Twice Concert Thoughts

Who thought I'd be writing another pastebin. I thought I abandoned this when I abandoned speedrunning. Anyways, dumb memes aside, this will be a pastebin that explains my thoughts after seeing Twice live on July 21st. Enjoy!

Okay, so first of all let me go into why this concert meant a lot to me and why I love Twice in general. As most of you know, I tend to put myself into bad head spaces and be sad a lot. One thing that I could never figure out when in these situations was how to minimize the sadness and be able to get through it easier. That all changed once I ended up listening to Twice. It started with hearing "Likey" on a Twitch stream and then watching the music video. I've heard of k-pop before but wasn't familiar with Twice. Upon hearing the chorus of "Likey" my life was changed. This one song helped me be happy for the entire three minute and forty-one second run-time, a feeling that was hard to come by for me at the time. I knew that I needed to listen to more and eventually listened to basically every Twice music video and song that I could, I was immediately hooked. I did what every new k-pop fan usually does and started looking into the group more and tried to learn the member's names and more about them. I then went and watched clip compilations of people's favorite Twice moments and not only fell in love with their beautiful appearances but also all of their bright and cheerful personalities. Those two aspects plus their catchy music really made me feel happy and I was surprised that something so simple could bring that emotion back to me whenever I wanted. So yeah, I continued to watch videos of the members and listen to their music on repeat for a while. Twice became one of the things I could rely on to help me out whenever I was down and that really meant a lot to me. I know it may seem dumb to care so much about these random girls I'll never meet but I do because they've helped my mental health a lot. Twice to me, resembles happiness and I'll never forget that. So, there you go, that's why I was so excited to see this concert and why I look forward to their new songs every time something is announced. It's more than music to me, it's a way to escape and feel colorful happiness.

Now on to the concert. I wasn't sure what the atmosphere of the concert would be like because one of the groups' members wasn't there. I was pretty bummed that Mina wouldn't be there but I know she's going through stuff and I hope she feels better soon, I can't imagine the pressure k-idols go through when it comes to performing. Luckily, unlike Blackpink, I was able to get a pretty decent seat which meant I didn't need to stare at a screen the entire time, I was actually able to see the girls and watch them instead of a video feed. Even before the concert began I realized the atmosphere would still be fun, cheerful, and inviting, just like Twice. A family of three sat next to me and I don't talk to people on planes, trains, buses, concerts, etc. so naturally I didn't say anything. I started to fiddle with my lightstick and the man next to me asked me if the app can change the stick's colors so I said yes and then he asked me my favorite member and so on. I didn't think much of it, then about 5 minutes later he told me that he was there with his family and that they traveled from Denver, Colorado. He even said that he knew all of Twice's songs and was really excited for the concert, keep in mind this guy is at least in his mid to late 40s (possibly older). It made me happy because it showed that no matter what age you are you can enjoy music and share a common interest with someone at a concert like this. One more thing before I go into the actual concert. They played a JYP promotion video before it started and that's when I knew this would be a fun night. Everyone and I mean everyone went wild in the venue whenever a popular JYP group came up, the cheers were so loud for every group, it really showed how much love and support we all have for JYP as a company itself.

Now I'll talk about the actual concert. This was better than Blackpink for a multitude of reasons. I had one of the best times of my life, I loved every second of it. They started off by rising out of the ground and immediately went in to an electrifying performance of "Stuck in my Head." Within two seconds of them rising up to the stage everyone stood up and started screaming. That's different from Blackpink, we actually sat the entire time we were there. After the first song the guy next to me turned to me and said, "This is amazing!" it made me so happy to hear he was already enjoying the concert. The first time the girls actually talked to the audience everyone cheered and just went crazy. They didn't use English all the time which was alright but when they did oh my god it was so cute. Dahyun tried so hard to speak English a lot and she did great, she made us all laugh and really feel like we were just having a conversation with her. They sang so many songs and I screamed along to literally every single one of them. They really made us feel like they were there to be with us not just perform for us, it all felt really special. All of the unit stages were incredible, and they did a good job of explaining the meanings of each one to us afterwards. That's basically it for the concert as a whole, we all just jammed out and screamed a lot. It was perfect and exceeded my expectations.

I know this is long but I want to talk about one specific moment before I close this out. As I mentioned earlier, Mina wasn't on the tour due to anxiety about performing. Every Once wtih a lightstick (Twice's fans are called onces) during the song After Moon, set their colors to mint green which is Mina's favorite color. We all chanted, "MINA, MINA, MINA, MINA" before the song and swayed out lighsticks during it for her. Afterwards, the girls talked to the crowd and Twice's leader, Jihyo, actually started to cry and talked about how she misses Mina so much. She said it means a lot to them and Mina that we changed to her color and miss her a lot. That moment really hit me hard because it shows just how much they all mean to each other, I definitely started crying. During one song all of us banded together to show support for someone who has deeply touched all of us, it was so sweet.

I think all of that sums up how it went for me. If they come back to the US, which Nayeon said she really wanted to, I will do my best to go and see them live again. It's a way for me to go and support a group of people who have really supported me. I love Twice and I'm so happy I got to experience this, I'll be grateful until the day I die.

(Also, a YouTube video filled with all of the videos and pictures I took will be up soon! I have some really good videos :>)

tl;dr: good concert, please read this though if you care about how I actually feel about it. I know it's long but all of these words are important to me :)