The BIG SHOW 2010 is the second of the BIG SHOW concerts by BIG BANG and there are plans to hold one each year. The concert was held over three days from Friday to Sunday and I was lucky enough to attend the last two shows. The venue was the Olympic Park Stadium in the Eastern side of Seoul where G-Dragon held his "Shine A Light" concert at the end of 2009. The venue is particularly good for concerts of this nature because of the large open spaces for merchandise stands and queues of eager fans.
After the obligatory queueing outside in the cold, we were ushered into the stadium to wait inside. With the added security at concert these days to deter fans from taking pictures and fancams, you're checked at several points before actually getting to your seat. Once in your section, you are treated to music videos played on the big screens and this usually keeps the fans amused for half an hour or so before the videos loop again. Thankfully, the wait was quite short and despite having a sore neck from craning my neck upwards at the big screen, I was ready for the opening.
In much the same way they did last year, BIG BANG entered to a remix of one of their most famous songs, Lies. Unlike last year, the boys were standing atop platforms behind floating screens, with TOP in the center. While the others came down slowly behind the screens, TOP's section had an elevator that he burst out of for his rap section of the song. They were all dressed in white and black as the dramatic entrance required, but that didn't stop them from stepping up the tempo with GARA GARA GO!! and a remix version of Sparkling, Sparkling. This song was one from their Remember album that I paid little attention to, but the live performance was far more interesting.
Just when I had started to enjoy the performance, the tempo slowed suddenly and the intro to one of my favorite BIG BANG songs, Wonderful, came on. Due to the reports from the first day concert, I knew this would be a remix of the original and I was excited to hear how they were going to arrange the song. It was still a high tempo and fun song to see performed live, but it almost lacked a melody and consisted mostly of heavy bass and synthesized vocals. However, the energy that BIG BANG bring to the stage was evident and the fans were making a great deal of noise.
When Seungri and Daesung left the stage and left the other three to sing Hallelujah, the crowd became very noisy. Presumably because this concert was the first time it had been performed live, but the crowd were really enjoying the heavy beat and strong lyrics. I was expecting Seungri to return to the stage first and perform his solo song, but once Hallelujah ended, there was a lot of activity on stage with the staff members bringing on tables, chairs and balloons as props. Word from the front rows trickled back and it was soon very obvious to everyone that Daesung was going to perform Cotton Candy. I couldn't stand this song when I had listened to it a few days earlier, but with the addition of the live element and the antics of Daesung and the backing dancers on stage, I found myself singing along and enjoying it immensely. The stage was set up as a park, with benches and a cotton candy seller. Daesung himself arrived on a yellow bike, floating in from off stage. Dressed in a shirt and jacket, he sang while interacting with the male and female dancers as they pretended to be enjoying dates in the park. The highlight of the performance for the lucky fans that were chosen was when Daesung handed one lucky fan a lunchbox of freshly made sushi that we had seen him prepare in a short video prior to the performance starting.
Shortly after Daesung left the stage, another video played, showing Seungri walking down a red corridor with numbered doors. He reached the final door and entered a small bar and gave a man a key. The man pulled down a box from the shelf and Seungri opened it to find an elaborately detailed key. The bartender motioned to the door behind Seungri and another Seungri was standing in the doorway. Seungri slumped to the ground after being shot in the heart by the new arrival. Understandably, the crowd erupted in a flurry of screams - some screaming in delight at Seungri in a suit and others devastated that he had been shot. The noise only continued when Seungri entered the stage and began his Strong Baby performance. It was much the same as last year, but with the addition of an impressive dance number with one of the female dancers. At the climax of the song, they were both in the middle section of the stage. Dancing together, Seungri swung his leg over her head, pulled her round, she dropped on the floor and then he swung her back to her feet with his trailing leg. It is a difficult maneuver to describe, but watching it in real time was very impressive considering the height difference between the two of them.
All five members returned to the stage after a quick costume change and performed Top of the World, Number 1 and Koe wo kikasete from their Japanese releases. The non-Korean tracks got some of the loudest cheers of all the performances, which I found to be surprising, but I do think they are different enough to be good in their own right. They followed this with Make Love, performed in both English and Korean. Taeyang left the stage before the end of the song to prepare for his upcoming solo performances of Where U At and a dance remix of his most recent release, Wedding Dress. Both were performed perfectly in terms of choreography and vocals. He shared the stage with several backing dancers but definitely stood out with his flamboyant dance style and sharp moves.
A remix of As If Nothing's Wrong was performed before TOP's new solo music video was shown on the big screens. Many fans were expecting him to perform his new song, but most were happy to see him perform a short portion of the melody on his harmonica. The display was very impressive and it shows another facet that he can draw from in future. His solo song was heavily auto-tuned and stylized but I think it might grow on me in the future. I definitely enjoyed it more the second time round and the crowd seemed to be of the same opinion.
