Big Bang Alive Galaxy Tour 2012

October 24, a day after my cousin's birthday, just got a new Philippine saint and the fan girls have raging hormones. Why? Well, blame the swaggiest swaggers of the continent of Asia - Top Asian act Big Bang has landed in Manila for their Alive Galaxy Tour.

A couple of days before the concert, the group landed in NAIA once again shifting the media's attention to KPOP, a nice segue from PSY's phenomenal Gangnam Style. Gaggles of fangirls await the boys by the airport and when they landed, massive mayhem occurred (You should really blame twitter on this one). As televised by the media, girls ran after the car, and even book a room at the same hotel where they are staying. Don't ask me where they get the information, but they did. While my co-fangirls are doing 'normal' things of being a fangirl, I was in Laguna. Seeing everything on TV back then makes me want to teleport to Manila ASAP and join in the fun.

Big Bang, a disclaimer just so to not offend my fellow ELFs, was my first ever favorite KPOP group. It was their unique urban music stylistics that made me listen to them more. I don't want to sound obstuse, but really, I listened, I repeat, listened to them even before I realized that G-dragon was a complete catch and TOP is hell of heartthrob. Back then I can't even pinpoint who G-dragon, Daesung and Seungri was. No offense. That's a rookie's mistake. Anyway, I particularly love Haru-Haru due to the narrative behind the music video and also Lies. As I go along the VIP fandom path, I realized that their music is simply unique, though there are quite a bit likeness to some Jrock acts, with the likes of Aquatimez and DragonAsh but not as smooth as Big Bang's vocals. I also saw how Big Bang evolved from uniform wearing lads to uhm, well, 'crazy couture' fashion. Their music also quite lose its RnB feel a bit at some point, and acquired a more house and electro synthesized music, which is either way good for me. What makes Big Bang big bang is their ability to constantly change even in their music. Back then it was the same cheesy pop music dominantly filled with urban feel, but now their music leans more on an edgy revenge/im-heartbroken-please-die-music. And I like it. That's just my opinion guys, please don't go bashing me with pitchforks, I know how crazy fangirls get, coz I am one. 

Moving on, coming from Laguna, I took a 3 hour bus ride to Manila. I waited for my mum to get out of work so we could both go to the concert together. Before you assume I drag my mum into this, the reason I got my ticket is because her officemates are fans as well, and she knew I am too. So she called me out of the blue and was like, "I got the tickets." "Ticket to where?" "Big Bang" then I flipped out. So it was really my mum who wanted to take me to the concert, not the other way around. Then, we arrived at the scene and it was like this: 

That's not just the line, it goes around. And believe me I was stupefied to see all this people at the MOA Arena.

We checked out the venue first but thought that we must energize first before heading inside and going to war. Whilst heading to the rows of restaurants outside of MOA, we stopped by where a number of people are chattering about. We then found a little black market of Big Bang goods and obviously, I just had to have a souvenir.

Here's a cute phone dangle for starters. I didn't buy it.

I took a photo with the seller of these merchandise items, she let me wear her Big Bang headband while she was waiting for another set to sell from her father, who was out in the parking lot getting it the rest.

A little black market/shady trading before the concert. Mum bought 2 Big Bang headbands. Yeah, the other one is for her. Don't look at me. She's the one buying those.

Here's my mum being all fangirly and stuff. It's not weird to bring your mum along such events. Parents just really make an effort to get to know what their kids are doing and my mum is absolutely having fun sharing this quirky world of mine with me. 

Lookee, who I met at the event - VJ! Hours before the concert I saw him post a photo saying that he'll be there at the event. And I told him I was gonna be there too. VJ was the lead actor in our thesis and he's one of those Samsung Galaxy promodizers who gave those free blue-lighting bangles for free to VIPs.
Since I know him, he gave us a few extra ones for our disposal. :D 

Will you seriously believe that I'll just stand next to a G-Dragon this big? 

