Asia Song Festival

Filed as: Kpop // Responses: 44

On Saturday we went to the Asia Song Festival. We were invited on behalf of Korea.com, who gave us press passes. Shazam! Thanks to them, we were given front row seats. We were on a bit of an angle, rather than head on, but we still got some pretty decent footage. The roster for the event was awesome: we saw BoA, Rain, Kara, 2AM, Rainbow, B2ST (aka Bastoost), 4Minute, Nine Muses, and a bunch of other stars from Asia, most notably AKB48, which is an all-girls group with 48 members. Only 18 showed up. I’m pretty sure that they didn’t need mics, either, because there were so many of them that the could just sing in unison and they’d be heard anywhere. Also, we were given an All Access pass, which meant that we could go backstage and see everyone walking around getting ready. We saw the change rooms of 2AM, BoA, B2ST, and 4Minute, but – not surprisingly – everyone was sleeping in their rooms. Seriously. I can imagine that they’re totally drained. We did see AKB48, though, in the press room posing for pictures, and they posed for some of ours as well.

Anyhow, here’s a little compilation of the night. We recorded a lot of the full songs, so if you want to see the unedited versions, head over to our Eat Your Kimchi Facebook page tomorrow to see them all. Yeah! Also, because we were so close to the speakers, the audio isn’t fully right. The bass is really overwhelming at times, and we did our best to fix it. But the video still looks cool, hopefully!

On one final note, holy crap are crazy fans ever crazy. I’m pretty sure our videos of BoA are ruined, because we had a group of BoA fans screaming bloody murder behind us. Murder! It was cold outside, really cold, and one girl was screaming so hard that her face was sweating. I think she might have been crying as well. We made a video of that as well. Ha!

« « Last Post: iMovie 11 Movie Trailer: Viva La Spudgy!

Next Post: Kpop Music Mondays: SHINee “Hello” » »

http://twitter.com/dubugrease @dubugrease

How lucky to get press passes! Did u see anyone snoring? lol

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

We did, but they had their faces covered by their hats :D

http://www.facebook.com/samuelpalmer Sam ìƒ˜ Palmer

Jackie Chan was supposed to be there. Did you get any footage of him? If so, can you please post that :)

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

Unfortunately, we didn't see him there. Bummer!

TOFU

Awesomely cool ! Must hv been quite an experience. Just saw the Spudgy movie trailer, he looks happie, so do u guys! Cheers!
roland

nice guys. :) how did u get the pass?

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

The people of Korea.com hooked us up :D

Erin

I believe AKB48 actually has somewhere around 63 members now. Yeah, I don’t know why either. XD

This sounds like a great opportunity though, and I’m so jealous that you got to go!

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

Really? I thought they were at 48. There were supposedly 30 members missing yesterday, and I thought it seemed like there were 18 on stage or so. They didn't have enough mics for all the girls, I'm pretty sure!

http://www.littlepinky82.wordpress.com Emily

AKB48 fan here so I can help with that. It's 48 and they split them up into three teams of 16. The teams are Team A, Team K and Team B (ha clever right?). So yeah it's obvious they're not going to be able to put all forty-eight on stage. So that's why they split them up into team's. They all have individual songs and stuff and go to events like that. They have plenty of video's up on Youtube worth checking out. I'm currently obsessed with "Baby Baby Baby."

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

That's awesome! Team A, K, B: brilliant! I'd love to see them all on stage, though. We saw one video of them on YouTube. Not sure what it's called, but it had some ridiculous story to it in which all of the girls are in a change room, and then a chihuahua comes in and scares them all into the shower, and then I think the water turns on and they all have a sexy shower fight or something like that. Hilarious!

Erin

(that is, if you count research students and such)

I assume the 18 that were there were just all the members in one of the teams~ I hope Acchan was there!

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

I'm sorry…research students? What do you mean?

http://xoussef.blogspot.com xoussef

Apparently they operate in groups and from time to time some members "graduate" to make room for new blood, and some still stay to do "research" as another group… crazy stuff!

PS: I'm jealous ^^

http://www.littlepinky82.wordpress.com Emily

Yeah Babyvox (an older Kpop group who disbanded in 2002) did something like that. When members got to a certain age (I can't remember what age it was) they would "graduate" and a new member would come in. Solo singer Kan Miyoun was a Babyvox member. She replaced one member during a tour (I think it was because a girl lied about her age and it was found out in time for the tour) and she was liked by everyone and was a member until the end.

http://twitter.com/dannyskye @dannyskye

That bass is completely insane! D: Haha. It must have been crazy actually being there! You guys are pretty lucky to have gotten to go. I would have been crying if I was that close to 2AM (CHANGMIN<3)! :) Thanks!
Cathy

How was it seeing Rain? <3

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

Totally awesome! It was Martina's favorite performance of the night :D

furusek

nah… I envy you so much I could hardly watch it xD you're the best!
Natalie

DID you go backstage with Rain?

