JYJ is made up of the three members of DBSK who sued their management company and started a new band. Their stage names are Hero, Micky and Xiah, but they seem to be going by their real names now, Jaejoong, Yoochun, and Junsu.
Now, I have a lot to say about my Las Vegas trip and the concert so there will probably be several blogs all pertaining to this last week or so. So if you're not interested, feel free to skip ahead now. If you are interested, buckle down and get ready to experience the long haul with me.
Starting with the concert may seem anti-climactic to my readers. "Where could she possibly go with her blog after the concert that wouldn't seem less exciting than getting to see the three gorgeous guys up close in concert?" I'm glad you asked. I actually found the build up to the concert much more exciting than the concert itself, so that's where we're starting.
The boys were beautiful, lets just get that out of the way. They changed costumes once. They performed a total of 5 songs, though they sang Empty twice so they sang 6 all together. It felt very short. The whole show lasted an hour and that included a brief interview given by the three JYJ members and some goofing around by the MC's...who I did not know. But I think they must have been famous because they acted like we should have known who they were, and some of the audience members did seem to react familiarly.
Despite the brevity, JYJ put on a great show with lots of high energy dancing and quality singing. I was impressed almost despite myself. Having watched the video clips of their previous concerts, I had an idea of what to expect, but I was still very happy with their show.
Originally, I paid $200 for my ticket which was not exactly front row, but was in the center and not too far from the stage. However, the concert ended up being free because, horribly, JYJ was unable to attain work Visas in time for their visit so they were unable to claim any income from their trip to America. And, incredibly, instead of canceling the US tour, JYJ decided to go on with the show, but to make it free for their fans.
I don't mind admitting that I was very moved by this gesture, very nearly to tears. They exhibited such big hearts by continuing with the concert tour despite all the costs they would have to eat in order to do so. All previously bought tickets were refunded but the seats were honored. I have to assume that if the band members were being paid for their show it would have been a little longer and there would have been a little more interaction with the audience. As it was, free and of enormous expense to the boys (please don't be offended that I call these 23 year old men boys, it's just easier and they're younger than I am) I can't begin to express my gratitude that they showed up at all.
A few chants were started before the show, which began half an hour late, but quickly died out. I believe that they were simply too long and difficult to be catchy. "Kim Jaejoong" clap-clap-clap, "Park Yoochun" clap-clap-clap, "Kim Junsu" clap-clap-clap, "Vivaaaa Las Vegas!" Perhaps there would have been more participation if they'd stuck with "Hero! Micky! Xiah! JYJ!" Or something to that affect. Though even as I write this I kind of doubt it. I estimate that there were about 3,000 people there, but the energy was lacking. Even when the chant starters finally figured out the problem and changed their shouts to a very simple, "JYJ, JYJ, JYJ" the chants did not last long.
I don't want to be mistaken. There was plenty of screaming once the band members made their appearance on stage and the only time the audience sat down was during the half show interview (half of which was drowned out by cheers and screams) there seemed to be a lack of cohesion. Even the call for an encore was ragged and short lived. I personally believe that this was due to a complete lack of belief that JYJ would come back out no matter how much the audience asked.
Micky was adorable during the interview. He kindly translated the questions the MC's asked in english to korean so that Hero and Xiah would know what had been asked. He made a couple cute errors which only made him more popular, such as saying that the theme of their next music video 'Empty' was a "Secret secret," and that JYJ had gone to a club the night before with their "staffs." Hero made a couple attempts at english, telling the audience "Thank you," and "We love you" while Xiah spoke only Korean and relied on the MC's and Micky to translate for him.
More will be told about the interview later. There were a couple really cute parts that I will tell about in more detail.
The end of the concert, which came all too quickly, was the "Ayyy Girl" music video played on the screen after the three JYJ members had disappeared back down into the stage from where they had first come. I'm so very glad that I got to see them, but even more glad that I did not have to pay $200 to do it. I think I would have felt disappointed. As it was, it was less than I could have hoped, but drastically and amazingly more than I could have asked. I would not hesitate to go to their next concert, though I don't know if I would spring for such good seats, instead opting for a cheaper, slightly further away place. This is in part due to the disappointment I experienced when I realized, that despite my ardent admiration for the JYJ members and all the anticipation I had felt at being able to see them in person, Hero, Micky, and Xiah were only life-sized.
This last clip is very short. It's from their song 'Empty,' which happens to be my favorite. At the show, I didn't want to watch the concert through the lense of my camera and so decided to just watch and enjoy and forget about having many pictures or videos. Now I'm sitting here thinking, 'What was I thinking?? It would have been so cool to have more footage of the show!' Oh well.
I don't own JYJ or any of their songs. I don't have permission to have this clip on my blog, but the concert was free, so I don't think they're going to lose any money by my putting this 14 second clip up for you to see.
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