Jigemun SoNyeoShiDae! - Hong Kong 2012 Concert Fan Account

Girls' Generation and I go way back. It was through the nine gorgeous girls and their infectious melodies that I became a dedicated Kpop fangirl, a fandom which I've been involved in for close to four years now. Though I am now a die hard fan of all sorts of groups, Girls' Generation was my first love and my heart will always have a special place for those nine angels. So you can imagine how I felt when I heard a rumour floating around the internet back in October 2011 of a Hong Kong concert for their second Asia tour. A group of my friends and I were already exploding into a big puddle of overjoyed fangirl/fanboy goo. Our girls, in our town! It was too good to be true!

A couple of weeks later the rumour became confirmed and the date was set for the 15^th of January 2012. A date which only one of us – that one being me – could make. University beckoned for my friends, pulling them off to every place in the world that was not Hong Kong. I would be the only one in town for the concert. Could I even contemplate going alone? Did I have the nerve to turn up solo and scream like an idiot on my own?

For the girls, yes I did.

But what about my friends? My group of S♥NEs that I had karaoke-d Girls' Generation songs with, screamed over videos with, danced Genie in public with? It was through no fault of their own that they couldn't make it to the concert. And I know that one fanboy in particular was considering blowing off the first two weeks of university to go to the concert, and was absolutely gutted that he couldn't make it.

So I thought I would bring the concert to them in the only way I could.

I present to you my project – Jigemun SoNyeoShiDae! It consists of this fan account right here, as well as several videos I took. The videos document the before, the during and the after of the concert, nine videos in total. The videos were filmed with both my iPod Touch as well as my Nikon J1 with a telephoto lens attached. As I was very excited and I'm really quite crazy anyway, the videos are shaky, all over the place and for the most part incomplete. There is a lot of screaming, squealing, singing and other such noises throughout, especially in the concert fancams. I'm truly sorry that the videos aren't of better quality. I hope you enjoy them anyway despite my mediocre filming skills.

Warning: Jigemun SoNyeoShiDae is a PG project – I cut out a lot, not all, of the swearing (who knew I had such a filthy mouth when I'm excited) but I do talk about some mature stuff that is unsuitable for the too young. You might want to watch the videos without your parents in the room, or with headphones on.

With that over with, on with the show :)

Jigemun SoNyeoShiDae!

The 15^th of January 2012 dawned a somewhat soggy and grey Sunday. But the rain was irrelevant because in barely eight hours, I was going to be at the AsiaWorld Expo Arena surrounded by a crowd glowing hot pink screaming my lungs out. I knew exactly what I was going to wear – jeans, comfortable shoes, my Hyoyeon t-shirt and a bright pink hoodie – and exactly what I was going to bring – camera, fanlight and wallet with ticket stuffed securely inside. I had it all planned out days in advance.

The excitement and shock that all of it was truly happening began at the Central Airport Express station, and when I plopped down into a seat surrounded by other people clearly going to the concert as well (why else would you have no baggage and lugging around a giant camera?) I didn't know what to do with myself I was so giddy. Twenty minutes later, having spent the whole train ride listening to Girls' Generation songs on shuffle, I joined the crowd of other people disembarking from the train and walked up into the Expo.

This is what I saw.

Pretty even mix of fanboys to fangirls, if anyone was wondering. It was maybe one girl to every two guys that I saw there. In front of me in line were also these two adorable girls, maybe twelve years old, each with their own home made SNSD t-shirt. There were also a fair few uncle fans, as you may have noticed in the video, the gentleman in front of me was maybe in his mid-forties and he'd also apparently come alone to the concert. Lonesome S♥NEs representing.

Before we move on to the second video, I'd like to elaborate more on those fan events. I've listed them below, along with how well they were carried out and what the reactions of the girls were.

