SM Town in Paris 2011

I attended both concert dates. The first date where I was sitting in the middle of the concert hall, while the second date, I was in the standing area closest to the main stage. I can’t say which is better, to stand close and see the artists very close, or to be a bit far off and see it all.

All I remember is jamming a whole lot, dancing, screaming, jumping with joy. It was a whole lot of fun — more than anyone could even expect. Some girls were crying after the concert, because they were so happy to have been able to experience all of this live. It’s hard to review a concert of this length — almost 4 hours long — with this many artists, so I will just say write some of the thoughts I had of every group.

F(x)
They are very cute live, great dancers and they sing well, but they don’t sweat — at all. I felt that they were very robotic in their performances, but they executed them perfectly.

SHINee
Brace yourselves for a somewhat biased paragraph.

On the first day of the concert, I was mesmerized with some of the boys’ looks. Like they are so pretty live, it hurts. Then, they started singing and it was a done deal. I am a huge SHINee fan, so whatever they do is perfection in my eyes. However, I do have one concrete thing to say: Lee Taemin, you are too young to have that confidence on stage… dayum.

Girls Generation (SNSD)
I think I have always been a closeted SNSD fan. I was jamming so hard to all of their songs. Then again, they have those cutesy pop songs that are so easy to sing along to.

First thing I thought once they came on stage: legs, legs, legs and more legs.

Woah, do they have pretty legs. They also don’t sweat — at all, which freaked me out because they danced a whole lot. What is their secret?

DBSK
OK, so I have been a fan of DBSK for some years now. It wasn’t until the press conference that I was blown away by them.

On the first day of the concert, seeing as they came on last, I was a bit tired and spazzed out once they came out. The fact that they had on some horrible clothes didn’t make it better.

Sure, seeing them somewhat close affected me, but here is the issue: It hurt to see them perform as two, it hurt to no end. When they sang Rising Sun I cried, I kept seeing 3 shadows dancing along.

My Cassie heart just shattered into pieces, not that Yunho and Changmin aren’t allowed to sing their old songs, it’s their prerogative, but somewhere in my heart, I felt like all five of them should be standing on that Paris stage together. This was a historic day and 3 people were missing.

However, all of that was forgotten the next day once I was closer to the stage. I was so close that I could see down Changmin’s throat once he hit those high notes. They are serious while on stage, giving you the best of their performances, it’s so perfect, and cool — I want more.

Seeing DBSK performing that close, I think I’m broken for life.

Super Junior
Now here is a pleasant surprise, at least for me.

I have never really been into SuJu. When Sorry, Sorry came out, that was about it. I like some of their songs, but I have never been really into them.

After this concert, however, I must say that I need more SuJu in my life. When they were on stage, it felt like I was watching a SuJu only concert. They completely took over with their dorkiness, engaging the audience.

I have a need to attend a SuJu-only concert now. Like, woah, do they know how to get a crowd going. Completely stole the show. They are very entertaining, so I will be listening to more of them from now on.

On a side note, man are there so many ELFs (name of SuJu’s official fanclub) in Europe, like they represented hard. Add the fact that they are some of the nicest fans ever — well-behaved and super friendly — it rubs off on the overall image of Super Junior.

I can’t stress how historic this concert was. First-ever Kpop concert of this calibre in Europe. People all around the world came to Paris to see it. I think that Kpop can now be taken out of the sub-culture genre and be recognized as the phenomenon it is. Beatles-hysteria comes to mind. Why that is, well I guess I could discuss that issue for a later feature, but for now — Kpop took over Europe, and there seems to be no stopping it.

All photos courtesy of SM Town.