TOP was given plenty of time to leave the stage and change after he finished performing, but on Saturday he was late to come out and missed the beginning of How Gee. He rushed out and evidently hadn't sorted his shoes properly because he bent down to fix them a number of times throughout the performance. I don't know why, but this performance was a little shaky in terms of choreography as they never quite seemed to recover from TOP's late arrival on stage and there was almost an incident where Taeyang attempted to jump over a light fixture after teasing the fans on the right hand side, and almost jumped straight into TOP who was also walking back with him. Another instance saw G-Dragon swing his arms round and only the quick reactions of Taeyang prevented him from potentially knocking him off the stage.
Thankfully, they seemed to pull everything together for their performance of Stylish and a good thing too, because it seems like they were all wearing their new FILA gear and looked quite the advert. The end of this song marked a break for the group as they exited the stage and 2NE1 came out to perform Fire and I Don't Care. The girls were dressed much like they were for their initial debut promotions and all four of the girls were dazzling. Their performance was tight and smooth, and the crowd were cheering them on as fellow YG family members. The girls took time to chat with the crowd in-between songs and despite plenty of performances in the past, Dara admitted to being a little nervous on stage.
Daesung and Seungri appeared on either side of the stage, dressed in smart jackets and pants to begin their "vocal display" of BIG BANG's more ballad type songs. A lot is made of their vocal ability by fans but I have always been a little skeptical given the number of dance songs they produce. However, I was very impressed by the quality they produced. Both Seungri and Daesung showed a marked improvement since the previous BIG SHOW concert a year earlier in their performance of Fool's Only Tears, Foolish Love and I Don't Understand. At one point, both were standing on the raised platforms I mentioned at the beginning and showing an entirely different side to BIG BANG with their vocal performance.
All the members performed on stage together for Remember, A Good Man, Stay and Haru Haru. After the display prior to this, the rest of the members showed that they had also worked on their vocals and the boys sat down to perform these songs. G-Dragon even called fellow members "bad men" after the name of the song and this prompted riotous laughter from the crowd. The crowd was also particularly receptive to their performance of Stay, which is a very popular song from their Japanese album. After they left the stage, the much anticipated 1 Night, 2 Days video parody was played on the big screens for the fans to enjoy during the recess.
The parody saw BIG BANG at a winter retreat in a particularly cold part of Korea, partaking in various challenges in the same way that the celebrities do in the popular variety programs. This included table tennis in which Seungri thrashed TOP despite his charismatic style, Daesung letting his side down in a game of football tennis that earned him a beating from the other members and a telepathy game in which each member had to choose a cup from the table and hope that it wasn't something disgusting instead of Cola. Taeyang and Daesung were unlucky enough to lose and as punishment, were forced to sleep outside in a tent while the others remained in the warm house. As it turned out, both of them returned to the house in the early hours of the morning and were woken with everyone else by the sound of Big Hit playing over the radio. All the members had until the end of the song to get up, get some jackets and shoes on before posing outside for a group picture.
The end of the video claimed that there would be unseen footage on the concert DVD, including games to prove their worth as idols. The fans were understandably disappointed not to see the full video, but there's no doubt that it'll be very popular when the DVD finally appears in high definition 3D.
G-Dragon was the last to perform his solo tracks which included the rock remix of Heartbreaker and Korean Dream with Taeyang. He did perform A Boy on the first night, but this was not repeated. He was dressed much in the same way as he did for his solo concert - short black pants with a black skirt over the top and a black and white jacket. Taeyang was dressed in the same outfit that he performed his solo songs in and the fans were incredibly excited to see them on the stage together. It was definitely my favorite solo performance of the night and even included a slightly extended portion of G-Dragon working his mixing deck in the climax of the song. The two of them finished together with a chest bump that sent the fans into a screaming frenzy and one particular girl next to me turned to her friend and started hugging her. Obviously one of the more popular groupings in BIG BANG.
The concert was starting to wind down and when the members joined G-Dragon on stage, they addressed the crowd and talked about the success of the concert and future activities. They then performed Always, Heaven, Fool and Big Hit before ending with Last Farewell - a fitting ending to an explosive concert. There was no doubt that they would return for an encore and merely two minutes after leaving the stage, the curtain was raised once again and they returned for Sunset Glow and a final performance of Lies. During these songs, they interacted with the crowd and were joined by the entire cast of dancers. The songs were also performed entirely by the backing that had been present for the entire concert. Fans threw signs and other things on stage in the hope that they would be picked up by one of the members. Presumably, this is where G-Dragon received the Gaho stuffed animal that he then proceeded to throw back into the crowd. It was caught by a tall foreign girl quite close to me and after the initial fight to see who had it, the fans were all very excited to see and take pictures of the toy.
In all, this concert was an improvement over last year's BIG SHOW and I can only imagine what they will do next year to heighten the spectacle. Regardless of what they decide to perform, I will be there next year.
