Hello all you happy people! I am slowly coming down off cloud nine from my recent Los Angeles, CA trip for the Korean Musical Festival. To put it bluntly – IT WAS AWESOME!! It started off by doing a little stalking of Beast and 2PM at the Sheraton Hotel before the concert (remind me to tell you about that later ^^) and it ended up being the most EPIC night of 2010 for me! My friend and I were blessed to have great seats (Pool Circle D – left side of the stage), so we could see the artist so clearly! I’ll try to recap the concert as accurately as possible, but bear with me because my memory is horrible (yes… even for such a monumental occasion such as this 
).
Clara Chung (winner of Kollaboration 2010) opened up the show by singing the American National Anthem. (*personal opinion* She was ‘okay’ nothing too spectacular. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a hater or anything I just don’t see what the hype is with her. Her voice is nice and she’s talented – she can play the piano and the guitar – but she just doesn’t stand out too much for me). Anyhoo, afterwards I think male singer Yoon Hang Ki came out and sang Korea’s National Anthem (why do I adore the melody to that song?!) And then out popped the MCs: KARA’s Nicole and gagman /singer / actor HaHa. They were great by the way! Nicole was adorable and even tried to randomly engage us non-Korean fans with little (and I mean LITTLE) spurts of English like “What’s up L.A.?!” (she’s from LA apparently). But where she lacked, HaHa more than made up for it with his comedic fail attempts at English, his enthusiasm and his ability to engage the crowd in screams and cheers whenever. Yes, HaHa-ssi kept us hyped… you know, in between screaming for our favorite artists. Speaking of which, the first musical act was… (drumroll)…
SOOOOO BEAST!
They came out singing “Easy”, went into “Mystery” and after introducing themselves, they performed “Shock” and truly electrified the audience. Now I know I am TOTALLY biased because B2ST / BEAST is my favorite group (equally tied with Big Bang), but honestly they were really REALLY great! What we see on Youtube vids is NOTHING compared to seeing them live. 1st thing I loved: they danced hard. The choreography was performed as if they were shooting a music video. Wonderful! I could really feel the energy of their performances. 2nd thing I loved: their singing was near perfect! They were on key 99.8% of the time and it was never breathy (as many dance groups tend to be). Especially on the ballad “Easy” – simply amazing! And 3rd thing I loved (which is my personal favorite): they interacted with the fans. One thing that everyone loves about these boys is that they are so friendly to their fans and I got to see that firsthand! They grabbed out to touch fans hands, they smiled and waved at us and were nice enough to pause a bit so fans could get great pics. Honestly, I nearly died when the adorable maknae DongWoon smiled and waved at me. AJ, DooJoon and YoSeob smiled at me as well, but I got better action from them at the end of the concert (details later). I honestly wanted to see Beast the most at the festival so I was a bit bummed that they opened the show (yeah… I pouted for about 15 minutes afterwards), but the rest of the concert was fun so I got over it eventually.
Singer Kim Yun Ja (I believe) came out with a very eye-catching sparkly purple dress with a fushia-and-white boa and since I’m a big kid, bright colors and sparkles makes me pay attention. LOL Unfortunately, I’m not that familiar with her music (and I was still in “Shock” from Beast), but she had a nice voice. Then rap duo LeeSsang performed. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them perform twice before and they were okay as expected, but it wasn’t 100% awesome. It was missing something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Could it be because they stayed in the middle platform most of the time and showed their back to the fans in the pool circle? Could it be that they didn’t really hype up the crowd – despite being the ONLY hip-hop group? Or maybe the fact that they simply performed their songs quickly and took their leave which made it feel like a lackluster performance? Whatever the case, it was simply ok.
Afterwards, MC HaHa took the stage. He performed his two songs “Story of a Short Kid” and “You are My Destiny” – HILARIOUS!! I knew the songs well so I thoroughly enjoyed it and though he cannot, I repeat CAN NOT sing, HaHa is very entertaining. He even went as far as to pick some lucky girl (OUT OF OUR SIDE OF THE POOL CIRCLE) to come up on stage, sit on a stool and be serenaded by “You are My Destiny”. The thing is the song is full of silly dance moves so at those times the girl was really embarrassed, but we all loved it. He even went as far as to caress her face and grab her in a tight hug (like a typical drama move). The crowd (including myself) went bananas! It was great.
