Disclaimer: This thing is so Junsu biased it’s slightly ridiculous. XD
I am a rock music listener by preference… DBSK was, and JYJ is, my only real interest in anything boy-band-ish. I have a thing for interesting vocalists though. I first heard Junsu’s voice five years ago, and thought, now THAT’S a voice. A year later I came across DBSK’s accapellas and have stanned them ever since. When the lawsuit happened, I was more emotionally invested in JaeChunSu for whatever reason. The line they split along didn’t surprise me, in the ideological sense. Nothing against HoMin, I’m just more attached to JYJ.
I had fully planned and prepared to see JYJ last year during the showcase tour, so when San Francisco got canceled it was seriously devastating. When the San Jose show was announced, I knew I would do anything to get there. Bought tickets as soon as they went up for sale. Then, with the help of the amazing ladies over at JYJ4SJ, I was able to make some travel arrangements with a couple of complete strangers. L and M. But Cassies are never really strangers to each other, are they? ^^
I barely slept Thursday night. Only a few hours at most. On Friday morning I got a ride from my brother into San Francisco. Bad traffic delayed us and by the time we got to Caltrain Station I only had about 15 minutes to spare. I was ready to bail onto the sidewalk, but my brother insisted we try to park, which led us around the corner… ONTO THE FREEWAY. FACEPALM. I flipped out, already being worried about the whole day and the time-crunch. Ugh. While I called L and M to warn of my lateness, my brother was possessed by a‘Steve McQueen is Bullitt’ moment and broke a whole lot of traffic laws to get us back to Caltrain, where I really did BAIL BAIL BAIL… and hurried inside the station to find the girls. From then on, all of the traveling went smoothly. Yay! Trains are cool. Moving backwards at 70+mph with graffiti screaming past the window is cool. About halfway through the ride, M realized she forgot her ticket at home. Poor thing! So we decided to go straight to the box office once we got to San Jose.We took the DASH shuttle to the campus, ironically named, as L said. A more apt name would be the CRAWL. XD
With a little bit of coaxing at the box office, M got a replacement ticket. That was a relief! We headed over to the ‘Funmeet’ to pick up our Mickey ears, fingerlights, and signs, but were anxious to check-in at our hotel so we didn’t stick around.(Update: A photo of the three of us getting our stuff was on the Soompi news post. LOL.)
The Sainte Claire was a nice hotel. Clearly a product of a bygone era. The room was small, but comfy. We dropped our stuff and ate a little before heading back to the Event Center, where we joined the river of fans moving up the stairs and through security.
Inside, I headed to the floor seats and had a brainfart about the seat numbers. I was row P, seat 7… forgot that the numbers were only odds and I was the 4th seat in from the aisle.
When the girls in seat 9 and 11 arrived, my brain started working again. I could see Cheezu, so I texted her, while everyone screamed at the Mirotic clip on the big-screens. Yay for meeting people you only know online! Thank you for the fangoods, Cheezu! I tested out my camera, which is old and cranky and can’t zoom if you’re recording, knowing that it would disappoint me soon. Ha.And to the girl sitting next to Cheezu with a shirt like Junsu’s Soccer jersey… you’re awesome!
The seats filled and I realized I was surrounded by Asian people. So many different languages. I giggled when the row behind me filled with women closer to my mom’s age. Japanese women behind me and Korean women to their right. Eavesdropped on the Japanese conversation behind me. Sooooo cute. Hahaha.
Since JYJ calls them all ‘Noonas’, I’ll call them ‘Unnies’. ^^
The arena was pretty well-filled. It doesn’t seem like the seats in the back were even available? So, yeah, good turnout.
The lights changed. Everyone screamed. スタット！！！
Empty: WOOOOO! OMGSUN!!! THEY’RE REAL PEOPLE!!! Lol. Fans rushed forward at some point and security got pissed. I think I noticed YC looking around, figuring out what the Mickey ears were.