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

Maybe we weren't looking hard enough, but we couldn't find his changeroom. We saw everyone else's, but his was nowhere to be found.

Natalie

bummer :/ how was his performance? he looks like an awesome performer!

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

Oh yeah. He was awesome. Totally knows how to interact with the crowd, and was really into his dancing. There were others who were half-hearted, almost, but Rain seemed to go all out.

Hanneebuff

Wow! Good thing Rain gave an awesome performance because the feedback when he came here in our country was not so good… but we just let it pass because he's Rain after all.

http://www.littlepinky82.wordpress.com Emily

Maybe since he was one of the last few acts he just changed at his own place and came later or something. I'm sure he probably has a super busy schedule.

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

Yeah, we figured as much.

http://www.zenkimchi.com/FoodJournal ZenKimchi

Maybe I don't understand the concept of a press pass. How can it be a press pass if you can't record?

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

We couldn't record the change rooms, where we saw everyone walking in and out. Some bodyguards came up to us and told us not to film there, which we understand, because the changerooms are kinda their only place for privacy. There was the pressroom backstage in which we could record stuff. AKB48 was there at the time, and we got a few rushed pictures, but that was about it…

icalla91

I'm curious.. what was it like watching the other Asian artists? Did you become a fan or become interested in any of them?

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

You know, we were intrigued by AKB48. We saw them, backstage, and they seemed fun. And on stage they were fun as well. There was a great part in their set in which they tried to speak Korean to the audience, but one girl got caught up on a word, and kept on repeating the first few words in her sentence for like, three minutes. Everyone was laughing, but it was still cute.

Anyhow, they totally have cuteness perfectly nailed, and their songs felt like a big explosion of anime and rainbows and heart bubbles everywhere. Ha!

http://www.littlepinky82.wordpress.com Emily

AKB48 is so totally cute. I'm currently into their song "Baby Baby Baby" which is sooo adorable. There is one member who can speak Korean. I don't know if she's perfect at it but she can at least communicate on some level. G-Dragon of Big Bang is rumored to be an AKB48 fan. :-p

Nana

Out off all the performers you saw who was your favorite?

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

The last few were really, really good. Martina loved Rain's performances. I'd say that I really liked batoost's. Not that I liked their songs the most (because I really liked BoA's songs), but they really know how to work a stage. They had the camera guy running in front of them during their dancing, and they'd look right in the camera as well, while other performers often ignored the cameraman. I liked that :D

http://www.littlepinky82.wordpress.com Emily

Oh wow how awesome for you guys! Great experience. So great you guys got to meet Bi and Boa. Too bad no video taping. ;( I love how Bi is this world wide super star now days yet he still goes to events like this and the Dream Concert. I like that about him. AKB48 being there is great too! I love them. I'm surprised 2ne1 wasn't there since they have out new music. Maybe not in time or something. Oh are AKB48 now promoting in Korea? I hope they have lots of luck! Seems like it was a pretty good show.
Lina

Do you both like k-pop like the way you like American music?

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

Not at all. For "American" music we mostly listen to indie stuff and stay away from mainstream music. Here it's different though. I'm still trying to figure out why…

Lina

ohh what do you mean different?
But do you like K pop?

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

Different, as in we never really listened to pop music until we came to Korea. We came here to Korea, though, and it seems that pop music is a lot more relevant to students than it was for our students back in Canada. As for whether we like it or not, yeah, we do. S'why we're doing these videos :D

Beth

You should check out a group called 10cm. They are an acoustic duo and their songs are really fun. I’d say their music is the closest you will get to both korean and indie at the same time :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmJYbdRfDNQ

Yun Byeongi

Hi, I'm korean. I live in Anyang Gyeonggi-do. I love your blog. Because you introduce the culture of Korea. It is so interesting! (I'm fourteen years old, I used a little compiler. haha.)

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

Thanks! Glad you like our blog :D

Jazmin

Do you guys know a lot of Korean. Because I want to go to Korean but I don't know a lot of Korean. But I learned a little VERY little lol.

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com Eatyourkimchi

We don't know a lot of Korean at all. In fact, we barely know any Korean, sadly. Just enough for us to get by.

http://[email protected] Kieram

I just found this page~~ <3

I find it strange that press was allowed to walk in and out of changerooms, enough to hear snoring. wow. Isn't it awkward to open the door, look at someone in the eye, and then come back out?