2010.09.11. Sungha Jung - Korea National Tour 2010 @ V-HALL, Seoul

[Autographed poster]

Sungha Jung

When I first saw him play is about 2 years ago. It was "With or Without You" arranged by Doyle Dykes.

Its arrangement was different from U2's original, but great. Above all, the melody and sound that one child made me crazy even though I don't like the acoustic solo guitar tunes so much. Right after, I looked through YouTube and saw all his play. Ah~ Who the hell is he!

I tried to find anything about him and found his fan cafe. I found and translated the interesting comments in YouTube and kept watching him. I got to translate his e-mail to English to communicate the foreign artists for about six months. Now, I'm the leader of his fan cafe. O_O

The Young boy entered the middle school, and grew rapidly (physically and musically) after his first overseas concert in Germany. He had played as a guest musician with many famous artist (Swell Season, Mr.Big, Kotaro Oshio, etc). At last, he had the tour in US and his own concert in some countries.

This June, his first recording was released and the Korea national tour was scheduled. It was the first official concert in Korea as a professional musician.

First concert of this tour was in Busan. Two week after, there were the concert in Seoul (Sat.) and Daegu (Sun.).

I have been V-HALL where the concert would be held for the concert of Gamma Ray (Melodic speed metal --> It's what I usually like!) 

It's time to start! Ah~ The hall is narrow and long and my place was little bit far from the stage. Here came the hero! Since he is a growing boy, he looked much taller than expected. Actually, I saw him one year ago. Mmmm.

[During the show, he talked like this.]

He greeted the audience and said that it was still hot and that his song 'Waterfall' made the audience feel cool. Concert in Seoul started! Since 'Waterfall' is the tune that showed the splendid technique, it was the nice tune as the first of the show to catch the audience's eyes and ears. Of course, the song was fresh! I could hear 'Ah~ Oh~' here and there. One foreigner said 'Amazing!' after this tune. HAHA

Mmmmm.. the unfamiliar guitar. Is it new? I saw the review of Busan concert and he was said to play 3 different guitar. But, there was only one guitar on the stage. Mmmm...

The second was 'Twilight' of the Japanese guitarist "Kotaro Oshio". He said that it made him to start playing the fingerstyle guitar songs. Many people liked this song, but I couldn't even remember the melody of this song. Even though the name of this song was so familiar to me, I listened as though for the first time. Of course, it was not my style. :( 

There was a series of the movie themes. One was 'Shape of My Heart' arranged by Sungha and the other was 'The medley of Cinema Paradiso' arranged by Kotaro Oshio. Actually, 'Shape of My Heart' is Sting's song first and movie (Leon) theme is later. Since Leon became so popular, many people recognized it as a movie song. Anyway, I like Sting's original more than Sungha's arrangement since I like Sting so much. Of course, Sungha's arrange is still great! The continued 'The medley of Cinema Paradiso'... I like this movie, Ennio Morricone's original score. I liked this guitar arrangement.

Recently, Sungha arranged two Abba songs. He prepared the set of 3 Abba songs with the comment that he got to like Abba due to his dad.

The first was 'Dancing Queen'. Calmer arrangement than the Abba original.

The second was 'Money, Money, Money' arranged by the Finnish gutiarist 'Tomi Paldanius' who strongly supports Sungha. He said that he will have the concert in the land of Abba, Sweden next year. When I translated his e-mail, Tomi said that he would make an effort to let the Europe know Sungha. The concert in Sweden looks one of his projects. Sungha will be a main player of Bangkok Acoustic Guitar Celebration 2010 in the end of October, which Tomi Paldanius is the producer of this event. For me, Sweden is the country of the rock guitarist 'Yngwie Malmsteen' rather than 'Abba'. :)

The last of Abba set was 'Winner Takes It All' arranged by Sungha. He said that the professional musicians praised his arrangement. In my opinion, it showed the feeling of Abba original and of the guitar solo tune, too.

Guest stage. Sungha introduced 'Sung-Gyu Kim'. He tuned the guitar and smiled and started playing the familiar melody. Oh~ 'The beauty'. One of the old famous K-pop. The original song was played by 'Shin Jung-Hyun' with the electric guitar. The acoustic 'The Beauty'... HAHAHA. The interesting arrangement with some famous songs including Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze'. His play was so different from Sungha's. More powerful!. It looked because he is the adult and it was his style. He introduced himself as just an acquaintance of Sungha's and he said that he wanted to go abroad with Sungha. He played two more tunes.

