MMS Log 10: INFINITE World Tour "One Great Step" in Seoul Day 2

Being an Inspirit, I took it on myself to attend one solo concert of theirs. "That Summer" concert was a fail for me last year since the tickets sold out in 15 minutes so I wanted to attend their next one. Then, it's the world tour, and I'm out of Singapore during their Singapore stop so I REALLY wanted to get tickets for their Seoul show. And I'm glad I did.



Usually tickets for concerts and musicals are sold on gmarket or Interpark. The server crashed when the sale started. Duh, it's INFINITE. Inspirits are CRAZY fast, so be early.
Then came the merchandise part. You know, Woollim is seriously WAY better than SM. Why? Because their merchandise are actually practical and not as tacky! Sorry, but the Super Show merch didn't cut it for me. Not stuff I would wear out to town. INFINITE's on the other hand, WOW. Here are the things that I bought. I don't usually spend stuff on merch (I give away free posters because I see no point in keeping them), but INFINITE's merch were so practical! All their tote bags are so simple that it's elegant! (sorry my room isn't made for photo taking)

Hoodie (ivory)

I think the hoodie is boyfriend size, or in this case, OPPA size (Guy S?). It's so huge and long on me! But I guess there's charm in that, huh? Wearing a guy's jacket... BAHAHA What is wrong with you Sarah? Too early in the morning. (After seeing Sunggyu up close... yup; oppa sized)

Eco bag

Tumbler
It's matte.

T-shirt (black; free size )
iron-on emblems

Fair warning: go early for merchandise sales. I don't know if it's just INFINITE or what, but the queue is as crazy as the ticket sale! So sale starts at 10am, I reached at 9:30am. Bad move. The queue was already 3 hours' worth. It wound so much that I couldn't see the queue, and I got my stuff at 1:30pm. And when at 1pm, I saw that the queue was still longer than my original spot. Zzzzz And go WAY early because the lightsticks sell out first. The lightsticks have two designs because three members' signatures are on one while the other four's are on the other design. It caused a huge demand so they sold out within the hour. Also, I think it's ridiculous to allow one fan to buy 10 of each item. Like, whut. There ain't gonna be much left for the queue behind me.

the part of the queue that I COULD SEE.
I didn't know there was more to my left and behind

[Account] There's this fanclub called Ssamba. They were so cute to wear the INFINITE members' faces as masks and impersonate them. Especially, the Woohyun one, throwing hearts at the fans. She gave me a namecard with the fanclub's twitter name and a picture of Woohyun made with colors dissolving in water.

Because I didn't manage to get the hoodie on the first day, I came back on the second day, WHICH STORMED FOR AN HOUR. This is where I will educate you on proper queueing in the Korean summer (as embarrassing as my dedication might be):

• Raincoat
• Umbrella
• Plastic bag to sit on (I sat during the rain so that I didn't get struck by lightning. Wear the raincoat and sit down, wrapping your butt and legs with the coat. duh Make sure the ends of the coat does not touch the ground)
• Waterproof bag (Suitcase while you're at it ...Really. People brought suitcases)
• Enough entertainment to last you for hours
• Food (i.e. sandwiches, chips) and Water
• Pen for order form
• Fan, because it's HOT AND HUMID
• Extra change of bottoms if you're worried that you'll get really wet. (i.e. pants and underwear) ...Towel while you're at it

Prepare all these the night before, because it's cheaper anywhere but the venue itself.

