket to the audience while performing Where U At + I’ll Be There.

Hands up who got Taeyang's jacket? ENVY.

GD and TOP burnt the stage with their magnificent, explosive performance. I think nobody stayed still during High High, and everyone joined in the chorus as we spelt G H E T T O E L E C T R O! Bom re-appeared to add a feminine touch to Oh Yeah! And I just wished Diplo had been there for Knockout – he must have been proud!

"If I win, I get to sing the 'like ninja' part!"

Big Bang returned on stage for the heart-breaking Love Song. Then after hiding awhile backstage (to the shouts of ‘encore’ that’s so weak I was going, Oh come on, we know they’ll return onstage, but let’s be more vigorous!), they brought us dancing again with Hands Up. Confetti filled up the air as a sign that this was really the end.

Managing to get the last train to Joo Koon in Paya Lebar, I just couldn’t stop smiling even until I lay myself down in bed. My heart even still grins until now. And the good news is that the promoter will hold a similar event next October. I get butterflies in my stomach thinking who will perform!

See you again, guys! <3

Lee Hyun was supposed to perform but he pulled out almost in the last minutes, and 2AM was short one person, both due to conflicting solo schedules. Kim Hyung Joon was added to the line-up one week before D-day (and to be frank, if it were not for him, I wouldn’t watch the festival… I don’t regret going though!). And just like KIMCHI, before the event, gossips circulating around… I won’t repeat them here, but I just would like to say: eat dust, suckers. I mean, just look at the tweets by San E, and by the members of Miss A, and the picture posted by Hyung Joon showing him enjoying his sunny day in the pool of Hotel Mulia, as opposed to his tired face taken in Changi… But let’s talk about the festival, shall we?

Joo, who used to live in Ciputat, Jakarta when she was small because her dad worked here, opened up the night with her cute songs. She was very communicative too with the audience, and it helped a lot in rising the tension of the night. And when she sang ‘I’m Every Woman’, woohoo, she’s hot! (It was too much to hope that Kadir aka Eeteuk suddenly appears to sing Ice Cream with her, yeah?)

If you look really close, that's Joo singing over there.

Next in the line-up, a bit unexpected at first, but understandable later in terms of keeping the right flow of the festival, came 2AM, all clad in white. You must hear all the ladies screamed… The boys (should I call them the men?) showed us what their wonderful voices could do, even though they’re missing Jinwoon. They sang a total of 6 songs.

I told you I stood too far away...

After that, San E burnt the night! Coming perhaps as the artist known the least by the audience, San E was a true black horse. We didn’t even need to know his songs first to fall in love with this guy! He was really entertaining – and he even told how he had a special relationship with Indonesia, because in high school he used to know an Indonesian girl named Putri. They went to the prom together, and Putri gave him a kiss. San E said Putri was somewhere in the crowd, watching him, and he wanted her to come onstage… He instead picked a girl named Dilla to be serenaded by him onstage while sitting on a chair and receiving a flower from him. Pinch me if I was wrong, but when Dilla kissed San E, I thought the screams were louder than when 2AM performed, haha. We envy you, Dilla!

And you know what… the next day, the first San E fanbase in Indonesia was declared. And the man himself confirmed the mutual love born that night between him and Indonesia in his tweets. (Yeah, we love you, San E!)

BUT GODDAMN IT I DIDN’T GET ANY CLEAR PICTURE OF SAN E. ASHAMED, I AM.

Continue please.

Kim Hyung Joon(or Jun, however you spell it), the maknae of SS501, took the stage after San E. He admitted that he was very tired (I heard there had been some going-ons in Singapore, but since I didn’t have a trustful source, I’d put the matter at rest here), but he still gave us his very best. Seeing him performing Oh! Ah! and Girl live almost made me swoon and faint. Although he asked us to also support other SS501 members with their own solo careers, he asked us to love him as he is. He then asked us, “What’s my name?” to which we shouted the answer, “KIM HYUNG JOON!” (And it’s nice to hear his usual chuckles…) He closed his performance with SS501’s Your Man, that led the audience to sing along really, really loud.

LOOK AT THE NOSE! I'M TELLING YOU, THAT'S BABY!

(And wait… let me say this first: I WAS ABLE TO WATCH BOTH JUNG MIN AND BABY IN THE SPACE OF TWO WEEKS, I’M HAPPY. Period.)

If my observations were correct, the artist most anticipated that night was Miss A. The girls received the loudest cheers, and they it paid back with a stunning energetic performance. To be frank, although I knew these girls, I wasn’t expecting much. But after I saw them sing and dance (including a cover version of Lady Gaga’s Pokerface), hey! This was a girlband to reckon! And even the girls around me could not stop saying, “How pretty they are!” And everyone must have enjoyed themselves when they sang and gestured ‘you don’t know me – shut up, boy!’ And one glorious night thus ended…

The sniper was telling me to get a 12 MP/14x optical zoom camera.

Some lucky fans got to see Joo, Miss A, and San E in the fanmeetings (the one with Joo was held one day before the show, while the other one was one day after the show). Only those who got bracelets with special stamp might attend the Miss A/San E fanmeeting. As you might have guessed by the lack of pictures, I didn’t. Indonesian Say As sang Happy Birthday to Min during the occasion – she reportedly burst into tears, and later tweeted saying that the Indonesian fans were her birthday present. [Can I put an emoticon here, because I really want to put a :’).]

Indonesia will soon enter a break of concerts since it’s the fasting month – but I’m hoping that after the Ied will see more acts (Korean or not) performing. (Linkin Park is due to rock GBK in September 21.) But before that, this year’s Java Rockin’ Land will shake Jakarta once again! Will be there, see you there!