Contrary to popular belief, I flew over to Seoul specially for the Royal Pirates “Black Out” Concert on 17 December 2016 at HanaTour V Hall in Hongdae and NOT to see Astro. I know that it didn’t seem like Royal Pirates was the reason for my trip but yeah, believe it; Astro was the bonus. Everything about Astro happened or was decided only after I arrived in Seoul.
Anyway, even though I decided on a whim to fly up to Seoul for the Royal Pirates concert, it was the right decision because it was AWESOME! No regrets!
First up, here is the set list for the night:
- Supernatural
- 서울 촌놈 / Seoul Hillbilly
- Let U Go
- Betting Everything
- 하루다 지나가겠다 / HARU
- On My Mind & She Will Be Loved (Maroon 5) mash up
- [EXSY solo] Boyfriend (Justin Bieber)
- [Moon solo + event] Thinking Out Loud (Ed Shearan)
- [Moon solo + event] 하루다 지나가겠다 / HARU
- [Moon + Sanchez] Call You Mine (Jeff Bernat)
- [Sanchez solo] 충분히 예뻐 (Verbal Jint feat Sanchez)
- [Sanchez + Killagramz] 대기실 / Claustrophobia
- [Sanchez] 가까이 와요 / Sunny Day Rainy Day
- U
- Drawing The Line
- Heathens (TwentyOne Pilots)
- Time Is Running Out (Muse)
- Runaway
- Dangerous
- [ENCORE] All I Want For Christmas Is You (Mariah Carey)
The 90 minutes or so concert was a blast from the get-go when the lights went out. The audience that night was fantastic as well! They didn’t need no warming up to get all high and rock ‘n roll for the concert.
I was really surprised when Sanchez joined Moon on stage during what I thought was Moon’s solo cover performance of Jeff Bernat’s “Call You Mine”.
I must say that Sanchez talks really fast and despite my crappy Korean, I was pretty impressed with myself because I actually understood everything that he was saying.
It was also quite amusing how EXSY lead a birthday song for himself when he came on stage to do his solo performance. Hahaha.
“하루다 지나가겠다 / HARU” is one of my most favourite Royal Pirates song so I was really happy when they performed it!! The first time they played the song, it was a stripped down version with only James on the keyboards for the first half of the song before the full band joined in. And coz I’m such a sucker for acoustic versions, I really, really, really love it!! It’s probably one of the best moments of the concert for me.
The second time Moon did “하루다 지나가겠다 / HARU”, it was for the event. Before we entered the venue, we were told to write our mobile number on a piece of paper. So during Moon’s solo, he drew a number from a box and serenaded the girl with whatever song she wanted. It was very funny how Moon said something like, “Please don’t pick up the phone if you are a guy.” as he picked the number and started to dial.
“Drawing The Line” is another one of my most favourite Royal Pirates song and it’s just so much fun live!! However, I must say that Runaway is probably the most fun song when heard live!! I was so high and excited by then that I realised that I had forgotten to take a small clip of the performance for memories’ sake. Oh well, a reason to go watch Royal Pirates live again right?
Royal Pirates closed the concert with “Dangerous” and that is another song that is very fun it listen to live. The undertones to the bass riffs are seriously dangerous! Hahahaha.
However, I thought that they should have ended the concert with “Runaway” instead; “Runaway” is the way to end the concert on a high note with a bang! Regardless, I have no complains. ^^
I do want to also mention that throughout the concert, I definitely noticed how miserable and pained James looked. It breaks my heart so much to look at his facial expression and know that there is nothing I (nor anyone) could do about it. So I did the next best thing; make sure I had a good time at the concert and have Royal Pirates bring the house down.
James’ mood lifted a little at the end of the concert and he managed to flashed the smile that I like so much once during the concert. (Yes, I pay attention to stuff like this and that’s also how much I look forward to seeing his smile.) Hang in there James!!
Anyway, I’d definitely watch Royal Pirates live in concert again when the opportunity arises! They are so totally worth the air ticket price!!
However, please don’t do the next concert in winter though, the cold front just before this recent concert was horrible. How about coming to Singapore for a concert instead? It’s warm here. ^^