250816 riizing loud live in kuala lumpur memo
ive been rooting for sungchan and shotaro since their nct days, so the fact that i got to see them in their fixed group 3 years later was so great! the ticket was bought on a whim, when i first tried to purchase them it was all sold out, but just a few days before, i suddenly saw an update that tickets were still available and i rushed to buy one. im glad i did!
it was my first pop concert, first kpop concert, and first idol concert as well. it was a completely different experience compared to all the other concerts ive attended in person, so i have a lot of thoughts…..
the arena is located in a shopping mall near my house so logistics was easy. it used to be a cinema which was converted into an event space. i remember going to that exact cinema after school to watch movies... and more than 10 years later i went to watch a concert in the same place! that was a cool experience! also it was probably the first time i've ever seen so many people at that venue lol.
the position i got was the worst ive ever experienced. since my tickets were last minute, i was placed right at the back. i could barely see the members at the extended stage and i couldnt see them at all on the main stage. i had to mostly rely on the screen.
i generally try not to record and take pictures a lot during concerts, but especially in this concert, i found recording almost impossible because everyone else was recording and blocking the view. so this was probably the concert i recorded or took photos of the least. i felt like i was a strange person dancing and singing on my own compared to everyone else who was recording.. but ultimately i didn't want to hinder my enjoyment at the concert for the purpose of trying to get a good photo... (though i think i would be the perfect audience member for a mitski concert.... please come back to malaysia!)
sungchan and shotaro were positioned at my side of the hall so i had a clearer view of them compared to the other members. i wanted to pay attention to the other members too, but it was so difficult to see anything at all so i could only pay attention to whoever was at my side of the stage.... thankfully i got to catch little moments of everyone at least once...
someone was wearing santal 33 and it smelt sooooo good.. i didn't even need to wonder if it was a dupe, i could just tell right away that it was the og. also i was wearing the noir 29 so it smelled like sungsho at my area heh heh…
im sorry to everyone whose fancams ive ruined with my singing… i even ruined the few videos i managed to record…. but that happens with all the concerts i attend so.... it will only be worse at my next concert
i know shotaro likes to be called cool rather than cute, but... im sorry... his demeanour is naturally cute... but what stood out to me was that he was eager to express his feelings and communicate properly with everyone despite the language barrier.
sungchan is very good at fanservice. he went around trying to look into the fans eyes, so i felt he was trying to connect with everyone in this way. also i noticed he easily took control of the ments a lot, i guess thanks to his mcing job back in the day.
the other members were all really cute and cool! im glad i got to see them in person. i really do wish that i could have seen more of them, but i really barely could see anything, and when they came to my side of the stage, everyone rushed for their attention and ended up blocking my view...
memorable ment - anton: our concert name is rising loud. we want our fans to be loud as well. i know im not the right person who should be saying this... (everyone laughs)
sungchan said he wanted to make eye contact with fans. unfortunately each time he came to my side of the stage the fans around me screamed loudly so i got embarrassed and kept looking away.. im sorry...
but at the end shotaro looked at my general direction and waved! i was happy~
everyone was impressed by the twin towers, especially wonbin. at some point i think anton(?) corrected wonbin's pronounciation of twin towers...
food that they ate: taro - rice with coconut milk(?) (nasi lemak?); sungchan - bread and eggs(?) (roti telur? i gave him a thumbs up for that!); sohee - satay. he said its the best!
they said some cute things in malay. sungsho - i'm very happy in malaysia! dotori - you're so cute! ulsan rock - i love you all!
most of the malaysian fans were fans since debut. it wasn't surprising since all the people i talked to were fans since sm rookies and nct days... we all went to mesopotamia high school and attended ms ishtars irrigation class...
malaysian fans dont really memorise fanchants, they all just yell the parts of the songs they remember. which is good cause im the sing along type of person too!
at his ending ment sungchan said apa khabar which was a little strange to say at the end of a performance but the malaysian fans around me replied with khabar baik anyway. apparently he wanted to say terima kasih lol
the audience sang inside my love so many times riize found it funny and said malaysian fans really love singing. and its true like i will sing inside my love 100000 times idgaf
thoughts on the performances:
i could barely see any of the dance performances in person. the only dance i saw in person was when they went to the extended stage for "fly up", and it was only just a little bit. everything else was through the screen… so i can't really say much about their dancing… which is a shame because taro is known for dancing… but oh well, i go to concerts for music, so it's not a big deal for me
everyone sang very well. their voices sound fuller live, especially eunseok and anton. i could feel that the members really like singing and want their voices to be heard even when the backtrack was really loud. that made me happy. i was very impressed with everyone, but wonbin stood out to me the most! sohee's high notes sound even better in person, my favourite was "love 119"! and vocal wise, i was impressed with everyone in "the end of the day".