IDS: Ah, those unfortunate lyrics. Heard a lot of ‘pants’ instead of ‘plans’ in the audience. Love that part where they walk forward slow. Junsu dancing. Good lawd. Somewhere around this time I noticed the girls next to me in 9 and 11 had a huge-lensed camera and a camcorder. Hysterical.
Nine is so effing beautiful. Mesmerizing song. Waving my lightstick and enjoying the lovely adlibs.
1st Ment: JaeSu’s standard English greetings they have used at every show. AND SOMEONE NEEDS TO TELL YOOCHUN THAT IT’S NOT PIE-ROW. Hahaha. It’s a French word, bro. We say it the same as you. XD
Pierrot: Fun song to hear live. I really like the dance. Nice job, ladies. This song always reminds me a bit of the Love in the Ice vocal chants, which is slightly depressing. Lol.
Be My Girl: Oh, thank you seat for a perfect Junsu view. I died watching him, all happy and smiling, and danced along in my spirit-form.
Be The One: The lyrics are so dirty. Junsu dancing. Noticing a theme here? FML.
Security got increasingly aggravated. They were tapping cameras, getting people back to their seats, making people show their tickets. It was so distracting.
Ayy Girl: I still hate this song, but I like the beginning JYJ/dancer huddle. The ridiculous MV playing in the back. Again, impressed with Junsu’s endless energy and giggling at the huge glasses on the female dancers.
I Love You: I’m not fond of either YC’s or JJ’s solo songs… or the performances that accompany them. I took the opportunity to organize my lightsticks/signs/bag and noticed some girls getting led away for having some pretty harmless uchiwas and signs for Yoochun. Yeesh.
Sidenote: Having performed as a dancer many times in my life, I tend to have a different attitude toward the women in the Slaughterhouse crew, compared to other fans. The touching doesn’t really bother me. However, I will say this, the dancers are lovely, but they are very LA. For me, the LA adult club-appropriate outfits and choreography are rather awkward in a Korean pop performance for all ages. Just sayin’.
Mission: The drummer intro is fun. Security had forced us to sit down by then, which was a new experience for me. Sitting down at a concert seems very odd to me. I was like, WTF seriously? How do you sit down during Mission? Ridiculous! Again, all eyes for Junsu dancing his ass off. They definitely use stronger backing vocal for the song, but it doesn’t bother me at all considering the effort they’re putting into their dancing.
I Can Soar: Tears! I LOVE THIS SONG! Junsu has the best pronunciation on The Beginning album, in my opinion. He has such an excellent ear that he could mimic the lines fed to him in the recording studio. He loses a bit of it live, but I don’t mind. I like the addition of the dancer. Also noticed that Junsu sounds really good, like he’s had some rest. Utterly captivated after I gave up on my suddenly full camera. I am hopelessly biased and have been since day one. Beautiful man, bowing in the dark. XIAHNISM! MANSEH!
Still in Love: Like I said, I’m not fond of the song. JJ is always funny around female dancers. Again with the excessively erotic dancing. I think I kinda laughed the whole time. I adore Jaejoong, but his performance can lack heat, especially when he’s trying so hard to be sexy. Damn, skinny man needs to put on some weight. He sounded great though. Love the ethereal sound of the bridge and how he lets loose at the end.
Dance break: Cheered a lot, but I noticed Telisha got a quieter reaction. Lol… I wonder why. *cough*
CHAJATTA: Such a fantastic response to this song! They were so happy! We were so happy! Swinging those lightsticks like crazy. The energy lifted and everyone sang and aaahhhhhh! ^^ Perfect view of Junsu again. Captivated by his spirit. I love the way JJ sounds in this song. SMILES SMILES SMILES.
2nd ment: Happy birthday screams and the cute reaction from JJ. The ‘sorry’ and Junsu’s amusement and saying ‘xie xie’ and laughing in that raspy way he does. *sigh*
Fallen Leaves: Return of the tears. Perfect Junsu view and GAHHH! I love this song foreverrrrrr! JYJ is backlit strongly with this song, so I brought out my sign for Junsu. It’s just a small sign that looks like the back of his soccer jersey, painted in silver to catch the light. Waited for the right moment when the light was strong in my direction and he was looking at our side. I only did it a few times, trying to not disturb the Unnies behind me. I don’t know if he ever saw the sign, but I did notice a little smile at one point when I watched some fancams. >.> Became very aware of how much I stare at Junsu. Sorry Soulmates. XDBoy’s Letter: On the extended stage…. Perfect Junsu view again. Can’t wait to get the album version of this song. Junsu at the bridge is epic beyond belief. Nailed nailed nailed it. Cried again. Whooped and cheered after he hit all those huge notes.
