Fans began lining up for the JYJ NYC showcase as early as 6:00AM. Many fans wanted to stay overnight, but the police would not let them. By 7PM, the line had grown exponentially.
Fans with tickets were allowed in starting at 7PM. No seating rules were enforced and fans who wanted to stand ran up to the stage as fast as they could. The stage and the venue itself was a lot more intimate than TVXQ's usual stage. However, the standing area was not packed to maximum capacity and there were a few empty seats as well.
In any case, while the fans waited for the hall to be filled, the staff kept teasing the crowd with flashy lights, tricking the fans into thinking JYJ would walk onto the stage. Finally, they announced they would be starting the concert in fifteen minutes, which worked all the fans up to a frenzy.
During these fifteen minutes, the cameras zoomed in on the fans. There were many fans doing their best to get noticed, such as waving Canadian flags and their fan-signs. One fan managed to get noticed by dancing crazily when the camera zoomed up on him, prompting other fans to do the same.
At 8:30 PM, the lights shut off and fans started to chant JYJ's names. The MCs introduced the show as the "greatest show ever seen in your life" and walked onto the stage. The two MCs were Shane Yoon and Julie Chan, who did an incredible job in getting the crowd fired up and excited.
JYJ came onto the stage with the song Empty. Jaejoong was wearing a sleeveless shirt, showing us that he hasn't been slacking off even with his busy schedule. Yoochun's shirt was semi-see-through, and Junsu was the only one fully covered with a jacket. During the stage, the zipper on Micky's shirt slipped down and he hurried to cover it back up, but not before fans noticed and saw a bit more skin than he meant to show.
The follow song to Empty was Be the One. Junsu took the center stage whenever there was a dance break, proving that none of his skills were rusty. Junsu didn't forget his trademark dolphin screams, making the crowd go crazy. He ran around the stage doing lots of fanservice, such as a series of little waves.
The third song was Be My Girl. This song was introduced with a short video clip of the boys writing on glass with markers. They wrote things like "I love you", "Thank you for being there" and "Come here right now," all directed to their fans. Jaejoong and Junsu seemed to have a lot of energy, as they were jumping all around the stage. During the song, Yoochun picked one girl to sing to in the front. At the end of the song, Micky spoke his first phrase of the concert - "Thank you, guys," which was enough to send fans reeling again.
After the three songs, there was a small video break. It was titled The Beginning: For The Fans and was a behind-the-scenes of the making of their album. The producers had a little shout out to JYJ praising how professional they were. After the clip, the MCs walked back on stage. We were told 7000 people could not make it into the venue, but from the looks of it, not even 7000 people were waiting in line and there was plenty of room for more people to come in. Julie Chan made little jokes, and Shane Yoon asked which member was the fans' favorite - to which, of course, the fans could not decide.
After this little interlude, the JYJ boys walked back onto the stage for questions from the fans. They were asked to introduce themselves. The members were reluctant to introduce themselves in English, but in the end Junsu went first with a "Hello. My name is Junsu Kim. Thank you." Jaejoong followed with "Um. Thank you. Hey. You guys having a great time?" And Micky followed with "So good to see you guys!" Their not-too-perfect pronunciation and hesitant English made the fans go wild yet again.
The MCs then asked the fans to meow and purr, which seemed to make the boys half amused and half uncomfortable. Even though Julie Chan was doubling as MC and translator, it seemed like Junsu and Jaejoong were more comfortable with Yoochun translating, as they would look to him for an explanation in between questions.
The first question was how they were enjoying NY and how everything is going. Micky answered, "Our first album, The Beginning, starts with you guys. It's all about you guys." The second question had to do with how Kanye West is such a prolific producer and what it felt like being with him. The boys answered in Korean this time, replying that they were burdened at first. However, since Kanye treated them so warmly, they became comfortable with him quickly. The next one asked what they enjoy doing during their free time. Junsu was extremely hesitant, probably because of his English limitations, but he answered with "Driving!" Jaejoong answered with "training," which the translator guessed to mean working out. The topic suddenly changed to fans wanting to see Yoochun's tattoo. Yoochun refused to be the only one, and dragged Jaejoong into it. The MC managed to get Yoochun to lift his shirt up to show his fans his back tattoo. Micky finally answered the question with, "I have no hobbies," but that he wants to get a tattoo in the city tonight.
