2017 Sweet Sorrow Small Theatre Concert (Harmony) / 2017 스윗소로우 소극장 콘서트 (화음) (Part III)

Read: 2017 Sweet Sorrow Small Theatre Concert (Harmony) / 2017 스윗소로우 소극장 콘서트 (화음) (Part I) & 2017 Sweet Sorrow Small Theatre Concert (Harmony) / 2017 스윗소로우 소극장 콘서트 (화음) (Part II)

For this final part, I want to share about other stuff related to the shows. As you can see, the title of the concert is Sweet Sorrow Small Theatre Concert <Harmony>. For Sweet Sorrow, Harmony Concert series emphasize on their harmony and outstanding vocals while showing their true selves. And I think the shows totally lived up to the name. They showed how harmony should sound like yet they managed to show their goofy and fun selves.

Can you see how close the stage with the first row?

The venue itself; Samsung Hall is very small and intimate. I was super shocked when I entered the hall. The gap between the first row and the stage is super close. I estimated the distance to be selebar queen bed sahaja. It might be less than that. So, even though I did not have the best seat in the house (I sat at row L and N), I still can see them clearly! :D

I also really liked the audience. For me, audience plays an important role in making or breaking a show. The audience was very sporting, fun, and responsive! You also can see how diverse their fans are in terms of age groups. There were quite a number of middle-aged and older adult fans. You can even see a number of children. Honestly, it felt like a family event instead of concert in some ways. They also had almost a balanced number of male and female fans which I find refreshing cause I have always been surrounded by girls only whenever I went to K-concerts.

Besides that, I really loved the audience because they came to enjoy the performances. They really enjoyed the performances to their hearts' content. You cannot see people recording the shows using their phones and cameras except during the encore. Granted, I might not see the whole audience. There might be few people recording the whole shows sneakily but they did not disturb the show's flow and block others' view. As such, I was really impressed with the audience.

Ergo, I want to reiterate that Sweet Sorrow's concert was the best concerts that I ever been in my entire life! I am so glad that my first paid concert in South Korea was Sweet Sorrow's cause they definitely hold a special spot in my heart. After being a fan of them for 7 years, the whole situations were definitely like a dream come true.

I got to witness their beautiful friendship firsthand which is something that I have adored for quite some time. Can you believe these guys have been singing together for more than 20 years?! I got to interact with their fun selves. I also got to see how genuine their love for music and their fans. I also came to like their fans too! :)

Thank you Sweet Sorrow for the sweetest memories. Hopefully there will be next time for us. :)

2017 Harmony Concert Footage. Song: I'll Sing For You

2017 Sweet Sorrow Small Theatre Concert (Harmony) / 2017 스윗소로우 소극장 콘서트 (화음) (Part II)

Read: 2017 Sweet Sorrow Small Theatre Concert (Harmony) / 2017 스윗소로우 소극장 콘서트 (화음) (Part I)

Now, I will share about the actual shows. But first, let me make an exclamation. Sweet Sorrow's concert was the best concert of my life! Okay, now we can move on.

Gotta love these talented and quirky guys! :)

If I were to describe the whole performances in one word, it would be phenomenal!  And yes, that was fangirl in me talking. lol! They were so good that I decided to attend 3 shows instead of 2 shows like I initially planned.

The performances were everything that I expected from them. In fact, they went above and beyond with few surprises here and there. If you happen to see them on TV shows once in awhile (they usually appear on Immortal Songs 2 or Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketchbook), you know how high quality their performances are. They sounded exactly like, if not, better than their recordings or TV shows. The size and layout of the Samsung Hall added with the good sound system also helped, I think.

On the 1st show that I attended, I got goosebumps throughout the whole show cause they sounded so good! They successfully conveyed the intended emotions when performing as I felt like crying whenever they sang sad songs yet I was hyper and happy when they sang happy and fast tempo songs.