Be My Girl remix: I was so happy to have permission to stand up finally. I had the slaughtermob memorized months ago and danced it as fully as I could considering we had so little space to do it in. JYJ and the dancers looked happy and excited. It was nice having Yoochun on our side for the second half and leading our end of the wave. Soooo much fun!
Birthday Interlude was pure cuteness. I sang the half-English/half-Korean version. Junsu with the Mickey ears killed me ‘cause he WOULD be totally comfortable sporting them. Then the JYJ hug made me teary
You’re: YooSu kept their ears on… soooo adorable, smiling so much. Yoochun looked so happy on our side. This is probably my favorite performance from the show, because they were being so silly while singing beautifully. JaeChun were dorks, like at the other shows, and Junsu LAUGHED at them while he tried to sing. Priceless. Then Junsu grabbed the Mickey ears from a fan, putting them on JJ and giving her a thumbs up. Precious. Trolling JJ with microphones and then stuffing them in Junsu’s face. *giggleThankYougiggle*
Get Out: My eyes were glued to Junsu dancing again and him sounding amazing. Everyone screaming, ‘HEEEYYY…HOOOO’ was awesome. Does Yoochun really yell what it sounds like he yells? Lol.
Empty remix: Again we had been forced to sit. WTF. Junsu’s dancing is fierce, nice solo… looked like he almost went end-over during his handstand, but he pulled out of it fine. Hehe. And then they told us to jump and people were like… ‘Can we?’ and I was like. **** THAT! I’M JUMPING!!! *jumpslikecrazy*
Rock audiences are definitely better at calling for encores. Looool.
In Heaven: Tears again. Some people brought their ‘kajima’ signs out immediately, but many waited for the first chorus to hold them high. This is really the new LITI/W. Emotions run high. Jaejoong sounds superb. PLEASE RELEASE A NEW KOREAN ALBUM SOON!!!
The standard long 90 degree bow and goodbyes, but then they just stood there. They looked at us. They looked at each other. We couldn’t quite get a proper kajima chant going, but it didn’t matter. They got the message, looking genuinely touched and reluctant to go. Jaejoong said a few last words, voice a bit thick. Along with the birthday fun, this lingering onstage for us really made the San Jose show special and something I will treasure for a long time. Then they were gone.
The show ended, the lights came on
My ears were buzzing, my lips burnt from dehydration and biting them nervously all day, arms tired, generally overwhelmed with happiness. Fans started clearing out. I hung around, making sure I had everything I brought.
I don’t know why she picked me out. Maybe she noticed my shirt. One of the Korean Unnies tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to her.
“You’re a Junsu fan?” she asked.
“Yes, I am!”
She pointed towards the middle section and said “His parents are here.”
O.O
I knew they went to the LA show, but I didn’t know they would be in San Jose.
“Ah, thank you!”
She smiled and I glanced over where a small swarm of fans was moving slowly this way from the middle section. I tidied up my things at last and then looked up, straight into the eyes of the Mother Goddess herself… not five feet from me, and nearing. 4 feet, 3 feet, 2… a slow procession down the narrow aisle, graciously greeting fans.
