Amazing concert. Unfortunately terrible venue (don’t ever go to a concert at the Big Top at Luna Park).
Their English was adorable. I know what it’s like for Koreans to only have that basic level of English and how hard it is to speak in front of others but they did such a good job! They tried really really hard.
So this is my review for the Sydney concert at the Big Top in Luna Park.
The concert was so great! I’d only seen them play a few songs at the Kpop music Fest in 2011 but I was really impressed seeing them do a full concert.
Their concert sound is heavier than their recorded sound and they are all awesome singers. Yonghwa moved around the most and he definitely is a charismatic lead singer.
I wasn’t very close to the stage but could mostly see. I noticed on the website for the venue they say something about how no matter where someone is, they should have a good view. Bull shit. Never believe a venue when they say that. They mean, you can see if you are over 6 foot tall. There were plenty of people near me that could see nothing. I was lucky to not to be too short. I also had a good view of Jungshin. Yay. I miss your long hair though.
Something that I like about CNBLUE is that they have a definite sound. They don’t jump around with really different sounds but stick with the easily recognisably CNBLUE sound. Because it’s a type of music I really like, I know that when they have new music that I will almost definitely like it. Whereas my other favourite G-Dragon, I never know if I will really love whatever he releases next. CNBLUE is nice and stable to me, and comforting, even if I don’t love a song, I still like it. So songs they played that weren’t necessarily my favourites at the concert, I still enjoyed them.
I think one of the reasons why CNBLUE is one of the few Kpop bands/groups to bring a concert to Australia is because they don’t need very much to do it. It’s just them with their instruments on the stage. Other groups need a lot more on stage to make it a decent show, and to cover up bad singing sometimes. I remember at the Kpop Fest there was some shocking live singing from some groups in particular.
CNBLUE however, are just in a whole other league. Some people may dismiss them as just Kpop idols but they are great musicians and just do a really great show. They had high energy all the the way through and did their best to communicate with the crowd. They tried really hard and you could tell they were racking their brains for more sayings to say in English, so I’m really impressed that they tried that hard. People were laughing good naturedly at their English attempts. I think they were better at interacting with the crowd than a lot of native English speaking bands actually.
There seemed to be more Koreans there than was at the Kpop music Fest, but I can’t be sure. They played their most popular songs towards the end. My husband told me that ‘I’m a Loner’ is the song most Koreans know them for. When he mentioned to friends that I was going to see CNBLUE and the friends didn’t know who they were, once he said that song they realised who it was.
I think ‘Love’ in the encore was probably the highlight for me though. If CNBLUE do come to your country I really really recommend seeing them. It will be an awesome experience.
Something that really sucked about the concert was the organisation. I’m not sure if this was the fault of the venue or JK Entertainment, or perhaps both? There was a massive line outside of Luna Park that stretched very very far. If you saw our Secret Garden video, at the end, near the wharves, that line went past there. It was ridiculous, and everyone was in the rain! There was no line allowed near the doors of the venue, no undercover area for people, and they didn’t seem to open the doors until late. I was half way down the line and once we neared the venue the staff yelled at us to run like it was our fault that they were slow! Told us to run over wet pavement in the rain…OHS issue right there! They screamed at us that the concert was already starting so to run inside. It was starting. By the time I got inside the first song was half way over. I felt bad for all the people behind me that missed even more (I heard some people missed 4 songs because of this). Hopefully if CNBLUE come back they will play a better venue. I thought it was strange that were playing at the Big Top at Luna Park, I’d never been to a concert there but all other Sydney venues I’ve been to a few times each.
Also to the girl who kept hitting me in the head with the blue stick ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE CONCERT…. Grrr… you are lucky I didn’t yell at you or worse.
UPDATE:
JK Entertainment issued an apology for the problems and encouraged feedback. The Big Top however, issued a horrible statement blaming people for having wet tickets and saying that only a “few” people missed the start of the concert! I was really shocked at what they said. Whoever does their PR should be fired. They refused to take responsibility and refused to acknowledge that hundreds of people missed the beginning of the concert (and not just the beginning, some people missed 45 minutes of it!). Very unprofessional.
I would definitely attend an event organised by JK Entertainment. I think they are a new company and are still learning, and they encourage feed back. But The Big Top at Luna Park, I don’t think I’d ever want to go to a concert there again. Terrible venue, rude staff and management that issues statements blaming the concert goers for the problems!
UPDATE AGAIN:
The Big Top Sydney has deleted every single complaint off their Facebook page. JK Entertainment has left all the complaints. I think it’s pretty clear which company is the honest one. So in conclusion the Big Top at Luna Park is a terrible venue with terrible PR.
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