[FAN ACCOUNT] 180108 INFINITE ‘Top Seed’ Showcase

Hello again! I’m so happy to be able to write another fan account so soon after the ‘Begin Again’ fan meets! As the showcase was broadcasted live on V, I’m not going to talk about the showcase itself, but I’ll focus on things that happened before and after. It was the first time that I was even able to go to a showcase, and I luckily won the lottery as well!

So first of all, there were a few different methods to try to win showcase tix. There was a naver form that you fill out, a twitter lottery through 1theK and also a lottery based off of album sales. There were a few different sites that would pick out 100 winners from each site. Only Hottracks clearly said that each album you buy would be considered a separate entry (though I’m sure they all did it like that, I just chose hottracks to be safe), so I bought 7 albums. Honestly, I really wasn’t expecting to win because 7 albums are not a lot. Plus there were more than 500 people who were signed up with Hottracks. Anyway, Friday came around and I checked the list and to my surprise I actually won! Plus the music site winners got 2 tix per person, so I was able to bring a friend.

Fast forwarding to the day of the showcase, I was really anxious because they announced that tix were to be distributed first come first serve. I already heard that there were a bunch of people in line from the afternoon before. I would’ve waited in line overnight but I got REALLY sick this past weekend. There’s been a crazy flu going around lately, so I really sympathize with Sungyeol, cause if he had what I had, I have no idea how he was able to keep up with his schedules, IV or not. Anyway, I forced myself to wait in line for 3 hours before tix distribution started and there were already hundreds of people in front of me. Fast forward a few cold hours and finally I got my ticket. I got the end of the 400s in section A. So I was pretty disappointed, thinking of the layout of the fan meets.

After eating dinner, we started lining up to get in the venue and it started snowing. I’m not sure if it was because of the snow or because it was a different event, but it was a lot more disorganized. Instead of lining us up by number outside, they made us go in the building first and try to organize us in the tiny hallways. I’m pretty sure it was for safety reasons cause there are lots of stairs made of slippery material. Anyway, I was surprised to see a different set up once I got inside. Instead of having Sections A and B, it was just one big section with a rail halfway splitting the section in the middle. So although I was in the 400s I still got a really good spot near the middle rail! I was also kind of confused. As far as I know, the numbers in section A went up to 600 but the whole section was super packed. In the fan meets, those areas are supposed to fill like 1800 people. And without the extra rails, it could fit even more. Plus they didn’t even use section C or D at all! They were just empty! But the showcase itself had 2000ish tickets... so... idk. There were people on the 2nd floor though. So I think they just shoved almost everyone in the big section at the bottom which was a terrible idea imo. Because there were no rails dividing the section horizontally, there were crazy waves of pushing with nothing to stop the forward motion. I don’t think anyone intends to push but when you inch up a little it causes the person in front to inch up and so on and so on. So there were like non stop waves of pushing throughout the whole showcase. Idk why they didn’t just use sections c and d and just let everyone have a little more space. Either way, it’s done and over with now I guess.

Oh yeah, 10 mins before it started, people started screaming cause Golden Child started taking their seats on the 2nd floor. My friend saw them walking in the hallway outside the standing section while they boys performed ‘Tell Me’, prob to go backstage to say congrats. Also, I noticed they lowered the stage again, back to ‘That Summer’ height. So I was only able to see above their knees again. Also, a funny thing that happened was prior to the showcase starting, they were playing the different songs on the album in the background. When ‘Tell Me’ came on, everyone started practicing the fan chant and the ‘nege nege’ part was so awkward so everyone started laughing. But in the end, I think we pulled it off well. It’s a strange fan chant but after doing it a couple times, it’s quite endearing lol. Also, I have to say, I loved the ending, where they were sprinkling the silver confetti on the boys while they were dancing. SO PURDY!!! Anyway, I think that’s pretty much it! Let us know if you have any questions or comments!

***** Please remember to stream!!! Do whatever you can to help the boys! Tweet! Stream! Download (legally)! Purchase! Anything! Thank you~

[TRANS] OSEN - [Oh!A Cup of Coffee②] INFINITE’s Sunggyu “Recent Contact with Hoya, Asking About Each Other’s Musicals”

Part 1~ <3

INFINITE’s Sunggyu spent the end of last year more busily than any time before. It’s because he was preparing for INFINITE’s 3rd full album comeback while also standing on stage for ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’. Here, on MBC’s variety show ‘Insolent Housemates’, he displays his unique, candid charms while working together with the ‘Godfather of Variety’ Lee Kyungkyu.

