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map the soul world tour, stop #1!
Woo! I'll just jump right into this recap, and start with the whining, so I can end on a good note. XD The quickie is that they sold out of merchandise completely, so we weren't able to buy anything. The initial sale table was pretty mobbed, too, so they ended up shutting it down. Now for the rambly ones: I seem to have bad intuition when it comes to bringing my camera to concerts. I brought it tonight, and left it in the car with the thought of just bringing it to the club later. The venue/band's only rule was no flash photography, which meant fancams were go. So I kicked myself periodically throughout the evening for opting to leave my camera in the car, especially since even though I was in the last row of the main floor, I had a pretty good view, particularly once everyone rushed the stage. >.>
We also skipped the afterparty, which, admittedly, I had come to be looking forward to (and it is pretty rare for me to be looking forward to going out to a club XD). It wasn't just because of Epik High - I was viewing it as my last chance to go out and have fun like that before the semester's end (though of course, spending a chance like that with Epik High is definitely a plus!). But everyone - all of two people :P - else didn't feel up for it, and the $20 cover didn't help, so I wasn't about to make things potentially momentarily awkward by being contrary.
I was also a bit miffed/confused by myself because I really didn't feel as excited before or after as I thought I'd be. I was actually really sad in the car ride on the way home for reasons that had nothing to do with the concert. During the show, however, it was an entirely different story...
So, as previously mentioned, I was in the last row, but of one of the center sections, so I had a pretty good angle. It was a little hard to see at some points, but people kept moving around, and I was wearing my big heels and had a little step to stand on (and the girls next to me, who were as tiny as me, were actually just standing on their seats. Hey, only a wall behind us!). Unlike Jrock concerts, where the crowds are pretty mixed, this group was mostly Asian, and a lot of them looked high school-age. There weren't really any people in crazy clothes/costume, but a lot of people had glowsticks and some had homemade signs, so it was just generally a much different crowd than what I've been accustomed to.
Far East Movement started the show, with an opening set that had a story. The group was supposedly coming from the year 3008, where there is no music, and no dancing, and so they came back to 2009 to gather energy to take home with them. Their costumes were very... space-themed - astronaut helmets/suits, a toy ray gun, a lightsaber XDD - and eventually, we were energized enough to send them back home. It was a cute way to shape a set, I thought. I wasn't sure if their DJ intended for the video to periodically go back to being obviously Quicktime with his Mac toolbar at the bottom, but it was funny. :P
A couple of them also came out after the show to check out the merchandise table (or to just check it... or to leave... I don't know XD), and it was funny how no one seemed to notice them. They didn't stand out much, though.
They were followed by Kero One, who... kind of unwound a lot of the hyping up that Far East Movement had done. He was accompanied by a female backup singer and a guy named Vince (I think), who played the keyboard, guitar, DJ-ed and sang a bit (not all at once, but it was still pretty cool), and while Far East Movement were kind of your typical party hip-hop group, Kero One was like... I dunno how to describe it... chill hip-hop? XD I felt more jazz influences, and having more singing and instruments involved obviously affected things as well. Personally, I liked his music, but I felt like it went on for a bit long (someone else must've thought that too, because someone yelled out, "Epik High!" when he was introducing another song :/), and would've maybe been better as the opening act.
But it was great getting to see some local (or semi-local, as Far East Movement is from LA, while Kero One is from SF) groups. And of course, MYK, the unofficial fourth member of Epik High, and Tablo both have history in the Bay Area.
Tukutz was the first of Epik High to come out, and at that point, our host for the night gave up trying to kill time/schmooze. XD After getting set up, Tukutz played with an awesome beatboxer (DG) for a little while before MYK, Mithra and finally, Tablo, came out. The screaming from the crowd was amazing. I'd thought it'd been loud before, but there was seriously just a huge rush of energy.
The first songs they played that I recognized were The Future and Flow, which was such an excellent way to start the show. Funnily, I'd recently gotten hooked on The Future, partially since it kept coming up on my playlist the other day, so I ended up listening to it a lot. And Flow is one of my favorite Epik High songs, and I hadn't expected to hear it at all. MYK sang Hinouchi Emi's part, and I just wish I could've heard him a little better/more clearly, since he has a decent voice. Unlike Tablo, MYK was not very talkative, and even said that he'd just get straight to the music instead of talking about the song first. I had a hard time understanding him when he talked because his voice was really low and kind of mumbly or slurred, I couldn't tell.