They had different song lists according to each member's day and other days, which is why I was glad I decided that I attended 3 shows instead of 2 shows. I still wished I could attend all the shows as they sang few different songs for each show. Ughhh :(

But basically, they divided their performances into few segments. The segments/song list that I am about to write might not be 100% accurate as I do not have good memories and I do not recognize all the songs. hehe! I also exclude the ments cause I am not sure if they were even ments. But I have to say, their ments (if they were indeed ments) were totally funny and interesting. I laughed like crazy whenever they had funny ments. I also was indulged by memories when they had walking on memory lane ments.

1. Opening song. They sang something similar to what they sang at Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketchbook.

2. K-pop medley. They sang Mirotic by TVXQ, Lie by BIGBANG, Wild Eyes by Shinhwa, a song that I do not know the title and the singer but I am very familiar with, Replay by SHINee, Couple by SECHSKIES, Can I Get Married by Coffee Boy, Cheer Up by TWICE, Beautiful Night by Beast or currently known as Highlight, and Be Mine by INFINITE. This segment was fun cause I have always enjoyed their K-pop covers. It was also entertaining cause I know almost all the songs and they were witty in making fun of In Ho Jin :D

3. Sign by Sweet Sorrow. This song was my jam for few months before the concert. Absolutely adore this song!

4. Happy New Year by Sweet Sorrow. This song is one of my top favourites too! So much happiness, so much joy! I remembered Sweet Sorrow looked so happy when the audience sang along with them especially during the last part.

5. So Cool by Sweet Sorrow. I honestly do not really listen to this song that much but I super love the show version :)

6. Sweet Sorrow by Sweet Sorrow. This is their debut song. I got goosebumps all over my body cause I did not expect they will sing their debut song.

7. Sunshine by Sweet Sorrow. This is arguably one of their famous songs in South Korea. I usually listen to this song whenever I need a pick-me-up. So, it is kinda weird to listen to their rendition when I was in a good mood. hehe.

Skip to 3:57

8. Pounding Heart by Sweet Sorrow. This is definitely one of my favourite songs. So glad that I had a chance to listen to this song live. They only performed this song on the second show that I attended! :D

10. No Matter How I Think About It by Sweet Sorrow. This is definitely their most famous song as far as I know. Those who watch Running Man might be familiar with this song. The song arrangement was a lil bit different during the shows. I prefer the show version :)

11. Give Me Affection by Sweet Sorrow & Jung Jun Ha. This song is one of my favourite songs (again!) and this segment was my favourite segment of the shows. They had this funny short sketch before singing the song. During the sketch, they introduced the hashtags that we should use for the day. The hashtags were so funny and some of them did not even make sense. lol! They also held a short dance lessons and an enjoyable harmony lesson so that the audience will enjoy the performance. And everyone looked so happy dancing and singing together with Sweet Sorrow! :D

12. 10 minutes break. Thank god for the 10 minutes break I managed to take a breather :)

13. A cappella segment. I am not sure if it was a full a capella segment of not cause starting somewhere in the middle of second song, I can hear faint music. During this segment, they used condensed microphone. You basically can hear everything clearly even their coughs. During this segment they performed Good Night by Sweet Sorrow, Wild Flower by Park Hyo Shin and First Love by Sweet Sorrow. I really love this segment cause I am a sucker for a capella! And guys, you need to listen to their rendition of Wild Flower. It was so beautiful and they totally made a justice for the song.

14. The Wind Blows by Lee So Ra. This was one of the goosebumps inducing performances. You have to listen to their rendition yourself. Seriously, I was holding my tears back during their performance.

15. The Words I Tell You by Sweet Sorrow. I just realized the existence of this song during the shows even though this is their old songs cause I do not really listen to emotionally heavy songs. I love it! 