Hell no~! I'll pucker up and kiss my Kwon Leader.

This is one of the few moments I share with my mum that we're gonna remember together.
I think She just feels like a teenager again.

My mummy is all geared up for the concert. Go on, ask her about Big Bang. She knows nothing about them.
She kept only saying, Is that G-dragon? Is that G-dragon?
Well, mum, at least you know G-dragon.

If my mother is, so was I.
Yes, I wear my glasses because I know how hard it is when things aren't in HD quality.

We got to the line and waited... and waited... and waited. 

Last photo of my ticket before it gets all torn up.

 I was rather disappointed because, hundreds more are still lined up outside when the concert started. I didn't get to Big Bang rise up from those capsules. So it was quite a bummer. The MOA Arena still needs to find its easiest gate accommodation to cater its audience because seriously, it stinks. The Arena is bigger and with higher floors and only one general entrace? It's a tad disappointing. Not to mention the sound system. I was all the way up in the general admission, pity right? But the quality of music should be top notch as the ones sitting in the VIP seats. The sound was muffled and  incomprehensible, sorry. Or the audience was very loud. Either way, they should have made sure that the sound wasn't drowned by the fangirl screams.

Even so, the lighting set up was exquisite. The arena changed color from cool blue to hell red in a snap. It was pretty divine when you see them in our position. Also, the audience were coordinated a sea of blue and yellows chanting fiercely at every song.

The staging was okay. It didn't really wowed me since it just had the basics of what a stage should look like, but there was no "twist" to it, no "oomph". It lacks a little of something. The props during the performance were interesting though. They have bikes and those thingys they used in Ppeokigayo, got laser tag guns and all sort of stuff.

Performance wise, Big Bang is in top shape. G-dragon was charming his way to the crowd, Taeyang rips off his shirt and ovaries exploded everywhere, theoretically speaking, Daesung was surprisingly alluring on stage, I kept my eyes on him more than GD, Seungri was the most cheekiest and silliest during the concert, he made this all sorts of cute faces and antics that ended up a panda blocking the wide-angled front stage camera and T.O.P, ohmygosh, the whole Arena screams whenever his face appears on those videowalls. My ears exploded - literally.

The divine lighting set-up that I was talking about.

The amount of girls who went to see Big Bang live rationed 1: 00003 compared to the boys, statistically speaking.
Imagine the amount of ovaries exploding.

The concert ended with a high note with 3 encores, I think. The performance was nonstop for the whole 2 hours. I think when Ticketnet means seats, they not really thinking that the seats wouldn't be used at all. I screamed and sang with them the whole night. From the whole row, I think I was the one who enjoyed the most. I can tell that the rest of those in my row where newbies and didn't know Big Bang's old songs. But hey, now that they have the Big Bang high, they have the drive to get to know them better through their old songs. I'm just happy that most of my favorite songs where sung during the performance like Heaven, Lies, Haru-Haru, Gara Gara Go!, Wedding Dress, Only Look at Me, Last Farewell, Number One and the new Big Bang songs like Monster, Fantastic Baby, Blue, High, Bad Boy and the like. I wanted them to sing I Need A Girl and Hello for Taeyang and GD with Dara. Rumor has it that Dara is the special guest, but no shadow of Dara during the performance which is also another bummer.

But I enjoyed the event and was very happy I get to hear and watch them live. It's just amazing, the dedication of the fans, the production and the performance of Big Bang came alive here in Manila that night.

Big Bang Concert - CHECK~!

Mum looked like she had fun~! That's nice!!! 

Oh! And here are the Big Bang merchandise that I have acquited. Big Bang Alive Galaxy Tour sparkling shirt, a BB VIP headband, a BB Bangle (3 of them), a Jeju Air fan, an I LOVE TOP flyer and what remains of my BB ticket.
SUCCESS~! 

Next stop, FANTASTY CONCERT with SNSD~! My beloved Hyoyeon, I'm coming~!