I’ve never been a major music concert in my life and I was already thinking I’d probably never go to one ever, unless I was a crazy fan willing to dish out several hundreds for a band that I truly admired and cared about. Seeing Big Bang live last Wednesday was an experience never to forget. Those 2 and a half hours should’ve extended to at least 8 hours, it flew like crazy. Listening to them made me realize how amazing live performances can be – they did that to the point of perfection. I don’t like every single Big Bang song and even when they performed them, turns out I liked the songs so much. 5 years of waiting for this moment, and I’m willing to wait again for their next concert.
When Big Bang announced their MADE album tour for the first time in Australia this October, it was like…What. The. Heck…I didn’t think there would be enough Big Bang fans in Australia, ever. At the time of the announcement (around July I think) they only mentioned Sydney in the tour schedule. I was devastated they weren’t coming to Melbourne but at the same time, it was expected that of all the cities in Australia Big Bang would visit, it would be Sydney. Sydney gets everything! I was still at work when the news got released, I found out when my friends texted me immediately. We were already in talks of doing a trip to Sydney. Checking airfares, hotel rates, bus trips and all. Perhaps a one night’s stay in Sydney for the concert would be enough. Or two nights? All I recall was sending many texts back and forth, carefully planning this Sydney trip.
A week later I get two text messages from the same friends. I checked my phone after work and the first message said: “GSIDWGWSDHKJWHDKJHASKSH BIG BANG ARE GONNA COME TO MELB JSBDKJBDKJNSADLKSNCLKSNFCKNDS”. Then I check my other friend’s message and it was almost the exact same thing but with more uppercase letters and excessive use of exclamation marks. Well, there goes our Sydney plans hah! Where do I begin? There was a group on facebook I supported called “Bring Big Bang to Melbourne” and it had about a thousand people who joined. Mind you this is after they announced Sydney and before they announced Melbourne. I was thinking there’s no way they’d come to Melbourne, impossible, but I’ll support this group anyway because who knows what could happen. Am I crazy to think that joining this group may have been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made? Obviously there’s lesser fans in Melbourne and Rod Laver Arena has a seating capacity of 15,000 in comparison to Sydney’s 30,000 plus seating in the Allphone’s Arena. All I can say is that I’m super impressed by the online support shown within the Melbourne BB community.
A month later pre-sale tickets were on and I tried going for VIP tickets but no luck. I tried again for the next round of tickets, again no luck. And the third time, no luck. My friend was very lucky enough to get VIP in the third round so I was happy for her knowing that one of us could at least experience the thrill of VIP treatment. I swear those tickets are based on pure luck. I had 3 different devices on as soon as it was on sale, refreshed all browsers and still couldn’t get my hands on one ticket. Unfortunately there are horrible people out there who buy VIP tickets and sell it for double the price to desperate fans straight away. I went for two Platinum tickets which were the second best (my mom wanted to come along as well). In the end I didn’t care too much about VIP anymore, if I could bring anyone to experience this concert with, it would be my mom.
Platinum tickets had seating but the only time we sat down was in between songs and during intermissions. The Melbourne crowd didn’t bother sitting down, life is too short so we should dance more. Even my mom danced more than I did. One of the band members, Seungri, told us he did some research on Melbourne and from what he found on google, he said “Melbourne people party hard”. Yup, that’s exactly what we proved to him and the gang on Wednesday. It was a full house, not one person sat down, it was literally an ocean of yellow crown sticks and hands moving in the air. Rod Laver Arena is very cosy and no matter where you sit you’re bound to get a great view of the main stage. The best thing about a cosy arena is that you can feel the energy of the crowd.
I’m having major withdrawals as I type this post, ever since the concert I’ve listened to “If You” on repeat, put my crown stick back into its original packaging (the box is well designed I must say) and left it on a prominent site of my desk so every morning when I wake up it’s the first thing I see, rewatched my vids and continuously reminisce with friends via text and social media. After the reception Big Bang got from the Melbourne crowd, I’m sure they’re keen to come back and explore more of what this great city has to offer in the future.
