I don’t know if I should post this in KPop, Concerts, or the movie thread.
IU is basically the biggest deal in South Korean music. She has the Taylor Swift/BTS level of popularity, but only domestically. Outside of South Korea, not as much. Because of that, I am not confident that she will ever tour here, even though I’m in NYC. And even if a miracle happens, and she comes, the production will not be anything like what she does for her concerts in Korea.
Anyway, during the dark times, IU didn’t have a concert for three years straight. So in 2022 she did it up big time with The Golden Hour. She put on the same show two nights in a row at the Olympic stadium, sold out both nights.
Just today the video of that concert was shown in theaters around the world. I figured hey. I can walk to a movie theater and watch this concert for $20 from a comfy seat, a huge screen, and a better sound system, and with subtitles during the talking parts. That’s probably better than going to the actual show.
Sure enough, I was right. What a value! The only thing I think I missed out on by watching a video instead of being there in person was the energy of the crowd. In the movie theater the view was better than front row seats. The sound was terrific. The film was edited, so I saved a lot of time. And at $20 it was cheaper than the cheapest nosebleed seat by orders of magnitude.
TL;DR: I would absolutely go see more concert videos in the movie theater.
As for the concert itself, holy shit. This was the biggest production for a concert I have ever seen in my life. It included:
- Giant video screens
- several different sets like a broadway show
- An excessive amount of backup dancers
- live band
- a whole string section that doesn’t even show up until part 3
- several costume changes
- everyone in the crowd had lightsticks which were centrally coordinated into more complex patterns than I have ever seen before.
- lots of pyrotechnics and fireworks
- a fleet of drones drawing in the sky
And if all that wasn’t enough, at one point she got in an honest to god hot air balloon. She said it was so she could get closer to the people in the cheap seats at least once during the show.
OMG.
You could do a lot worse things with 3 hours of your life than watch this concert.