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fayet · 2 months ago

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The Kpop experiment (V): Taemin Edition

So I saw another artist (TAEMIN OMG) and now I have more opinions. As always it's rambling about what kpop feels like to a random person, thoughts about dancing and a little comparison between Taemin and Ateez (because listen, I've only seen two shows, I got nothing else to compare, okay?)

So, I got tickets (for some reason?) pretty later after missing out on any in the first ticket drop, considered buying scalper tickets and for some reason snatching some exactly a week ago in some random "final 50 ticket drop". I was seriously so happy.

I was also a little late at the show, but I had factored that in and I wasn't mad - I don't like squeezing myself into crowds, the fight for near-the-stage standing room belonged to the actual fans, I didn't mind. My plan was to stand in the back of the room and stare open mouthed at the screens.

That's kinda what happened. But, let me say this first:

What a shitty venue. I don't understand who booked an artist like Taemin into a 3k mini venue, it just makes no sense. Yes, he brought his own sound people (SO MANY SOUND PEOPLE!) and I believe he had just a big crew as Ateez had in regards to sound and camera, and as such the sound was surprisingly good for such a shitty venue. But. Everything else. Why. There's larger venues in the area, and he could have easily sold out those places considering what went down when the tickets went on sale. I remain confused.

The upside was: it was a tiny place. There were 3k people in there. The stage was 1/3 of what Ateez worked with, like you were standing in the pit in Lanxess and the rest of the arena was just not there. No lightstick-synch or anything, just a room, as small stage with three large screens behind it, and the fans. My ever faithfull companion and me stood in the very back of the standing area, and even like this we were as close to the stage as the people in Lanxess who had slept at the arena. It was intimate (Taemin even said it, after his first part he waved and said "Wow, you're so close to me!"), very small, almost a club concert in style.

And for some reason we got lucky again, because when the concert started security pulled both my dude and me from the crowd and made us stand behind the sound people between the cameras (I don't know why, I think because we're so tall? They also pulled two women who were very short and stood them next to us), which meant I was standing exactly smack in the centre of the room, but apart from the crowd, having the same view as the cameras - it was incredible, perfect spot to see choreography.

And oh my god choreography. Choreography. Yes.

I came to see Taemin dance, specifically because I wanted to see "Move" live (like, once. Just once.) and I got exactly what I wanted. There's a shitton of fanvideos out there going "Who is the best kpop dancer and why is it Taemin", and I'm here, ready and willing to plead the case that yes, it's Taemin. He's incredible, light and fast, perfectly clean and precise, yet so smooth and so fucking elegant.

So elegant, never breaking a line, finishing every movement beautifully, very much in synch with his backup dancers (who were amazing). He had a pretty loud backing track going on, but he did sing a lot live, and is very stable even during very fast choreography (very impressive). I've always been super drawn to Taemin's movement quality because it's very "dancer"-like - not in the way a kpop dancer usually is, which is very hiphop influenced, low, bouncy and very "in", but in the way a traditionally trained dancer is (aka "up and out"), with an emphasis on remaining pulled up, beautiful lines, equisite arm work, very intentional and brutally precise. Obviously he has hiphop in the background, but more the poppin and lockin variety, not the bouncy old school hiphop you see on someone like Ateez' Yunho. There's a lot of contemporary aspects in his choreos, too, and they are really difficult to get just right. He nailed every single one of them, fitting to every single "mood" the songs had, doing sexy and brooding and melancholic and nailing every moment. i didn't see him take a shortcut even once, he's such a professional, I was so impressed by the sheer quality.

What I loved most, though, was that he 100% seemed like he was having the time of his life. Even when he was talking inbetween songs and trying to catch his breath (another thing: it was really obvious how strenous the whole show was, but only inbetween songs when he was trying to get enough air to talk, something the Ateez show completely glossed over - the only ones truely fighting for breath were the BBTripping dudes, for everyone else it was arranged that they could go off stage to catch their breath) he was grinning, twirling around, doing some spins, showing point choreo.