16. Upbeat songs.They sang medley of their few songs; Drive, Just Get Way (You Deserve It), Dark Circle, & Let's Go to Sokcho!. They also incorporated two other K-pop songs; Nayana by Produce 101 and Cheer Up by TWICE. This was the segment that I mentioned on my previous post where #oppanoticedme. Hahaha! :D

17. I Love You by Sweet Sorrow. This is definitely one of their classics that I really love! Might be one of the songs that I hummed a lot for the past 7 years too cause my youngest sister said she knew Sweet Sorrow cause I always sing this song. lol! Totally love their live performances cause they were cute and lovely! :D

18. Once Again by Sweet Sorrow. This was the last song for all three shows. I do not know why but I always feel heavy whenever I listen to this song. Felt the same when I listen to their performances.

19. Encore. They sang their songs; No Daebak and I'll Sing For You. No Daebak was all fun and entertaining. Can not stress enough how happening this song was. This also was the time where everyone started to bring out their phones and took pictures. As for I'll Sing For You, the vibe was heavy and emotional cause it was the very last song for the night. I love it when all the audience started to sing together with Sweet Sorrow.

Skip to 2:49

So, that was about it for the performances. Again, the performances were different according to the days. But this was what pretty much happened on the three days that I attended. :)

Oh, somewhere between the performances, Song Woo Jin performed one English song and two Korean songs during his day. As for In Ho Jin's Day, In Ho Jin performed a duet with Kim Young Woo and a duet with IU. We also got a solo performance from IU.

And yes, what a nice surprise. I actually got to see IU performing live!

2017 Sweet Sorrow Small Theatre Concert (Harmony) / 2017 스윗소로우 소극장 콘서트 (화음) (Part I)

I refrained myself from writing this post for almost a month so that I will not sound like an excited and delusional fangirl but pretty sure I failed miserably. Whatever. hehe! I just need to get this out from my system (again!). Hopefully this post will be more organized than my hundreds tweets. :)

Just to give you a heads up; it is going to be a very long post! Like, super, duper long! 

p.s: Initially, I wanted to write the whole experience in one post but I have to split it up to three parts cause it is super duper long. Even after I split it up. lol!

Credit: Here

2017 Sweet Sorrow Small Theatre Concert <Harmony>

There is so much things I want to write but where do I even start?

First of all, I need to emphasize that I was super lucky that I got to attend 3 out of 10 shows of 2017 Sweet Sorrow Small Theatre Concert <Harmony>. Obviously, I wanted to attend all 10 shows especially Sung Jin Hwan's day but with my situation and financial state at that time, I am just thankful that I managed to attend 3 shows.

Attending 2017 Sweet Sorrow Small Theatre Concert <Harmony> was a big thing for me cause I have been a fan of Sweet Sorrow for 7 years! I love them as much as I love Super Junior, maybe even more! It still feel unreal that I got to attend their concert cause honestly, it is near to impossible for international fans like me to go to their concerts. They do not have international tours and all of their concerts are held in South Korea.

It also did not help when the ticketing site that they used were fully written in Hangeul. I for one, do not read Hangeul at all and get lil bit frustrated as I really want to go to their concerts! Cause let's be honest. Who knows when will I get this kind of chance again. I am getting older so do them. *For your information, they are 41, 40, 39, and 36 years old respectively.* Plus, I do not think I will have the same passion after few years. lol! 

(The next few paragraphs are the MSG-added version of the actual Q&A)

So, what I did was to try my luck by asking questions regarding the ticket on Sweet Sorrow's Facebook Page in English. Honestly, I did not have high hope for anyone to reply my message but to my surprise, I got a reply! And it was from Kim Young Woo of Sweet Sorrow! *rasa nak pengsan*

I started to ask about other questions that I had regarding the tickets and I was delightful cause he said he will help me. Mind you, he is one of Sweet Sorrow's members. He was supposed to be busy with concert preparations and stuff. Yet, he took his time to answer all my questions. After confirming the deets, he said let's keep in touch so that we will not miss or forget anything.

And I thought that was a lip service. lol! Oh boy, was I wrong. Fast forward 3 weeks later, I arrived at South Korea for my long layover and was about to unpack my luggage when I received a message from Kim Young Woo. HE. MESSAGED. ME. FIRST. Talk about another level of fanservice! Sweet Sorrow has the best fanservice ever! :D My excitement for the concert doubled after that!

