Finally, the days that we had been waiting for came: BIGBANG ALIVE TOUR IN JAKARTA. On Friday, October 12^th, we arrived at Mata Elang International Stadium around 3 pm and were greeted by the long queues of VIPs. We asked several VIPs there and to our surprise, they said most of them even had been queuing since 10 am, even though the gate would be opened at 6 pm and the concert would start at 8 pm. Yes, we could feel the VIPs’ excitement. Most VIPs wore their own fan-made BIGBANG T-shirt and held their light sticks, banners, posters etc. They, too, had prepared sunglasses, umbrellas and hand fans, since they queued since day light and MEIS is actually located at the beach. Not having our lunch yet, we decided to have some meal first at the mall area. We had Tribune tickets, so it didn’t matter if we didn’t queue.

Around 5.30 pm, we decided to walk around the venue because the sun was setting and it was at the beach. It was too beautiful to be missed! We looked around and visited several booths. The Official Merchandise booth caught our eyes. Just like the name suggested, they sold BIGBANG Official Merchandise from YGE, such as t-shirts, hoodies, hand fans, bags, and crown light sticks, etc. Since they are official from Korea, of course the prices are quite expensive, around IDR 200K – 850K. At 6 pm, they opened the gate, and we started to queue. Once we entered, there were two big screens showing the latest MVs from BIGBANG. We could hear the loud cheering from VIPs because of the MVs. We admit we were cheering on the MVs too ^^

At 8 pm, the lights were off and we couldn’t help but screaming. The yellow ocean coming from yellow crown light sticks appeared. Hysterical screams were echoing throughout MEIS when the intro of Alive was being played. In seconds, the white fabric covering the stage was removed. There were five transparent capsules  which contained Taeyang, Daesung, G-Dragon, Seungri and TOP, like aliens sent to the earth. Once the capsules were opened, G-Dragon electrified the audience by shouting “What’s up Indonesia? Jakarta. Make some noise!!!” Yes baby, BIGBANG are still alive and they’re ready to party!

They greeted the audience with upbeat songs such as: Tonight, Hands Up and of course the anthemic Fantastic Baby that heated up the atmosphere. After singing three songs, they disappeared to the backstage. The dancers, Hitech and Crazy, did some kind of battle dance at the stage, to buy the boys some time, we assumed. Not long after that, BIGBANG went back to the stage, singing their old song How Gee. For the performance, GD and TOP went out from backstage riding Segways while Taeyang rode a customized bike. After Stupid Liar, GD and TOP rushed again to the backstage, while Taeyang, Daesung and Seungri greeted the audience in English. Yes, you read it right. Not only Taeyang, Daesung and Seungri greeted us in English as well. And a little Indonesian I may add. ‘Hello, how are you? Welcome to the Alive Tour in Jakarta.’ Seungri said. ‘My name is Daesung. Aku cinta padamu’ Daesung said, which of course made us and the rest of the audience screamed hysterically. Taeyang seemed to love phrase ‘Aku cinta padamu’ so much that he kept rapping the line ‘Aku.. aku.. aku cinta padamu’

When Seungri asked ‘What do you like from Indonesia?’, Daesung shouted ‘MAKAAANNNNN’ and added ‘I like rendang’. Taeyang said ‘I like mi goreng’ and Seungri said ‘I like lontong’ (he said lontong in funny way that we had hard time to finally understand it).

The talk time by the three gave time to GD and TOP to change their wardrobes. Not long after that, both of them appeared from the backstage, sitting on some kind of throne made from piles of subwoofers for ‘Knock Out’. They wore ice (TOP) and fire (GD) patterned suits. High High made the audience jump around, and the most anticipated highlight was, of course, G.H.E.T.T.O E.L.E.E.C.T.R.O dance.

