You wouldn't know how excited I felt when when I heard my idol, Jay Chou was coming to my area (San Jose) for his world tour concert during summer 2010. My heart was jumping with joy when I first heard the news; I have waited for 5 years to finally be able to see him in reality!! I had to buy those VIP tickets no matter what! A month before the tickets went on sale, I was already feeling impatient because I was afraid that other fans will snag all the VIP tickets before I do. However, on the day the tickets went on sale, I was disappointed to find that all the VIP tickets have already been reserved before the tickets were officially released to the public. I thought it wasn't fair because alot of people like me had no idea that we could reserve tickets in advance. The best seats I could get were the seats to the side right next to the stage; the view wasn't very good but I still made the choice to buy those seats because I wanted to see Jay up close.
Here's my detailed account of the concert: On the day of the concert (December 31, 2010), my sister and I arrived about 1 and a half hour early before the concert started and boy when we got there, the line was somewhat long already. However, the doors weren't even open yet and people were already forming 2 lines outside. What's awesome was that a white guy was the first person to be standing on one of the two lines. (he probably is a die-hard fan to have came that early). Without any hesitation, we quickly made our way to one of the lines. It was pretty freezing during that day too and we had to wait in the cold weather about 30 more minutes until the security guards finally opened the doors. My heart was jumping with excitement when I finally made it inside Hp pavilion. Wow, it was my first time there and the place was so big and mesmerizing!!! :D
Next, we speed-walked to the line to purchase jay merchandises and glowsticks. We were actually like the 6th persons in line and were glad because the line became longer when more people started coming in. The first thing that caught my eye was the pink t-shirt. I heard this t-shirt sold out later so I was glad I purchased it!! :D The merchandises were kinda costly but it's worth the money since jay barely comes to san jose. I bought almost everything except for the advertised poster, the ring, and the blue keychain. There were the robot toys too but I already have those. The pink star glowstick was only $5 but we only bought one because I brought my own. However, I regretted not buying another one because the one we bought died during the concert. I was also expecting them to sell the jay piano music box and the huge jay blue figurine but those weren't there; those were probably sold out during his concerts in Asia. When we were finished buying merchandises, we went to find our seats. It was hard to buy good seats at that time because many people had already reserved all the VIP tickets so the best seats we could get were the second most expensive ones. I found my seat and it was on the very first row on the sides which was right next to the stage but at the corner. Wow, I was amazed by how close I was to the stage but the view was somewhat bad since I was not facing the stage directly. Plus, the boombox was kind of hindering the stage. We had to wait for 30 more minutes until the concert started. I scanned around the stage and noticed there was a big globe-like ball sitting in the middle of the stage. I was curious what it was for... There was a girl named Jessica sitting next to my sister and we mingled a bit with her. She brought 2 big Jay Chou poster signs that her mom helped her to make. Wow, barely anyone brought signs to the concert; I was impressed that she did. Next time, I should make a big poster too! Since my sister was sitting next to her, she asked my sister to help her hold up the poster signs and wave it to jay. I noticed that most of the people in the VIP seats were baby boomers!!! Wow, they must've been a fan for 10 years already!
30 minutes later, the lights turned off and the 3d box turned on!! Omg, it's finally starting!! I This is the intro! Then music started playing and I noticed something was moving in the box. Oh! It was a 3d image of Jay moving in the box. Suddenly, the music changed into rock music and the 3d jay was suddenly holding a guitar and strumming it. After the intro ended, the "dragon rider" song started playing and then the big ball opened. Omg, at that moment, my heart was beating very fast due to excitement because I couldn't believe that I was going to see him! When the ball opened, Jay was standing in it and wearing a dazzling outfit!!! I quickly took out my camera and snapped pictures like crazy. Halfway through the song, Jay came down from the ball.
When the "dragon rider" song ended, "The era" song started playing and then Jay started walking to the front near the VIPers. At that time, everybody was screaming like crazy!!! I was saying "Oh my gods" for countless times when I finally saw his face up close! He stopped at the very front of the stage and continued to sing until the part of the stage where he stood suddenly moved and went upward. A few seconds later, Jay was up in the air standing on a mini stage. It was pretty cool how he managed to balance well on that pole-like stage.