Sungha & Sung-Gyu played together 'Haru-Haru' of Big Bang. Big Bang is a famous K-Pop idol group. How should I know the song of such kind of group? Now I'm familiar with this melody, but still I haven't heard the original. More rich feeling than one guy's play.

[Duet with Sung-Gyu Kim]

Sungha started talking about his guitar history. He revealed his know-how for how to play well!!!. It is 'Practice until perfect'. (O_O) He has gift, but he is practicing to be perfect. What a great know-how~! Clap! Clap! Clap!

The next tune was his own tune - 'Hazy Sunshine'. It is the first track of his 1st CD. He introduced this tune as Ulli Boegershausen's favurite, who is the mentor of Sungha's. I knew this story since I translated and delivered Ulli's message to Korean. Here is a part of his message.

Very, very good my friend. I really like your new tune and I think it is your best one so far. You see there is always progression and improvement. 

I don't mind to feel the spirit of Alex a bit. You made your one thing and I am sure you will more and more mix all techniques you learned from all the different artists and create your own style.

The most important thing is that you have a really good feeling for the melody, the groove and the form of a tune. Believe in that. I assure you it is there. Go ahead like this.

...

Regarding "Hazy Sunshine" there is nothing to criticize. Very good job.

[Almost the same pose during the show]

The next was 'Tree in the water' which Sungha made for his sister 'Soo-ha'. He said she liked the song of 'Girl's Generation' much more that his song. It is a bright and fresh tune and it will be similiar to Soo-ha's personality, I think.

Moody Blues' 'Nights in White Satin'. It had been first played at Busan concert and he used the sustainer made by Ebow. He played with something in his right hand and it made the sound sustained. Interesting~! I thought Trace Bundy who tried several devices on the acoustic guitar. Trace likes Sungha so much that he invited Sungha to US for his US west-coast tour early this year. Sungha may be learning something from Trace's various trial.

Michael Jackson's 'Don't Stop 'till You Get Enough' arranged by Adam Rafferty. Sungha said that he wanted to meet Adam in New York this winter. Oh~ It seemed like a hint that he will have a concert in New York this winter~! I like MJ's original. R.I.P., MJ. T_T

His recent original 'Fly like the wind'... Nothing special to explain... -_-'

'Freight Train' which was said to be black female singer's original. Cheerful tune~!

Ah... writing a review is too hard...

The last tune... Sigh everywhere. 'Perfect Blue' which Sungha composed in his age 12. True his representative. Calm, cute and bright. GOOD!

Once he disappeared from the stage, the audience started clapping for the encore. The encore was Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean'. Since the original is so famous and the guitar arrangement is good for the audience to enjoy, it is being played from the US west-coast tour. I had seen him make mistake during playing this tune, but this time he played well. HAHA.

He really disappeared from the stage with his guitar.

The first official concert in Seoul was finished in about 100 minutes. The audience wanted to listen more, but they felt happy - I could read their face.

After the show, there was the autograph time. The audience of all ages were waiting to get his autograph and took some pictures with him with happy face. It showed Sungha's music appeals to all age of people.

[I also got his autograph. HAHAHA!!! ^^v The left is the ticket and the right is the name tag that I made.]

It was little bit bad that the concert hall had the inconvenient seats and bad sight to the stage. According to the concert director, he could not get the good concert hall at that time.

Sungha played all songs with the explanation by reading memo. Of course, it might not be the natural and fluent explanation, but he started communication with the audience and decorated his own show faithfully. As a beginner of professional musician who started making his own stage, this show was very good.

For your reference, he also played well in Daegu the next day.

[I & Sungha had a picture taken. It was the first time for me to have a picture taken only with him.]

[SET LIST]

01 Waterfall

02 Twilight

03 Shape of My Heart

04 Cinema Paradiso Themes Medley

05 Dancing Queen

06 Money, Money, Money

07 Winner Takes It All

[Guest Stage - Sung-Gyu Kim]

08 The Beauty

09 Nocturne

10 Morning Trip

11 Haru Haru (Duet with Sung-Gyu Kim]

12 Hazy Sunshine

13 Tree in the Water

14 Nights in White Satin

15 Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough

16 Fly Like the Wind

17 Freight Train

18 Perfect Blue

[Encore]

19 Billie Jean