#the lightsticks the confetti the music is so fun all the flashing lights it’s like a whole new world i SWEARR

[daebakinc]

EXO’rDIUM Newark Fan Account

For some reason, this time round, Prudential Center did not have its shit together. They had moved the show up to 7:30 weeks ago, so we assumed we’d all be in by 7:00 tops. Wrong. My new friends I made in line (YAY) and I didn’t get in until 7:30, by which time we were a drenched, bedraggled looking lot. One of my friends almost didn’t have her ticket work it got so wet. 

However, when EXO finally came on an hour late, it was like a flip switched. They made me forget I was hungry. That I was soaked through to my underwear and socks. That I was cold. EXO made me forget everything except how happy I was to see them.

I’ve got to hand it to the EXO-Ls there. We made sure they knew we were happy to see them. I’ve never heard fans sing along as much and as well as we did tonight. Well, I tried, but I was at a disadvantage since I primarily listen to the Chinese versions for practice lol.

The screaming and cheering started as soon as the lights dimmed, as if most of us hadn’t waited for hours in the rain. That said, this concert was also unique in another sense: EXO had so many more VCRs than I’ve seen. The opening VCR was the really cool mix of live footage and graphic novel style animated that introduced EXO with their powers as our protectors because we humans are dumb and keep hurting each other (there may have been a small commentary on American bombing during the Korean War but maybe that’s just me). The second was like a group date with EXO with Lay leading you between the members: you played darts with him, air hockey with Kai, an arcade game with Chanyeol, ate a snack&did a love shot with Sehun, watched a movie with Chen&Suho&Xiumin(who did aegyo!), watched Baekhyun make funny faces with a light stick, played a foosball game with Kai&Sehun, and then a dance party with all of EXO. The third had them all shrunken down and wearing those silly elf costumes with Chen, Suho, and Kai dancing around in a music room; Baekhyung and Xiumin working in a storage room with a very sleepy Kyungsoo who kept trying to nap; and Lay, Sehun, and Chen messing around in a sound room. So cute. The closing VCR was a kind of ending to the first. 

EXO were a little out of synch dance-wise for the first songs, but after that they pulled together. I’m guessing part of it is the smaller stage and missing Lay (It was so sad, during the dance break for Wolf there was clearly a spot he was supposed to be). They did a good mix of group choreography and songs where they’d be spread out and do small parts of the choreography.

After the first three songs, all remixes, the boys gave their greeting. Everyone but Kyungsoo, who waved, bowed. I’ll go into more detail about their greetings, because they were hilarious, in their individual sections. Half of them reminded us to be safe though. 

Through out the show, it was really awesome how much energy they all had, and how they interacted with each other as much as they did with us. There were tons of tiny interactions the whole time: Chen helping Suho when Suho dropped his cane during Playboy(THAT FREAKING PERFORMANCE!! OTL), Kyungsoo making Kai laugh when they were on the side of the stage together, Baekhyun and Sehun being distracted by a moving bunny toy someone tossed up at the end. It was a reminder that as much as they’re an idol group, EXO is also a group of very good friends. It gave the concert an intimate kind of feeling, if that makes sense. The fact that the boys were incredibly, and I mean extremely good, about rotating themselves so every side saw each of them for a good amount of time multiple times, also helped this.

They also did a few of their songs as acoustic versions and heaven help the souls of all of us there because it was some of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. Chanyeol played the guitar while the others sang, and Kyungsoo had hold out his mic so we could hear Chanyeol’s lines. Really though, I have video and y’all will see what I mean when I post it.

At some point, the staff gave them lightsticks to guide fans’ movements, and boy did they have fun dancing around directing us.

When they had to get changed, they took turns. Suho, Chen, and Kai were left on stage first and they told us about what they did in New York the day before. Chen saw Chicago, and wanted to give us the same feelings the musical gave him. Kyungsoo walked around and saw the play ‘Sleep No More,” which he suggested we go see but he was glad we were here instead of off seeing it. Silly. Kai went to Soho to buy shoes, then ate the third best pizza in the world, and bought medicine at CVS that he had trouble taking because the pills were big. Chen was adorable and kept repeating CVS because Kai was going on about how big the store was. Chen was also trying to amuse himself by trying to flip a bottle while Suho and Kyungsoo were talking. Kyungsoo also said he was tired because it was morning in Korea, prompting Chen and Suho to start yelling “Good morning” to us and making Kyungsoo laugh. Suho told us he walked around the city because he loves the movie “Birdman,” which again prompted Chen to be cute and pretend to fly, then sing “I Believe I Can Fly.”

