B.A.P. Live on Earth Seoul Concert and Hwarang Musical

Wow. I've seriously been slacking on posting. In my defense, I've been really busy (especially at work) so here is an entry covering Saturday, March 8th and Saturday, March 15th. 

Jenee and I went to the first day of B.A.P.'s Live on Earth concert in Seoul and we (once again) had standing "seats". We purchased these before attending B1A4's concert and discovering how uncomfortable standing could be so that's how we ended up meshed in the crowd again. 

My standing section wrist band after the concert

Of course, we knew what to expect this time so we left our jackets in the cloak room. That meant nearly freezing to death for over an hour but at least we were comfortable inside.

The venue was the same as B1A4's concert (the smaller of the Olympic Park gymnasiums) while across the way Shinee was having their concert in the Gymnastics Gymnasium. Battle of the fangirls! 

Picture from ever_sooj on instagram

Our numbers for standing were actually really good (in the 200's) so after waiting in line in the freezing cold for forever, we ended up amazingly close to the stage. Actually, to part of the stage, I should say. Luckily, the boys came by our section often and we got some suuuuuuper close views of them. I'll admit I did freak out when Bang Young Guk (my favorite B.A.P. member) finally came by. Gaaah so close! 

The disappointing thing about standing is that, if you're up close, you really can't see most of the concert. Especially since 9-foot Korean girls (wearing platform shoes) are always in front of you. I did manage to stand on my tippie-toes for parts and catch some of the stuff going on center stage, but in general, unless they were over by our section, we couldn't see much. 

B.A.P. fans were also a lot more aggressive than the B1A4 fans were. At first, we thought it was going to be okay because there was no excessive compressing in the beginning like there was at The Class. But then, when the concert started everyone just went nuts and there was this giant shift that was actually a little terrifying. We spent a majority of the rest of the concert pushing, in fact, in order to keep our spots. It was really annoying. 

But, all-in-all I am really glad we did go with standing because it's pretty cool when the members come by and they are just right there, singing in front of you. 

I did have one fun moment when Himchan (another member of B.A.P.) came by with this BIG DSLR camera and took some pictures of the fans. He stopped right in front of our section and Jenee and I were spot-on in the center of the picture. 

Of course--as always--we weren't allowed to take pictures. I told Jenee that I really hope I never get Alzheimer's because all I have really is my memories to remember all these concerts by and that's fine and dandy until you can't remember anything. Thanks, Korean photo-ninjas.  

Pretty and yummy!

Anyway, we survived the concert and have some good memories to take home with us. Afterwards we stopped by Starbucks and I got the Cherry Blossom Latte. It was so delicious. Tastes something like white chocolate blended with a nice herbal tea. 

화랑

The following Saturday (March 15th) we headed in to Seoul to see the Hwarang musical. We choose this one just for fun as we didn't know anyone in the cast or really anything about it. 

In fact, we were completely un-prepared for the fact that it was a community theater musical. The venue was really hard to find and we ended up getting directions from this really nice Korean girl after walking around for forever. We got our tickets and had about an hour to wait so we headed upstairs to the waiting area. It was pretty decked out in Hwarang pictures and stuff. 

The waiting area...

When we actually went inside, we were surprised to see that there wasn't really a stage. There was just a designated "stage" area....and our seats were front row.

Our seats

We were literally right in front of the "stage." In fact, it was uncomfortably close. Plus, the musical was really low-tec and interactive. It was like sageuk (historical) meets modern boy band. I'm not even sure what happened. But it was hilarious and awful all at once. 

You know what though? They actually gave us permission in the end to take pictures. I think this whole community-theater thing has the right idea. 

In the end, it was a really fun musical and we learned our lesson about getting front row seats for community theater. Next time we'll get a few rows back, haha.