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WHAT?!
SMTOWN Live is coming to Singapore for the very first time on our Floating Platform at Marina Bay this November??
I was getting very excited
I had been watching fancams of various artistes’ performances and observing what I perceived as the magic of Singapore audience singing for quite some time now
Besides getting to see my favourite Girls’ Generation perform live again since MAMA 2011 in Singapore a year ago
I was eager to get myself in the audience again
And this time I was going to fully open my heart and mouth and sing along with the other passionate fans
I was going to personally experience for myself how the magic of audience singing was at work at one of biggest Kpop concerts of that year!
But I didn’t want to go alone
Unfortunately I never had quite any like-minded close friends who shared the same interests or was willing to go to the concert with me
After asking around
I managed to find a classmate at my art class in university who happened to be a big fan of TVXQ and was keen on going too
He said I could join him and his 3 other friends too
So we could buy our SMTOWN tickets together
But we were not that hardcore to get the standing moshpit ones which would be close to the stage
Instead we chose the more comfortable grandstand seats albeit so far away that one could barely see what was going on onstage unless you had binoculars with you
Excitement built up as the day drew near
23rd November 2012
Just 3 days after my 21st birthday
I remembered I was on the train on the way to the concert venue
With my earphones plugged in
I was listening to the few SM artistes’ songs that I liked on my MP3 player
SNSD’s The Boys, TVXQ’s Rising Sun etc
Getting myself ready to sing along to these songs which I was more familiar with later
But the weather started to get very strange
The sky turned gloomy
Dark grey clouds began to gather over the Marina Bay area just a couple of hours before showtime
Even with some occasional streaks of lightning
Signalling an impending storm
Or was it a phenomenal spiritual event unbeknownst to all that was about to happen?
As The Float@Marina Bay was a completely outdoor venue without any shelter
My concert kakis and I got worried and started checking with each other if we had brought along any umbrellas
We all scrambled to find ponchos at the convenience stores along with the many other concert goers
We were prepared that we were gonna get really really wet
Like really really wet
The sky eventually gave way and started pouring heavily but paused just in time when the show was about to start
Albeit with the unfinished grey clouds still hovering over us
But that neither deter nor dampen the spirits of the SMTOWN fans one bit, especially those standing at the moshpits
They could only get higher and higher as the SM artistes took their turns appearing onstage with their performances down the setlist of the night
Although I was unfamiliar with some of the newer SM groups like EXO
We cheered all the same
But often I felt like I was the only one singing by myself at times
As my friends and I were sitting on the right side of the grandstand facing the stage
The cheers always seemed to be coming from the other side while my side seemed eerily quiet or calmer
Maybe because we were seated too far away from the main stage
It seemed like any sound or noise we made would be insignificant and fade into thin air.
But the inevitable was still bound to happen
Just as we reached the highest point of the night with the last finale jam-packed with the latest singles by the various artistes
Rain started to pour again as if Heaven could sense the intense excitement within each of us as all the hottest Kpop hit songs of that time which any Kpop fan would know started playing
Starting from f(x)’s Electric Shock, SHINee’s Sherlock, Girls’ Generation’s The Boys, Super Junior’s Sexy, Free & Single to TVXQ’s Catch Me
All of us were clad in ponchos and sharing umbrellas with each other now
Still waving our lightsticks under the rain
Still trying my best to sing along to these popular songs that I was more familiar with
No matter how insignificant my soft voice would be from a distance so far away and under the loud pitter-patter of rain
The rain got heavier and heavier by the time it was TVXQ’s Catch Me
It was like a symphony of rain
At every highest note belted out by the two TVXQ members
The rain also fell the hardest in response
It was a rain filled with human feelings and emotions
So strange and magical
As if another portal of world had opened up that night
Strangely, when the whole 4-hour concert concluded with the last ending song “Hope” by all of the SM artistes,
The rain also quickly reduced to only a light drizzle by now
As if Heaven knew it was a wrap
What a perfect sweet ending to the rainy Kpop extravaganza of the year
That night I went back home after having had a unique first experience watching a concert under the rain
Completely unaware that a series of bizarre spiritual events related to Kpop and SNSD would await me in the fast approaching 2013
I didn’t even capture or keep any single photos by myself for memory of that night in November 2012
Not leaving a trace of having been to a SMTOWN concert in Singapore before
Except for these two old Facebook posts that I managed to find now 10 years later…