If you’re talking about singers, he’s a singer, if it’s musicals, he does musicals, if it’s variety, he does variety, Sunggyu, who’s actively involved in various fields as if he’s simply changing clothes, met with OSEN and we heard about his 2018 New Year resolution and other various things he’s been up to. Q. You’re comeback preparations overlap with the musical, isn’t it difficult? “It is a very difficult schedule. I had recordings for our team album, recordings for my solo album, and musical practices overlap and I also held Japanese fan meetings too. There was also the music video filming for our comeback and preparations for the end of the year fan meetings in Korea. It feels like I spent the winter of 2017 so chaotically. But I’m the style that feels more stable when I have a lot of work. It was hard but I liked it. I’m the type that can’t rest well if I’m told to rest. I don’t know how to rest well (laughter).” Q. If you could give us a small hint about INFINITE’s promotions this time around? “First of all, the fact that we’re releasing an INFINITE album after so long, I’m so thankful to the members, company, and to the fans who’ve waited. We prepared a lot for this album. So I’m even more excited. Originally, we didn’t intend on releasing a full album, but as we were recording, there were songs that we thought would be a waste if we threw them away, so we ended up releasing a full album. We prepared a lot, so we plan to promote as diligently for as long as it has taken for us to come back.” Q. You’ve already become a 10 year group, is there a secret to having good relationships between the members? "There’s no secret really (laughter). Actually, we argued a lot a long time ago. We’d fight and make up, fight and make up. We’ve been with each other since we were young and have come to know each other so well, that I think we’ve naturally become more thoughtful [towards each other]. It’s been close to ten years, so I want to say this teamwork arose out of members understanding each other and conceding to each other.” Q. Do you contact Hoya? There could be a possibility for you to be reunited through a musical. “If we both continue to do musicals going forward, there really is a possibility to be reunited under one project (laughter). I have talked to Hoya on the phone recently. I asked Hoya, ‘You’re doing well in ‘Sandglass’ right?’ and Hoya asked me, ‘You’re doing well in ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’ right? We exchanged what we’ve been up to.

Q. Do you have any separate solo plans next year?

"Since we didn’t promote this year, I finished all of my solo recordings during that time. I’ll have to think about the schedule but I’m hoping to release it next year. I also created these solo songs with the thought of performing them as well.” Q. We can’t leave out your variety activities. Right now, you’re on ‘Insolent Housemates’ with Lee Kyungkyu and the reactions are good. "Because Lee Kyungkyu is a respected sunbaenim and the Godfather of Variety, I’m doing well by riding on his coattails. Thankfully, Lee Kyungkyu sunbaenim leads me well and sees me as cute, so I’m thankful that audiences enjoy that.”

“Honestly, I find that kind of variety [show] to be harder than going up on stage. I always contemplate if I should really show 100% of my real life. I’m the type that’s scared of showing private things. I came out on ‘Insolent Housemates’ because my company tricked me and said that a pretty actress was going to come on. I felt burdened having to reveal my house so I wasn’t sure about doing it. I decided on doing it thinking that it would be a good opportunity because I’m not close to any actresses or girl groups. But on the first day of filming, Lee Kyungkyu sunbaenim and two dogs came over. Later, I asked the company, ‘How did this happen?’ and at first they said, ‘We don’t know either.’ But later they confessed, ‘We did it because we were afraid you’d say you wouldn’t do it.’ So, I argued and asked Lee Kyungkyu sunbaenim, ‘Other people are filming so happily like ‘We Got Married’, why is it only us that’s like this’. Honestly, it’s that kind of chemistry that people seem to enjoy.” Q. You’ve been getting good reactions from every variety show that you’re on. Do you have a special secret? "I’m always contemplating, ‘How much should I show?’ but I’ve realized that when filming reality, you have to be honest in order for the show to be funny. A while ago, I didn’t see the filming equipment and comfortably changed my clothes and it aired just like that. So after 10 years, I’ve finally exposed myself. So from then on, I’ve thought, ‘I’ve got to be careful when changing clothes’ (laughter). Q. What are your plans for 2018? Please say something to your fans for the upcoming new year. “I’m thinking about how to show many new things next through concerts and my solo. In order to repay the fans who have waited, I plan to ‘work diligently’. Please be happy in the new year as well, and if you get the chance, please come to ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’, which I’m performing in to spend some meaningful time together.” Translated by: togetherinspirit7

[TRANS] OSEN - [Oh!A Cup of Coffee①] INFINITE’s Sunggyu “’Prison Playbook’s Park Hosan’s Advice and No Acting Lessons”

The group INFINITE’s leader and main vocal Kim Sunggyu has added another title [to his name]. Starting from his debut performance in 2011′s ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’, he adds the title of ‘Musical Actor Kim Sunggyu’.

Starting from December 15th of last year, audiences have had the chance to meet the main character Myungwoo, from the jukebox musical ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’, who looks back on his first love and moments of his life before his death. 

After it’s premiere in 2011, the musical returns after a complete rearrangement in order to give new life to its foundational storyline. Kim Sunggyu, who also participated in that premiere, is working on internalizing the masterpieces of the late, great Lee Younghoon, as the young Myungwoo, the main character in ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’.

Kim Sunggyu, who obviously has great singing skills, has been receiving especially good reviews for his natural and cute expressions as the young Myungwoo who expresses his shy love to his first love Sooah. And the fact that he has never received an acting lesson is even more surprising and amazing.

So, OSEN spent some time talking with Kim Sunggyu, who is busier than anyone else, as he’s preparing for INFINITE’s comeback and ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’ for the end of this year and on New Years day morning.

Q. How did you feel about your first performance? “I was very shaky and nervous. I was the last actor in this role to do his first performance so I think I was extra nervous. But everything seemed to end smoothly so I’m very happy.”

Q. How did you become involved with ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’?

“Actually, I was involved in the premiere of ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’. It was my musical debut. Because the director, Lee Jini, of this newly made version is the same director from before, I was casted quite naturally. And the songs are just so good.”

Q. How different is it from before? “It’s completely different. The role that I have now is a lot more important than before. If my role during the premiere was that of a guide, this role allows the main character to reminisce on his youth. I personally like it more.” Q. You must’ve learned a lot since you’re working with star sunbaenims like Ahn Jaewook, Lee Gunmyung, etc. “I learn a lot. After practicing with Jaewook-hyung, he told me a lot about the direction of the character. Honestly, I’m the type that gets embarrassed easily so I was really worried, but while drinking after the first reading, all the sunbaes made me feel really comfortable and we were able to share lots of stories. After that, they’ve been giving me advice here and there and I’ve been having fun while practicing.”

Q. You’ve been constantly doing musicals up to this point. What would you say the charm of a musical is?

“First of all, it’s a lot of fun. I’ve done lots of concerts as a part of INFINITE but it’s fun to sing and act as another character and not as INFINITE’s Sunggyu. At first, there were difficulties and it was all very unfamiliar to me, but as I continued doing musicals, I came to like them. Another way it’s different from broadcasts are that you can feel the three dimensionality. Even now, while doing ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’, I’m extremely happy.

Q. From an idol’s perspective, are there any burdens in attempting a musical?

“Since I was young, I’ve always felt a lot of burden. Because of certain stereotypes, I worried and stressed about it being too intimidating. But as I kept working on different projects, I think I felt ‘I need to do well’ more than the burdens of coming on as an idol. Instead of being irritated at those kinds of perspectives, I saw it as more of an interest in me and took as it an encouragement to ‘do better’. That’s why these days I don’t feel that kind of burden, but instead I worry about ‘How should I express this better?’ or ‘How should I do this today?’

Q. Have you ever learned acting?

“No. I’ve never received any lessons. I think I just devote myself into practicing when I start a new musical. I also listen to the sunbaenims’ advice and I try to bring out the character that I’ve imagined. Actually, I asked a hyung that I stood on stage with before in the past, ‘How can I do well?’ But that hyung answered with, ‘Will you do well just because I told you what to do?’ So I was like, ‘Ah, I see,’ and am learning on my own.”

Q. Does that hyung still promote?

“Yes. Right now he comes out on the tvN drama ‘Prison Playbook’. It’s Park Hosan hyung. He’s a hyung that I met when I did the first ‘Gwanghwamun Sonata’. We also did ‘In the Heights’ together as well. A while ago, I was surprised to see him on TV so I texted him and he responded saying, 'I'm so busy I wasn't even able to monitor the first episode.'

Q. Do you have any acting ambitions? “If an opportunity comes along, I’d like to try it. Offers have come in but I never thought ‘I have to do this’ so I couldn’t. If there is something that I want to do, I’ll consider challenging myself with it.’

Translated by: togetherinspirit7

Part 2~ Go go go!

[FAN ACCOUNT] 171231 INFINITE Begin Again - Day 3

Hello again! Sorry that this one took so long! I’ve been living with post-concert depression and was trying to avoid vids of the fanmeet in order to resolve my feels lol. There was a lot going on this day and mixed with the days before, I might be missing a lot of good info or getting it confused, so I apologize ahead of time! Onto the fanmeet~

So I also forgot to mention that Dongwoo changed the rap for ‘Between You & Me’ as well. We’re thinking it might be a trademark thing... but anyway, I also forgot to mention on the first day, Woohyun did the first rap part of ‘Cover Girl’ after Sungyeol’s urging, super cute!!!

There were lots of good talking ments that day! They’ll probably be out of order, but I’ll try my best! I think it was at the beginning sometime when they all mentioned Myungsoo’s awards from the MBC Drama Awards and Sungyeol mentioned that he was really disappointed that Myungsoo didn’t mention the boys at all. They come back to this story later towards the end of the night, but I’ll combine it here. Sungyeol was saying that he was watching it at home and was hurt. Then he threw Sunggyu under the bus by saying that Sunggyu texted him and said ‘Next year, you need to win an award and thank us instead!’ So to explain his side of the story Sunggyu said that he was also at home after the meet and was able to catch Myungsoo win the first award. After winning, Sunggyu sent a congrats text in the group chat. Sunggyu said he understood that Myungsoo wasn’t expecting the award and was flustered and that’s why he didn’t thank the boys or fans. So when the won the second award (Popularity award) he was kind of expecting a shout out then and when they didn’t get it, he texted Sungyeol that he needs to win and thank the members. After hearing all this, Myungsoo said that he’ll make sure to win again and call each of their names out one by one lol. Woohyun said there’s no need cause they’re going to try to win an award as INFINITE! (YAAASSSSS!!!)

Another thing they mentioned was that we’d be spending New Years together and Dongwoo was worried about the minors in the crowd but everyone was like WE’RE OKAYYYY! Sunggyu was joking that he hopes we’ll finish before the last train leaves so fans started chanting ‘First train, first train.’

[FAN ACCOUNT] 171230 INFINITE Begin Again - Day 2

Hi all! Before I start with the second day things, I wanted to add some first day things that I forgot when I posted. So, I forgot to mention how cute the opening vcr is. It is so cute! It’s like the mature version of the end of ‘White Confession’ where they all bring presents. Then it ends with them outside with sparklers and it’s just so pretty~ Besides that I also forgot to mention that the stage this time around is a lot higher than ‘That Summer 3′ which makes viewing so much better. I remember I was in a similar spot for TS3 and could only see from their knees up, but I could pretty much see everything this time around! Also, I forgot to mention that they were telling us not to push each other cause it hurts them to see us get hurt. And Dongwoo was like, ‘You wouldn’t want to see us pushing and hurting each other, right?’ and he pushed Woohyun a bit and Woohyun almost fell out of his chair for real lol. It was cute but I swear I saw the flash of fright in Woohyun’s eyes lol. Also, as the boys were doing their intros, Dongwoo stopped crying and was back to his energetic self, which Gyu later teased him for by saying, ‘He was just crying a few minutes ago!!’ lol. Dongwoo was very energetic all night, the boys had to calm him down a few times lol. He kept dancing while they were talking and they were like ‘Whoa whoa’ lol. I also forgot that while talking about Sungjong’s solo songs they mentioned ‘Good Morning’ and tried to get Sungjong to sing it but he was like, ‘Uhhh’ so they tried to get Inspirit to sing but it was super quiet so everyone was laughing. Speaking of solos, did I mention Dongwoo’s pelvic thrusting??? Or Woohyun copying him? Well yeah, that. And it was amazing. Oh and I remember a bit of what they were talking about during the Instagram section. The question was about what they do after they wake up. Myungsoo checks to see if his eyelids are doubled or not lol. Namu said he needs to put on makeup and that’s what prompted Sunggyu to tease him about getting ready and the difference between Myungsoo and Woohyun lol. Tbh, it seemed like the first day was a bit like a rehearsal. They changed a lot for the second day. Keep reading for more second day shenanigans!

[FAN ACCOUNT] 171229 INFINITE Begin Again

Hi everyone! I know it’s been a while but better late than never right? Anyway, I was able to go to the first day of Begin Again and it was so nice to see the boys again. It feels like it’s been forever and a half since I saw their smiling faces on stage. I’m going to try my best at this fan account but tbh it’s not going to be as good as the others. There were a few distractions in my area and because it had been so long, I think I was too caught up in the moment and a lot of the talking parts didn’t stick in my brain. It also might be because I’m getting old lol. 

Anyway, the merchandise for the fan meet are all pretty nice and this time they even had a table with all the goods on it so you can look at it or touch them before you buy it. The only bad thing about the goods is that they came in these huge boxes that were impossible to carry around. Fast fowarding to inside the venue. Woollim really seemed to try to change things up this time. They’re still kind of predictable but I can definitely see the effort they put in to make fans a bit happier and to change it up from their complete predictability. Instead of mvs playing before the start, it was the concert logo in English and Korean flashing back and forth with title songs playing in the background. Tbh I kinda missed the mvs. Maybe it was because it was the first day after so long, but no one was singing or getting into the music. I think the mvs helped people concentrate on something instead of their phones.