as we know, Gerard “couldn’t play sweet home alabama on guitar” Way has recently been shown multiple times playing a guitar, including in the baby you're a haunted house music video (if that was really him), so perhaps he has gained both practice and experience playing guitar in front of some kind of audience.
so here’s a Hot Concept:
for the Return concert, we get to see Gerard perform on the guitar live in concert for the first time, Gerard thus realizing yet another one of his aspirations of being an artist. the other being writing or drawing comics as we have seen him do.
“From cacophony to clarity: Cecil Taylor's 1973 return concert is a fresh revelation”
Listen here (or on your favorite podcast service) to WBGO's Jazz United, a wonderful, hour long conversation on our release of Cecil Taylor's The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert 1973.
Long time radio host Greg Bryant and author Nate Chinen take the kind of time to have an insightful and engaging review and public analyis of the album.
Honestly, for me, it's a pleasant surprise to have such a thoughtful broadcast for an artist as challenging and needlessly controversial as Cecil, but hey, that's how it is. Greg and Nate treat CT like the special artist he is, and if its 50 years late... better late than never.
Not for nothing, the Jazz United podcast is the kind of show I had always hoped would be on jazz radio. The only thing missing for me is phone ins from the listeners. Check out some of their other episodes on artists like Paul Motian, John Coltrane, Chick Corea and my former employer, composer Carla Bley.
The Cecil Taylor Unit at The Five Spot Cafe 1975 Photograph by Fred W. McDararugh/Getty Images
Cecil Taylor at Montreux Jazz Festival. July 9, 1976 Andrew Putler/ Redferns/ GettyImages.
Click here to download or read the digital booklet of Cecil Taylor: The Complete, Legendary, Live Return at The Town Hall NYC November 4, 1973
Recording Cecil Taylor 1973
Almost 50 years ago I lucked into engineering a recording that can now, as of early in 2022, fill in some musical history.
The entire 2+ hours of the recording will be available –exclusively on your favorite streaming service– on February 15, 2022.
Pianist and composer Cecil Taylor was one of the trio of musicians –along with Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane– who defined the parameters of avant-garde jazz starting in the late 1950s and continuing to his death at 89 in 2018. Along with his performing companions –when I was working with him, percussionist Andrew Cyrille and alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons were his most steady stalwarts– he started with black music, mixed up with European classical traditions, threw in his composing and arranging training from the NEC, and blew up what the world considered “jazz.”
When I started out recording in the late 60s, my goal was to make hip and popular music. You know, like The Beatles, my limited exposure to artist, experimental (though popular) music. Since things rarely turn out the way one hopes, I happily spent most of my recording experience in blues and jazz, at first of the avant-garde –or “free”– variety. While it’s music that reminds many of heavy city traffic mixed with fingernails on a blackboard, for me it provided a thrilling window into expansive thinking. These were experiences that made sure I’d work hard to never be complacent. There’s no trade I’d rather have for those times.
A half century later, it’s hard for me to imagine I was lucky enough to work with acknowledged greats, world class talents like Cecil Taylor (and, not for nothing, that I could actually interview Ornette Coleman on my college radio show). Mr. Taylor was a leading and controversial figure in the resetting of jazz expectations for almost 70 years. But often, cutting edge artists on the fringes of mainstream culture like him don’t always command the attention of the leading recording institutions, and it’s the young, passionate fans (like I was) that can fill the breach.
Cecil’s short lived manager enlisted me to record and “produce” only because I could access some premium tape decks and microphones, and because I’d work tirelessly for his music.
The recording of the “Return Concert” happened in November 1973 at The Town Hall in New York, and later in the winter I traveled to Washington D.C. and crashed in a friend’s place to record a show at the Smithsonian. I spent months pouring over the tapes prepping them for release on Cecil’s own label, Unit Core Records.
