I've been there! Twice!

Yeah, I've just returned from Tokyo yesterday after having the time of my life at my first two SHINee concerts.

I guess I'm gonna write something more "poetic" in the story section about it but still I have to do some kind of personal review first. 

I've joined SM travel site to get the opportunity to see SHINee and when around Christmas last year they announced the Tokyo Dome concerts I was thinking hard if I should spend so much money on a kpop-group. I mean, apart from the package, including the concerts and accommodation in Tokyo I still had to pay for a flight from Germany to Tokyo and back. I had to get time off from work and make some other plans. 

Most people I know wouldn't have done it but since I missed out on many things when I was really young because I always was reasonable and careful I have decided a couple of years ago that I will instead now do what I really want to do and if I can afford it in any way do silly stuff too.

So it was settled.

The whole package was better organized than I expected and we had pretty awesome seats directly in front of the middle stage where half of the concert was going on. I really saw them as close up as possible, being in the front row on the first night and in the second on the second night. It was unbelievable. Close up they look just the same although somewhat smaller ^^. Taemin is so beautiful that it hurts and Key throws smiles or menacing looks into the crowd that hit good and hard. They were all just awesome.

Here are some things that went through my mind during and after the concerts.

SM producers or planners or whatever they are, are really really clever. I have seen SHINee concerts on youtube and there is always a concept. Some members are in charge for this, some for that imagewise. There was a lot of Jonghyun going on before, partly because Onew had to skip some concerts and partly because Jjong is the main vocal and having worked on that body was also in charge for the yness. 

Minhos solo parts in the past were also of the y kind. Shirtlessness was devided between him and Jonghyun but since last year Taemin added to the concept. So Jjong stepped back a bit, so did Minho. And since they couldn't leave the Maknae on his own for the y concept they stripped Key down and put him into a outfit that was borderline illegal and let him do a 50 shades of grey kind of solo. Man he sure got the crowd going wild ^^

And the aegyo? That went to Minho, fulltime ^^. I'm not Minho's biggest fan but he is always making a big effort to play his part and I like that from the shy and easily embarrassed young man he moved on to a pro.

What I really liked was that they re-established Onew's leadership. Not only was he very much in charge of the talking, they let him do a frigging tap-dance-solo! Incredible. And he was awesome, not only dancing great but also with an almost casual ease and a smile that said "now you didn't expect that, did you?"

Adding to this was his solo-song with an open-shirted and graceful Taemin on the piano. 

Oh Taemin ... He was the darling of Tokyo Dome. In spite of his utter iness everybody loved him to pieces. Not least because on the first night he went down with a cramp in his calf at the beginning of "Your number". I didn't even see it properly from where I stood but later in the fan-cams. He could hardly dance his part at all for the song and then he didn't come out again afterwards for "Breaking News". Everybody was pretty worried but he only left out that one song.

They handled it so professionally that one girl next to me only at the end of Breaking News asked me "was one of them missing?"

Actually Key just rearranged the dance formation a little bit, shifted more to the middle, almost covering the most obvious gaps. I love them for that, I really do.

Everyone in the audience was relieved when Taemin could go on dancing for the rest on the show and the next. They were cheering so much for him that his face-splitting smile lasted almost for the entire show.

Can you imagine that they did nearly 4 hours of concert? I've never seen anything like that from western pop-bands: four hours of 110% performance and power. 

Yeah, of course they made "mistakes". Taemin's blindfold just wouldn't stay in place for "Evil", neither on Saturday nor on Sunday ^^, and he twice failed to catch his mic-stand during "Dream Girl", but seriously, that didn't even matter one bit because he was making up for it easily and Onew just did an extra spin of HIS mic-stand to add to the performance.

Jjong held back a bit, I think. He and Taemin both did parts of their albums for the solos which I think was a good choice. Not only did the audience like it, it gave them a bit of a break during preparation when Onew, Key and Minho had to work out a new routine each.

That much for now. I'll probably write more about it later. Maybe some of you are interested. :)