While Chen and Suho were singing “I Believe I Can Fly,” Chanyeol came out and sung with them. It was so so pretty! Then Suho ruined it by asking “Was it a commercial?” to which Chen responded “Let’s move on,” and left lol. Xiumin pretended to kick them off. Chanyeol told us he went bowling, demonstrating by almost rolling his water off stage. When the others, Baekhyun was there too, asked him why do that when he can bowl in Korea and he said he just has bowling in his mind, but EXO-L in his heart. Cheeseball. Then, Baekhyun had to explain to us why they changed and this is where the little shit in him came out. He teased us for awhile asking if we were curious, then told us we had to help them sing the next song. He taught us the chant in Korean, then asked “When you’re dancing in the shower, don’t you naturally dance to the beat? I know I do.” He had such a smirk on his face. Dirty. He tried to get Xiumin to show us, but Xiumin said he doesnt’ really dance in the shower because it’s too slippery so he just showed us his upper body dance. Baekhyun then told us to not stop and bring out our secret dance. OTL

During the encore, the real one, people threw a lot of toys and such on stage. While it was fun to see the members play with them, I’ll also remind you guys to please not do this. There was so much confetti already on the stage and with the guys dancing, I was really scared they would fall and hurt themselves.

Now, on the members themselves.

Xiumin. My baby. I spent so much time watching him because he looked so healthy, and damn the man is gorgeous, and like he was having such a good time. I was so glad he was smiling so much. He reminded us to obey the rules for safety in his greeting and then did the EXO Showtime greeting. Got me right in the feels. He would do all these little dances in between songs or when they were just walking around, including some very unnecessary extra hip thrusts, and his singing and rapping was amazing. I was so proud when he got a mini dance solo during Transformer!! My boy needs more recognition for how good he is at pretty much everything. He also pointed a lot when he sang and got really into the music, and during Lucky he made a big heart with his arms. He walked around like that with this huge smile on his face. At the end, he tried playing soccer with some blow-up thing someone threw up with Kai, but gave up after it fell off stage. He blew a ton of kisses for us when they finally said goodbye.

Yes, Suho is an incredibly good-looking man(those tummy flashes we got during Wolf were no joke), but even more than that, he is such an adorable sweetheart. He tried to speak exclusively English for us through out, the dearheart, only reverting to Korean when he wanted to say something complicated. He also told us to be careful for our own safety and thanked us for waiting for them for a year. Once the concert started, he was all smiles and I do mean smiles. Unless the song was intense, that sweet smile was on his mouth. He also did a ton of little finger hearts and winks, enough to make any EXO-L swoon and spout gibberish. He accidentally called the tour “Exo’lucion” and got embarrassed, which is why he quickly moved on to the acoustic performances, which he called a “gift” for us. At the end, he thanked us for making the concert better than he’d thought and promised they’d be back after our collective groan of sadness they were leaving. He wanted to take a group picture with us after they said they goodbye, but  Kyungsoo convinced him to wait until after Angel.

Chanyeol was, for lack of better words, Chanyeol. Equal parts a giant child and serious musician. He took his ear piece out to hear us scream for him during his greeting and promised to make it a “crazy night.” While he had his game face on during his parts and the choreography, in between the kid was all smiles. It’d get especially big when he’d be at the edge of the crowd waving. It was interesting to see the difference in him when he had the normal guitar and the electric guitars. He was all soft sweetie during the acoustics, though he did show off a bit, and then hot af rocker with the electric guitar. For real, I didn’t anticipate how sexy he gets when he’s rocking out, which continued when he moved into the DJ box. Towards the end though, he reverted back to being a little kid. He played with the streamers and then stood in front of the confetti gun at the very end until Chen had to come collect him for the group pic. He also had a very fun time playing with two of those squishy, spikey yoyo toys, one of which Kyungsoo tried to play with too, and he crossed the entire stage to give Baekhyun a plushie.

