I knew I would be going to the CN Blue concert the moment I found out it was announced. The annoying thing about budgeting though is that, despite know I would go to the show, I had no idea when I would be able to get the ticket to go.
After seeing FT Island the week before, and seeing CN Blue there supporting the members of FT Island, I knew that I had to make this show a priority, so I went out and got the ticket I’d been eyeing for weeks, well before the FT Island show.
I know very little about CN Blue. My knowledge of them is all over the map. I knew they wrote one of my favourite songs “Love Light”, and I knew my favourite was Jungshin, but that’s because I saw him in HolikaHolika posters and went “I LIKE THAT ONE.” When “Intuition” came out, I immediately liked the song.
But other than that, I knew not much else. Which is always the best way to go into a concert, because you’ll almost always be pleasantly surprised.
The concert was in the Olympic Park complex, a place in Seoul where there are countless arenas, originally home to sports, but now home to dozens of concerts each year. The night of the CN Blue concert, Lee Seunggi was having his concert in the arena right across the road. It was a pretty fun atmosphere. Sadly though, the websites for the Handball arena are not as clear as they could be. As I learnt the hard way, the fastest way to the arena is from Olympic Park station, despite the fact Google Maps says it’s one of the buildings on the other side of the park.
The concert opened up with the band walking through the audience (!!!) which was pretty cool, and heading up to the stage. They started off with “Intuition”, which I was psyched about, since I knew the song. However, it did mean I would be left to an entire concert of potentially not knowing all of the songs.
The group went from Intuition right into “Ready n Go”, “Voice” and “Love Revolution” without a break between songs. The next song that I knew was “Love Girl” which had been the second single from “First Step”. This was the first time they took a brief moment to speak instead of sing, getting the audience to chant “L-O-V-E!” by section for a moment before the song started. The whole audience was doing the fan chant, which was really cool. I can remember, long ago, I didn’t understand how everyone knew fan chants, or who came up with them, or why they were done. I may not understand WHY they’re done, but I am quite fond of them now, so I tried to join in when I could.
FINALLY, after 20 minutes of performing, the guys stopped to do introductions and greetings. They played “Rain of Blessing”, one of their Japanese singles. I was really surprised to find out that CN Blue got their start in Japan, and then moved over to Korea after, despite being Korean. This song was STUNNINGLY GORGEOUS live, I was so impressed. I also love hearing groups singing in Korean and Japanese, since my Japanese is much better than my Korean, so I understand the lyrics better.
The mood of the concert went down to a very calm, mellow mood as CN Blue sung “Y, Why…” next. I found myself really wishing I had a boyfriend or something to enjoy the concert with, which doesn’t always happen at concerts. Most concerts, I like going to with friends, but this was a part in a concert where it was very chill and felt very romantic in a not so conventional way. This continued with the song “Love in the Rain (사랑은 비를 타고)” and “I Will… Forget You… (그럴겁니다… 잊을겁니다…)”
Then we got into what felt like the longest MC/talk moment I’ve seen in a looong time in a concert. It was well over ten minutes long, and by the end I was yawning. There were some cute parts, like where they made the drummer sing, and he was quite shy seeming, but did well. However, it was just… too long for a concert, especially after having four songs that were very chill.
Luckily, the next song they played was “Just Please”, which was a pretty cool that changed up the tempo. Next they went into “One Time”, which brought the tempo up even further again, changing the feeling of the concert from the really cool romantic one it was half an hour before to a rock concert again. “Tattoo” and “I Don’t Know Why” were played back to back after. There was a quick talk break, and then the group went into “Lets Go Crazy”, which was a really fun song, and all in English, with “Now Or Never” being sung right after. Then they sung “Never Too Late”, another song that seemed to be all in English. I’ve never heard so much original English content during a Korean concert, so I was really impressed!
