🎶End of the Year Concert with Amber 🎶(2018) ❤️

AdminDecember 13, 2018

GONE ROGUE 2018

The best way to end the year is with the best concert (for me) with Amber Liu! I cannot begin to tell you how much fun we had this past Friday, December 7, 2018 at the U Street Music Hall on Georgia Ave. It is an teenie tiny club that I went to for the first time since living in the Northern Virginia area for more years than most of you have been born. It was an honor and privilege to get to see Amber who is just so damn talented and such a personable K-Pop idol! Amber is so down to earth that her fans can feel it just being in her presence. This is the first time since I started going to KPop concerts that any of the female artists have graced our neck of the woods!

U Street Music Hall

The U Street Music Hall is really small. I mean really! With narrow walkways and halls to the stage and barely any seating, if you don’t like crowds, this is definitely not the place to be. Luckily, it was winter time and the weather was just right; not too cold and thankfully not snowing! The worse thing about the concert was driving into Washington, DC on a Friday night. As I live an hour away in no traffic, the entire trip took almost 2 hours!! In hindsight, it was a good thing that I booked parking ahead even though it was about 4 blocks away.

Justin Park

In a standing room only crowd, I was lucky to be in a good spot with a vantage point on the side. Sure, front and center would have been nice; however, I’m an old woman facing knee surgery next year and standing ain’t my thang! However, I was close enough to get some occasional, decent shots and videos of the concert. Happy? I am. Justin Park opened for Amber. I have to admit I had never heard of him before but he has a very decent voice and did spend some time featuring his new CD released just this month, December, called Place Like Home. If you want to here the entire album, you can find it here on his official Youtube website. Like I said, very nice voice and did an awesome job in warming up the crowd.

Justin stayed on the stage for about 30-35 minutes and he was almost immediately followed by Amber. The crowd by this time was really ready; anticipation was high and any time someone came on the stage, the audience would scream. Finally, Ms Amber herself entered the stage with instrumentalists and two dancers in her mini-entourage. I loved this because it gave a fuller effect of a larger production. I don’t think there was much room up on that tiny stage but Amber and the fellas managed to entertained us BIG TIME!!

Amber has such an infectious persona that when she smiles, you smile! She laughs, you laugh! You really can’t help it! She just oozes that happiness that makes you believe she is truly happy! With the un-official demise of fX, I cannot believe our luck, here in DC that she made the decision to come here for a concert. Poor Washington DC, capital of the US; virtually ignored by all K-Pop concerts! Sure, we get the fan meets, sometimes; but full concerts like never come here!

After Amber’s first song, she established some rules for the Gone Rogue tour. Loved it! Be yourself was the theme and it was a theme of inclusion as the audience was made up of young and old; Asian, Black, and White; Male and Female; and finally parents with their kids! Yes!! I also want to thank U Street Music Hall for making special accommodations for the youngsters that were attending the concert. They ferreted them to the front so that they weren’t buried in the crowd and the parents stood off to the side. Good job!!

She took a moment to thank the fans and give encouragement. This is just a clip but I will post where to find all, if not most of my videos from the evening that I have uploaded to YouTube.

Amber sung so many of my favorites that I listen to practically daily! Like Borders (LOVE THIS SONG!!), Lost at Sea and White Noise (Mini-Album), Lower (original duet with Luna), On My Own (Mini-release) and the crowd favorite and mine, Shake that Brass! Amber tore up the stage with this rendition doing all the parts of the song to perfection while dancing and shaking that “brass”!! I cannot begin to get you to feel the pure joy it was to be at her concert. The crowd’s enthusiasm was like a wave of happiness and glee! I don’t think anyone walking out of the place after standing for 2+ hours DIDN’T have a good time. I really can go on and on about this concert! I’ve already put in my request to Amber to come back again! But this time, BIGGER venue! I guarantee it will sell out!! And bring some of the other fX alums with you! We really miss you ladies!!! PEACE!!

I would be remiss in not mentioning the duet that Amber did with her “little brother” which is what she labeled Justin Park as. And at 6’3″, he is far from little!