[Winter Korea Trip 2010/2011] Day 9: Success on Inkigayo Live!

Having had an unsuccessful attempt at crashing MBC's Music Core the previous day, both X and I decided to gamble with our luck once again on yet another music program - SBS's Inkigayo. Despite the fact that we had a chance that we might just be wasting another day, we were rather adamant and stubborn on the idea of catching one of these shows live!

Broadcast by SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System), Inkigayo is one of the several music shows that air every Sunday afternoon. Similar to the other rival music shows such as MBC's Music Core and KBS's Music Bank, it showcases song performances of local artistes on various stage segments.

The performance line-up for the day are as shown below:

Special Stage
- BEAST Gi Kwang & Hyun Seung [Let's it snow]

Hot Solo debut
- Noh Yoo Min [EZ song]

TAKE 7
- G-Dragon & T.O.P [high high]
- Seo In Young [Into the Rhythm]
- T-ara [YaYaYa]
- IU [Good Day]
- Sistar [How Dare You]

Hot Music
- Orange Caramel [A-ing ♡]
- JJ [Ppang]

Fresh Music
- Yoseob & Drama [First Snow And First Kiss]
- Jang Yoon Jung [Olleh! (Christmas ver.)]
- Woo Joo [Happy Together]
- Girl’s Day [Nothing Lasts Forever]
- Ab Avenue [Sad Story..Girls Know (Playing Girls)]
- Touch [Killin' Me]
- Kang Jong Wook [Boy]
- F1RST [U Like Me, I Like You]
- Heaven [Stay]

Power rookie
- Bebe Mignon [Be Nice To Only Have]

Learning from yesterday's experience, we paid greater attention to choosing the fan club to follow. Ideally, it should be one that isn't too large of a size. It wasn't too hard to come up with the conclusion that following IU's fan group would best suit our situation.

More determined than ever, we got out once again at about 6am and took a taxi direct to the SBS Broadcast Center located at Bal-san.  For those interesting in knowing how to get there by subway, it is a 5 minutes walk away from 가양역 (Gayang Station) exit 10 as shown on the map below.



View Larger Map

Despite our early arrival, the area was already swarming with fans of Bigbang and BEAST. Strangely, the other fan groups were no where to be found and it was only after much later that we spotted 2 local fans of IU standing in a corner.

Up to this point, we were rather confused about the whole queuing thing as it seemed different from how we did it at Music Core the previous day. Fortunately, the 2 locals we met there were extremely helpful in guiding us through the whole process.

Based on what we had observed ourselves and also learnt from the 2 locals, the queuing systems of big fan groups such as Bigbang and BEAST were pretty much the same as they were at Music Core, with the same given priority to Korean citizens with fan club membership. As for smaller fan clubs such as IU's we were following, it is slightly different.

As mentioned on the previous day, different fan clubs will have slightly different queuing systems although the general idea is similar (based on name list queuing system). Do note that the following steps I took were for the IU fan club, and might not necessarily be applicable to your chosen fan group.

We had to take a picture of ourselves (using our cameras) with the SBS building in the background as soon as we arrived (or rather when we realised we had to do so). This picture will serve as evidence proving our time of arrival, and will later be used to determine our queue numbers when the queue physically starts at about 11am. (For the IU fan queue, priority was given on a first-come-first-serve basis, irregardless of citizenship or any other criteria.)

With lots of time to spare before the physical queue began (please take note of the timing prior to wandering off), we decided to have breakfast at a nearby restaurant. Having been out in the -16 degree Celsius cold for quite awhile, steaming hot dumplings and Ramen were just the meal we needed.

Nearby Restaurant

 Steaming hot dumplings

Ramen

We stayed indoors most of the time as it was simply too cold to linger around outside. Slightly before 11am, the locals whom we met alerted us that the person-in-charge for the IU fan club had arrived and the queue had started to form.