"9 days" was really so fun, i pretended i was at the club and had the time of my life. and i got to see sungchan and shotaro have their cute little dance together! i was so happy....
i also pretended i was at the club during "impossible"... it's really such a fun song.... i love all songs that sound like i'm at a gay club.
i only know the japanese lyrics to "be my next" so it was awkward when i tried to sing along....
my highlight of the night was definitely "one kiss". ive been listening to it a lot to help me get through really hard times and it was really beautiful to hear the song live… at some point i just sang along with my hand on my chest like it was the national anthem or something ejfjjfekd im so so happy i got to hear a song that helped me a lot live!
thoughts on the concert experience:
i'm not good at korean so i had to rely on the translator to respond to the questions and encouraging words posed by the members. it was the first time i was affected by a language barrier during a concert and honestly it was a little sad...
pop concerts are a very different experience from rock bands. visuals are a big part of the experience.... you cant just close your eyes and sing, there are a lot of things going on! and all the members are doing different things... i felt there were a lot of things i had to pay attention to with my eyes lol. but i just ended up watching whoever was on the screen cause i couldnt see anything else lol
on the flip side, "sound" wasnt a big part of this concert. since theres no live band, the music is almost completely the same as the studio version, and theres not much you need to pay attention to in terms of "sound", for example how different the instruments sound live vs the studio version. because of that, the wonbin-anton bass and guitar duo stood out a lot in terms of sound. but there were little bits that they changed, like an upbeat christmassy version of love 119 and a clubby edm version of 9 days, to give some variety to the sound of the concert.
once again i was reminded that fanservice by men is not intended for me… when the members took off their outer shirts to change outfits, the people around me went wild, but i just thought it was a good break until the next song lol. when sohee said the tension got higher cause they performed sexy songs, i felt like the outlier lol. also at some point sungchan teased the fans at my section by playing around with his outer shirt, which i found funny. i really am not the target audience for things like these… but it was a fun experience seeing fans go wild for these things!
thoughts on the fan experience:
this was the first time i've experienced fan merchandise being sold so many hours before the concert time... and i had to wait about 45 minutes in the merchandise queue. it was kind of funny cause the location of the venue was nearby the mall's infamous sex toy shop so everyone had to pass by that shop to get to the merch... lol
i got to talk to some fans while waiting in line for merch and for the concert to start. while talking to them, i realised that being part of kpop fan culture (and concert culture in general) is very different from being just a casual fan… they were taking into consideration a lot of things i never even thought of.
everyone happily talked about other groups. even if they were groups i didnt keep up with, i engaged with them and talked. all this fandom war stuff really only exists on the internet…
even though the concert was practically sold out, i was still amazed at how many people there were queuing and attending the concert. also there were male malaysian fans! there were quite a number of male sungchan fans at my area... lol
this is not a critique or anything but i really felt that a lot of people went for the concert for the purpose of getting interactions. each time a member came to my side of the stage, the fans would scream and try and grab the member's attention, even when other members are speaking. this also happens during band concerts but its on a much bigger scale when it comes to idol concerts like... is it really normal for a large group of people to scream for attention from someone when someone else is talking? its definitely not what im used to! it was a new experience to me....
the fan reaction to their "monster" performance made me laugh a lot. i felt like everyone around me was an exol? for all the other songs, they would sing the english part only. but for "monster", the fans around me were singing the entire song loudly. some even did the fanchant...
overall it was really an interesting experience. i honestly felt like i was stepping into another world where people were having all sorts of considerations that i never thought of in my life. but i'm really glad i took the chance and bought the tickets because i had such a good time, despite not being able to see very well. after all, the purpose of a concert is music to me, and i enjoyed the music to the absolute fullest!
