At around 7:45, my family and I entered the arena. It was still pretty empty as people were still piling in. We, Los Angeles people, are always late. I went down to my seat: Floor Section B, Row A, Seat 3, while my sister took the seat 4. I was very happy with my seats as you can tell. We were immediately wristbanded, so that they could easily identify which of us were Row 1. Security was tight and anal. I started getting ready: opening light sticks, passing out whistles, etc.
The concert started around 8:30. The venue stated that 13,000 seats were put on sale. I estimate that probably 11,000-12,000 seats were sold. Those that were empty were the seats on the very side, this section behind the production staff, so I'm assuming they weren't for sale, as well as random seats here and there. Sadly, the audience was quite dead as a majority of the audience seemed as if they were not from my age group (hint hint haha). I guess I had become accustomed to the deafening screams coming from an audience such as that as the Sammi VS Sammi 2004 concert in Hong Kong, so I was quite disappointed. Thus, I knew that I would have to be even louder to make up for their silence. Everyone around me was laughing at me, because I was blowing and screaming at the top of my lungs. In fact, Sammi was able to hear one of my screams and imitate it. It was really cute.
At around 9:30, I was told to go backstage in preparation to give her the flowers. To my surprise, I was not nervous at all. All the anxiety that I was feeling thirty minutes before the show had escaped from my body. There were three of us who were chosen to give her flowers: me, a young Hong Kongish man probably around my age, and a much older man who I brilliantly nicknamed "Creeper." I decided that I wanted to be first. They told me the rules: no autograph signing, no giving other gifts, and no hugging, so I was forced to leave my gift for her as well as my picture with her backstage on the table. When I was cued to go up, I went up slowly and just stared at Mi. She didn't see me. So I said "Sammi" and sort of poked her to grab her attention. She said something in Cantonese that I didn't understand and then I asked if I could take a picture with her, as I pointed to my sister who was my photographer. After I gave her the flowers, Mi asked "Ho ng ho yi song cheen bei yoh ah?" translation "Can you please give me money?" and I joking pretended to pull money out of my pocket, which made her and the audience laugh. It was nice.
Then, it was handshake session time. This was when the audience started getting louder. People were rushing down from the risers. I was able to shake her hand, and told her "You're really pretty" and she responded "thank you." I honestly don't remember much from the concert, because it passed by so quickly. It was seriously the fattest two hours of my life. But I do remember that she chose two male fans to sing with her. One of them was a very short man, about 5ft 4in, and Mi said "Wow. You're so 'Go Dai.' Why is your Cantonese a bit slurred?" And he responded that its because he's nervous because he has never stood next to such a pretty girl. And Mi joked, "And I have never stood next to a man that matched me so well." LoL. The next lucky fan was a marketing analyst or something, and Mi asked what that meant in Chinese. She said "I am Chinese peepo!" in the cutest fobbish accent.
Before I knew it, the concert was over, and I thought that it would be better if I take my picture and gift back from the table. So I asked the man if I could grab my stuff back, but he said he would grab it for me. Unfortunately, he grabbed only my picture and pen back, no gift. When I was walking out of the arena, I glanced at my picture, and to my delightful surprise, my picture was signed !!! After the show, I waited around the restaurant Pearl where I know they usually have afterparties. I recognized a few of Sammi's dancers, her choreographer Alan, and Wallace. I went into this cafeteria area to sit and review my pictures, when my sister ran up to me and told me "you just missed Sammi!!! She JUST walked into the restaurant." So I decided to wait until she came out.
At around 12:30pm, Sammi came out surrounded by her entourage. She was wearing the last costume from her concert, the blue jeans, Mi shirt, black blazer, and the wig! I ran up to her with two other random girls that were from Irvine. I saw that she was in a very happy mood, so I asked if she could write my name on my picture. I guess she didn't understand me, but she happily took my pen and picture and autographed it- AGAIN! Halfway through, she noticed that she had signed the same picture twice. I also noticed that she stared at my picture for a good amount of time. I could tell that she was trying to recall when the picture was taken. I couldn't think of anything to say, so I blurted out in chiu chow"gaginang. joi seuh" translation "our own people. thank you." and she gave me a big smile and nod. Because we were beginning to attract attention, she immediately left through this secret bellhop passageway. And that was the last I saw of my Sammi. =[
All in all, the concert was AMAZING. Sammi danced extremely well. Her vocals were excellent. I do wish that the audience would have screamed a bit more, and I wanted her to joke around more like she used to. Compared to the last time she came for a concert in 2000 in Los Angeles, Sammi has matured immensely. Her audience almost doubled in number. Tickets went as high $168 for nosebleed riser seats, and people still bought them! I believe that during her time out, she did a lot of soul searching and found herself. I love Mi more than ever now. =D
1 comment:
The concert actually started at 8:15. I was there at 8:25 and she sang couple songs already. (Pretty annoying, usually concert won't start until like 8:30. They should give people more time since it's 777 in Vegas that weekend!)The concert is extremely short. Just barely made it to two hours (well, she has pretty long breaks in between changing clothes comparing w/ other HK singers).
Btw, the venue can hold 13,000, but almost 1/3 of the sections were closed and blocked it with black cloth, they didn't even open it for sale. Please don't mislead people. However, it's true that for the sections that they open for sale, I think 90% were sold.
Her singing is not that great. I am kind of disappointed. Well, may be I expect too much from her. Anyway, whenever she dances, she didn't sing much, majority of the time, she just let the back chorus sing, pretty annoying. The sound systems were horrible, can't HEAR what she said clearly! Well, fast song too. They turned the bass too high!! One good thing about the show is the lighting. I can tell they spend a lot of time and effort in it.
Also, the show ended at a weird time. You thought it's the end, yet she sang another song, then disappeared for 10mins. Then, I assumed it's for the encore. I am glad that I only spent $48, but not $168.
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