As you can see (or not!), he took his time to explain to me on how do I get my tickets and answered some other questions that I had. He even advised me not to come to early and to grab some food before the show cause it will be 3-hour show. I have to say, for the amount of money that I paid, 3-hour show is totally worth it. Most of the times, a show will be about 1-hour ish with that kind of amount of money. Or, you cannot even attend a show with that amount of money. #satisfiedfan #happyfan

I arrived a tad early at the venue so I decided to check out their merchandise booth. I bought a set of postcards for my keepsake cause I love postcards! The staffs were surprised to see me. Cannot blame them cause I was the only international fan there.

I had to wait for quite some time for the ticket booths to be opened. When they opened, I got really confused because they had 2 different lines. But fret not, the lady at the merchandise booth helped me to buy my tickets cause she had to be expecting me as she asked me, "Facebook Message?". "Yup, that is totally me!"

Okay, I sounded so perasan but that can be a true story. She must be expecting me. haha! Kim Young Woo must have told her about my presence. He even told me that I should message him if I had any problems when purchasing the tickets. One hour before the concert, Kim Young Woo messaged me again to ask if I got my ticket or not. BEST. FANSERVICE. EVER. I. REPEAT.

I will summarize about the actual shows and my observations of the shows on the next two posts (sorry guys, it is still far from over) but here are some of my personal highlights.

On the 1st show I attended, during one of the songs, I believe it was Let's Go to Sokcho, Sweet Sorrow's members went to audience seat and shook their fans' hands. At that time, Kim Young Woo noticed me and said "Farah-shi? Thank you!" and bowed at me. Truly felt like crying at that time. #oppanoticedme 

After that, In Ho Jin approached my seat (since my seat ke dalam sikit), and said "Komawoyo! Thank you so much" with his touching expression. I felt like laughing at that time but I was awestruck by him. #oppanoticedme

Okay, I totally sounded like a delusional fangirl but that really happened! :D

I told you #oppanoticedme

Another personal highlight is I got to meet them at the backstage after the 3rd show that I attended! #neverforgetjuly2

It all started when my youngest sister and my roommate at my AirBnB cucuk-cucuk me and said, if they were me, they would make a request to Sweet Sorrow for a brief photo session. I honestly wanted to do so but I thought it was going to be too much. After all, Kim Young Woo has helped me a lot! #forevergrateful

But after the 2nd show ended, I thought to myself, "This might be the only chance I got to attend their concerts, so why not just try asking. It will not hurt asking, right? They can say no and I will not be butthurt about it."

So, I tried my luck again and sent another message on their Facebook page. Few minutes after that, Kim Young Woo replied my message and said yes! *Excited like asdfghjkl!* He also gave me cute instructions on where should I go after the show. So, the next day, after the 3rd show ended, I went to the place as instructed. Kim Young Woo said he will send a crew to pick me up but lo and behold, he picked me up himself! BEST. FANSERVICE. EVER. I. REPEAT. ONCE. AGAIN.

When he went outside to pick me up, all the fans waiting for Sweet Sorrow's members were excited. Aren't we all like that? Hehe! He explained to other fans that he is bringing me inside cause we (I, actually) do not know when will I get another chance to attend their concerts again. I totally felt like crying at that time. Let me repeat this once again. I have waited for 7 years for all of this to happen!

I for one, really like the fact that he explained the entire situation to the Korean fans. For me, it showed how much they value their Korean fans. After all, the Korean fans are the ones who have always been with them in every single event and concert. Yet, it showed that they also appreciate their international fans as they were accommodating to my requests.

Very thankful to Sweet Sorrow's fans cause they were very nice and understanding that I did not get any death stare or glare from them. #sweetsorrowfansarethebest In fact, I heard some of them said that I was very lucky and they were happy for me. #luckyfan

Selfies with each of Sweet Sorrow's member.
From left: In Ho Jin (인호진), Song Woo Jin (송우진), Kim Young Woo (김영우), Sung Jin Hwan (성진환)
#sungjinhwanismyfavourite #sungjinhwanismyforeverfavouritenerd #sungjinhwanismyfavouritemaknae

So, I chatted a bit with Kim Young Woo and kept saying thank you cause I will be #forevergrateful to him while we were on the way to the waiting room. I was puzzled when he suddenly stopped when we were walking.