Chen, the flirt. As with many of the others did in the beginning, he told us to be safe, but he also told us he could feel our love directly. He was constantly playing around when the songs didn’t demand seriousness. Whether this was with his members or us, it didn’t matter. He joked around a lot with the others, and I kept seeing them smiling or laughing when he was close to them. He’d also get this huge grin whenever he was waving at us, and doing a cute little hopping dance while going so, or trying to get people to move their lightsticks a certain way. The little sweetie also made a neat pile of the toys at the end so no one would trip. As much fun as he had, he didn’t fail to impress me with his vocals. He’s already one of my favorite voices in EXO, but the different riffs he pulled off flawlessly just had me in awe. That’s besides the fact that he is also, very handsome, and the way his neck muscles and veins look when he’s belting out his notes is just... wow.

Baekhyun. First of all, I know we all secretly envy this kid’s looks with eyeliner but damn. It’s even worse in person and by worse he looks ten times more gorgeous. He may not have been as extra dance wise like I’ve seen in videos, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t an extra tease. It started right from the get-go with his greeting where he told us this concert was for us to get closer and then go home. I already told you about the shower dancing, but goodness his tone and his smirk and the mischief in his eyes, what a little imp. Scamp Baek also came out during the group pic when Suho was telling everyone to do a cute pose and Baekhyun yelled out “No, sexy!!” All kidding aside, Baekhyun also really blew me away with his vocals. He was on key and hitting those notes and my ears were in heaven. That’s not to mention his dancing too, like the mini solo he had during Monster, which was so so good.

With Kyungsoo, even though he’s one of my top bias ruiners, I was in no way prepared. Honestly. When the camera panned to him my mind kind of blanked and then it went “His fucking face!” I feel bad for Xiumin, but my breath always caught when I saw Kyungsoo. Ok, moving on, lol. Handsomeness aside, he is such an adorable squish. So serious when it’s his line, but then a cute little smile always found its way onto his face as he looked out at the crowd. During his greeting, he asked if we were hungry and admitted he was too, bursting into laughter. He followed it up with “Ok, showtime!” Then during Lucky One he did the little head side bob thing with Chen all with a straight face. He also has a tendency to hold the mic with both hands when he does a power note that’s beyond cute for some reason. And he had so many perfect power notes he’d melt anyone who loves music’s heart.

Kai, I am convinced more than ever, is Johnny Castle in real life. There’s just something about his dancing/stage persona that just oozes sex. Whether it’s the smirk or the fluid power with which he moves, I don’t know. He’s pretty sexy on his own considering he had a bit of stubble showing and did little things like unbuttoning his shirt for Playboy. He even danced to Angel.Tonight was almost all Kai with little bits of Jongin. He did come out some, like when he did a little jump to be sure where the small ramp was or when he was playing with Kyungsoo and couldn’t stop laughing or when he played with a lightstick plushie and glasses or when he kept singing from backstage after their goodbye. As much as I love Kai’s dancing, those glimpses of Jongin just make him more endearing.

I’ll be honest: Sehun is the member I’ve always kind of glanced over. I don’t even know why and I feel really bad about it. I think part of it is that even though he’s an absolute puppy around the others, he’s very aloof on stage. I’ll admit, it does add to his cool guy sexiness. He is incredibly handsome, and I do mean like story book handsome. Especially in the VCRs. Seeing how good he’s gotten in his rapping and dancing, both of which were splendidly shown off during his rap/dance duet with Chanyeol, made me very proud as well. I think the best part of the night in relation to Sehun though was the small things that could easily have gone unnoticed. Like the little dances he did on the side when they were just walking around where he only moved his arms and lifted his feet. Or how he picked up a dog plushie, that looked like his dog, and carried it around for the entire encore like a real dog. The cool guy is actually a soft guy lol.

Even though Lay wasn’t there, I really hope EXO lets him know how much EXO-Ls screamed for him when he came on-screen during the VCRs. Seriously, that’s when we were at our loudest it seems.

Overall, this was a really, really fun concert. From start to beginning, EXO and all us EXO-Ls were having a blast and singing our hearts out. It also really meant a lot to me to finally see them, and to have their encore song be Angel. I don’t know if I’ve shared this on this blog, but when I lived in China, it was a really dark time for me and EXO helped get me through it, particularly EXO-M. At the time, I wanted to be a Chinese teacher, so I kept telling myself if EXO-M can live in foreign country and survive and flourish, I could too. I know EXO-M isn’t exactly what they were, but EXO as a whole stepped into their place in my heart and I love all of these boys so much for what they’ve given me (Angel is also my go to song when I’m having a panic attack to help calm myself down.) So to me, EXO is my Angel and tonight I got to give them a little love back.

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