After Flow, Tablo clarified that it was a song that had been written a few years before, when they were frustrated (with the government, presumably), and not a recent one. XD Tablo liked to talk, which was fine - and here's where I go out of order. MCs first, then songs...
Tablo and MYK spoke English pretty much the whole time (well, MYK sort of mumbled/slurred XD), except when Tablo was talking to Mithra or Tukutz. Mithra spoke Korean at length, and Tablo would translate. When it was his turn to give a greeting (Mithra's speech was pretty much summed by Tablo as, "He says you're all cool." XD), Tukutz showed off his English and proclaimed, "Awesome! Amazing!"
Looks like those English lessons are paying off. Good job, 'blo! (^_^)b
Anyways, after Mithra said something about how he'd started doing this sort of music because he liked it when he was younger, and he'd never imagined that he'd end up performing in San Francisco, Tablo joked about how he seemed to mostly be a translator now. He talked about how being part of a big industry meant that artists have time to go out and party and get in trouble, but - basically - that it puts distance between the musician and the listener. He said that they feel that if you lose that connection, then the resulting music, no matter how well it sells, is worthless. So, they started Map the Soul, and he went on about how it's their own little company, which means they have to do all of the work for it, and how he himself programmed the first version of the website. Which led to more joking about how he doesn't like this job change to computer programmer/translator and how he wants to go back to being a musician. XD
MYK played solo for a few songs while Epik High took a break (more on that later), and he brought Epik High back right into a song. After that one, Tablo told everyone that he'd been in the bathroom and had to run back out to make it in time. MYK was like, "Well, at least you made it," and Tablo went, "But I didn't finish in the bathroom." Beat. "I guess that's what you call a shitty situation." -_-; Oh, Tablo. MYK did not laugh. XDD
At the start of the second half of their set, Tablo also said something about how this half would be more fun, since the first half was so serious. He said he didn't understand why we had all been cheering and applauding when he was trying to be serious in the first half, and carried on in this vein for a minute before asking if we knew that he was joking. :P
Then, before One, he mentioned that it'd been written for some people they had lost, and a bunch of people "Awwww"ed, and he said, "It's okay. Well, no, it's not okay..." but that they'd lost a lot of people, so they'd gotten used to having to deal with that.
Later on, he pointed out a sign someone had made that said, "Can I suck your __[Hangul]__?" on one side and "Let's get fucked up!" on the other. He said he understood the "Let's get fucked up!" side, but that the other side (he never read it out loud) only made sense to someone who understood both languages. He took advantage of said language barrier by saying that Tukutz would like to see more of that type of sign, while Tukutz looked a bit blankface. XD
So... songs. I do not remember the order at all. At this point, I'm even possibly mixing up the encore, but I'll put what I think and fix it later, maybe.
Songs I am pretty sure were included (in no particular order):
Lesson 3 was... towards the beginning.
Follow the Flow originally featured MYK, so this was probably sometime around MYK's solo set, which was in the first half. I didn't know anything about what he's done as a solo artist, so I was pretty impressed. He played the guitar while singing, which is not exactly new, but I hadn't seen anyone play the guitar while rapping before. If he becomes an official fourth member of the group, I won't mind. :P
MYK played a solo version of Map the Soul, and played another version of it later with Epik High (and Kero One? Oops, I forget >.>) thrown into the mix as well. 그녀는 몰라, which I do not have the romanization for, is another Epik/MYK collaboration that they reprised for the show.
They played One in the second half. It had a really lovely sort-of-unplugged variation in the opening that used the keyboard. Jemz has video of it.
Girl Rock and Love Love Love were both after that, I think. There were a few songs that went one right into the other, and I know I'm forgetting at least one of them. There are some other songs I'm not sure about, since they slightly changed the arrangements for some to accomodate the lack of other guest singers, and the presence of MYK, so I'll wait for a set list to float up somewhere. :P
Fan was at the end. Everyone - Epik High including Tukutz & MYK & Asher, their keyboardist - came out and ran around the stage. They did not do the running dance, per se, though Tablo was exaggeratedly jogging around during the chorus. XD
Tukutz came up for another song, too, and they had him singing a bit in the encore. He should definitely sing more! Obviously, he's a bit busy being the DJ, but still.