1. The show opens with Genie and there are three repetitions of 'sowoneul malhaebwa' before the beat kicks in. The plan was that everyone's fanlight was to be switched off when the diamond opened to reveal the girls, and the standing audience would turn on their fanlights after the first 'sowoneul malhaebwa'. The seated audience in the lower rows would turn on their fanlights after the second 'sowoneul malhaebwa' and the rest of us in the higher tiers would turn on our fanlights after the third 'sowoneul malhaebwa' to inform the very unobservant people that the show had started. Good idea, unfortunately didn't work in practice. Clearly too many people were all OMFG IT'S SNSD and forgot to turn off their fanlights, then didn't know when to turn them back on again. Ah well.
2. The second fan event was that during the self introduction the girls would say, “Annyeonghaeseyo, SoNyeoShiDae imnida!” Then we'd all go, “Annyeonghaeseyo, S♥NE imnida!” This also didn't work out so well. Probably because us Hong Kong people don't speak Korean that well and it all turned into screaming very loudly.
3. The third fan event was during 'Complete'. There's a part right before the last chorus where the lights cut out, and at that point we were all to take out our A4 banner with 'You + Me = Complete' and hold it until the girls went backstage to get on their boat. This worked like a charm and it was bloody amazing. At the end of the song the girls stood in a line on stage until the music finished, just looking out at the audience and Sooyoung and Jessica were both in tears and Taeyeon and Tiffany looked like we had made their day. Tiffany's eye smile is devastatingly glorious in person, if you were wondering. As they were walking back to get on their ship, Taeyeon gave the camera the thumbs up. Our leader gave us her approval and I was falling over myself with joy.
4. During the song 'Forever', again right before the last chorus, we were all to make the pinkie promise gesture in the air with one of our hands. At first I thought the girls wouldn't get it, and they were all standing at different points on the stage, then suddenly Sunny made the pinkie promise as well, then Seohyun and Tiffany followed suit so it got through to them, I was so happy. Sunny was tearing up at that point and then I was sniffling thinking to myself, “Don't make me cry too!” It was really touching because the big screens on the stage were just focused on Sunny doing the pinkie promise with us S♥NEs, promising FOREVER and I was so close to tears I mean I can't even.
5. During the encore we were meant to do 'clap, clap, clap, S♥NEs bring the girls out!' to the time of 'The Boys'. This as you can imagine, went to pot and for a bit there we were just screaming, “Encore!”. And I started the trampling on the risers, which is apparently what you do when you demand an encore and I started it because apparently no one else knew this trampling tradition. Eventually some smart person with a whistle gave us the rhythm and we were all, “ S♥NEs BRING THE GIRLS OUT” for a bit but it probably wasn't as epic as the fanclub were hoping.
6. Now on to the penis shaped balloons. I was legitimately surprised when I walked into the AsiaWorld Expo and I saw all these people holding a balloon that had basically a long phallic thing sticking out after the normal balloon shape. No one had informed me phallic symbols were to be brought to the concert. Someone handed me one and I was thinking, “No thanks, I can do without the phallic symbol and waving it; I have a light stick, I'm prepared for this shit.” So I surreptitiously left it in a bathroom where no fangirl could pounce on me for not carrying the pale pink penis about with me. Then I received the flyers of the fan event, found out I needed the penis balloon, and I grabbed me another one.
   
   During the last song of the evening 'It's Fantastic', there's a part right at the end of the song when Jessica goes 'fly away' then there are three beats before the song ends. After those three beats we were to untwist the balloon from its paper clip and let it loose, creating a pink balloon ocean. This was HYSTERICAL because firstly, the penis balloons did not fly straight up as I was expecting. Instead they zipped about, sometimes straight ahead in front of you and landing on a person's head. The best thing by far was the fact that the penis balloon made this high whistling noise due to the stopper the fanclub people had put at the end to let the air out of the balloon in a steady stream, and that meant the long phallic bit ran out of air before the balloon bit was quite done. So after 'look at the fabulous pink balloon ocean!' it very soon became 'look at all the pale pink sperm whizzing about the Expo!' Hyoyeon in particular was greatly amused by all this, she kept pointing and laughing as the balloons transformed into sperm above the stage. As if I needed another reason to love her more.

During the concert, Sooyoung/Tiffany/Taeyeon with Seohyun every now and again did most of the speaking – Tiffany switched between English and Korean (but it was mostly English!) and Sooyoung's English was pretty much flawless. The talking parts of the concert were funny, mostly because the girls would speak, the crowd would scream, the translator would speak, the crowd would scream louder because we now actually understood what they were saying.