[Account] Inspirits can be nice. They're crazy passionate, but they're nice. On the first day, I didn't have an umbrella so I was in trouble when it started drizzling. The fan next to me offered to share her umbrella with me. We even chatted during the queue. On the second day, I - being the nice Inspirit that I am lol- held a spot for a Japanese Inspirit who needed to draw money. She then gave me Japanese sweets for appreciation, and we chatted further. Note that she couldn't speak Korean and I couldn't speak Japanese. Yet, language barriers were a minor problem. I also pointed her to the Ssamba Woohyun girl, and later remembered to give the Woohyun card I received yesterday. She was Woohyun-biased, so what the hey.
About the passion, they are very passionate. So they will cut your queue. Cut back! But don't go too far. You still represent the foreign fandom. More about their niceness later.
Note: Please understand that I have been to other Kpop concerts in Korea (B2ST comeback guerrilla concert, INFINITE+SHINee, JYPNation). Fans scare me because of their constant shoving and racing. My impression of Kfans has not been very positive, especially with SM fans. I'm not saying all Kfans are crazy and horrible, but Ifans have had conclusions about certain fandoms because of past interactions. Don't think I'm putting down all Kfans, but I'm just stating my own satisfaction with my interaction with Inspirits due to my negative experiences with other fandoms.

Interpark opens their collection counter three hours before the show so I crashed at Yesung's cafe first. Thank God I  checked the concert timing again because I would have been an hour late. PHEW.

My view (end of concert)

[Account] When I found my seat, there was a project banner on the seats already. I asked a fan a seat away about what it was for, because they just told us to hold it up during the last song even if we don't know the point. It was a sign to tell INFINITE that the Korean fans will wait for them while they're on tour. The Inspirits were worried that INFINITE would be lonely and worry that Inspirits will leave them (especially after the SM merger announcement). We chatted some more. I found out she's 15. Like, whut. But she knew I was from Singapore so she gave me a packet of INFINITE tattoos and stickers! Yay! She also let me take a picture of the lightsticks that I didn't manage to get.

Light stick

"We'll wait, INFINITE" (cr. kyuloveme)

Now for the concert. I didn't have any interactions with the members, so I'll just state what I saw.

Concert
1. Their videos had plots. Except for one MV, their videos had a story so the concert had a storyline. In the beginning, they were chained because music was banned in the society and INFINITE is trying to rebel with music. The ending was cheesy and so was the Engrish, but I give chance. It's better than other concerts I've attend. Because of the storyline, they started with "Destiny". This is the first concert I've watched that has the latest promotional song as the opening act

2. I like live bands, so I totally loved INFINITE's idea of having live band performance for EVERY tour they've had. But I won't recommend this for those idealistic fans, because the live band will do renditions of the songs. You will not hear the original track of all the songs. They changed the feel for "Special Girl", "That Summer", "Can U Smile" (THEY DID ROCK), "Nothing's Over", "She's Back" and "Wings". They were still good, but not as childlike as the originals.

Nothing's Over car for That Summer (Cr: pictureperfect)

3. I was disappointed, though, that they didn't sing "Amazing" or "Real Story" or the ballads that I love. And the backup dancers were so pointless, walking in only for chorus parts. But the rest made up for it. Claps to the lighting crew and live band!
4. During the seating time, they played old INFINITE MVs. THEN THEY PLAYED THE VER A VIDEO OF DESTINY. ULTRA SCREAM. It's actually just them dancing at an airplane cemetery; nothing much added to plot besides one more member combusting into fire.
5. Also as a bonus, they aired the music video for "불편한 진실". They were perverts in the 80's video lol. There was a woman with cleavage and a dress so short it eventually showed her underwear. INFINITE was busy ogling her up, down, and back -yes, I mean the ass. The ending was especially funny, because L had his camera with extra lens, shooting her at a very close range as the member crowded around her. Dongwoo tried to explain that it's not as racy as it seems because the ogling seen were just them staring into a camera, but another member said the fans won't believe that. Then Sungyeol randomly said something among the lines of "I like watching porn". Lol random. The members looked startled and he just giggled because it made an awkward silence.
6. AND I wanted to laugh at how there was even a dance for them to take of their vests and dance in wife beaters. Lol