Next up was singer Joo Hyun Mi who sang a few ballads and one in particular was performed with a male partner and the backdrop was like a snowy night. It was really pretty. She also was joined for a song with two members of Wonder Girls and two members of KARA. After that was rocker Yoon So Il. This man had “old-school rockstar” written all over him! He had this look and presence of Bono from U2 with the same swagger and we loved it. Oddly enough, I really enjoyed the older acts this year. 
Then it was time for the World Cup segment, where 2PM, KARA, Kim Jong Kook, HaHa and LeeSsang came out wearing “All The Reds” shirts and singing some World Cup rally songs. It was the first time 2PM had been on stage that night so everyone went CRAZY! LOL Afterwards singer Choi Sung Soo performed (he was good) and then came Ms. Yoon Bock-Hee. Listen people, I had NEVER heard of this woman before the concert, but she IS a DIVA! This tiny woman had such massive stage presence and the ability to touch the audience like greats such as Patti Labelle or Diana Ross. She really caught us “young” fans when she started talking in English all of a sudden. When she came out on stage we politely cheered for her and she so humbly smiled and said in a small voice “Aw… you don’t even know who I am.” Of course the audience cracked up because… well… we didn’t! But she made you want to pay attention to her and listen to her songs. I was truly touched when she performed her favorite song “Amazing Grace” both an American version and a Korean version. They were both sung in English, but the way it was sung was different… the Korean version had the emotional feel of pansori – it was amazing. She also performed with her brother Yoon Hang Ki, but nothing could top that “Amazing Grace” performance. And then finally… the moment most of us were waiting for (you know… after BEAST)…
2PM!!!! When Nicole was giving us a hint as to which act was next, she gave the “OK” sign to reference 2PM’s “OK dance” and we started squealing. Then the MCs shouted their names “2 P M!” and the stage went black and we fangirls went BERSERK!! It was madness! The wild cries got even louder as the speakers blasted the infamous echoed “doo-doo-doo” intro from “Again and Again”. Junsu cracked a slight smile as his head was down and then the familiar dance routine began. Now, I gotta tell you, I had mixed emotions when I found out 2PM was coming to the festival. Not because I don’t like them (I LOVE them), but because the drama of everything with Jay just drained me to death and I really didn’t wanna deal with any madness, you know. So even up to that point before they came out on stage, I was still a bit confused as to how enthusiastic I would be. But once the song played and they started dancing I just got so excited and felt so proud. Proud that they’ve made it through the rough times, proud that I decided to support both Jay and 2PM and proud to be a fan of such an awesome group. (*cheesy smile*) LOL No seriously though, as soon as they started to perform every bit of emotional confusion I had disappeared. The dances were on point and the vocals were pretty good (Junho covered Jay’s parts rather nicely – he’s no Jay, but it didn’t ruin the song). Afterwards Taecyeon was on his knees in the middle of the floor and the others were on the ground and I knew “Heartbeat” was next… I giggled on the inside then screamed once I heard “Can you feel my heartbeat?” AHHHH! *reliving the moment* We were singing and dancing with them – it was great! And for those of you who don’t know, at the end of “Heartbeat” someone usually does some sort of stunt whether it’s shirt ripping, no-handed cartwheels or whatever. Well Junho was the lucky one this time and did these summersaults down the center runway. It was great! Then it was time for them to introduce themselves and NicKhun decided to talk to the English speaking fans since he was from L.A. and we all nearly died when he yelled “Wassup L.A. It’s NicKhun!” EPIC! Because I’m an old lady I can’t remember exactly what was said, but I do know that Khun and Taec talked to us in English and it was extremely cute!! After that they FINALLY performed “Without U” (one of my favorite songs at the moment). It was so wonderful! The singing and dancing was phenomenal and nothing kills like NicKhun saying “Everything happens for a reason” (^_____^) So then they were leaving the stage as if it they were done, but we begged for them to stay (well… they hinted that they would stay if we begged) and then they turned around and did one of my favorite g.o.d. songs “Friday Night” and “One Candle”. It was rockin! Now though it was a great performance, it seemed that only Khun and Junsu were really friendly towards the fans. Junsu was ESPECIALLY nice, smiling at us waving and overall just facing the pool circle a lot. Plus the boy is gorgeous in person! That night has officially made him my favorite member for now. ^^
