Seeing Psy Live

So last night I found out Psy had a free concert at City Hall in Seoul. Not realizing the amount of planning it might take to get there, I decided to leave at 7:00pm and meet my friend Erika. Bad life decision, the subways were heaving and even if I had decided against going, there was no way out of the exit. I had planned to meet friends at exit 5, which of course was blocked off due to the high numbers of Korean fans. I maneuvered out of another exit and raced down the street, dodging old ladies and bounding past cars to get inside before the gate closed.

absolutely heaving subway!

Of course I had trouble Kakao-ing anyone because as you all probably know, Koreans love their phones! There were more phones than people in the area, making reception and internet usage damn near impossible. News crews kept stopping and asking me questions, obviously wanting the Waygook opinion of Psy in Korea. My response was the same every time "I love Psy. He's great and I am so excited to be here. Woo hoo, go Korea."

By the time I finally found Erika we were on completely separate sections of the gate. We waved sadly at each other long enough that some of the news crew and camera men noticed and helped me climb behind their gear to finally meet her. An old woman next to me (who I thought was a volunteer) began bumping me, fanning herself and screaming something in Korea, I ignored her until she put her hands on me. Anyone who knows me knows I can control my temper until I get touched! A guy next to me said the woman kept saying she was "hot" and we needed to move further into the crowd, basically she didn't like foreigners and thought she would attempt to punk us. She definitely picked the wrong person and we pretty much had a 10 minute verbal row, which ended with me telling her if she was feeling hot she needed to move and we would have issues if she touched me again. All of the young Koreans around us were laughing and one even translated for her...so she got the message. I have a tendency to believe people should maintain their composure especially when representing yourself as a foreigner in a new country...but...sometimes things happen and it turned into an epic-ally hilarious argument.

As it got later and the crowd filled up, people started pushing and shoving each other against the gates. This was not normal rock concert shoving, this was rock concert shoving in ASIA! Highly populated with tech savvy, adoring fans, many of them out of their heads on soju. This was the most diverse crowd I've seen, from young kids to old men and women, it was definitely surprising, but nice to see how much pride South Koreans have in their entertainers and how much support PSY receives. When it was no longer safe to stay where we were, we desperately tried to make our way through the crowd, chatting up each cute Korean man we encountered on the way. We were not moving more than an inch for every ten minutes.

Finally, a super funny Korean boy behind us started yelling something and it was as if he was Moses who parted the crowd. People were bowing and apologizing all over the place. It took us a minute to realize he was saying "pregnant women coming through" but hey, whatever works. We found a sweet spot in the back near some insane business men (one of whom picked Erika up so she could see better), cracked open some Hite beer and went mental to Psy. Towards the end, a man leaned over and said "only five minutes left,now he play Gangnam style." We ran towards the subway and perched behind a crowd of people and just like he said, Gangnam style started. I have never had so much fun dancing with folks in the street. Watching the excitement and pride that people felt about Psy's success was inspiring and dancing to Psy live has definitely been the highlight of my time in Korea so far!