The so-called Return Concert was meant to be a homecoming for Cecil and his longtime band mates in the Cecil Taylor Unit –percussionist Andrew Cyrille and alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons– after several years in mid-West academia –Antioch College and University of Wisconsin-Madison– and though they’d played in New York earlier in the year, management tried to make it a major musical event. Based on the musical evidence it definitely should have been.
As it turned out, only the second half of The Town Hall concert was released, as Spring of Two Blue J’s, and at that Unit Core only pressed 2000 vinyl LPs. It quickly went out print, only surviving as a bootlegged CD. For decades I’ve been determined to mix the first half of the performance for the very first time and drop the entire concert. It would have to be digital since the first half was two compositions played without a pause for 88 minutes.
In the Village Voice, America’s leading jazz writer Gary Giddins called the album Cecil’s finest, and later said “it offers an improvisational coherence his earlier work only hints at.
I still have to pinch myself about my brief association with artists like Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille at one of the great peaks of their association.
Cecil may not be an easy listen, but if you’re up for it there are a lot of rewards.
(More to come.)
Click here to download or read the digital booklet of Cecil Taylor: The Complete, Legendary, Live Return at The Town Hall NYC November 4, 1973
Hello hello ^^ so literally right after I hit post on my other account I started remembering a bunch of things. So this post will kind of include some of the things I remembered from yesterday. Also, I was in the middle of taking notes during one ment when my pen literally exploded. Idk what happened, maybe I was writing too furiously lol but the spring just exploded out and that was that so I’ll be doing a lot of it by memory again. Here we go~
So I don’t think I mentioned this last time, but I did mention this for the August concerts. Before the concert started the boys’ voices came out and they gave safety instructions and it was adorable and aegyo-ful and all that cute stuff. I think it was Sungjong’s part where he says “Are you ready~” in a sing song way and all Inspirits reply with “We’re ready~” and yesterday Dongwoo did that during the concert once as well. And when fans replied the same way Woohyun said “So cute”. The concert started the same, except this time since I was in a seat, I watched as the staff pulled out the platforms and the boys ran out. In front of me was Woohyun and Dongwoo. Woohyun is the literal sweetest sweetheart and his hair tonight was UGHHHHHHH. That’s a good ugh, like too much good kinda ugh. Anyway they did ‘Man In Love’ then ‘Nothing’s Over’ then ‘Entrust’ then went into their first ment. I think when Namu was introducing himself Dongwoo went and was fake screaming in his ear like a fan cause Woohyun was asking for screams. Dongwoo was being really cute trying to get the standing fans to calm down and they were swaying like crazy. I think him moving closer to them was making it worse tbh lol. Namu mentioned it being cold and stuff (yesterday he also mentioned it, telling us to wear warmer clothes and that he knows we’re not cause people tweet him things like ‘i’m cold ㅠㅠ’) and so Dongwoo suggested he warm us up and he was like whut. But then he started taking off his jacket and reached for his tie like a tease but was stopped... unfortunately.
Then they did ‘BTD’ and ‘Paradise’. Dongwoo mentioned that he really liked hearing our ‘Paradise’ screams after they sing that part. Sunggyu started off this ment talking about their surprise entrance and then moved onto Hoya’s new movie coming out. So Hoya asked everyone to help him out (by seeing it). Then I think Woohyun wanted to help so Hoya was just like “Just don’t do anything/Just stay still” lol. So Namu was like should I just leave? That was pretty much the best parts for this ment. They did ‘Footsteps’, ‘Love Letter’ then ‘Between Me & You’. They did the signed airplanes during ‘Love Letter’ and for ‘Between Me & You’ they all stood on individual lifts that rose and fell. I don’t remember those being there last night... might’ve been cause I didn’t see well, plus in standing, if you can’t see well you tend to rely on the screens and that gives you only closeups. Then there was the fallen angel vid. Then Sungjong’s personal vid came out.