We got back to the queuing area as fast as we could and looked for the person-in-charge. The 2 locals managed to get queue position number 3 and 4 but when it came to us, we had a problem. The picture we took somehow wasn't strong enough an evidence to ascertain the time we had arrived! Argh!

Fortunately, not only did the 2 locals step forward to testify for us, several other fans from the front of the queue who saw us earlier also helped testify too! Because of this, we had earned the trust of the person-in-charge and she gave us queue position number 5 and 6! That's practically at the front of the queue! ^^ The fans are really really nice and genuinely helpful people!

Once all of the IU fans were in line, the person-in-charge told us that IU would be doing a pre-recorded performance for the show and that all of us would soon be entering the studio to watch and support her. As for the live show itself after that, only the first 20 in line would get the tickets to catch the show. AND THAT INCLUDED US! WHEEEE! ^^

One by one, fan clubs of different artistes who were doing pre-recorded performances went into the studio to watch the recording, and exited after to make way for the next fan club to enter. It was a very systematic line of movement. This system arrangement also means that if the artiste you are following is doing a pre-recorded performance, it is almost certain that you will at least be able to catch that pre-performance because the fan club would have the whole studio to fill up by themselves. It was soon our turn and we, too, entered the studio for the first time =P.

Entering SBS Broadcast Center ^^

The studio was rather small which I guess was the reason why only a few selected ones from the various fan clubs get to watch the show live later on. Photo-taking within the studio is prohibited and they do station a few watchers in tuxedos to look out for fans who are non-adherent. If caught, the camera would either be confiscated temporarily and returned only when the show ends, or if in a slightly better mood, they would just delete the taken photos and return the camera immediately. 

Nevertheless, it was interesting and funny to see how the fans sneakily took photos while the watchers were looking in another direction. I, too, took a photo of the stage while it was still being prepared for IU's performance, and subsequently kept my camera because I felt it was too risky. I also just wanted to enjoy watching with peace at heart when the performance began.

While waiting, we got to see how the crew prepared the stage and how they practiced drawing the curtains that would be hiding the choir later on during the first part of the performance.

It took quite awhile for the stage preparations to be done and we were thankful that they allowed us in so early because the whether outside was really freaking cold! During the wait, we took the time to try to memorize as much of the fan chants as possible with the help of the 2 locals. As soon as the stage was ready, IU wasted no time at all and went on stage almost immediately, amongst cheers from her fans! 

In total, we got to see IU perform her latest song "Good Day" 3 times! The first time round, she missed the que during the famous 3-octave part and it was just so cute to see her laugh on stage. The other 2 times were great but I guess they wanted an extra performance just in case.

After her 3rd performance, she thanked all her fans before leaving the stage. We, too, left the studio shortly and the person-in-charge reminded us (the first 20 of the queue) to gather back just before the live show begins.

With about an hour's time to spare, we decided to treat the 2 locals whom had helped us so much to a meal. They brought us to another nearby restaurant famous for its clam noodles and ordered a tub. Yes you did read it right. The clam noodles came in a tub that was meant for a family of about 4 to 6. It had lots and lots of clams in it (possibly in the hundreds) and it was simply delicious!

  Clam Noodles

Returning to the queuing area as soon as we were finished with the meal, we got in line and received our tickets for the live show! Sadly, we couldn't keep it as a souvenir but we did take lots of pictures of it because ultimately, we went through so much just for these tickets!

Ticket to the Inkigayo Show Live!

In my opinion, I think we got two of the best seats for the live show. Our seats were along the middle column on an elevated platform and so we had a perfect unblocked view of the entire stage. The studio was filled with a haze-like smoke (not the fire-kind, not to worry) and was unlike what we had experienced earlier during the pre-recording. My guess was that the usage of the smoke was to prevent the use of cameras for any unauthorized photo-taking during the live broadcast because normal cameras capture blown-out pictures in such conditions.

