XIA Junsu’s Tarantallegra in Hollywood + BONUS

On Sunday, September 2nd, I was able to go to JYJ Junsu’s “Tarantallegra” World Tour Concert stop in Hollywood and, in one word, it was AMAZING!

Of course, I have seen him previously (as an active member in DBSK and previous JYJ concerts) but since this was his first time coming by himself, it was an almost 2 hour concert where all Cassies got to see him as Xiah, the singer and musical actor so I was very ecstatic to see this LIVE.

Before the concert started, there were fans lining up outside the venue. How early? As early as 1am… crazy! I didn’t get there until around noon so I was around the 90th person in line. I was bored waiting in line by myself but things started to get better once chibiSu appeared! Isn’t he adorable?? This fan was dressed in Junsu’s Tarantallegra MV costume, so of course I snapped a picture!

Doors opened up around 7:30pm and the concert didn’t start until around 8:20pm, but once it did, things got heated up. The concert first started by playing the Tarantallegra MV, where fans cheered along loudly! Then an intro CV of Junsu played before he kicked it off with his 1st live performance of the night, “Breathe.” He followed by “No Gain” and soon after took a break to thank the fans before proceeding to his performance of “Lullaby.”

Then FINALLY came the live performance of the song that I have wanted to see LIVE ever since he started to release solo songs:

I’m so used to the original Japanese version but the performance is all the same so it didn’t matter. The whole mirror thing was pretty cool, the more Junsu the better! Even if it was just his reflection, haha. After that sexy performance, he performed “Set Me Free,” another CV was played that had the background music for “I Can Soar,” “You Are So Beautiful“ off the OST for Kdrama “Scent of A Woman” until he got to the fun part… genie time!

During this 8 minute section or so section he interacted with fans and made 3 wishes come true. However, when he choose his first fan, instead of asking him to do something, she gave him a soccer shirt, which he happily accepted with a reply of “I love Soccer!” Adorable. Ok, so overall, wish #1 at 5 minutes, 10 seconds was his trademark, AngelSu! Wish #2 at 5 minutes, 52 seconds was a “Happy Birthday” to Andrea. Lastly, wish #3 at 7 minutes, 15 seconds was him dancing to PSY’s “Gangnam Style,” twice!

After this exciting and fun time, he calmed things down by singing a ballad, “Even Though You Already Know” while holding on to his new soccer shirt. It was followed by “Around and Around” until it was once again time to do another costume change. Instead of CV’s though, his dancers came out to show us some of their moves and then, to my surprise, started performing JYJ’s flashmob dance “Be My Girl,” making fans even more pumped up!

When Junsu came out again, his little musical actor self mode was on and I was SO HAPPY because I had always wanted to see him in a musical! He kicked it off with “Last Dance” from his 3rd and latest musical “Elisabeth.” I was NOT expecting to make eye contact with him for so long, I thought I would only be getting the small glances he was giving everyone throughout the concert… but I’m glad he proved me wrong! You can see it at the 1 minute, 47 seconds mark.

After nearly making me want to drop my camera, he sang “I Am Music” from his 1st musical “Mozart” and also “Why Don’t You Love Me” from the same musical. Since I was not able to go to any of his musicals (Korea, why are you so far!?), this totally made up for it! Then what we had been waiting for:

Soon followed “Fever” and then another CV was played that contained the background music to “Too Love” off of the KDrama “Sung Kyun Kwan Scandal.” Then the MV to his latest track was shown, and although fans loudly sang along, he came out performing the same song, LIVE and of course we sang along, again!

During this performance I was just staring at his face… so I wasn’t aware of his wardrobe malfunction until my friends told me once he was done, and I had to wait until the concert was over to rewatch my fancam, haha. Can you spot it? He mentioned it during his 3rd talk with the fans, and even pointed out the fans *coughfrontrowcough* for looking down in that area, haha, before proceeding to “I Don’t Like Love,” “Dew Ladden Tree,” and his last song of the night, “Fallen Leaves.”

OVERALL this was such an awesome concert because not only did it not seem short, he interacted with the fans ALOT both verbally and by making alot of eye contact with the whole audience while showing his cuteness and charisma. He made everyone so happy to finally get to see him, whether it was the first time for some fans, or just another time for others, that I’m sure he felt those overwhelming feelings and best showed it through his crying at the end of the song.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I was on the 2nd front middle row… so I hope all of our readers enjoyed this concert review from my awesome point of view :)

BONUS: Junsu’s “I Don’t Like Love” performance at the C-Jes auditions in Koreatown the night before!