So if I remember correctly the lyrics to the chorus are roughly “I’ll pick a star from the sky and give it to you, I’ll pick the moon from the sky and make sure to hug you, even if everyone else laughs as long as you smile i’m happy” so it was really cute. Next was Dongwoo’s vid and rap. It was still a little too fast for me to understand but he danced to a remix of ‘Sorry I’m Busy’ so good. Then came Gyu’s solo. This time the fans really did try their best to help him with the rap. In the ment after Gyu started to mention that yesterday he asked that we help him today and you could tell he was gonna say like “Why didn’t you help?” but Dongwoo interrupted him and was like “From the back you could really hear them!” and Gyu was like “Really? I didn’t hear anything besides my own voice cause of my in-ear... thank you for helping.” Something I forgot to add was that for the first day, after the first half of solo stages, Gyu was forced to rap again (we tried again today but failed) and then Namu started to rap after Hoya entered rapping and he was all confident and stuff lol. They tried to get soo to rap but that didn’t happen lol.
I also forgot to add yesterday that the aesthetics during Gyu’s stage SCREAMED NELL. Like I thought I was at Nell’s concert lol. The vid was strange cause it had a space theme but there were also whales and floating chairs and lightbulbs. Screams Nell right?? Even the lighting was similar to the Nell concert I went to. Talking about lighting and bg vids and stuff, the quality for this concert got much better. The lighting reminded me of Nell’s, maybe Woollim is just getting better at this. And tbh Woollim/Nell has always been very good at aesthetics/artsy stuff (thank you Nell!!!!!!!) But yeah, pleased with the lighting a LOT and the vids were good quality but sometimes the bgs were weird. Like during ‘Be Mine’ it was a of a highway in the desert with dead trees on the side and lightning. It felt like the drive between Vegas and Cali except with dead trees and no other cars lol.
Anyway, onto Hoya’s solo. Ohmangotango found out that it’s a cover of Usher’s “Good Kisser”. I forgot to add yesterday that I totally had a hardcore mental breakdown during his solo stage. I knew what I was getting into today so I enjoyed it but yesterday I caught myself with my mouth hanging open and my eyes bulging and my light stick stuck in the air. I remember looking around after I caught myself and everyone else was in a similar state lol. Like literally, a lot of light sticks had stopped moving or just kinda barely moving cause everyone was just like woah. It kinda happened today too lol.
So during the ment, when talking about Sungjong’s song, Namu was like “Why would you need to go to the sky to pick a star, we have so many here” ugh that lovable cheeseball. We made Dongwoo do a bit of his rap again. Once Hoya came out, they mentioned that the girl dancer is from Busan and she’s one of his best friends. For the first day, when Hoya came back on stage I forgot to mention Myungsoo started touching his body like his abs and pecs and was just running his hands all over and Yeol joined him lol. Then Namu tried to untuck his shirt. Today Namu unzipped his shirt but he rezipped it quite fast. So Hoya was like “I told you just stay still”. Oh, he had an extra tattoo today. There was a time later in the show where the fans wanted to see it and he obliged. There was also a time where fans wanted to see his abs again and Namu was like they look like this everyday at home or something of the sort. Dongwoo said “there’s no one that misunderstands about the couple dance right” and all the fans kinda unenthusiastically answered “yeah” so he started laughing lol. Hoya mentioned that the CEO told him that a lot of fans thought that Hoya kissed the girl the first day and he was like no we didn’t. Then Woohyun was like “Oh but you did when you practiced it” and all the fans went crazy and Hoya was like “Stay still”. Then Woohyun was like “What can’t you do?” and listed all the things he’s good at and all the fans were yelling “Aegyo”. And so we made him do the Thump 3 set aegyo thing from Showtime. Then Dongwoo said the truest words, something along the lines of “Even if you wanna move past it, Inspirits won’t let you move past it” lol so true. Then Hoya unwillingly gave someone his mic and we all sang the jingle for him and he did it lol. Then we cheered for Namu to do it and he did it too. Then we chanted for Gyu but he kept talking over us but we kept cheering over him and Dongwoo was like “I don’t think you can get out of it hyung” lol so he said he’d only do it if everyone did it all together.