Tablo had barely left the stage before the encore started, so the "This is the last song!" spiel didn't really mean anything at all. XD The first song they played is escaping me at the moment, but I remember that they ended the encore with Fly (I'm possibly switching Fly with Fan in my head).
At any rate, I recognized almost all of the songs - I'm assuming some were from their newest release(s), which I haven't heard yet. It was a lot of fun getting to hear them live, especially ones like One and Fan, which are just so damn catchy and, especially for Fan, infectious. Of course, Flow was an awesome surprise.
As far as personal impressions, Tablo was so wee! I mean, he's never looked particularly giant, but he looked... small, onstage. I'd thought Tukutz had looked small when he came out, but Tablo was smaller. XD But so full of energy! He was always pushing Mithra and MYK around, running around, and at one point jumped off of the stage, which prompted a HUGE rush of people up to the stage. They stayed up there for the rest of the show, which gave me an even clearer view of the stage. He threw water at the audience, and at the end, took Mithra's hat off, and poured water on his head. I'd thought he'd go after MYK, too (I think this is KAT-TUN's influence), but he didn't.
Mithra was, well, Mithra. XD I was amused at how Tablo and MYK would flank him sometimes while he was rapping, and mimic his hand gestures or just peer at him. Next to Tablo, he seemed so much more serious tonight, though I expect that he probably felt a bit more thrown by a primarily-English-speaking audience, and well... I know I'd be a bit struck if I was in his place, realizing that I was performing in a country an ocean away from home.
Tukutz seemed pretty absorbed in his turntables, and tended to be the hardest for me to see, if only because if someone wasn't in front of me, someone was in front of him. :P He didn't seem... shy, so much as just, I dunno... fine with not being in the spotlight?
After the show, they came out to the lobby to take pictures with their families, and even though security was trying to hustle everyone out and away from them, we could still see them. Tablo's striped hat was pretty easy to spot, even if he is wee. XD And when we walked by on the way to the elevator, I was able to spot Tukutz in the group, but that was it.
All in all, it was an amazing concert. Having it in that venue was surprising, but I'm really glad we had reserved seats and that it wasn't general admission. It would've been too crazy, and I would not have been able to see at all. Given that most of the music I listen to is rock or pop, I never would've thought I would end up at a hip hop concert, but that just made it better, I think. Different type of show, definitely, but yeah... Tukutz summed it up best: Awesome! Amazing!
We also skipped the afterparty, which, admittedly, I had come to be looking forward to (and it is pretty rare for me to be looking forward to going out to a club XD). It wasn't just because of Epik High - I was viewing it as my last chance to go out and have fun like that before the semester's end (though of course, spending a chance like that with Epik High is definitely a plus!). But everyone - all of two people :P - else didn't feel up for it, and the $20 cover didn't help, so I wasn't about to make things potentially momentarily awkward by being contrary.
I was also a bit miffed/confused by myself because I really didn't feel as excited before or after as I thought I'd be. I was actually really sad in the car ride on the way home for reasons that had nothing to do with the concert. During the show, however, it was an entirely different story...
So, as previously mentioned, I was in the last row, but of one of the center sections, so I had a pretty good angle. It was a little hard to see at some points, but people kept moving around, and I was wearing my big heels and had a little step to stand on (and the girls next to me, who were as tiny as me, were actually just standing on their seats. Hey, only a wall behind us!). Unlike Jrock concerts, where the crowds are pretty mixed, this group was mostly Asian, and a lot of them looked high school-age. There weren't really any people in crazy clothes/costume, but a lot of people had glowsticks and some had homemade signs, so it was just generally a much different crowd than what I've been accustomed to.
Far East Movement started the show, with an opening set that had a story. The group was supposedly coming from the year 3008, where there is no music, and no dancing, and so they came back to 2009 to gather energy to take home with them. Their costumes were very... space-themed - astronaut helmets/suits, a toy ray gun, a lightsaber XDD - and eventually, we were energized enough to send them back home. It was a cute way to shape a set, I thought. I wasn't sure if their DJ intended for the video to periodically go back to being obviously Quicktime with his Mac toolbar at the bottom, but it was funny. :P
A couple of them also came out after the show to check out the merchandise table (or to just check it... or to leave... I don't know XD), and it was funny how no one seemed to notice them. They didn't stand out much, though.