After 2PM, I believe singer Lee Eun Mi came out and did a couple of songs – a really nice version of “Arirang”. And then it was time for some girl power with the group KARA. I’ve pretty much been a fan of KARA since the beginning, but I was more into their performance than I expected to be. It was really good – they performed “Lupin” first, then “Honey” (not my favorite, but it’s alright) and at the end they asked us which song we wanted them to do. OF COURSE they knew we all wanted “Mister” the song that shot them into ultra popularity, so that’s what they performed… butt shake and all. LOL After KARA, was the lovable Kim Jong Kook. Okay confession, Mr. Muscles is not as big as you guys may think! Maybe next to all those stick thin pretty boys, he looks huge and muscular, but on stage that night he looked pretty normal sized. Another confession, he may have a nice voice to some, but his stage presence is kind of… stiff. Honestly, if he hadn’t performed my two favorite songs “It’s You / It’s This Person” and “You’re Lovable” I would’ve been bored to death. And the other songs that I don’t really care for were saved by the appearance of HaHa and Sangchu from Mighty Mouth. However, all three of them on stage together was just mayhem and foolishness (with HaHa doing sexy body waves on Kim Jong Kook and the crowd loved it).
Then FINALLY the last act – Wonder Girls. Aside from poor Sun Ye slipping, the girls were flawless. They started with “So Hot” and then “Tell Me,” did intros, a plug for their upcoming tour and a dance tutorial to “Nobody”. Most of it was in English and pretty good English if I may add. The new member Hye-rim speaks English perfectly and is actually rather pretty in person. They were cute and entertaining, but I have to say that KARA’s stage performances outshined theirs in my opinion. So with the exit of the Wonder Girls, I knew it was about time for the last song(s) when everyone would come out on stage and perform together and since Beast was first, I figured like SHINee last year, that they would not be a part of it, but all of a sudden out pops KARA, 2PM, Kim Jong Kook… others and BEAST!!! I screamed so hard when I saw them (especially since I missed them throughout this whole concert!!) They came out singing “Oh! Pilsung Korea!” and “Red Sunset” by Lee Moon Sae (both favorites of mine). This is where the BEAST action began, with DooJoon filming the crowd with his video camera and waving to me! Also Yo Seob smiled and waved to me. Now before you doubt me, how I know they were waving to me was because once all the celebrities came out, everyone in the pool circle dashed for the walls to potentially touch them or get a good picture of them. I, on the other hand stayed put because I had a pretty good view of where I was and there was no one crowding around me. So, if there was no one around me and YoSeobie looked at me, waved and smiled, I have no choice but to deduct that he was sending me a personal “hello”. LOL Seriously though, 2PM could learn a thing or two from BEAST about fanservice. Even Hyun Seung who I never really paid attention too (because I thought he was a bit stand-offish) was uber nice! But DongWoon became my favorite Beast member that night when he came over to a bunch of fans like two feet in front of me, smiled so they could take a picture of him, then took this one girl’s camera, started taking selcas (or self camera pics) of himself, then he took one of AJ posing and took one of them together then gave it back to her!! I met eyes with the girl briefly… right before she went into a spazz attack over the fact that a member of BEAST just gave her ULTIMATE fan service. After all the fireworks and the waves, I was frozen as AJ waved at me while he was about to go offstage… only to abruptly wake up once I saw my friend Kamaj touching hands with YoSeob!!! I was BEYOND JEALOUS!!! It was crazy!! How did she get there?!?! Why didn’t I think to be in that particular spot she was in?!?! HOW DARE SHE TOUCH YOSEOB!!??! (ROTFL!) When she got back to where I was she spazzed and was like “EVERY MEMBER OF BEAST TOUCHED HER HAND!!!” And the heffa even had a nerve to record some of it!! *exhale* I’m okay… I’m okay. I’m really happy for her… no really… I am. LOL Anyhoo, that ended the most EPIC night of 2010 for me and solidified the Korean Music Festival as my annual summer activity. If you haven’t been YOU HAVE TO GO!!! ^_____^
For more pics go HERE (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=175577&id=654155924&l=afba7ad545)
