april '23 wrap: 'ready to be' in seoul
behold, this drive-by note is in honor of seeing TWICE perform live for the first time
Hey friend, thanks for opening! Just jotting down some things from TWICE’s Seoul concerts, which was what we did this year for C’s birthday. (Last year, we were in Boracay, where it rained so hard, D’mall was FLOODED. In the middle of April HAHAHA) Thanks in advance for indulging! Hope you find something useful here. -K
We were in Seoul (yes, again lol—the concert sched was beyond my original Visa, so I had to use that and then apply for a new one. Beke nemen, Korean embassy!) to watch TWICE’s kick-off of their 5th World Tour last April 15 and 16—our first TWICE concerts, actually! Getting into this group after Twicelights in Manila in 2019 is still one of our biggest heartbreaks, but yeah we’re quickly catching up!
I remember going on Twitter after the first night—a three-hour delight, in which TWICE performed more than 30 songs, including NINE solo stages—and saying that if heaven had the exact opposite of punishment loop rooms—like, rooms in the afterlife where they replayed only your best memories—I’d like for one of mine to be that night, which was the first night I heard TWICE perform live.
It’s not even our first time first time to watch a TWICE concert—sure, over the pandemic, we’ve caught a handful of them online. We watched their 4th World Tour opening in Seoul in December 2021 on concert streaming platform BeyondLive, and strung together the madness that was their US Tour at the beginning of 2022 via fancams on Twitter (we kid you not). I even learned how to buy and stream via VPN their Japan content. Not to mention the concert DVDs :((( fyi TWICE Dreamday concert in Japan still unmatched, I’m telling you—look at this moving stage IT IS CRAZY
ANYWAY we can talk about Japan by end-May I hope (he he he)
But yeah, back to the Seoul concerts—the shows being the kick-off meant that we were finding out along with everybody else what the songs and performances were going to be and LET ME TELL YOU when I thought I’d have a fairly good idea of what’s going to be on it, well—My cards were all wrong. For one, I certainly did not have NINE SOLO STAGES on my bingo card, yes?
During the last world tour, they did unit stages—their album “Formula of Love” had three unit songs, and it was a great opportunity to look at the girls in smaller bunches, hehe: Nayeon, Momo and Chaeyoung did “Hello”; Sana, Jihyo and Dahyun did “Push & Pull”; and Jeongyeon, Mina and Tzuyu did “1,3,2”. Don’t ask me what my favorite stage was—it’d be like choosing a favorite child. Or parent.
So for this tour, we thought maybe they’d change it up a little—maybe mix the groups up? I truly wasn’t ready for solos.
Jihyo’s solo was a previously unreleased song!!! called Nightmare <3 She sounded so good and looked so confident while at it, I can’t wait for her (certainly most definitely) forthcoming solo album haha.
Speaking of sounding good—the girls really sounded so good live??? And while dancing, too?? THEY EVEN BROUGHT OUT A LIVE BAND. Oh god. I remember catching that stage where they sang Fancy with a live band for Gayo Daejeon, Christmas 2019, and we thought, Wow this would be great at an actual concert.
(Jeongyeon in this stage though??? what even were these outfits??1 send help??)
Well here we are, and they had a live band not only for Fancy but for practically EVERYTHING ELSE—including the fantastic new rock tracks, “Blame it On Me” and “Queen of Hearts”.
Because this is practically a Jihyo stan account, my reels are primarily of her vocals—I mean, even if I weren’t Jihyo-biased (a particularly hard feat, mind, because she’s so Great onstage, everyone’s practically Jihyo-biased at the end of any concert, probably) I’d still put these vocal highlights up because they were VERY GOOD??? My personal favorites are Blame it On Me, Queen of Hearts, Brave and Crazy Stupid Love.
Dance-wise, my favorite stage is… Go Hard. OF COURSE. Oh boy, the choreo.
For their audience interaction portion, they rode manually pushed carts between the 2F and 1F seats so they could be closer to more audiences! Our seats on the second day put the cart path right behind our row T_____T They were so close and it was so fun though we weren’t able to vibe that much to “Got the Thrills” (my favorite track off Ready to Be, lbr) because we were busy panicking about how close they were :((((
Anyway, the glaring absence of any discussion about Mina’s 7 Rings2 solo stage, Sana’s New Rules3 solo stage, Momo's pole dancing stage to Beyoncé's Move4 and Jeongyeon’s Juice5 solo stage is deliberate hahaha. But yeah, those stages were my favorites too. I sometimes find myself rewatching the clips of them that I shot on my phone, smiling dumbly to myself and thinking, Hah, you are definitely not for public posting lmaooo.
On the whole—I think Koreans as a concert-going crowd are very polite! Behaved hehe. Thankfully, we were seated with other international onces, who were noisy LOL. I loved watching how relaxed the girls were in their home turf, so to speak, though the lack of in-show translations (very understandable) can be a bit of a handicap for foreigners, especially during the ments.
But all in all—music is universal! It’s hearts speaking to each other, transcending language barriers. In the end, we’re all here to enjoy the artistry and the hard work that everyone has put in to come up with such a great show, and as always, the girls never disappoint.
I would have ended this originally with an impassioned plea for them to come to Manila, but a few days ago they released the Part Two of their tour in the latter half of the year, and they’re playing at the Philippine Arena on Sept 30th. Here’s hoping we will be able to see them here, too. :)
If you reached this far, thank you! As always, I appreciate your willingness to get through this meltdown with me. Hehehe.
XO,
K
Somewhat a blessing, somewhat a crime that Mina was out on hiatus in December 2019, because lord help us she gets an outfit like that.
Mina is always violent during concerts. That’s why she’s such a delight to watch. Here, have a fancam:
My Sana fancams were absolute madness—recordings of my actual meltdown hahaha. Huli pero di kulong LOL. Here’s a fancam that’s actually watchable:
Oh this Momo was also a total meltdown. No idea how girlie does it truly but damn. Here have your fancam:
Jeongyeon whipping out a fucking RECORDER and PLAYING IT in the middle of the performance is still, hands down, my most what the hell is happening???-moment in the Seoul concerts. Fancam: