My first SMTown show was ten years ago, so finding out that SM Entertainment was going to offer a free show on to kick off the New Year…I was completely blown away. A lot of us know how SM Entertainment is, so the announcement of the free show completely and blew everyone into suspicions.
Then it turned out to be exactly as advertised, with a bonus announcement, and the first three hours of 2021 felt wonderful.
First off, it was so good to see Wendy performing with Red Velvet again. After her injuries in 2019, fans knew it was going to be a tough recovery for her. It was emotional to see her glowing on stage as they performed Bad Boy, Peek-a-Boo, and later on Psycho. Watching Wendy hit that falsetto live was an experience I only want to replicate in person.
Taemin completely killed his stages and I absolutely was living for it. He went so hard, it was amazing. Mixed in with Taemin’s stage, we got an official announcement that SHINee was most definitely coming back in 2021. My multi-heart filled with joy.
Seeing SuJu performing together before their new comeback was also exciting for me. It was one of the performances I was most looking forward to last night. It was great to see them perform Super Clap (which I totally danced to in my living room) in that Augmented Reality oversized Pump It Up machine(not to be confused with DDR. The arrow placements were different). Their performance of Burn the Floor by the end of the show was STUNNING and I can’t wait for their next album.
TVXQ’s performances were amazing, delivering fans a classic tune with Dream. Seeing them perform Keep Your Head Down again after all these years was surreal. I remember seeing it in 2011 and as soon as the opening noises hit for the track, I had to contain myself. It was 3am out here and screaming loudly at that hour is frowned upon.
NCT, WayV were solid performances all around. I know my sister loved watching them all perform and we live texted the whole show through.
aespa’s big debut on the company show was great but they should’ve covered something to add more to their performance. As much as I would’ve loved to see them do something from f(x)’s catalogue, there are also a bunch of SNSD songs that they could’ve slipped in.
I was saddened to see the Girls Generation logo but only got a few Taeyeon solo performances instead. As much as I am Taeyeon biased since I got into K-Pop, I would’ve loved to see the other girls perform with her too.
SM Entertainment delivered a quality 3-hour show true to their strengths. They gave us performance units, (seeing D&E perform Growing Pains again was beautiful), solos (Kai put so much into his performances!), and serving us DOPE remixes in the encore.
My hopes are that the global situation normalizes soon so I can go to a concert, but I wouldn’t be mad if SM gave us another free show like this in the future.
Did you watch SMTown last night? What’d you think?
Michi's World 