They were followed by Kero One, who... kind of unwound a lot of the hyping up that Far East Movement had done. He was accompanied by a female backup singer and a guy named Vince (I think), who played the keyboard, guitar, DJ-ed and sang a bit (not all at once, but it was still pretty cool), and while Far East Movement were kind of your typical party hip-hop group, Kero One was like... I dunno how to describe it... chill hip-hop? XD I felt more jazz influences, and having more singing and instruments involved obviously affected things as well. Personally, I liked his music, but I felt like it went on for a bit long (someone else must've thought that too, because someone yelled out, "Epik High!" when he was introducing another song :/), and would've maybe been better as the opening act.
But it was great getting to see some local (or semi-local, as Far East Movement is from LA, while Kero One is from SF) groups. And of course, MYK, the unofficial fourth member of Epik High, and Tablo both have history in the Bay Area.
Tukutz was the first of Epik High to come out, and at that point, our host for the night gave up trying to kill time/schmooze. XD After getting set up, Tukutz played with an awesome beatboxer (DG) for a little while before MYK, Mithra and finally, Tablo, came out. The screaming from the crowd was amazing. I'd thought it'd been loud before, but there was seriously just a huge rush of energy.
The first songs they played that I recognized were The Future and Flow, which was such an excellent way to start the show. Funnily, I'd recently gotten hooked on The Future, partially since it kept coming up on my playlist the other day, so I ended up listening to it a lot. And Flow is one of my favorite Epik High songs, and I hadn't expected to hear it at all. MYK sang Hinouchi Emi's part, and I just wish I could've heard him a little better/more clearly, since he has a decent voice. Unlike Tablo, MYK was not very talkative, and even said that he'd just get straight to the music instead of talking about the song first. I had a hard time understanding him when he talked because his voice was really low and kind of mumbly or slurred, I couldn't tell.
After Flow, Tablo clarified that it was a song that had been written a few years before, when they were frustrated (with the government, presumably), and not a recent one. XD Tablo liked to talk, which was fine - and here's where I go out of order. MCs first, then songs...
Tablo and MYK spoke English pretty much the whole time (well, MYK sort of mumbled/slurred XD), except when Tablo was talking to Mithra or Tukutz. Mithra spoke Korean at length, and Tablo would translate. When it was his turn to give a greeting (Mithra's speech was pretty much summed by Tablo as, "He says you're all cool." XD), Tukutz showed off his English and proclaimed, "Awesome! Amazing!"
Looks like those English lessons are paying off. Good job, 'blo! (^_^)b
Anyways, after Mithra said something about how he'd started doing this sort of music because he liked it when he was younger, and he'd never imagined that he'd end up performing in San Francisco, Tablo joked about how he seemed to mostly be a translator now. He talked about how being part of a big industry meant that artists have time to go out and party and get in trouble, but - basically - that it puts distance between the musician and the listener. He said that they feel that if you lose that connection, then the resulting music, no matter how well it sells, is worthless. So, they started Map the Soul, and he went on about how it's their own little company, which means they have to do all of the work for it, and how he himself programmed the first version of the website. Which led to more joking about how he doesn't like this job change to computer programmer/translator and how he wants to go back to being a musician. XD
MYK played solo for a few songs while Epik High took a break (more on that later), and he brought Epik High back right into a song. After that one, Tablo told everyone that he'd been in the bathroom and had to run back out to make it in time. MYK was like, "Well, at least you made it," and Tablo went, "But I didn't finish in the bathroom." Beat. "I guess that's what you call a shitty situation." -_-; Oh, Tablo. MYK did not laugh. XDD
At the start of the second half of their set, Tablo also said something about how this half would be more fun, since the first half was so serious. He said he didn't understand why we had all been cheering and applauding when he was trying to be serious in the first half, and carried on in this vein for a minute before asking if we knew that he was joking. :P
Then, before One, he mentioned that it'd been written for some people they had lost, and a bunch of people "Awwww"ed, and he said, "It's okay. Well, no, it's not okay..." but that they'd lost a lot of people, so they'd gotten used to having to deal with that.
