bec u/shiningshyknee encouraged me to type this up (btw i forgot to mention i LOOOOVE your username!)

so hello!! i'm typing this to share my experience of seeing taemin live twice. i first went to see him in june in shizuoka, and then on his last day in tokyo. taemin is my #1 fav soloist of all time but onew is my bias in shinee! i love everyone in shinee tho, just onew a tiiiiny bit more LOL i've seen shinee 4 times irl. i used to live in cali before i moved to japan this year. i've seen shinee in smtown 2012, LA 2014, KMF 2016, and SWCV in 2017.

so first, i want to quickly explain the kind of seats i won. if you don't know, in japan, your seats are randomized. everyone pays the same price for whatever seat they get, so it's based on luck. in terms of the venues, in both shizuoka and tokyo, there's the main stage and for a good half of the concert, taemin usually gets on another stage that moves to the middle of the arena. in shizuoka, i was very close to the stage in the middle of the arena. in tokyo, i was only 8 rows away from the main stage, so i got to have 2 very different concert experiences as i got to see 1/2 of the concert up close in shizuoka, and the other half in tokyo. i'm fortunate to have basically seen every song really up close bec i got seats in the main arena floor both times.

SHIZUOKA

i'll start off with shizuoka first. i was a mess LOL ever since i first heard taemin's voice i thought he had a beautiful voice. i thought, if he practiced singing and improved, he'll be amazing... so you can imagine how i felt when taemin debuted as a soloist... i don't usually cry at concerts at all, but here... i started crying at his SECOND SONG LOL and i kept getting overwhelmed by everything and basically cried at every song. i kept thinking of how far taemin has come as an individual and i was just a wreck. there have only been a few artists/groups that have made my eyes water seeing them live, but i was always able to hold back my tears or it would never reach that point. i've learned how to hold back my tears over the years, but have your eyes ever started watering so much so quickly that the tears just spill out before you can even try to stop them from running down your cheeks? yeah, that's what happened to me. during almost every single song. i've watched his vids countless times but witnessing him dance in front of my eyes... breathtaking. his stage presence is out of this world. you really don't need to be a fan to be in awe of his performing skills.

his talk sessions were really adorable. his japanese is SO cute. he really, really wears his emotions on his sleeve. you can see how nervous he is, and i find that so interesting cos he's been an idol for so long, but even he is still nervous after all this time :') when he did the infamous skirt dance... it was too freaking cute. and when he imitated the green men from toy story... we all died. he's so cute. one thing i noticed at the concert was he seemed dissatisfied with the volume of jp fans. i totally understand. jp fans are REALLY QUIET and in complete sync, but coming from america where everyone is nuts and gets hyped up, it was a huge difference for me and obviously taemin. he asked quite a few times to be louder but.. jp fans... lol however jp fans are so much more well-behaved than american fans hahah when he talks about the members my heart just swells up. he really just loves them so much.

for shizuoka i was mostly shook seeing him live LOL he goes HARD with his dancing and it blows my mind how much stamina he has. and his voice is so, so good... there were times he couldn't hit some notes (understandable since he's doing so many concerts) but the songs that have really intense high notes, he always hit them perfectly. when he sings his ballads, you can really feel him putting his soul into them... you can't help but just watch him in awe the entire time. i glanced at his setlist before the concert but didn't really remember what he was gonna perform. i was shocked when play me started... i didn't think he'd perform that. i was a wreck during already and one by one cos those are some of my most fav songs by him. he really has a lot of fun performing mars!! i love that song a lot so it made me happy to see him so smiley. also with what's this feeling, into the rhythm, and holy water!! those songs he has the most fun with, at least from what i've seen :) tbh i think i could have made eye contact during pretty boy (HE WAS LIKE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME) but i was too busy crying and trying to see him thru my tears HAHAHA

i also felt really warm inside during one of his early talk sessions cos ya know how shinee always asks if fans have eaten? he asked that to us and i just melted. they care about our health so much. iirc he said stuff how he had a big breakfast but didn't eat anything for lunch and how he was nervous and stuff... he was also ridiculously adorable towards the end cos when he was like, the next song is the last, we were all like "EHHHHHH" and he said, "i'm sorry... i'm really hungry right now" AND I JUST ABOUT DIED FROM THAT. he's sooooooo cute. i honestly felt bad cos after the concert is the meet & greet and all i could think of was let the boy eat a snack right after LOL oh and he talked again about how he wants to eat unagi LOL our boys really love unagi/hitsumabushi... they got expensive tastes (tbf i love unagi too and shizuoka is famous for it) LOL

TOKYO

now, for tokyo. i specifically applied to get a ticket for the last day cos ya know, the last day will always be the most emotional, haha. surprisingly i didn't cry at all until the end. i was concentrating so much watching his dancing and his face bec i've never been so up-close to any concert before in my life. i was surprised that there were like, no talk sessions on this final day. he talked a lot more in shizuoka. oh well! also, his VCRs are so artistic and beautiful. HE'S beautiful, haha.