The artistes and groups that did pre-recorded performances earlier came out on stage to meet their fans during the segments when their respective recorded performances were being played on air. It was kind of like a freestyle stage for them to do whatever they wanted on it during their allocated time slot. Some chose to dance to their music while others waved and thank their fans for their support.

On top of watching IU perform for the pre-recording earlier, we also got to see T-ara and Orange Caramel perform during the live performance! Of course we did see many other artistes and groups perform too but because we are fans of T-ara and Orange Caramel as well, experiencing their performance was more meaningful to us =).

Coming to an end of the truly entertaining performances, the show concluded with its usual weekly Mutizen Song Award presentation that awards the most popular song of the week. It was great to see IU receive the award especially when we were among the IU fan club!

IU wins Mutizen Award

After we were led out of the studio, we saw fans crowding near the car park entrance to catch one last glimpse of their favorite idols who were leaving too. Some even went all out to chase the van on foot as if they were ever gonna run faster than the van -_-".

 Car park entrance

By then, the sun had already started to set and we decided to head to a restaurant near our "home" to have our dinner. We have been noticing a strong barbecue aroma coming from this certain restaurant for the past few days and really wanted to try it out. 

Allow me to introduce to you the best barbecue restaurant we've been for this trip - Cozy & Grill

 Cozy & Grill

Cozy & Grill serves a variety of meat of which, you have to grill DIY-style on the small barbecue pit built-in on the table itself. You won't have to worry about smoke emitting from the charcoal or barbeque-smelling 'fumes' clinging onto your clothes. It gets sucked up by a chimney that dangles over the table. Much like the extensible nozzle of a vacuum cleaner.

Cozy & Grill is very generous with its serving portion of meat and they only serve good quality meat! The best thing? Every serving is offered at such darn cheap prices for something of this quantity, quality and heavenly taste!

We ordered 1 serving of 갈비살 (beef) and 2 servings of 삽겸살 (pork). The beef costs 9,000 won (~S$10.60) and the pork costs 5,000 won each (~S$5.90). The following photos seriously do not do the serving portion & meat thickness much justice:-

One Portion of beef

One portion of pork. Yes! This is ONE portion. So we had 2 times of this

And so X did most of the cooking while I was busy snapping away at the food. I have to admit he is a better cook than I am. Haha! The meat was absolutely daebak! So tender and juicy, it melted in my mouth. The fats you see in the pork are unlike the usual ones we eat in Singapore where it is disgusting and non-chewable. The fats in this korean pork, well, didn't taste gross at all. In fact, it melted in the flames into a very smooth butter-like moisture that sizzled with the pork and made it extremely succulent.

Sliced-up beef

 Into the barbecue pit the pork goes!

 Flip the pork! Looks good!

 

 Another shot of the pork. Are you hungry looking at this? LOL

 

Opps!! Too much fire! It turned out well not to worry =)

The meal came along with a free flow of onions and garlic to 'flavourise' the meat if you'd like. Spicy bean sprouts were the side dish and they complimented the meat really really well. The restaurant also provided large amounts of lettuce and peppermint leaf wrappings which added to the dining experience. Wrap a piece of meat together with a bit of each side dish, dip it in the sauce, and whatdayaknow? You have an instant gastronomical creation guaranteed to blow your mind. MMmmm..

 Onions

Beansprout

Such a scrumptious meal for us seemed befitting of a celebratory dinner for making it to Inkigayo! I strongly recommend Cozy & Grill! 5-stars! For those interested in locating this restaurant, it is a short 5 minutes walk from Hyehwa Station exit 4 as shown on the map below. (Location 'A' is Hyehwa station exit 4 while 'B' is the location of Cozy & Grill)








View Larger Map

So once dinner was over, we headed back to our "home". After all the camping out in the cold, the weather conditions were really taking a toll on us and we were extremely exhausted. We seriously required much quality rest to recharge our bodies for the future days to come! Good night =) ZZzz...