7. THEY CAN SING. I thought the magnae line was weak with singing, but it was all live all day! And they are not bad! Myungsoo's a little high for my taste, BUT THEY ARE NOT BAD.
8. Myungyeol, as usual, for "Man in Love". I think Myung started it during Hoya's rap with a punch or something so Yeol took revenge during Woohyun's bridge.

cr 브릴란떼

Sunggyu
For me, he was the highlight. He sang "60 Seconds" acoustically with the piano first then with strings and the live band. As if the song wasn't rock enough, they took it to a new level. I love all three versions.
I thought that he was performative because he didn't have that much interaction at first, but his smiles just changed that. He was smiling randomly into space as he went around the stage, so I was happy to see him enjoying himself.
For the closing ment, he had no idea that he had soaked his shirt with sweat, making it translucent. We were screaming and he was mouthing "What did I do?" Hoya thought it was the neighbor Sungyeol's sexiness getting to us, so Sungyeol entertained us a little. When the camera went back to Sunggyu, we screamed again and he was so sure it was about him. Then he realized that his shirt was translucent so he was very shy, trying to cover up. The members even asked him to strip.
Fan account (cr. tumblr infinitelymyung) :

What happened at the Concert today (a highlight)

Sunggyu was wearing a white button up shirt and since he danced like 5 songs in it it was all sweaty and wet AND SOOO it became like….see through HAHAHHA and apparently all the k-inspirits are perverted butts so they were all screaming and also sungyeol took off his jacket at the same time so we all died. 

and then dongwoo was like it’s not bad to be perverted 

and we died again

But the biggest part for me was that he cried. I've never seen in videos that he cried at a concert. He even said it in Ranking King. The fans also didn't expect him to cry, so when I said really loudly "He's crying", everybody got at the edge of their seats. He was overwhelmed so he shed some tears. I felt like I experienced something great, especially since only he, Yeol and Woohyun cried initially -two of whom I didn't expect tears from.

odd costume for a ballad solo (cr. Mocha)

cr. King of Mary Sue

cr. turningpoint

[Update: Naver's having some "Tour Note"thingy that has the members updating about the tour. Here's the translation for Sunggyu's note.


Dongwoo
He's such a bundle of love. He even said he's a man of much love. He was nice enough to ask if there were foreigners in the house, at which the members told him off. I think they asked if the fans can even understand what he was asking. I felt like he was hosting a party, constantly reacting to fans' words and interacting with the mosh pit. When he came onto the platform, he played with the seating audience too. Great guy. Of course, he sobbed during the bows because he took one of the project banners and read it. (Also told by Gyu in "Tour Note") He's really a man of love.
But the members are right, he's losing his beat in the steps, constantly one step behind.

cr. 에리쭝쭝

Woohyun
NamGrease. This guy... He joked a lot, constantly asking us to listen more to his solo song: "Beautiful". SHAMELESS. The audience laughed at him.
Story: During "니가 좋다", the members were throwing paper planes with their autograph in it. A man from 1st floor seating got up and went to the front of the pen without security stopping him. L threw him a plane and returned the high-five that the man offered. Later the man walked over to Woohyun's side and asked for a plane. Woohyun smiled and threw him a plane. As the man walked back to his seat, Woohyun mouthed to the fans that that man was his father. \o/ SHO SHWEET.
Story 2: During "Cover Girl", it was selca frenzy again. But Woohyun decided to video himself on the fan's phone -.- Jealous fans everywhere
Story 3: During "Beautiful", he gave a bouquet and a ring to a fan in the moshpit. Apparently it costs around KRW99,000. And there's two days...

cr. 패기왕 pagiking

He was the first to cry during the closing ment. He cares a lot for his fans. During a middle ment, he told the fans in the moshpit not to fight with the fan who got his gifts. During the closing ment, he told us to reach home safely and eat dinner. (Sunggyu then joked that next time they will buy dinner for us.) Then he started crying as he talked about the tour (I think; will update later).

cr. Honeytree

Hoya
I'm sorry but this guy really has just the same freestyle dance moves. A little disappointed. But I applaud his singing! During Tictoc, he constantly did ad-lib! Kudos...

