The Psy Concert, Or, Why Coming Here Was A Great Choice

I work every day of the week. Most of my coworkers have off one day out of every week, and I usually gaze longingly on their free Fridays or Wednesdays. But yesterday I realized that I am in fact the fortunate one. For you see, I leave work early on Thursday. And it is because of this beautiful blessing that I was able to attend the once-in-a-lifetime Psy concert in downtown Seoul. (extra bonus: it was free!)

Hopefully, we've all heard of Psy by now. And although I discovered this morning that neither of my brothers have ever heard of Psy, I hope they're the only ones who live under rocks.

I left work promptly at 7 and arrived at Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall around 7:45. Even though I was over two hours early, this was not enough time to be within sight of anything on the stage, and as it was, I had a hard time seeing the screens. Meanwhile, the crowd pressed so close that I nearly got crushed a few times. Two old drunk guys got in a fight behind me, and had to be lifted up and pushed over the fence because there was no room for them to just walk out of the crowd. While struggling to stay afloat, I came across a family of Spaniards who had somehow wandered in by accident and had no idea what was going on. Spotting a non-Korean at last, the dad asked me in broken English about what was happening. Once they realized that the concert wasn't for another two hours, they left in disappointment. They missed out.

The crowd settled down eventually, and I was able to work my way further inward, although I was still too far away to see much. In fact, the only time I caught a glimpse of Psy was when, halfway through the concert, he got on top of a giant platform that lifted him high into the air.

This is the only picture I took that doesn't suck. The screens tell me that Psy was somewhere up there.

Psy is a hell of a performer. He sings, he dances, he moves everywhere, and he thanks everyone. There were disco lights, backup dancers, fireworks, explosions, and lots of glitter. Though I didn't understand a single word of what was said, I understood the feeling. This wasn't just another show. This was special. This was a guy coming home from wild success abroad to find an audience of 80,000, all of whom know every single word to every one of his songs, dancing with pure joy and energy for two hours straight as they requested encore after encore. It was a triumphant moment for Psy and a great moment for Korea, too.

There were many highlights of the concert, but my favorite has to be when Psy declared, "this is for Korea" and chugged an entire bottle of soju, then, removing his shirt, performed Gangnam Style for the second time. Korea, you are a beautiful place, and I thank you for producing such a man.

Though video cannot properly convey how awesome the performance was, it can, perhaps, convey the extreme size of the crowd. Check it out.

I am somewhere in that seething mass of singing people, and I am singing just as loud as anyone else.

Today, I told my students that I went to see Psy last night. They were all incredibly jealous. Only one of my students was able to top my story. Her mom is best friends with the organizer, who managed to get them into the front row. This student got a high-five from Psy. I told her that she better introduce me, or I'm going to fail her. No word yet on whether such threats will yield results.