And that really added to the show! Inbetween songs Taemin talked about the song, sang snippets live alone or with the crowd (smart move: it showed off what his voice is capable of, that he can actually sing and only has the backing track so he can lipsynch during harsh choreo parts), showed the point choreo (again, smart move: showing the choreo with lights on to detail the technical difficulty, plus teasing the crowd with a sneaky flash of toned body, genius) or just chatted.

He had a translator so he could switch english to korean and be more fluent, which ALSO was a smart move because listening to Ateez speaking english was painful. I don't know whether he had prompting monitors for his speeches, but since I did see the entire technical setup (because of where the security had placed me) all the time (FASCINATING) and there were no prompts being run I think he might not have had any (whereas Ateez had monitors where every song lyric, but also every single word they said on stage was written down for them to read off - and as far as I know they did not diverge from it with a single word during the Cologne show). He also made a mistake once while chatting (confusing the album the song came from with another, later release), corrected himself, listened to the translator explaining his mistake and then ran up to the translator to comically "chide" him for telling us he made a mistake - it was all very charming and the translator was giggling the whole time, and I don't think it was staged.

The whole "staged" feeling is another thing I'd like to elaborate on (if anyone wants to read it) in comparison to Ateez in Cologne, because boy were those two shows very, very different. Very different. I'd wager that if I had only seen Taemin I'd not have had any idea about kpop concerts (my partner phrased it as "oh, it wasn't even a real kpop concert, it was much better!"), or at least not abut the streotypical kpop concert I wanted to see for this "experiment" (don't come for me, I loved the Cologne show, it was great and worth the hideous amount of money I spent on the tickets.)

Before this is getting any longer some final points about things I loved: Taemin had a crew of five female backup dancers who were SO GOOD, and they had their own little segement where they were introduced with their names on the screen and given a minute or two each to throw it down, and they were amazing - and the crowd kept hyping them, I loved it. I wish Ateez would give BBTripping the same treatment in their shows (if I write a second part I'll explain why I think that's not going to happen). The songs were amazing, and I had read in advance that seeing "Heaven" live is a real experience and OMG yes, it blew my mind. Besides "Move" the best track of the evening, the subwoofer rearranged my guts.

Taemin seriously made a joke about the "Move" choreo and called it "easy, just vibe with the song", and that was maybe the most impressive flex of the evening (becaue "Move" is maybe the most difficult to get right choreo in kpop, and Taemin went on record once to say that he wants male dancers to quit trying it, as they just couldn't get it right anyway, hehe. Cheeky.). He then proceeded to nail it while the crowd completely freaked out, it was fantastic.

ALSO the crowd was great, despite nobody dancing (AGAIN, what's wrong with you kpop people, why do you just stand and stare while waving your light stick around, even in a doom metal concert the crowds gets more active), but they were cheering and shouting and hyping him up. Less fancy dress-up moments in the crowd, though. Also they (the fanclub?) gave us a banner, too, but nobody told us what to do with it so we just akwardly waved it during the photoshoot in the end. And it looks a lot like the Ateez banner they gave us in Cologne, just a different colour. Do kpop banners look like this? Also I kinda wanted to buy a t-shirt but didn't because I didn't like the design, but at least the prices weren't as horrific as the Ateez merch prices in Cologne (random: there were so many people with Ateez merch at the this show, there seems to be an overlap in fandoms here).

Anyway, to sum this up: Taemin is an incredible, highly professional entertainer and a fantastic dancer, but he managed to be very convincingly SO HAPPY to be there that evening, it was adorable. He was so lovely, ugh. But his dance moves. HIS DANCE MOVES. I'm so happy I got tickets, it was maybe one of the best concerts I've seen in my life.

TL:DR: Taemin, oh my god.

#fayet and the kpop experiment #fayet rambles #kpop musings #thoughts on Taemin in Frankfurt #ephemeral gaze tour

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krydyke · 2 years ago

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Man. I get to listen to some of Key's stuff for the first time AND Yesung's new mini drops tomorrow? THANK YOU TIMING I NEED THIS SO MUCH RN

#using kpop to stay sane 😅✌️#kpop musings

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s-unie · 10 months ago

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ℳ𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝑜𝑓 𝗆𝖺 𝗁𝖾𝖺𝗋𝗍

𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑟ꓹ 𝗂 𝗐𝖺𝗇𝗇𝖺 𝖻𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝗎 ♥︎