The Utada Concert!

I got in trouble....
But I will discuss that later.

Utada! Utada! Utada! Utada! Utada! Utada! Utada!
While I was in House of Blues, that seemed to be the only thing the crowd was shouting, so much energy.

 

I had a good spot, a nice center-left area against the railing above the “pit” or sometimes referred to as the “floor” (standing area surrounding the stage). I’m not much of a floor person, I don’t like being squished by a lot of people nor do I like being obstructed by tall people (oh how I despise tall people at concerts). I was standing there with Miki and all of our friends, except Eric who ditched us to go to the floor, plus he ditched (I forgot his name) his “friend” who literally gave him a free ticket to see Utada. We all felt bad for him, so Miki and I knocked people over made some room for him to stand at the railing for a nice view of the stage, he deserved that awesome spot after what Eric did.

When Utada finally walked on stage, the fans cheered wildly, I was amazed that the concert tickets actually sold out (I heard that they were sold out for all the other venues), because they were available for the longest time for the Chicago performance, but Eric then told all of us that they sold out two months in advance. This is the first time I went to a sold out event.

 

Utada gave a small speech about how excited she was to finally visit a cold city (I sensed some sarcasm in that statement). She was talking about how much she loved Chicago because it reminded her of New York, but Chicago was more spaced out and bigger compared to cramped New York (she claimed). She was also amazed that Chicagoans are energetic and built tough to handle the cold weather. She was sweet and was concerned about us Chicagoans freezing our butts off in the snow waiting for her concert, and she said that we all looked completely unaffected by the weather after we entered the venue. Yeah, people in Chicago have gotten used to dramatic climate changes, so we’ve gotten bored with the inconsistent weather to the point where we don’t care.

Unfortunately, no cameras allowed, if you were caught taking pictures from your phone, you were thrown out. Which is why we all took pre-concert photos.
But for me, "tai dai!" ahahaha, learn Thai to figure that out.

The first song Utada sung was "Passion", it was so nice, I was thrilled that I got to see Utada live in America, because seeing Utada live in general is on almost everyone's "before I die list"(come on, everybody has a BID list).

What I didn't like about the concert was that, I had to stand next to this really obnoxious guy, who really didn't care about what he was saying, he was flat out rude. When the opening act came out, it was a famous DJ from New York, his mixes were actually pretty good, but the guy next to me kept yelling "get off the ******* stage!!! You suck!!!!", I think everyone was annoyed with this guy, if you don't like it, keep it to yourself dude. In the middle of the concert he kept yelling at a fan on the balcony, really now, the guy on the balcony was stealing the show, he was passionately thrashing about and soulfully singing his heart out (to every song), no offense but he just looked like a total idiot when he was dangling off the balcony. So the man next to kept screaming, “HEY!!! HEY WHITE GUY  IN THE BLACK SHIRT!!! WHITE GUY IN THE BALCONY!!!! STOP STEALING THE SHOW YOU CRAZY***!!!” I know the poor balcony guy was annoying, but will you shut up already guy right next to me, we’re all trying to watch Utada. The next thing the man next to me shouted out of nowhere to Utada was, “welcome to America!” whoa dude that was uncalled for and really rude, if you were a respectable Utada fan you’d already know that she was born and living in New York.

When the end drew near Utada said “last song”, she finished up and walked backstage. The fools who didn’t have the (concert) common sense to wait around for something called an “encore” just left. Half of the pit just walked out, which left so much space. After two minutes Utada finally walked back on stage and did a few more songs, a loss for those who left. Utada even threw some balls off stage. The show ended…

That was a night to remember.

 

After the concert we all went our separate ways, Yan escorted Miki to the train stop because Miki wanted to go home, she asked if I wanted to return with her or go eat with the others, I chose to eat. We bumped into Shin at the end of the concert. It turned out that Jason and Shin were forced to give up their bags at bag check earlier that day. It couldn’t be helped, they had to get their bags. Oh man… Eric did not want to wait. Yet again, Eric ditched us AGAIN! This time it was because he was hungry and wanted to eat something at Micky D’s (McDonalds, for those who don’t use that word). Thanks for wait dude……NOT!

 

Instead of evening bothering with Eric and his friend, Jason, Shin, and I travelled to Chinatown together. I went to Chi Café again; wow they’re open till 5 in the morning. I ate some DELICIOUS BEEF TONGUE. It yummy as usual. While we were eating, I noticed something disturbing on the Chinese television program on the TV. I pointed it out to everyone and we all watched together. There was this muscular Chinese man who was being masticated by people on the show, he was proving how invincible he was. The man laid his head on a pile of bricks and had more bricks placed on top of his head, then another guy smashed his head between the bricks and he was totally fine. The next stunt was him standing underneath a tall ladder and another person dropping a bowling ball on his head and again he was totally fine, HE’S CRAZY!!!! There was MORE, the next thing I see on TV is the same man standing in front of a giant wok filled with sizzling "FRYING OIL!!!" Jason,Shin, and I are just sitting there with chopsticks in hand whispering loudly "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!!!!!!!" The TV people threw a small statue into the wok and then the man just throws his bare hand straight into the hot oil and pulls the statue out. The next thing put into the wok was what looked like doorknobs, it looked like they put 10 of them in there. After the man skillfully without showing pain pulled all of the objects out, he then got a drinking glass and dunked it into the wok filling it up with scalding oil. All of us were just like, "oh no... oh no, no no no no no no no, he isn't!!!" The man then chugs the oil down in one gulp, HE DRANK HOT OIL!!! THE KIND THAT CAN COOK YOU!!! Ahhhh!!!!!! Everyone in the restaurant who was watching was completely mortified. THAT MAN IS INSANE!!!!!!! I didn't lose my appetite but my eating did slow down a little bit...

I was unaware of the time and my phone died(how nice), so I got home around 4am. My mom was freaking out, she was calling everyone and trying to extract information from Miki every half hour. She even made my dad camp out in front of the train station until I returned. When I arrived home my mom started beating me and interrogating me. It was horrible.

Until next time, bye again.