i wanna talk about the backup dancers really quick. thruout the entire concert, you can really see how much backup dancers love him. they smiled a lot thruout the concert and had so much fun performing with taemin. they liked to make him smile too by goofing around during some of the songs and it was some of the most adorable stuff i've ever seen. they're all incredible dancers and they went just as hard as taemin did thruout the concert.

taemin makes everything look so easy and effortless. his body language is like "yeah, this is so easy to dance." just wow. OH, also, i forgot during which song but in the beginning of the concet, his headset came off!!! i totally eyezoomed at that moment bec shinee is infamous for being super professional with mishaps on stage and even then towards the end i couldn't catch when he put the headset back on... it was like magic. shinee really are the best. it was really interesting to see a lot of songs i saw up close in shizuoka, from the back in tokyo. even just seeing his back is amazing. his body, the way he moves it... he's so fluid. also he said at the end there'll be a dvd coming out and he's embarrassed bec most of the footage will be from this final day and he said there were quite a few problems that came up... i only saw the headset coming off but apparently there were more... i wouldn't know cos he hid it so well LOL

a couple standout songs... specifically during tokyo when he performed already, i noticed taemin had his eyes shut during already the entire time and i swear he was gonna cry singing it and that's why he kept his eyes shut, to prevent tears from coming out :( also during "i'm crying" too. you could feel him put everything into singing that song. i couldn't help but think of jonghyun during these songs, and also during colors as well.

if there is ONE song i would say that everyone should watch taemin perform live, it is, without a doubt, artistic groove. it is NOT like the lives he's performed in korea that you can find on yt. for this song, he specifically asks the entire venue to turn off their lightsticks bec it's basically a (spot?)light show. he has diff lights that go on and off in diff colors during specific parts of the song that highlight the choreography beautifully and the backups wear special glow-in-the-dark suits. it's gorgeous and absolutely breathtaking. i can't even describe how incredible it is with just words. i tried to find fancams but they're too up close to appreciate that kind of stage he prepared for artistic groove. and luckily for me, shizuoka and tokyo actually turned off their lightsticks when asked to. i think the only way to really see this stage is to buy his concert DVD

aaaand seeing famous live was too much for me to handle esp the vibrating move, holy crap. the backups and him were clearly super excited to perform it. i can't even describe how amazing the choreo is and hearing him rap. (he had a lot of fun rapping in pretty boy too btw)

as usual, at the end of the concert, he took an audience selca. my heart when he said "say shinee!" instead of like the eng equivalent to "say cheese"... ;____;

i caught a BLUE streamer at the end as you can see in my pic!! i'm so happy!! there were other colors but the blue one came directly towards me <3 i didn't know in japan, the streamers have text on them. in his handwriting, he wrote "right now, are you having fun singing and dancing with me? 6v6" I CAN'T BELIEVE HE PUT THE 6v6. I DIED READING IT. SO CUTE. and his signature is on it too :')

and lastly, as most of you know, the jp staff planned a surprise for taemin!! before the concert started, on the screen, (and by email) we were told that we would be given a cue to say "otsukare sama taemin, saranghae!" if you don't know, otsukare sama doesn't have an official translation, but it can be interpreted as, "thanks for your hard work/you've worked hard/etc". so when the time came and we said it, he was so shocked and it was super adorable. i thought that was it. and then he said ok the next song is move! and then ANOTHER surprise came and instead of move, one of his new songs colors started playing and on the screen was a vid made by the staff popped up and it was a compilation of him thruout his entire tour... both on stage and backstage vids and as you know there was a super short clip of him facetiming minho which everyone went nuts over. thruout the entire vid, there was a camera showing his live reaction. guys, his face... he was... so mesmerized... you could see his eyes getting watery... really, he definitely almost started crying after the vid ended. that's when i started crying too. he asked us if we knew about this and we said yes and he was like EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! and he turned around and covered his face and then turned back and said "DID YOU REALLY KNOW?!" and we were like YESSSSSS and he did that like 3 times... it was sooooo adorable T______T he really, really, really likes to tease and mock the fans' reactions to stuff he says. also you can really see his spoiled self when he urges us to keep giving him more attention. it's freaking adorable.

taemin is truly such a thoughtful person, saying things like being grateful that so many people love him and how so much work went into these concerts and that all he can do is pay it forward by working much harder. guys, we really picked the right group to stan. (or should i say shinee picked us haha) we're so fortunate to have shinee as our ultimates. really. if you have ever had some sort of doubts about shinee, i hope my fanaccount has reassured you what good people they are.

this was waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy longer than i expected so if you've made it this far thank you for reading :) hopefully i didn't forget anything but tbh i prob did >< i'll add edits if needed.