Around this time, the guys started running around the stage and the thrust stage. There were ramps to and from the stage, so the guys were wandering into the audience when they could with their instruments. Since I was first row of my section, I was quite lucky and got to see a few of the guys up close when they came by, which was really cool. What WASN’T cool though were the girls sitting behind me. They were apparently from somewhere where it’s totally okay to jump over a row of seats to try and get to the artists, and did it. Three times. They pushed me out of the way, and act completely embarrassing. The last time, they even fell and knocked the barricade over. It was so embarrassing, I was so angry because the security staff wouldn’t leave us alone after that. I’m secretly hoping those girls read this article so they can know they should be completely ashamed of themselves. However, they don’t speak English, so I’m assuming they won’t read this. So everyone else, learn from their mistakes. Don’t jump over rows of seats.
The next song was “In My Head”, and then we were told it was the last song, “Yes (그래요)”. They didn’t even announce it was the last song, they just performed and then yelled thanks, and ran off. Everyone started chanting encore (Which, by the way, is hilarious to see Koreans and Japanese battle over how to chant for encore. One group seemed to be much faster than the other, kept speeding up, and losing momentum, which was stupid.) After a few minutes, the guys ran back on stage in their concert goods teeshirts.
For the first encore, CN Blue performed “I’m A Loner (외톨이야)” but it was different to the normal version because it was a rock version of the song. (Random fact about this song: When I first heard it on the radio, I thought they were saying Lotteria, which is a fast food chain in Asia. Very different meaning in my head at first.) They also performed “LOVE”, which I some how knew, but I have no idea how I knew this song. Strange how that happens. Next, they performed “You’ve Fallen For Me (넌 내게 반했어)” and at this point, I was getting worried. This was a long encore, and it was already three songs long.
And they hadn’t. Played. Love Light.
Really, the only song I care about by CN Blue is Love Light, It’s one of my favourites, and I was getting very nervous that I wouldn’t hear it. Especially when the band started up their fourth encore song, and it was some rock song. However, when they started singing, I was stunned to hear they were singing a rock version of “Love Light “! To me, it was the best of both worlds, because it was upbeat enough to be at the end of the show, and also was different enough from what originally made me fall in love with the song that neither competed with the other. And then the group went to leave the stage.
After Love Light, I was quite content to be done the show. They’d performed everything I’d cared about. But everyone was still chanting for another encore. So for the final final song of the show, CN Blue sung “Try Again, Smile Again”, which was a gorgeous English song. Their English might not be perfect, and one or two of them had a pretty strange accent going with some of the words, but I give major props for performing in three languages. I thought that was really cool.
And that was that. It was a fantastic show, over all. A few other notes:
- I DID. NOT. LIKE. the security on duty. They all seemed to be from a university or something, according to their jackets. I’m assuming learning to work security. However, they were not discrete in the slightest. Most of the time, there was one or two girls prowling in front of our sections, eyes on us like a starved animal waiting for their prey to come out from it’s protective home. It was really uncomfortable for me, and I had a lot of trouble enjoying the concert. I hope the people in that program learn that they do need to be subtle in their surveillance as well, or they’re going to get complaints. From me.
- Somewhere in the middle of the concert, I noticed someone dancing like a raving lunatic from the very back row of the second floor. After squinting and noticing the bright yellow hair, I realized that FT Island were at that show, and they were rocking out more than the people in standing were. I’ve decided I’d love to go clubbing with Hongki one day, he looks like he’d be SO MUCH FUN to hang out with.
When I went to the show, I expected it to be a lot like the FT Island concert, but it was so different. I had a great time, because it was a really cool show. Unlike lots of the concerts I’ve gone to where I’ve been happy to be with my friends, this would have been a show I’d have preferred to have gone to with a boyfriend. I really liked the chilled feeling during the songs like “Rain of Blessing”, and the really fast uptempo stuff like “Just Please”. There was a good mix of music, and I had a lot of fun. I’d definitely recommend their concerts to people, even if they only know one or two of the songs.