Something else I didn't expect before the concert: the videos between sets are great in more ways than just letting us see more of the girls being awesome. When I was watching their first concert on DVD, I thought the videos were just a way to buy time between costume changes but they also let the audience rest as well. Surprisingly, screaming your vocal chords to shreds and waving a light stick so hard it almost flies into the back of someone's head is tiring work. The videos are great for the audience to refuel, sit back a little and remember how to keep breathing.

Judging by the videos, it seemed like the most popular members in Hong Kong were Taeyeon and Yoona, then Tiffany. Though I had a pretty hardcore Seohyun fangirl close to me, and we were the only ones in my section that I could hear doing the fanchants. You go Seohyun fangirl. Plus there was a dedicated group of Jessica fangirls at ground level standing, not to mention the group of Tiffany fangirls sitting closer to the stage that would go insane every time Tiffany spoke. Before the concert I had been worried that I'd be making an idiot out of myself to be screaming like a maniac. But those fangirls made me feel comfortable screaming things like a maniac.

The guy to the right of me (probably around fifteen years old) was also there alone and apparently my screaming was too loud for him. Every time he anticipated a scream he'd use his hand to plug the ear that was close to me. I just went right on screaming for everybody and everything that moved. I also really began to enjoy screaming when he hadn't anticipated me so he'd get the full force of my banshee shriek right in his sensitive little hearing organ there.

In terms of songs, most of their set list was taken from their Japanese album which tbqh I was never really a fan of. I would have liked a set list with more of their earlier, Korean stuff but I'm not complaining. In general the audience seemed not as into the Japanese stuff as they were with the Korean stuff – except for Mr Taxi and Bad Girl, which we all went appropriately batshit for. Otherwise the sure winners all won and of course Gee came on and we were all dancing and screaming and having a good old time. The tour was basically the Japanese tour DVD with the Korean version of Mr Taxi and the English version of The Boys. Not to mention different, absolutely kickass solos.

I may have seemed oddly quiet considering she is my bias and I'm absolutely in love with her, but that was because I was not prepared in the slightest. I was struck speechless quite frankly, and the only coherent thought that I had during her entire solo culminated in those sounds you hear me making in the video.

The time between solos was incomprehensibly short, so I'd barely recovered from the end of Hyoyeon's solo before Jessica's voice came through the sound system and I scrambled to reposition my camera. Her voice is not really my cup of tea, and it sounded much higher in person than it does when recorded. But I still loved everything about it – the song, the dress, the piano, the very impressive push up bra. She was wearing a strapless dress with a sweetheart neckline and all I could notice after, “She's so pretty how is she even real oh my god I love her piano look at that dress” was “WOAH HELLO CLEAVAGE”.

Sunny's solo was amazing, much more amazing than I had anticipated. She was wearing very, very little and looked smoking in her leather bra and hot pants and sparkly jacket. Almost like a dominatrix. Mmmmm. Her dance routine also used these hot pink ribbons so my brain was in a very naughty place throughout.

As you would have heard, I enjoyed myself very much during this performance. Taeyeon's new costume for Marmalade is soooo much better than what it used to be, more classy and sophisticated. Now if we could only get rid of Fany's hot pink feathered heart skirt and get her into something a little less trashy looking. Taeyeon doesn't actually have a solo – I mean Devil's Cry is amazing but it's only like a minute. Tiffany doesn't have much of a solo either; I guess her solo stage is Lady Marmalade but it's a duet so idk. I felt robbed of my Tiffany solo and Taeyeon solo.

I'd promised my friends to scream for all their biases, and I did for the most part. I screamed like a banshee for Hyoyeon, and I screamed for Sooyoung and for Yuri mostly because there was a disappointing lack of high pitched shrieking for them. I had also made a promise to my Sooyoung-biased friend to be the shrieking Sooyoung fangirl. At first I thought the Sooyoung pterodactyl fangirl was in the audience, but she obviously didn't have the stamina to last through the whole show so I picked up the slack every now and again when it was too much normal screaming. I take great pride in the thought that in the fancams of the people next to me, it will be filled with the sound of me screaming my freaking guts out. You can have a taste of what sitting next to me, listening to my banshee shriek, is like in the eighth video.