Then they performed ‘Take Care of the Ending’ and ‘Moonlight’. Then it was Namu’s solo stage. I forgot to mention the other day that he performed with a scarf as a prop. Then L performed the Korean version of ‘Love of My Life’ from their Japanese album ‘For You’. The first day in the after ment, the boys were teasing Soo about how he was holding scissors (L shape with your finger when playing rock paper scissors) the whole time. And today they teased him saying instead he was just pointing cause it was number one and they said he was very celebrity-like when he pointed at the camera and looked into it at the right timing or something along those lines. Fans were already excited about Yeol’s solo so they started a brief “Lee Sungyeol” chant before he started. They parted his hair today and slicked it back. Also when we all thought the song was done, the lights went back on and all the members were on stage with him and they did the chorus again as 7 lol. Seriously, when Yeol was performing it was the craziest I’ve ever seen fans. Everyone was swinging their light sticks as high as they could and it was just amazing how the whole place got so hyped lol. Then Yeol ran off and the boys did the next ment in the middle of the extended stage.
They mentioned how it’s such a hard dance and Yeol super respects Psy and that it’s a good diet dance lol. Yesterday they also mentioned how they chose a pink suit to make it funnier but he looked so cool and the sunglasses just made him look even cooler (so true tho). In the ment, Gyu mentioned that they decided to come out and do it all together as an event and I think Hoya(?) was like “Weren’t you the one that really didn’t wanna do it?” to Gyu lol. Fans made Soo do the dance and he was flailing all over the place and the boys teased him. Then we made Gyu do it too. Then we tried to get Hoya to do it but I think that’s when they all decided to do it together again if all the 2nd and 3rd floor would stand and we all got up like our asses were on fire lol. And from then on, whenever Sungyeol was the attention, they’d sing the song and he’d automatically dance even tho he said it was so hard and to stop making him do it. There was another part where Woohyun made a joke using a song and no one sang along or laughed so he was like “Are you guys really not gonna help me out?” and got fake upset lol. Then they were saying that today’s screams were better and made us do the scream contest again today. This time it was only standing vs sitting. Then they were like “Weren’t you all here yesterday?” and we were like “YEAH” and Hoya was like “Then why were you like that yesterday” as in so quiet lol. Then they were like how about everyone screams and when we’re satisfied we’ll start the next song. And Yeol being the bad boy as usual was like “If we’re satisfied we’ll sing the next song, if we’re not we’ll sing the last song” and everyone got irritated at him lol.
They sang ‘Follow Me’, ‘Cover Girl’ and ‘As Good As It Gets/Nothing Better Than This’ (whatever the English title is) and while they were doing this they were passing out plushies. They were kissing them and during this and the planes bad boy Yeol would fake out fans by looking one place and throwing to a different place lol. Also, yesterday it was cute cause Hoya started running and Dongwoo caught up to him and was like you forgot your basket of plushies and Hoya looked at him like •_• and had to run back lol. I can’t believe I forgot that yesterday cause it was right in my face.
Then the interview vid came out and I forgot some funny things in the vid. Jong mentioned that they don’t know if they’ll be able to do another world tour cause the oldest hyung is almost in his 30s. Also, Yeol talked about Soo catching the panties and was like “it must be an instinct” lol. Hoya also did a bit where he said thank you in different languages. I also forgot an important detail, Soo said to expect a new album soon. Also Gyu said this in the vid and members mentioned it a couple more times but they talked about a possible national tour (rare for Korea in general) soon.
They did ‘Come Back Again’ and Namu sang a bit of the chorus and the fans finished it. It was adorable. Then they talked about doing ‘Follow Me’ for the first time and asked us to sing a bit. Then they were going on about one of the composers and SNS and Soo made a comment about wrapping it up so one of the members was like “Do you wanna finish this quick?” and fans got upset so he was like “Listen carefully” and said the topic was weird so he wanted to move on from that. Then him and Dongwoo went on this cute back and forth thing. Then they started singing ‘Daddy’ again and Yeol automatically danced and to Gyu was like “Can you organize this already” lol. Fans were getting sad cause they knew it was coming to a close soon but Gyu said we still have all the hit songs after so don’t worry.