The next question had to do with Yoochun's acting. He replied that he wasn't that great, but he wanted to say something for the fans as his character in Sung Kyun Kwan Scandal. He told his fans, "I missed you."
The following question was, "What do you guys like about each other?" The boys were again hesitant. The MC read that as them not liking anything, but it was probably because they could not express what they wanted to in English. Finally, Jaejoong replied that he liked Yoochun because of his English. Junsu took some time in replying and finally said that he liked Jaejoong because of his perfect skin and Yoochun because of his broad forehead.
The questions then went back to Yoochun's tattoo. The MC asked him what he wanted, perhaps a symbol of NY, and he answered "No." right away. He wanted to get something related to his family, which made the crowd coo collectively.
Shane Yoon then proceeded to take a picture with them that he would tweet so all the fans could edit themselves on top of him. You can check out his twitter at @shaneyoon.
The next question asked if the guys were all single. Of course, they answered that they were all single, and proceeded to the next question. The next question asked them what they were enjoying about New York. There was a bit of mistranslation here, and Julie Chan translated it as, "What do you guys find most amazing in New York?" Junsu understood it and answered that he liked the skyline, but Jaejoong answered that he found the stage amazing. Micky, however, answered the original question and said he liked the many taxis in the city.
They were asked what part of English they liked the most and Junsu answered that the pronunciation was the hardest part. Then they were asked if they read all the tweets sent to them on Twitter. All three said that they would be honest, saying they could not read all of them, but always tried to read as many as they could.
The song that followed the Q&A session was the only Korean song in the showcase - the Sung Kyun Kwan Scandal OST, Found You. Before the concert, OneTVXQ asked fans to turn off their red glowsticks and turn their cellphone on to make the red ocean a white one. This didn't succeed, but many fans did remember and turned their cell phones on instead of their glow sticks.
After Found You, the boys showed another video clip where they talked about dreams. The intro said, "I want to become someone's dream. I want to be a person who speaks about dreams. The three of us dreamt together." Junsu said, "My dream is standing on stage and singing. I guess I've already fulfilled my dream. I just never want this dream to end." Jaejoong's video was next and he said, "It must be the same for everyone, but when I think about music, I have a goal for it. I want to try so hard that we may die to give our fans good music. I want to give people who have other dreams hope through my music." Yoochun's video continued the clip and he said, "For me, my dream is to stand on a stage where I can be free. I'm so happy I can express this dream. I'm so happy I can stand in front of people who support us."
Junsu came back on to the clip and said, "I want to be satisfied on stage so I don't regret what I do. I think that's part of completing our dreams. I want to share our dreams." The video ended with "I want to start with you. Thank you and I love you."
The song that followed the short video was Ayy Girl, their title song. A female dancer went around gyrating with Jaejoong, then Junsu, then Yoochun, buying the jealousy of all fans that were in the hall. Junsu seemed to have the most energy on this stage, as he was bouncing from side to side and doing bits of fanservice for the crowd.
Before their last song, the JYJ boys gave a final greeting. Junsu was grateful for the loud responses and he said he was happy and thanked the fans. Jaejoong mumbled something that was completely drowned by the fans' cheers, and Micky ended it with, "I had a really great time. I'm happy I got to see you guys. Thank you for your support. Thank you very much, New York!"
The last song was the Empty remix. The whole concert ended with white confetti spraying out on everyone from the sides of the hall. Throughout the whole showcase, Yoochun didn't seem as high on energy as the other two were, but many speculated that he was tired - Jaejoong tweeted a photo of him sleeping right after the concert. However, Jaejoong and Junsu had enough energy to cover for them, as they were totally into the showcase.
The showcase ended with a screening of the Ayy Girl music video, and there was no encore stage. So if you were thinking of sticking around for an encore stage, now you know there won't be one!
We hope you enjoyed the concert as much as we do and look forward to seeing the rest of our readers at the Las Vegas and Los Angeles shows!
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