The next song was "Snake Dance" and it opened up with fire blowing in the air and the female dancers performing the snake dance for like 5 minutes. When the song officially started after 5 min., Jay appeared wearing a shiny golden outfit and sitting on a chair. He was sitting the whole time during the performance. I thought Lara was going to appear to sing her part but turned out it was just a substitute for her. The substitute was sitting in the cage-like chair the guys were carrying and lip-synching to Lara's part. After the song ended, Jay started talking; he said that san jose's scenery was very beautiful and he was glad it was his first time here. He told us that he had always wanted to come here but his company had arranged his concert to be somewhere else and that is, Los angeles. Then he talked a bit about his life like how he was shy back then and didn't want to make eye contact with people by hiding his eyes behind his hat. He also said he had a hard time seeing the road in front of him when his eyes were covered. After the talking, Jay did a mini beat-box version of "Love In B.C" song and when he was beat-boxing, he suddenly coughed. haha so cute!! Auto-tune was also added to take advantage of the latest trend in music. The next song was "I'm Not Worthy" and Jay appeared with a dazzling shiny outfit. The first thing that happened was that he walked to the corner to where my sister and I were sitting; we got excited and started screaming. Omg, Jay Chou was so close to us (like 5 ft away) and standing in front of us!!! At that moment, my sister and Jessica were screaming and waving the poster like crazy to get jay's attention while I was snapping pictures and waving to jay at the same time. . Next, Jay performed the "Hip-Hop Stewardess" song. The female dancers wore the same outfit as seen in the MV and the choreography was pretty good. Next was "William's Castle" and dancers appeared in Grim Reaper outfits.. It was so Halloweenish.. Then it was "Mr. Magician" where Jay appeared wearing a red Michael Jackson-like outfit.:D
Then Jay introduced Cindy Yuen, a new female singer under his company. She appeared wearing a dazzling dress and playing the piano. I forgot what song she was singing.. I felt kinda sad because few people were cheering for her as they were not very familiar with this newcomer. Then Jay and Cindy Yuen sang a duet together, "Wu Ding" or "Rooftop", which was a song Jay had written for Taiwanese singer, Landy Wen. it was a very beautiful song.... During the performance, for the second time, Jay made his way to the corner towards us!!
Next up were performances by the new duo who is also under JVR Music called "The Drifters" with Darren and Chang Qing. Like Cindy, not many people cheered for them. They appeared wearing Indian-like clothes that were supposed to be Chinese style clothing but didn't really look like it. Firstly,they sang one of their songs from their album, "Write Letters When Thinking Of You". Halfway through the song, Chang Qing walked towards the corner to where Jay was standing earlier and we screamed like crazy again because we wanted to get their attention too. Chang Qing was very nice to have responded with us with a very warm smile and a wave!! He even made eye contact with me because I was the one right next to the stage!! :D We gave him credit for noticing and acknowledging us. I wished Jay would respond to us like that too but he has way too many fans. Another song they performed was "You're My Band-aid", a very cute song composed by Jay.
Jay played the next four songs on his white piano but I couldn't see Jay's face during that time because the piano was blocking my view. He was playing 4 songs related to the 4 seasons and those were "Fireworks Cooled Easily", "Rice Paddy Fragrance", "Tornado", and "Sunny Otaku". If I recall, I think he also performed "Where's the promised happiness" on his piano.
Next up he performed "Simple Love" where he suddenly came down to shake hands with his fans for the first time!! However, it the VIPers who got that advantage. We were expecting Jay to come to the sides to shake our hands too since we were in the first row but there was a security blocking the way in front of us!! If that security wasn't there, Jay might have made his way to us!! Here is the video I recorded during the performance: (Sorry for shaky hands again~)Next, we speed-walked to the line to purchase jay merchandises and glowsticks. We were actually like the 6th persons in line and were glad because the line became longer when more people started coming in. The first thing that caught my eye was the pink t-shirt. I heard this t-shirt sold out later so I was glad I purchased it!! :D The merchandises were kinda costly but it's worth the money since jay barely comes to san jose. I bought almost everything except for the advertised poster, the ring, and the blue keychain. There were the robot toys too but I already have those. The pink star glowstick was only $5 but we only bought one because I brought my own. However, I regretted not buying another one because the one we bought died during the concert. I was also expecting them to sell the jay piano music box and the huge jay blue figurine but those weren't there; those were probably sold out during his concerts in Asia. When we were finished buying merchandises, we went to find our seats. It was hard to buy good seats at that time because many people had already reserved all the VIP tickets so the best seats we could get were the second most expensive ones. I found my seat and it was on the very first row on the sides which was right next to the stage but at the corner. Wow, I was amazed by how close I was to the stage but the view was somewhat bad since I was not facing the stage directly. Plus, the boombox was kind of hindering the stage. We had to wait for 30 more minutes until the concert started. I scanned around the stage and noticed there was a big globe-like ball sitting in the middle of the stage. I was curious what it was for... There was a girl named Jessica sitting next to my sister and we mingled a bit with her. She brought 2 big Jay Chou poster signs that her mom helped her to make. Wow, barely anyone brought signs to the concert; I was impressed that she did. Next time, I should make a big poster too! Since my sister was sitting next to her, she asked my sister to help her hold up the poster signs and wave it to jay. I noticed that most of the people in the VIP seats were baby boomers!!! Wow, they must've been a fan for 10 years already!