They did those pair/group silhouette dances then did ‘Destiny’, ‘Be Mine’ and . Namu lifted up his shirt during his first part like he used to do during those promotions!!!!!! Gyu was talking and a fan was like “You’re handsome” and he was like “I know I’m handsome” and Namu was like “I’m handsome too... that’s all” and Gyu was teasing Jong about how he looked like a boxer/fighter after he came back from the jungle. Then they had Sungjong introduce the band and thank everyone. Then they did the last song ‘Bad’. For both days Namu danced the solo!!!!!!
The encore call cheers were really messed up today. Instead of dong the normal “Dorawa dorawa dashi dorawa” some fans started doing the chorus of ‘Back’ but it’s so awkard to repeat and doesn’t have the same flow as CBA. So it got really messed up and then finally fans started doing the CBA after giving up on those people and then the ‘Back’ chants came back and confused people again and so we ended up singing the whole chorus of ‘Back’ and finally the band saved us by playing. I think people were doing this cause the first day Dongwoo had us do the CBA chant while he overlaid the chorus for ‘Back’ over it cause he thought it’d sound cool but it didn’t really work so idk why people tried to change it today. Especially since it wasn’t a confirmed event... it just made it messy and I was like what are the boys gonna think. Then they came out and did ‘Back’. I think it was a standing section that was adamant about the ‘Back’ chant.
Then fans screwed up again by not waiting for the whistle before singing. The plan was to wait for the whistle then sing the first verse of ‘With’ to the boys and then do an ‘I love you’ chant thing for each of them but people don’t read the dang banners and it got all messed up again. So only some of the standing section started singing and we were all trying to see where they were to join but the boys were talking cause it was ment time and they didn’t realize what was happening. And when they did notice they were like “What song is that?” and like “We can’t hear you” and were making fun of our failure of CBA and Back. Finally we all found where they were and joined in and Namu started singing too and the band started playing but he sang a different last line which caught everyone off guard so the ‘I love you’ chants never happened... super fail... again. Oh well...
Then they literally talked for like 30+ mins. They talked so long I don’t remember what they all said (my pen was long broken by this time). Gyu mentioned they had a hard time choosing songs and can’t do them call cause their hit songs keep adding up. He also said something about possibly having his own concert one day after a fan yelled about ‘The Answer’ (a running joke from yesterday). There was another part where a fan screamed really crazily and kinda low and that’s why you’ll see pics of him on twitter looking bewildered lol. Yeol mentioned the “Do you guys have boyfriends?” thing again and a fan was like yeah, right there (pointing at yeol) and Namu was like, I’m their boyfriend lol and Yeol was like please date lol. But Dongwoo said a lot and was crying cause he said his dad is going through cancer treatments and it’s hard for a man to say ‘I love you’ to another man and he was shy as a high schooler but now he can say it. And he talked for a really long time and when he was saying really serious genius like things Yeol and Gyu provided comic relief by pretending to take notes and reacting all silly. Hoya mentioned that he actually hurt his ankle again in rehearsals yesterday poor bb. Everyone staretd an “L oppa” cheer for Soo cause yesterday we did the same thing and Dongwoo was like “I don’t think some of you can call him that” and Soo was like “I’ll be everyone’s oppa” lol. So he was like “Yes, I’m L oppa.” Since he’s the oppa he started calling us “babies”. Jong said he cried a lot yesterday and even on the plane back to Korea so he won’t cry today and he didn’t, very proud of adult Jong. Jong ended with lots of aegyo telling us to dream of him lol. Namu looked like he was gonna cry and said he felt like crying from the beginning. He started singing ‘I Love You’ by Tim. Ugh what an effing sweetheart I just can’t with him.
