(FT Is)Land Ahoy!

So here's my PLAY! FT Island Concert experience - a review plus some fangirling at the side, haha.

The boys of FT Island arrived in Singapore in the wee hours of the morning on 15th January and headed down to The Max Pavilion after a few hours of rest at the Ritz Carlton.

Even though they had a concert in Kuala Lumpur just the night before, the boys showed no sign of fatigue. In fact, Lee Hong Ki (lead vocals) who was down with a flu, Choi Jong Hoon (lead guitar), Lee Jae Jin (bassist), Song Seung Hyun (guitar), and Choi Min Hwan (drums) showed much enthusiasm and energy on stage, definitely not disappointing the fans who have been waiting for their solo concert for four years.

The banner sign thing fell when there was a storm at like 4am. I almost died hahaha fyi the blue checkered mat was where I was sitting.

But the weather was really nice during the afternoon.

Practically my only source of entertainment - apart from the new friends I made of course.

And after queuing up for some 16 hours (and crazy weather), I finally got to get my first look of the stage.
Compared to many other K-Pop concerts, this one was not as elaborate. The stage setup was simple and there were no fancy props. Simple pyrotechnics, transitions in the form of video footages, and good music were enough to satisfy the fans. An extended stage was included for the members to interact more with their fans.

Clad in comfortable clothing and leather jackets, all five members exuded a rock-star feel representing their unique genre of music. Contrary to most mainstream K-Pop groups, they were comfortable in their own skin and simply sang and played their hearts out – not forgetting their attempts in communicating with the fans in their obviously rehearsed (but really cute) English, where Hong Ki proclaimed his love for band mate Jae Jin, and also for the Singaporean fans. He even shouted a profanity at one point of the concert, “Singapore, you are fucking cool!”

Hongki's pants were quite ugly btw.

They chose one of their greatest hit songs, I Hope, to start off the concert. Following that, they hyped up the crowd even more with other hits like Love Love Love and Hello Hello.

Bringing up the atmosphere were their J-Rock tunes, like Let It Go and their debut Japanese song, Flower Rock, which surely left the many Japanese fans in the audience craving for more.

They then took it a little slower with their trademark ballads. While Hong Ki's husky voice complemented the mood of the songs and he hit all the high notes perfectly, the rest of the members also showcased their vocal improvement through I Confess, a ballad written by leader Jong Hoon. Min Hwan especially awed everyone when he challenged and managed to pull off the most difficult part of the song. I could not help but tear at this part - I don't know why - but I just felt so proud! Sigh maknae's all grown up, and his vocals have definitely matured along with him. And I was sobbing quite uncontrollably by the time it came to the next song, Even Your Tears. It was quite funny though because I was singing along to the song which consisted of lyrics like 'don't cry, I love you' while tears streamed down my face bleahhhh.

It was after the ballad segment which showed Hong Ki's voice faltering a little. He deliberately brought down most of the high notes to a lower pitch which took the thrill out a little – not that it deterred any of the audience which mostly consisted of teens to continue rocking out to the tunes.

Fans knew that the 2-hour concert was coming to an end when the introductory guitar riff of Primadonna (also the name of FT Island fans) was played.
After shouts of ‘encore’ from the 3000-odd audience, the boys came out to perform their last three songs. The concert ended on a high note with Like a Bird. The audience was certainly transported to another island (though not literally). At least, I was - on an island with just me and FT Island playing for me, LOL.

It could have been a perfect experience for the fans if not for the less than desirable sound system, which resulted in extremely low volumes in vocals at times. There was also poor crowd control when fans rushed to the free standing pit causing some of them to fall.

Nevertheless, performance-wise, FT Island did an amazing job and their showmanship proved to us why they are one of the top Rock groups in the Korean music scene.

The next day, the boys had an autograph session at City Square Mall where 500 lucky fans got to get up close and personal with them. One of the fans even wore a wedding gown, catching the eye of the members (and everybody else). They were all smiles and waved occasionally at the crowds.

Stef, Jiaqi and myself failed to be part of the 500 lucky ones and so we went to find a good spot to shoot photos.

 My super stalker-ish photo of Stef.

Stef took this and she says it's nice.

And below is a Minhwan-loves-me-a-lot-so-he-keeps-looking-at-my-camera-appreciation-pictures section:

He really loves me.

After the session we went to Manna Restaurant with some newly made friends which we reckoned they were going to have dinner at. Thankfully we were right.

They were in this room LOL.

And uhm, Hongki's shoes... Haha.

After eating we just stood near the doors of the private room that they were in and omg one of the staff opened the door and I saw Hongki (the angle allowed Stef and I to be the only ones to be able to look inside) so I waved at him. And he waved back.

HE WAVED BACK.

Hahaha I was dying but I had to control myself. And when they walked out of the room to get to their van they were frigging less than a metre away from me. Sigh they are all so handsome really. And Minhwan... Let's just say he made me fall in love with him all over again ❤

It has been almost 2 weeks since my encounter with them but everything's still deeply etched in my mind. And I'll cherish this for a really long time...till my next concert LOL. And that will probably be The Cab's gig on 10th March.

This is the end of my not-very-fangirlish concert post. Will update on Chinese New Year next week! Night everyone! xx