Guess what?!

Sung Jin Hwan was standing beside me! But, I did not recognize him and almost passed by him until Kim Young Woo introduced us. Can you imagine that? I did not recognize my own bias! But to my defend, he did not wear his spectacles. He looked way too different :/ He giggled cause I did not recognize him. You have to see his reaction yourself. He was so cute! #sorryoppa #youarestillmyfavourite

Then, Song Woo Jin came with his megawatt smile! Kim Young Woo and Sung Jin Hwan introduced me to him. Thank god he did not converse in his bass voice cause I surely will melt. Hahahaha. But seriously, have your heard his bass voice? His bass voice always gives me a good goosebumps.

Soon after, In Ho Jin came with his ahjussi vibe. #sorryoppa Oh god, I seriously love this man. I can not stress enough how lovely this old man. lol! He was very gleeful and giggly. Totally approachable. In fact, all of them were so approachable. In Ho Jin kept saying thank you to me while I kept saying thank you to him. The whole situation was so funny. He also mentioned she saw all my Instagram posts and he read my messages on Facebook.

Sweet Sorrow & I

All of them said they saw and read my Instagram posts and messages on Facebook but can not respond to any of them cause they are not fluent in English (except Kim Young Woo) and I do not know how to read Hangeul. #languagebarrier

The entire time, I was completely overwhelmed with my emotions and surroundings that my hands were literally shaking all the time cause I cannot believe I was close to them. I can literally touch them if I want. It also did not help as so much things were happening at the backstage. It was hectic and busy as they were preparing to conclude the night.

And honestly, I did not get to spend too much time with them as they need to entertain other guests too. I also met some family members of Sweet Sorrow. I think they are In Ho Jin's family cause it was his day. They were surprised to see me as they were not expecting an international fan to attend the concert.

Personalized autographed postcards from Sweet Sorrow :)

After things settling down a bit, we took dozens group photos and selfies and I asked them for their autographs. While waiting for their autographs, I had a small talk with Kim Young Woo again.  We actually talked for quite some time and shared personal updates. I also managed to suggest few things that I think other international fans will appreciate. lol! Hopefully he will take my suggestions into consideration :)

And then, it was time to say goodbye. Kinda say to say goodbye to them cause I may never get a chance to see them again. We said goodbye by saying thank you to each other endlessly.

After that, I decided to wait for them outside along with other Korean fans. Just to see them for the last time, you know. While waiting for them, I was approached by a fansite master where she handed me a fan for Sung Jin Hwan's day. I was so ecstatic at that time! May I remind you that Sung Jin Hwan is my favourite? Hehe!

Fan project by few Sweet Sorrow's fansites :)

Few Sweet Sorrow's fansites collaborated and had this fan project where they handing out fans on members' day. You will get a fan if you attended the said member's day. For me, I only attended Song Woo Jin's and In Ho Jin's days. So, I only eligible to get fans for their days. But the fansite master happily handed me Sung Jin Hwan's day's fan. I think she must felt kesian towards me cause I sent her messages prior the concerts asking about the fan project and unintentionally mentioned that Sung Jin Hwan is my favourite but I am not going to Sung Jin Hwan's day. Truly appreciate her kind heart :)

Anyway, after waiting for them for almost 15 minutes, they came out and were ready to leave the venue. But they still took their time to chat with their Korean fans and posed for photos. I stood a lil bit far from the crowd as I did not want to disturb other fans. Still, Sweet Sorrow's members acknowledged me from far and mouthed a goodbye to me. Their manager also mouthed a thank you and goodbye to me.

&

Soon after that, I left the venue with a full heart and loads of sweet memories.