Then they sang ‘마음으로 (Voice of My Heart)’ as the last song and took a long time walking around and waving at fans. Dongwoo stopped by the section his dad was in and his dad stood up and they were so cute. Don’t remember when, prob at the end but they also mentioned that there will be new units coming out too and everyone shouted “V V V” lol. Today was a lot more fun and had a lot of jokes and touching moments and I think I personally enjoy being able to see the whole stage and all the members with all the special effects and stuff. It also seemed like they filmed this one for the DVD cause there were small changes here and there. Props (like Dongwoo got a fancier stool than yesterday’s metal chair for his solo) and different staging and other stuff gave me that impression. But yeah, so not ready for the upcoming concert depression. I’m not sure if I’ll ever see INFINITE again in Korea in a full on concert like this, so I’m very sensitive rn. Oh, also a big shoutout to Den (didn’t wanna put your tumblr username in case you’re shy) for the sweet present!! So glad I was able to meet you and hope to see you when you come back!
As for everyone who’s been patiently waiting for our Showtime subs, we sincerely apologize for the delay. This weekend certainly didn’t help with us already being a bit behind. Thank you for not pressuring us, we actually haven’t gotten a single request for the next part on tumblr, like not even one. But, we’ll try our best to get it to you as soon as we can. As a thank you for everyone’s patience and support we have a surprise coming up, so look forward to our next announcement!
Hello all! I had such a great time tonight I don’t even know where to begin. I actually really don’t though because I wasn’t able to take notes tonight. So, this post probably won’t be too detailed but I plan to take some notes tomorrow. I’m tempted to say because I don’t have the setlist or other tidbits I saw written down, that this won’t be too long… but we all know that’s not gonna happen. Sunggyu’s my bias after all… we’re talkers lol. More under the cut ^-^
So I had a standing ticket for today’s concert. It was my first standing experience in this big kind of venue in Korea. I was a little nervous things were gonna get pushy or something was gonna put me in a bad mood but it was the complete opposite. I seriously love this fandom and K-Inspirits are really nice. Just waiting in line, everyone was very nice and respectful to each other, there wasn’t any irritation at each other or dirty looks or anything. In fact, all the girls around me were super nice. One girl bought a hot pack for another girl, other girls were trying to protect a cold younger girl from the wind. When we went inside, I was sure things were gonna get ugly fast, but once again, I was proven wrong. People made room for others to sit and wait, fans struck up conversation with others. Also, there was never any pushing or attitude in my section (E). I did see on the screen that one of the bigger sections had fans that were swaying but that was also cause they had almost double the amount of people in their section. Our section had a lot of extra room for fans to run around or rest in. But anyway, Inspirits = A++.
I would say though that I’m not sure if it was just the format of this concert or what but I felt like there weren’t as many chances to see the boys in standing. For future reference for anyone, I personally think a standing seat in this venue is only worth it if you’re in the first 100 and can plant yourself right in front of the best fence closest to the middle of the extended stage. Being on the farthest outside was nice when the boys passed but they paid more attention to the 2nd floor (and I understand why, since I mean we’re closer most of the time) and I feel like I barely saw them anyway. Not worth the pain/endurance it takes to be in standing. Once again my opinion. It could also just be the way the concert was set up like song order/time limits etc. But I’m definitely glad that I experienced it and it was a pretty positive one too!
Anyway, the concert finally started and after the ‘Bad’ MV came out the sheet covering the stage pulled away and we saw… nothing. The boys weren’t there. Suddenly, on the TV screens, the boys come out on those movable platforms and it turns out they surprised everyone by starting the concert off between the 2nd and 3rd floors. Luckily, Sunggyu, Myungsoo and Sungjong walked past my section to get to the middle of the extended stage. Unluckily, that will be the most I’d see of Sunggyu during the concert. He always makes an effort to avoid me I swear… this playing hard to get thing is getting old Gyu… anyway, they started the concert with ‘Man In Love’ and they did a couple other cutesy songs. I’m sorry my memory is terrible right now. There are other things on my mind rn and you’ll find out in a bit what they are. So while doing the cutesy songs they ran around and threw signed airplanes and it was adorable and overwhelming. Soo was nearest me and like idk what he was doing… but he was throwing the airplanes backwards. Like pointy side facing him… idk if it was on purpose but I was like what the lol.