I think I was more stunned seeing Junsu’s Mom than seeing Junsu himself. She was exquisite as ever, a vision in white, I swear she was glowing… when I finally tore my eyes away from the sunshine smile she shares with her son, I saw Papa Kim at her side. Bright-eyed, cheerful, adorable, proud, Papa Kim. Goodness me. I had a very visceral reaction to seeing him that I can’t even describe. I have a fascination with their family, not just because of Junsu, but because I didn’t know people like that existed. It could all be a façade, of course, but if that’s the case, it’s a damn solid façade. Regardless, getting familiar with Junsu’s personality during DBSK activities made me powerfully curious of the environment he was raised in, because he seemed unreal with how real he was. Then I saw some footage of his parents, his brother, and it all made sense. I’ll try not to ramble much, but I’ll say that I learned a lot from the Kim family. Learned what a difference a stable family makes. Learned how parents can be encouraging and supportive and loving without hesitation. Learned how passionately a person can be kind. Learned how much I deeply I appreciate that kindness, and how much the environment I grew up in, lacked such consideration. Years ago, and from a great distance, the Kim family gave me an immense feeling of hope at a time when I really needed it.
All of this passed through my thoughts as they moved within reach of me, but I’m not the type to chase down famous people. I stayed put and simply watched them, a chant of thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou in my heart. They paused briefly to talk to the Unnies before continuing on, like they were sailing on a cloud of fangirls. I smiled and nodded my thanks to the woman who had touched my shoulder, then sat hard on my chair, stunned and reeling from it all.
Then Cheezu was there, bringing me back to Earth, coming around the chairs to spaz a bit. You kill me with your cuteness girl. I hope you know that. ^^ <3 It’s an odd thing to meet someone you’ve known for a while, only online. Super glad I finally got to meet Cheezu, and her friend, too! Fellow Junsu fan! Yeeaaahhh!
Then we were ushered out of the seats and out of the arena. A grandmotherly woman was a total sweetheart at the side exit door, telling us ‘they’ll be going out the back soon’ like it was wonderful little secret. So cute. And I was left pondering why she had that job. Hoping that she was a volunteer and not just unable to retire for financial or other reasons.
Back into the night air, still relatively warm, and surprisingly dry. Forecasts said rain for Friday night in San Jose. Cheezu bounced off to go JYJ hunting and I found my girls L and M at our designated meeting place. We took a few pictures together in front of the marquis and headed back to the hotel in high spirits.
Sweat/shaky hands make for crap piccies!Needing refreshment, we ended up getting directions to a market at the front desk and walked there. I got some much-needed water. Distracted by thirst and my JYJ high, failed to grab my change out of the self-serve machine, which one of the attendants chased after me with, moments after getting out the door. It was only a few dollars, but thank you, sir! LOL.
Back to the hotel. Hydrating hydrating hydrating.
How long did we stay up? Until 2am or so? Talking talking talking. I absolutely could not have asked for better people to travel with. Thank you L and M!!! And thank you to M for letting us pick her brain about Kpop from the Korean perspective… quirks of language, cultural differences, Dongbangshinki, and JYJ, of course! Being a very isolated Kpop fan, getting to talk about it with fellow fans, including a native Korean person was seriously amazing and a hugely valuable experience.
I have no idea how much I slept. Not much. I think I only dropped off briefly a few times, nerves and brain still racing too much. Gazed at the ceiling, recalling the concert, trying to carve the details into my memory. We got up around 8:30, ate a little, packed, checked-out and got a taxi back to the Station. The northbound Caltrain was crowded and slower. The cars gradually filled with Giants fans at each stop, smatterings of the orange and black all over the place. Back to a wet San Francisco, where I parted from my companions for a car-ride home to the North Bay.
That’s it! A lot of firsts. First pop concert. First train ride. First time in San Jose. First time traveling without family. All kinds of good stuff (I don’t get out much. Lol). As much as seeing JYJ was a long-time dream of mine, I got a lot of other things out of the experience than just the joy of seeing them perform. Simply walking onto the campus and seeing the fanmeet going on was a special thing for me. I ONLY have people online to share my Asian-music interest with. Offline, I get ridiculed in all the usual ways that Kpop fans get ridiculed. So, to be with a large group of people, many ages, many different backgrounds, coming from different parts of the world, and share that mutual interest with them for the night… *sigh*
It made me inescapably happy. I felt safe and welcome and glad that I had made the effort to get there.
For that, thank you to my fellow Cassies and JYJers for being awesome!
