FT Island & CN Blue “Stand Up”

March 9th Los Angeles, CA from the Nokia Theater. The FT Island & CN Blue joint concert took place and it was a night to remember. What more is there to say- it’s FT ISLAND AND CN BLUE!! Before the concert started there was a fan meet up that had fans from different places of the US such as Maine, Washington and New York. Also some international fans traveled from Japan, South Korea, Sweden, El Salvador, Mexico , and Puerto Rico. K-Pop really doesn’t have any limits because it can reach anyone anywhere in the world. Fans could be seen with their custom made fan signs, flags of FT Island, CN Blue towels, and light sticks from both groups. People even recognized me asking: “Hey are you that dancer from Youtube?” The fans sang a birthday chant in Korean for Hongki before the doors opened for the concert- it was an exciting moment.

The lights went on and the crowd went wild with yelling and clapping because it was the moment everyone at the Nokia had been awaiting for months and in a matter of seconds CN Blue would be on that very stage to rock out in front of their audience. And there they were: CN Blue fangirls and fanboys screaming at the top of their lungs to show their support for the favorite group.

CN Blue sang Intuition, In my Head, Love Girl, One Time and other songs. Sorry Ladies no OST from Heartstrings “Because I Miss You” which I know would have had the venue crying T_T. Such a good song. The energy of the night was high and never went down for a minute. Jonghyun had an excellent guitar solo with smoke covering him while he was riffing to the 5,000 spectators. After a couple of songs they made their introduction to their fans. They spoke English to the crowd and everyone was either shocked or laughed because of their accents. They did their introduction saying they love LA and love US rock bands such as Bon Jovi and Californian band The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Of course my first reaction was “Bon Jovi where???”. Yonghwa said “I love LA” and the moment when he asked the sound tech people to light up the place so he could see us in the audience- the tech person must had been on break or something. The crowd was going bananas and the ladies behind me where yelling “Saranghae” for their favorite CN Blue Members “Saranghaeyo Minhyuk!”, “Saranghaeyo Jungshin!”, “Saranghaeyo Jonghyun!” and “Saranghaeyo Yonghwa!” at the top of their lungs.

The last song of CN Blue set was “I’m a Loner”. The audience was shocked that the high energy and power riffing rockers were about to leave the stage to make way for FT Island. CN Blue went out with a bang, promising that they will have a longer set list next time which pumped the crowd for their last song “I’m A Loner”. Yonghwa came to the center of the stage and sang a bit of “I’m A Loner” to the crowd and it didn’t take long and the crowd followed and harmonized with Yonghwa. Their performance was so intense that Yonghwa was sweating bullets. He really gave the crowd a show that they would never forget.

Next was FT Island who performed Hello Hello, Love Love Love, I Hope, Love Sick, Severely, a cover of I’ll Love Everything ( by Song Gol Mae) and other songs as well.
FT Island’s Hongki, Jonghun, Jaejin, Minhwan and Seunghyun could feel the love from their fans, from the “I love you”s and constant yelling. It was great. There were 3 fans boys that sat next to me and they were throwing hearts to FT Island the whole time. There were also moments where they almost fell from their seats from all that fanboying. Hongki asked the crowed who could speak Korean and he went to a Non- Korean and he was shocked because she sort of understood him.

While Ft Island did “Lovesick” a group of fans were crying because they never thought they would ever get the chance to see FT Island live. Hongki was soothing the crowd with his vocals and made the women fall in love with him again and again. The fans’ appreciation grew bigger with every word he sang.

They also did their last hit which was faint worthy. I knew it from watching many of their performances online and finally seeing that song performed live with FT Island putting so much passion into their songs- was a real treat. With such flawlessness in their performance proved why they have won so many awards in South Korea.

During the last song Hongki told the crowd to sit down and everyone did. He started to sing to the crowd softly and then said “JUMP!” which got the crowd back on their feet to continue which resembled more like a party then a K-pop Concert. Not a dull moment with FT Island. Hongki went from side to side of each corner of the stage and then he grabbed a fan’s flag and was waving it and the audience followed taking their flags and also knowing it might be a while before they would be able to see FT Island again. They finished their set but came back to the stage with CN Blue. Everyone took photos of the brotherhood of the two hard working rock bands in the K-Pop scene. Before FT Island and CN Blue left the stage they thanked everyone for coming to the concert and took a bow.