Later on, he pointed out a sign someone had made that said, "Can I suck your __[Hangul]__?" on one side and "Let's get fucked up!" on the other. He said he understood the "Let's get fucked up!" side, but that the other side (he never read it out loud) only made sense to someone who understood both languages. He took advantage of said language barrier by saying that Tukutz would like to see more of that type of sign, while Tukutz looked a bit blankface. XD
So... songs. I do not remember the order at all. At this point, I'm even possibly mixing up the encore, but I'll put what I think and fix it later, maybe.
Songs I am pretty sure were included (in no particular order):
Lesson 3 was... towards the beginning.
Follow the Flow originally featured MYK, so this was probably sometime around MYK's solo set, which was in the first half. I didn't know anything about what he's done as a solo artist, so I was pretty impressed. He played the guitar while singing, which is not exactly new, but I hadn't seen anyone play the guitar while rapping before. If he becomes an official fourth member of the group, I won't mind. :P
MYK played a solo version of Map the Soul, and played another version of it later with Epik High (and Kero One? Oops, I forget >.>) thrown into the mix as well. 그녀는 몰라, which I do not have the romanization for, is another Epik/MYK collaboration that they reprised for the show.
They played One in the second half. It had a really lovely sort-of-unplugged variation in the opening that used the keyboard. Jemz has video of it.
Girl Rock and Love Love Love were both after that, I think. There were a few songs that went one right into the other, and I know I'm forgetting at least one of them. There are some other songs I'm not sure about, since they slightly changed the arrangements for some to accomodate the lack of other guest singers, and the presence of MYK, so I'll wait for a set list to float up somewhere. :P
Fan was at the end. Everyone - Epik High including Tukutz & MYK & Asher, their keyboardist - came out and ran around the stage. They did not do the running dance, per se, though Tablo was exaggeratedly jogging around during the chorus. XD
Tukutz came up for another song, too, and they had him singing a bit in the encore. He should definitely sing more! Obviously, he's a bit busy being the DJ, but still.
Tablo had barely left the stage before the encore started, so the "This is the last song!" spiel didn't really mean anything at all. XD The first song they played is escaping me at the moment, but I remember that they ended the encore with Fly (I'm possibly switching Fly with Fan in my head).
At any rate, I recognized almost all of the songs - I'm assuming some were from their newest release(s), which I haven't heard yet. It was a lot of fun getting to hear them live, especially ones like One and Fan, which are just so damn catchy and, especially for Fan, infectious. Of course, Flow was an awesome surprise.
As far as personal impressions, Tablo was so wee! I mean, he's never looked particularly giant, but he looked... small, onstage. I'd thought Tukutz had looked small when he came out, but Tablo was smaller. XD But so full of energy! He was always pushing Mithra and MYK around, running around, and at one point jumped off of the stage, which prompted a HUGE rush of people up to the stage. They stayed up there for the rest of the show, which gave me an even clearer view of the stage. He threw water at the audience, and at the end, took Mithra's hat off, and poured water on his head. I'd thought he'd go after MYK, too (I think this is KAT-TUN's influence), but he didn't.
Mithra was, well, Mithra. XD I was amused at how Tablo and MYK would flank him sometimes while he was rapping, and mimic his hand gestures or just peer at him. Next to Tablo, he seemed so much more serious tonight, though I expect that he probably felt a bit more thrown by a primarily-English-speaking audience, and well... I know I'd be a bit struck if I was in his place, realizing that I was performing in a country an ocean away from home.
Tukutz seemed pretty absorbed in his turntables, and tended to be the hardest for me to see, if only because if someone wasn't in front of me, someone was in front of him. :P He didn't seem... shy, so much as just, I dunno... fine with not being in the spotlight?
After the show, they came out to the lobby to take pictures with their families, and even though security was trying to hustle everyone out and away from them, we could still see them. Tablo's striped hat was pretty easy to spot, even if he is wee. XD And when we walked by on the way to the elevator, I was able to spot Tukutz in the group, but that was it.
All in all, it was an amazing concert. Having it in that venue was surprising, but I'm really glad we had reserved seats and that it wasn't general admission. It would've been too crazy, and I would not have been able to see at all. Given that most of the music I listen to is rock or pop, I never would've thought I would end up at a hip hop concert, but that just made it better, I think. Different type of show, definitely, but yeah... Tukutz summed it up best: Awesome! Amazing!
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