They said their ments, sorry don’t remember the specifics but oh yeah Woohyun is back to black hair, but that was expected. Yeol’s red faded again… they need to get that boy a better brand or something. Anyway, they did some dance songs… omg I forgot the first one… I knew it. Oh well, then they did Paradise. No tank tops this time -__-
Skipping to the solo stages cause this is where all the good stuff is at. Seriously the highlight of this concert are the solo stages cause this time each member got a solo stage, like individually. A video of Sungjong with his name came out and he was just posing and stuff and then his song came out. I think they said the name of it in the ment, in Korean it’s “하늘에서 별을 따다" I think, which roughly translates to “Pick a star from the sky” and he came out on this swing hanging from the ceiling with a pretty starry sky/moon background. The lyrics were about picking a star from the sky and the moon and hugging and cutesy stuff. It was really cute and his vocals were on point. He was also wearing this coat that I think he drew all over himself. And poor Jong, he looked so skinny and tired. I hope he rests a lot after this weekend. Anyway, his first solo song was absolutely Jong-like. In the ment after, the boys, I think Woohyun said that Sungjong wanted a fairy-like stage, and so he got exactly that lol.
Next was Dongwoo’s solo. He went super Show Me the Money lol. He did a rap without any bg music and then did a dance after. I didn’t really catch what his rap was actually about cause I was too engrossed in watching him… I’ll make more of an effort tomorrow. But apparently it contained strong language… that’s what he mentioned in the ment afterwards. He also did some amazing dancing and some breakdancing as well. I was like in awe of his dancing.
Next was Gyu. He came out and performed ‘Daydream’ and the whole time I was trying to figure out who was gonna do the rap part. So finally the rap part comes around and the first couple lines are pretty slow and I noticed that the screen in the back was playing a video of Gyu’s side profile doing the rap. So I was like ahhhh that’s smart, so he doesn’t have to do it in real life and then all of a sudden the faster rap part comes out and he’s rapping in real life!! I think I went crazy. I love rapper gyu lol. Anyway, he was really good and he said later that Jongwan and Tablo are hard people to gather together since they’re busy so he just did everything himself lol. But later, at the end of the concert he was like “Sorry, but can I ask a personal request” and he asked that for tomorrow, he was hoping we could all sing the rap part with him lol. The fans also made him do the rap part again during the ment. He always falls in these traps of mentioning things in jokes and then has to do it cause the fans won’t let him get out of it lol. Once again, love this fandom.
Lastly for this half of the solo stages was Hoya and little did I know at the time that I was gonna come out of that concert a changed person. Just go look it up on Twitter or something, you’ll find it, I’m sure. So first, he started out on the drums and I was like oh cool! (Apparently, he learned this from the concert drummer over the Lunar New Year holiday). He did a simple rhythm, tossed his sticks to the side and that’s when I saw it. That little notch at the top of his wife beater and I was like oh noes… and oh noes is right. His song was about a girl being a good kisser and it was all kinds of just wow. He was like not grinding but dancing very closely/promiscuously with a female dancer and it was like wow. There were some “American dances” in there and he also had these tattoos drawn on him. One on his chest, arm, pelvic bone and back of his neck. He danced all over the place and ripped his shirt off and kept dancing all over the place. My words won’t do it justice so just do some digging for vids later, you won’t regret it. Also, he danced the whole concert, it was so nice to see him dancing again, one cause he’s amazing, two cause I know it must make him so much happier and 3 cause we got this performance.
I don’t remember what went in between the two halves of solo stages but I think it might’ve been some Reality album songs maybe. Either way, they did a bunch of those. Between the stages too, Sungyeol mentioned how he was nervous to do his stage esp after everyone else in the first half. But they reassured him saying there was an order for a reason and they weren’t wrong lol. I’ll get to that later. The next solo stage was Woohyun. He did ‘You’re My Lady’ from his Toheart album. It was good, his singing was amazing as always. There wasn’t any real surprise so I’ll move on.