cr. Hoya Macaron

Sungyeol
He's REALLY dark now! He shouldn't wear yellow. And he rapped for his joint performance of "3분의 1" with Sungjong! 2Sung! It was good! But then again, it sounded like the Second Invasion version. He's also not ashamed to show his abs when the members wanted Sunggyu to show his abs.
He was so cute, explaining how "One Great Step" came from Neil Armstrong. And he was afraid that he would make an error in front of the foreign fans. But he got it right!
He threw plenty of paper planes to the seating audience, and he kept pausing at the planes that failed to reach the audience. He's really cute, and I hope he overcomes his depression/self-esteem issue. I just wanna give him a hug and console him. He's such a bottled up guy that I feel so sad for him sometimes, like I want to see him without the INFINITE mask.

cr. loeyeol

cr. ever since

L
This guy is CUTE. In the words of my friend, "He can sit in the corner and play with Dongho". (Dongho's like a baby brother to us.)
His solo was "Love U Like U" and he played the guitar beside the "Man In Love" teddy bear on a bench. I'm glad he chose a song that fits his vocal range. (duh it's HIS song) After a chorus, he put down the guitar and sat closer to the teddy. After singing, he raised the bear's hand to pose then he got really embarrassed so he spazzed with the bear. Further embarrassed, he used the whole bear to cover his face. As the lights faded, he waved the bear's hands at us so it looked like the bear was really waving.
Myungsoo just crept out all over the place. L has a lower voice than Myungsoo, I realized.

cr. Made in L

cr. Laile(?)

this boy is gonna kill us. cr.lkimfannet

fan cam here

Sungjong
MANJong. But I didn't like the shade of his hair because it was almost the same color as his skin during certain lightings. Too iffy, the color. It changed with the light colors! But he sang Sunggyu's part in "3분의 1"! Yay! I was so happy for him! He can definitely sing -I was wrong about him. He wanted to cry again too. Poor boy.

cr. Cafe Romano

[Account] After the concert, my neighbor and her friend sitting in front of her asked where I was from, since I hollered at Dongwoo's "foreign fans" question. They were surprised and amazed to meet a Singaporean Inspirit and praised me (I guess) for coming for them. I think there's more praise towards INFINITE for having such a fan lol. They said they're amazed to meet foreign fans. I guess K-Inspirits are more open towards the foreign fans, since INFINITE hasn't had a world tour before so there isn't much competition with I-Inspirits.. Don't need to be afraid that they will physically hurt you (most of the time), just be aware of their overwhelming passion that might hurt you unconsciously at times.

I think this concert left me with a huge impression, that INFINITE is a band that can really sing live. I was disappointed when I watched SM artists live and they were lipsynching :( I love them but why must they lip-synch!
I also felt sorry for the Korean Inspirits, because this is the first time that they will be away from INFINITE for a long time so they were crying. They worried because INFINITE worried that fans were leaving them (especially after the SM merger). Hwaiting!
[Update] INFINITE are on variety shows right now -.- What absence?!
However, because I sat further than I did for SS4, I'm gonna say SS4 was more impactful. YESUNG'S FACE IN ALL THAT GLORIOUS SPOTLIGHT RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. ...I definitely screamed more in OGS.
But I was glad that INFINITE looked the same off and on screen, unlike some SM artistes. They really looked exactly the same, exactly how I pictured them to be. It took me SS4 to see that Yesung is handsome, just saying.

Ok, it's 1am. The point of this post? To just let everything out I guess. I need to share it with people. Sorry if the post bored you.

lol

[130811 Update] I SAW GYU. I SAW GYU. NO SECURITY. NO MANAGER. NO FANS. AND HE SAW ME. With my jaw dropped. Lol. Unexpected end to my Sunday. Leaving the building hoping to see INFINITE in the lift or something. And there he was at the exit.