It has been eight
days since SMTown, and by now I am sure all of you have read more
than your fair share of fan accounts about the show, so as I sit down
to write this editorial, I decided to go with a different approach.
Since my return from Anaheim back to Calgary Canada, I have heard one
question about the show significantly more than any other one. What
question is it you ask?Its not “How was SNSD?” not “How
was the show? The crowd?”. Instead I have been asked by everyone
“Was SMTown really worth it?” I can’t say that I am surprised
by it, although I am not necessarily happy about it.
Being an international K-Pop fan, no
matter what your fandom or what country you are from can be an
interesting experience at times. When I first tell people I listen to
K-Pop I am more often greeted with a look of confusion and a snide
comment about why I would be listening to something I don’t
understand, rather than encouragement or acceptance. That being said,
acceptance is not something I seek from others; that’s something I
learned a long time ago. Since I began actively following K-Pop and
being an active member in the community I have only found a handful
of people I know in person that are totally supportive of this, but
that just comes with the territory.
My answer to everyone who has asked me
whether or not making the trip to SMTown was worth it was more of a
defensive reaction then anything else. I always told them that it was
an incredible show, and it was definitely something I would do again,
but I just left it at that. Its not that I was lying when I told
people that, it was an ‘easy way out’ and a way of avoiding going
really in-depth about every detail that makes SMTown such an
incredible experience. My goal with this article is to finally
elaborate on all the thoughts that have been milling around in my
head, and to give an answer to everyone who might be asking
themselves the same question I have been hearing all week. (continued after the break)
From the moment I was fortunate enough
to get lower bowl, rehearsal seats just after tickets went on sale
I began counting down the days to SMTown. It was finally my chance not only to see Taeyeon, Yoona, Yuri, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon,
Seohyun. Sooyoung and Jessica, but also a chance for me to see 5
other established groups who have proven themselves as K-Pop elite,
and on top of that, the chance to see one of the most promising
rookie groups of 2012, EXO. It was almost an overwhelming feeling.
For me these people really on existed on my computer, I had never
seen them or even had the chance to dream of seeing them in real life
and knowing that I was less than two months away from seeing all of
them in person, no further than 20 feet away from me was hard to
grasp.
The excitement in the air surrounding the Honda Center on the 20th was unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life. I have seen big name American artists play shows in cities across Canada, but never before had I seen anything like SMTown. You could instantly distinguish every single person as a member of their fandom, whether it be their coloured shirts, posters, scarves, and even lightsabers (yes full size lightsabers). Music was playing in the background, and people began lining up for the 45 minute long sound-check 4 hours before it was scheduled to begin. The sound-check, although only 45 minutes long for the viewing public (as it consisted of EXO, f(x), and SHINee) actually began around 2:30pm, and from outside the building you could hear the groups practicing, resulting in screams from fans when they heard their group take the stage. At one point, Sunny looked out a second floor window and waved to everyone below waiting to get inside of the building, resulting in chaos that didn't die down for five minutes. The coolest part for me was not only the diversity of the crowds of people, but just how friendly everyone was with each other. Big groups of fans formed in the lines outside waiting for the sound-check, and by the end of the wait, new friends had been made, forum and twitter names had been exchanged, and countless photos had been taken.
One thing that K-Pop really does right is the venues for their live performances, and SMTown was no exception. The stage was huge, lining the entire ice surface of the Honda Center, with walkways coming off on both sides, and a full width stage at the opposite end of the arena from where the stage began. As people made their first steps into the venue and saw the stage, they could not believe what they were seeing. Almost everyone I had talked to, and myself included, had never been to a K-Pop concert before and had no idea what to expect. In the final minutes leading up to the show, all the seats were filled, but the arena was oddly quiet (except for when the trailer for "I AM" came on and the fan-girls lost their mind for every face that appeared on one of the 3 giant screens), the anticipation and even nervousness of everyone inside was projecting itself into the arena.
From the moment the lights first dimmed, the lightsticks all came on, and SHINee took the stage to open the show with "Lucifer" to the closing song "Rising Sun" by TVXQ! everyone in the building was on their feet and losing their minds. Before the show everyone was debating on who would be the opening act, and I don't think anyone could even imagine that a mega-hit song like "Lucifer" would be the first of the 45 songs we would get to see, and maybe that's why we are the fans, and SM runs the show because in an instant any of the tension that had existed before the show had be sent sky high, along with the roof of the Honda Center.
SMTown Live has the unique opportunity of bringing in an abundance of mega-hit artists that can jam pack a show full of their top six to eight songs. It basically is a greatest hits show, and for four hours you are treated to some of the biggest and best songs to come out of Korea in the past decade, and because of that it is an electrifying experience for even the most casual of fans. And on top of that, where else are you going to get to see the Jung sisters sing "California Girls".
Going into SMTown, my expectations were set at an incredibly high level. I had read fan accounts, talked to people who had been to SMTown when it was in New York just last year, and of course had seen countless videos of all of the groups performing live. The amount of hype generated for such an event is unavoidable, and with the way the fans regard, and even in some cases, worship their Idols, it is feasible that people could set themselves up for disappointment. I myself even had doubts about just how good these groups would be live, and just how great the show was going to be. I can confidently say that all of my doubts were not only proven wrong, they were thrown out the window with the force of a hurricane. Seeing Taeyeon, someone who is the background on phones and computer wallpapers of thousands of people, including myself, just twenty feet away from me rising up in the middle of the arena singing "Devil's Cry" was a moment I will never forget. When I should have been screaming I just stood there in awe that something which I had watched fancams of, and seen hundreds of pictures of was so close to me. It was a surreal feeling. Seeing your ultimate bias in person, performing something you have watched hundreds of times is something that every K-Pop fan must experience once in their lifetime.
So here I am eight days out from the best concert I have ever seen, something that I put on an almost unattainable level that went and surpassed anything in my wildest dreams, and I still get the question, "Was SMTown Live really worth it? Worth the time, the money, and worth the leg cramps from standing for 11 hours with out sitting down?". I can honestly say without a doubt that SMTown live is worth every cent of the $300 dollars spent on tickets, the 200$ spent on a hotel, and the 500$ spent on flights, but I also know that not everyone has the means, or the time to do the trip that I was so privileged to get to do. I beg of you, if you are a fan of any SM artist, a fan of the SMTown Family, or even just a K-Pop fan in general, going to SMTown is something that if you ever have the chance to do, you must do it. Going to this show not only crushed any doubts I had about K-Pop and the people involved in it, it let me know that being a Taeganger, a Sone, a K-Pop fanatic is something that means a lot to me, and that its fine for it to mean a lot to me no matter what anyone says.
I'll leave you guys with a fancam I took of the very end of the show, just to show you how extravagant of an affair the show really was.
Oh yea, and was SMTown Live worth it? You bet your ass it was.
-Ben Hatch (@notionsstorm on twitter)