30 minutes later, the lights turned off and the 3d box turned on!! Omg, it's finally starting!! I This is the intro! Then music started playing and I noticed something was moving in the box. Oh! It was a 3d image of Jay moving in the box. Suddenly, the music changed into rock music and the 3d jay was suddenly holding a guitar and strumming it. After the intro ended, the "dragon rider" song started playing and then the big ball opened. Omg, at that moment, my heart was beating very fast due to excitement because I couldn't believe that I was going to see him! When the ball opened, Jay was standing in it and wearing a dazzling outfit!!! I quickly took out my camera and snapped pictures like crazy. Halfway through the song, Jay came down from the ball.
When the "dragon rider" song ended, "The era" song started playing and then Jay started walking to the front near the VIPers. At that time, everybody was screaming like crazy!!! I was saying "Oh my gods" for countless times when I finally saw his face up close! He stopped at the very front of the stage and continued to sing until the part of the stage where he stood suddenly moved and went upward. A few seconds later, Jay was up in the air standing on a mini stage. It was pretty cool how he managed to balance well on that pole-like stage.
The next song was "Snake Dance" and it opened up with fire blowing in the air and the female dancers performing the snake dance for like 5 minutes. When the song officially started after 5 min., Jay appeared wearing a shiny golden outfit and sitting on a chair. He was sitting the whole time during the performance. I thought Lara was going to appear to sing her part but turned out it was just a substitute for her. The substitute was sitting in the cage-like chair the guys were carrying and lip-synching to Lara's part. After the song ended, Jay started talking; he said that san jose's scenery was very beautiful and he was glad it was his first time here. He told us that he had always wanted to come here but his company had arranged his concert to be somewhere else and that is, Los angeles. Then he talked a bit about his life like how he was shy back then and didn't want to make eye contact with people by hiding his eyes behind his hat. He also said he had a hard time seeing the road in front of him when his eyes were covered. After the talking, Jay did a mini beat-box version of "Love In B.C" song and when he was beat-boxing, he suddenly coughed. haha so cute!! Auto-tune was also added to take advantage of the latest trend in music. The next song was "I'm Not Worthy" and Jay appeared with a dazzling shiny outfit. The first thing that happened was that he walked to the corner to where my sister and I were sitting; we got excited and started screaming. Omg, Jay Chou was so close to us (like 5 ft away) and standing in front of us!!! At that moment, my sister and Jessica were screaming and waving the poster like crazy to get jay's attention while I was snapping pictures and waving to jay at the same time. . Next, Jay performed the "Hip-Hop Stewardess" song. The female dancers wore the same outfit as seen in the MV and the choreography was pretty good. Next was "William's Castle" and dancers appeared in Grim Reaper outfits.. It was so Halloweenish.. Then it was "Mr. Magician" where Jay appeared wearing a red Michael Jackson-like outfit.:D
Then Jay introduced Cindy Yuen, a new female singer under his company. She appeared wearing a dazzling dress and playing the piano. I forgot what song she was singing.. I felt kinda sad because few people were cheering for her as they were not very familiar with this newcomer. Then Jay and Cindy Yuen sang a duet together, "Wu Ding" or "Rooftop", which was a song Jay had written for Taiwanese singer, Landy Wen. it was a very beautiful song.... During the performance, for the second time, Jay made his way to the corner towards us!!
Next up were performances by the new duo who is also under JVR Music called "The Drifters" with Darren and Chang Qing. Like Cindy, not many people cheered for them. They appeared wearing Indian-like clothes that were supposed to be Chinese style clothing but didn't really look like it. Firstly,they sang one of their songs from their album, "Write Letters When Thinking Of You". Halfway through the song, Chang Qing walked towards the corner to where Jay was standing earlier and we screamed like crazy again because we wanted to get their attention too. Chang Qing was very nice to have responded with us with a very warm smile and a wave!! He even made eye contact with me because I was the one right next to the stage!! :D We gave him credit for noticing and acknowledging us. I wished Jay would respond to us like that too but he has way too many fans. Another song they performed was "You're My Band-aid", a very cute song composed by Jay.
Jay played the next four songs on his white piano but I couldn't see Jay's face during that time because the piano was blocking my view. He was playing 4 songs related to the 4 seasons and those were "Fireworks Cooled Easily", "Rice Paddy Fragrance", "Tornado", and "Sunny Otaku". If I recall, I think he also performed "Where's the promised happiness" on his piano.
Afterwards, Jay performed the "Free Instructional Song" while playing the guitar like a piano which no other artists have done before.
What followed was the "Time Machine" song where Jay came down for the 2nd time to shake hands!! Everyone was screaming like crazy and pushing to the front to have the chance to touch his hands for the 2nd time. I was expecting him to come towards us again but the security guard was still in the way:( Even though I couldn't touch his hand, it was still amazing to see him up that close!!! I even recorded a video of that footage:
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