Next was Myungsoo. He did a ballad and his vocals were really good. There was a part where a bunch of girls came out playing the violin, but I don’t think they were really playing… anyway, I think he mentioned it was a Japanese song that they changed and that it was originally for all 7 of them but Soo ended up singing it. Wasn’t paying enough attention here.
Last but DEFINITELY not least, Sungyeol performed Psy’s ‘Daddy’ and it was the funniest thing ever. I think I just laughed through the whole thing. He even had the MV in the bg and they photoshopped his face on Psy’s for all the different characters. He also had this swag when he performed and I was like this is the best thing ever. Other fans agreed cause we ended up doing an ‘Lee Sungyeol’ chant afterwards.
There were more cutesy songs like ‘Cover Girl’ later and they threw stuffed animals. I did catch a moment where Woohyun gave Sunggyu a plushie and Gyu kissed it and he must’ve thrown it to someone… lucky girl. Then they did a bunch of title tracks and did ‘Come Back Again’ which they usually save for the encore song. Gyu said we must’ve been really confused lol but they wanted to try something new. They did their last song and the fans did the ‘Come Back Again’ chant and they did ‘Back’ and ‘Bad’ as the encore songs. The last song was 마음으로 (Voice of My Heart).
I’m sorry I don’t remember more of what was said but I was enjoying the moment too much. I remember laughing a lot though. I only really remember the big things. I also remember in the last ment Gyu and Yeol boxing on the side while someone else was talking. Oh! During Myungsoo’s ment, one of the air jet things made a noise out of nowhere and everyone was like what the and Soo was like, don’t mind that, just pay attention to me. He was so Myungsoo not L today it was great. Jong started breaking down during the last ments cause he was so happy that he could make it to the concert cause he was stuck in Tonga after LOTJ filming and bad weather. So he was just happy he could be here and it was so sad I started crying too. It was kind of funny cause he was talking about it and was like “cause I was trapped there… not trapped but” and idk I just thought it was funny. He’s too sweet. Oh, Gyu was also trying to get Sungjong to say that he cared the most about him getting stuck there but he said they all worried about him and Gyu was like “but who texted you first?” and Sungjong said it was Gyu and he was a good leader and stuff. The other members kept making comments about how Jong has really grown up lately and how professional he is and how he worked so hard the last day to make sure he got everything down. He said he was teary from the beginning and it was adorables seeing the boys saying such truly nice things about him. Woohyun surprisingly didn’t cry but he said that he’s a lot happier lately.
Gyu was kinda quiet today, he kept doing this “just joking” aegyo thing tho. Dongwoo was normal… super excited. Woohyun was the king of fan service as usual. One day I’m scared he’s gonna steal me away from Gyu lol. Hoya was… amazing. I have nothing else to say… just… so good. Sungyeol was hilarious and he’d often make sarcastic remarks. Oh I remember some now. He said things like “if you don’t scream louder we’re not gonna perform” and other members were like “noooo, that’s not what we meant” and he was like “well i’m not gonna” lol. Another time Dongwoo said something like “we should stop when it’s good” kinda phrase towards the end and so yeol was like “Bye” and Hoya said “You’re really bad” lol. Myungsoo was bright and bubbly and looked so happy and handsome. Sungjong was too skinny and tired looking but I’m glad he came back in time and I’m glad he’s safe and able to spend time with the members and fans.
I got to see the boys as they came around to say bye and at that point, everyone had their phones out so I took a LOT of pics. I’ll post those later but I’m tired and my body hurts from standing… my body’s not made for standing too long. Anyway, wow… this post got pretty long pretty quick. I’m so sorry this is so long and if you’re reading this sentence, thanks for sticking to the end! Sorry it’s so scatterbrained but I had a few mental breakdowns during the concert *cough* Hodongie *cough* This is the best I can do lol. Look forward to more tomorrow!