The first solo stage came from the maknae, Seungri. He looked very manly in a sort of black bulletproof vest and sunglasses while carrying a laser gun. We personally  thought he looked so handsome and cool in that outfit! They remixed Strong Baby and What Can I Do into techno beat. Afterwards, the five of them came back to the stage to perform some songs from their Japanese albums, Gara Gara Go and Number 1.

The tempo started to slow down when BIGBANG sang Bad Boy. The whole audience started to sing along with them for the whole lyrics. And then, we were pampered with the soft melody from Blue. I, personally, had a special attachment to the song, since it was the first song released after the unfortunate events happened to them last year, plus the heartbreaking melody and lyrics made me feel a bit mellow. After Love Song and Feeling, it’s time for Taeyang’s solo stage. Look Only at Me and Wedding Dress were performed with neat choreography and, of course, wonderful voice. As we all expected, Taeyang did a little fan-service which made most girls scream. Any guess? Yup, he ripped his white shirt and showed his perfectly toned abs.

I have to admit, Wings by Daesung was my one of the most anticipated solo stages of all. The song’s tempo really suits his voice, and the lyrics really match his warm personality. At the end of performance, he wore a big white wing and flew into the air. For a second, he looked like an angel. A smiling angel.

One of our favorite moments was, even VIPs around the world would agree on this, when BIGBANG sang the acoustic version of Haru Haru. We could hear the audience’s voices singing the whole lyrics instead of BIGBANG members’, as if they wanted to give the song to their idols. They also sang Lies and Last Farewell. Before ending the spectacular concert, BIGBANG sang three more songs as encore; Heaven, Fantastic Baby and Bad Boy. They performed around 25 songs for two and a half hours. We went home, grinning in satisfaction.

For the second day (Saturday, October 13^th) we decided to buy the Festival ticket so we could freely dance around to the songs.

When we entered the Festival area, the front area near stage was already packed. During the show, we several times noticed the staff carried the fainted audience out of the crowd. It made BIGBANG members worried and Taeyang kept reminding the audience to back off to loosen the front row. The funny thing was, when Taeyang asked them to back off, the audience at the Festival B kept staring at TOP, who was standing in front of them. Knowing the situation, Taeyang said ‘Don’t look at TOP, look at me!’ Awww, sorry, Taeyang. It’s kinda hard to take our eyes away from TOP ^^

The song list was pretty much the same as the first day. During the talk time, they no longer talked about food. Instead, Seungri showed us the new phrase he just learned, which was ‘Di mana toilet?’. The whole MEIS was filled by our laughter. Wasn’t he just too cute? At the end of the show, Daesung waved goodbye and repeatedly saying ‘selamat malam’ and ‘selamat tinggal’ to us in a funny accent (somehow like Javanese accent to us). Another memorable moment on the second day was during Blue performance. The crowd together turned on the blue light sticks which were distributed beforehand. The yellow ocean changed into a dramatic blue ocean, adding the melancholy carried by the song itself.

For this last day of the concert, Seungri recorded the hyungs, dancers and band members during the encore. It was uploaded at their Youtube official account ^^ Another unforgettable moment during the encore was when a woman jumped over the guardrail to touch TOP, who went near the Festival B section. She managed to pull TOP’s jacket, but the security quickly grabbed her and TOP went back to the stage with a shocked yet smiley face.

Big Daddy as the promoter did a good job, considering it was their first time holding a K-pop concert. Yet there were some things that could be improved to make the audience feel even more comfortable. For example, the queuing system was not handled well that the tribune ticket holders, which supposedly had numbered seats, still needed to queue since morning just what the festival ticket holders did. For the venue, even though MEIS has the biggest capacity for an indoor stadium in Indonesia, it still lacks of facilities and quite uncomfortable to us. Aside from those stuffs, BIGBANG Alive Tour in Jakarta made us say: WOW, FANTASTIC BABY!

Ps: this writing was made back in 2012 but translated recently. After Alive Tour, we went back to MEIS to catch more other events and we have witnessed some improvement in facilities. 

An Indonesian blogpost is available here.