LAMEASS PRE-GAME      ►     CONCERT      ►     SETLIST ANALYSIS     ►     SAPPY THOUGHTS





► SETLIST ANALYSIS


I have always been thoroughly impressed by SM's production values for EXO's activities, whether it be through music videos, promotional photoshoots, or group styling. They don't recycle classically K-pop boyband concepts, but instead, push the envelope and set trends. And the result is always well thought-out and produced. I can always count on a level of sophistication and quality.

( We are one! We are one! We are one! )

LAMEASS PRE-GAME      ►     CONCERT      ►     SETLIST ANALYSIS     ►     SAPPY THOUGHTS







► FINAL THOUGHTS


Well damn, it's all over.

For the next few days, I'm in denial. Disbelief. Shock.

( We are one! We are one! We are one! We are one! )

EXO PLANET #2: The EXO'luXion
Sunday, February 21, 2016  (6:30pm)
Newark, NJ





Disclaimer: This fan account is just as much a record of events that day as a diary entry of an emotional journey. With that said, it is overwrought with detail and overly flowery language, as I try to fully capture the magic of those three hours. Days, months, even years down the line, I don't want to forget a single second of it.

The writing is honestly more a cesspool of rambling thoughts sprinkled with a dash of actual event documentation. The breakdown is something like this:

30% Artistic License -- I have somehow decided to make write a mini-adventure story out of this
I had also intended to embed concert photos and vids but I broke my computer and everything from the concert was on there, and I honestly have no idea if it'll ever be able to retrieve them, so this will be just a big chunk of text for now (and possibly forever). Soz :(

FYI I am a shameless Baek stan and have tunnel vision only for him, so the majority of the flaily comments will be about him. ...You have been warned.

TLDR: This thing is entirely too long and dramatic. I wrote so much it exceeded the posting limit so I had to split it into not two, but three FOUR posts. For the actual concert recap (which is also hella long), go to CONCERT, located in a separate post.




LAMEASS PRE-GAME      ►     CONCERT     ►     SETLIST ANALYSIS      ►     SAPPY THOUGHTS








► PRE-GAME


This was the first time I was attending a k-pop concert and I got all hyped up about buying tickets, since the only people I knew who were going were really into EXO and as crazy as me, so it felt like the entire world was waiting for ticket sales were open. (In retrospect, I totally overestimated the demand.) When the tickets were released at 8pm (soooo nerve-wracking omfg I'm positive it was even worse than college decisions coming out), I refreshed consecutively for the first ten minutes without any luck. At first, I thought that maybe all the tickets had sold out and I wasn't going to get one. Nevertheless, I sat there and kept refreshing and fifteen minutes in, Ticketmaster finally showed me a ticket for Section 21, putting me wayyy out there into Siberia to the right of the stage (lower level). I had hoped to get a standing ticket but at this point, I didn't care what it was. I just wanted anything to get in. Without hesitation, I paid for it.

( We are one! )

► CONCERT


1. Opening VCR
The video starts with a History-esque styling with Overdose motifs talking about mysterious objects and EXO origins and things, most of which I didn't understand. I'm too busy screaming and hyperventilating to bother with comprehension. I also couldn't see the subtitles nor hear the narrator over all the cheering, so that probably didn't help either. I did try to absorb the content of the material, but I'm mostly asking what the fuck is going on and also freaking out because the concert is starting it's fucking starting THE EXO CONCERT IS STARTING I’M GOING TO SEE THEM IN PERSON NOW AND THEY'RE GOING TO BE LESS THAN 20 FEET AWAY FROM ME AND OH MY GODDDDDD

( We are one! We are one! )

fan·dom /ˈfan-dəm/
-n. fans collectively, as of a motion-picture star or a professional game or sport.

by hesychasm

Fandom is focus. Fandom is obsession. Fandom is insatiable consumption. Fandom is sitting for hours in front of a TV screen a movie screen a computer screen with a comic book a novel on your lap. Fandom is eyestrain and carpal tunnel syndrome and not enough exercise and staying up way, way past your bedtime.

Fandom is people you don't tell your mother you're meeting. Fandom is people in the closet, people out and proud, people in costumes, people in T-shirts with slogans only fifty others would understand. Fandom is a loud dinner conversation scaring the waiter and every table nearby.

Fandom is you in Germany and me in the US and him in Australia and her in Japan. Fandom is a sofabed in New York, a roadtrip to Oxnard, a friend behind a face in London. Fandom talks past timezones and accents and backgrounds. Fandom is conversation. Communication. Contact.

Fandom is drama. Fandom is melodrama. Fandom is high school. Fandom is Snacky's law and Godwin's law and Murphy's law. Fandom is smarter than you. Fandom is stupider than you. Fandom is five arguments over and over and over again. Fandom is the first time you've ever had them.

Fandom is female. Fandom is male. Fandom lets female play at being male. Fandom bends gender, straight, gay, prude, promiscuous. Fandom is fantasy. Fandom doesn't care about norms or taboos or boundaries. Fandom cares too much about norms and taboos and boundaries. Fandom is not real life. Fandom is closer than real life. Fandom knows what you're really like in the bedroom. Fandom is how you would never, could never be in the bedroom.

Fandom is shipping, never shipping, het, slash, gen, none of the above, more than the above. Fandom is love for characters you didn't create. Fandom is recreating the characters you didn't create. Fandom is appropriation, subversion, dissention. Fandom is adoration, extrapolation, imitation. Fandom is dissection, criticism, interpretation. Fandom is changing, experimenting, attempting.

Fandom is creating. Fandom is drawing, painting, vidding: nine seasons in four minutes of love. Fandom is words, language, authoring. Fandom is essays, stories, betas, parodies, filks, zines, usenet posts, blog posts, message board posts, emails, chats, petitions, wank, concrit, feedback, recs. Fandom is writing for the first time since you were twelve. Fandom is finally calling yourself a writer.

Fandom is signal and response. Fandom is a stranger moving you to tears, anger, laughter. Fandom is you moving a stranger to speak.

Fandom is distraction. Fandom is endangering your job, your grades, your relationships, your bank account. Fandom gets no work done. Fandom is too much work. Fandom was/is just a phase. Fandom could never be just a phase. Fandom is where you found a friend, a sister, a kindred spirit. Fandom is where you found a talent, a love, a reason.

Fandom is where you found yourself.

Sources: photo, definition, post