Let me start out by saying that I am a HUGE fan of 2NE1 and when I heard they were going to be performing in the US, I knew i HAD to be there, no matter what. Luckily, the lovely ladies had their first ever US concert right next door in Newark, NJ and I only had to take a short ride on the PATH Train to get there! Lucky Me!
Now, the concert itself was amazing. I literally had tears in my eyes when they hit the stage because I was so overwhelmed and excited to actually be seeing Bom, Minzy, Dara and CL in the flesh, right before my eyes. The stage was cool, the lighting was great and the video screen projections complimented each song well. Speaking of each song, they literally sang every song from both mini albums and the full length album except for 2... and 1 of those two songs (I'm Busy) was played (but not performed live) during a video interlude which gave a peek of the girls running backstage and changing outfits for the next song. The girls were everything I could have expected and more... CL's stage presence is other worldly, Minzy's dancing is spectacular, Dara simply fascinates me and Bom's voice is spectacular. So why am I giving this concert, which truly felt like a once in a lifetime special event, only 4 out of 5 stars???? Well, there were quite a few "issues", technical or otherwise with the Newark show. There are as follows:
As many have stated, we had to wait outside nearly 2 hours past the posted start time of the concert for whatever technical reason that was going on inside. This became very frustrating, very quickly, as nobody (not even security) had any specific answers (or even non specific) as to why we were kept standing outside for what felt like forever. Now, during the concert, CL did apologize and thank us for being so patient which was very sweet, in my opinion, which showed that they cared about their fans.
Second, after all of the waiting, there were still some technical flubs during the show. Bom couldn't quickly pull the cover off of her solo set piece to reveal the dancers in the drum, leaving her standing on the side of the stage tugging at this giant sheet making her look kind of foolish. I've seen the same thing happen in YouTube videos at the Korea shows and as i chuckled, wondered why they haven't found an easier way to get that cover off or at least practiced the correct way to easily pull the cover off. Next, one of the "bubble boy's" bubbles didn't inflate during "Pretty Boy", so we had one Bubble Boy walking around the catwalk in his bubble and one standing in the back of the stage looking stupid with a heap of deflated plastic over and around him! Lastly, as far as technical difficulties, non of the large blow up pieces inflated at the end of the concert. so there was no giant tube of lipstick, diamond ring, pearl necklace, etc and the stage hands just pulled the screens back together and all of the screens displayed a gold shimmering image.
My final, HUGE, complaint for the 2NE1 concert in Newark, NJ, was that there was absolutely NO MERCHANDISE for sale!!! Were they serious?!?!? I had brought an extra $250 with me SPECIFICALLY for merchandise! I wanted my official 2NE1 light stick (which the VIP ticket holders did receive as part of their ticket package) and a few t-shirts and whatever other merchandise they had for sale, but no, there was absolutely NO merchandise for sale. None. Zip. Zilch. Zero. NOTHING. That really disappointed me!
So, the 2 hours of waiting, technical difficulties during the show and the fact that there was NO merchandise for sale has forced me to give what was indeed a spectacular concert only 4 out of 5 stars.