Yoona's solo was mindblowing. It starts with her in these high waisted pants all sexy office worker (like for real, it was drool worthy) dancing with a horizontal pole. Because that's just how you do it. Then she has her whole routine down the runway, to the big centre square thing where another horizontal pole is set up and a male backup dancer comes up and TEARS AWAY those office worked high waisted pants and she's wearing nothing but sparkly sequinned hot pants and she does a high kick then starts breaking it down as if someone didn't just rip her pants off her. She is such a fierce dancer, like I was surprised at how legit good her dancing is.

Yuri's solo was so hot I think my brain stopped functioning halfway through. The sexiness that lady emits is dangerous to the earth because she could warm the atmosphere a whole ten degrees if we're not careful. She has regained her curves, thank the Lord, but her thighs are still too skinny T_T Eat more Yuri-ah so you can has your nom-able honey thighs again.

Sooyoung's solo, every time her guy dance partner touched her I was all ANDWAE because that routine is basically sex on a stage. Sooyoung is 3/4 leg by the way. Just looking at her it's like leg, leg, leg, leg, leg, leg, rest of body. Her hair was also done up in a ponytail, but she got a little bit too into the head swinging. Her hair tie came off just before her big dance break and she was all smile-y like 'well what can you do' and just went on being A BOSS.

I am so upset that I didn't manage to get anything of Seohyun's solo. Her solo was so grown up ladylike adorable cheeky and I loved every second of it. Her song also requires a lot of English so I was very impressed at how well she pulled it off. She also had a tap dance in the middle, a proper old big band stage number which fit her so well. I also noticed that her shoes had maybe a half inch, an inch tall heel at the most but she was still just as tall as her male backup dancers. Giant baby, please to stop growing.

So my camera's battery died toward the end of the concert – all my fault really – so I'll just write down here other memorable parts from the end of the concert.

Tiffany was the best at fan service, she was running about everywhere smiling and waving and looking like she was having the time of her life. Everyone did! But I think Taeyeon was getting tired near the end, I was watching her during Into the New World – we were all sitting down before it, I heard the opening chords and I had literally jumped to my feet before realising what I was doing – and at one point she wasn't doing the choreography. It was only for maybe two or three seconds and she was at the back of the formation, so if you weren't watching her you wouldn't have noticed, but she just looked tired. I hope she gets some sleep, I hope they all get some well deserved rest.

And since my friends are shippers, I feel it is my duty to write down the pairings that I observed. There was only a little bit of JeTi right at the end when they walking down the runway together during 'It's Fantastic'. I caught moments of YulTae, YulTi (Yuri seemed to be in a very GRAB AND HUG ANYONE WITHIN REACH kind of mood) and YoonHyun every so often. Hyoyeon and Sunny were hilarious just before 'Gee', having some kind of fist fight then Hyoyeon flipped her hair and flounced off. They are the hilariously violent couple.

At the very end of the show, right before they walked around the entire stage saying thank you, they went in single file down the runway that jutted out into the audience and said a personal goodbye with, of course, the necessary aegyo. Hyoyeon was so cute and beautiful but didn't say anything except smile, which was perfect anyway because she is perfect. Sooyoung did this huge MWAH into the microphone. Like as in a full on, drawn out MMMMMUUUUUUU AAAAAAHHHH complete with hand motions that made the crowd go hysterical. Jessica screamed, “I LOVE DIMSUM!” to which I responded, “SO DO I!” After that Seohyun just seemed more normal and ladylike as she did a heart, all cute and adorable.

And just like that, the concert was over. It had been two and a half hours, but it felt like no time at all. I could have stayed in that Arena with the girls for forever and I wouldn't even have noticed the years flying by. It had been a truly magical experience, the memory of which I will always cherish. And I'm so grateful that I had the chance to go; to film it and remember it so I could relive it with all of you.

Apeurado SoNyeoShiDae

Jigemun SoNyeoShiDae

Yongwonhi SoNyeoShiDae ♥