I love Jin, and I always am glad whenever he has a concert here in the U.S. Unfortunately, this concert was not as memorable as Yellow Gold. (I know, I am going to be raked over the coals on this review, but I have to be pretty up front about this)...
Let's start off with the basics: The opening act had a very charming and charismatic singer, with very impressive vocal skills. He engaged the audience, had people sing along with popular songs, and played guitar. He even had a girl come up on stage and serenaded her. It is pretty sad that the opening act's singing upstaged the main act for me.
Leading up to the performance, Jin's webisodes played on the screens, and it seemed like the overall atmosphere was building up to something great. The cameras were set up, the crowd was rather large, and you could see the lights being tested. I was expecting a rather impressive set, just like Yellow Gold.
I was surprised that the stage was rather simplistic, no impressive effects except for strobe lighting, and a handful of dancers. He did do some choreography, but he lacked a certain energy as he had in his previous tours. Also, it was quite obvious he was lip syncing (yes, many singers do this, especially with dancing groups, and considering English is his second language, but I felt like he *has* done better; it was quite like he didn't even bother). I enjoyed seeing him and listening to the dance music, and the dancers were doing a great job keeping up and dancing to the different songs going on. I hated the choreography for the ballad where the two dancers were pretty much having sex on the stage. Uh, totally unnecessary.
For the most part, the performance was pretty average. I understand that he is doing this with the backing of the American label, and probably had to make some cut backs as compared to the impressive sets that the Japanese agency probably allowed him to have, but I would have hoped for the ticket price he would have at least made an effort to even be energetic and engage the audience more. He did talk a little bit, with a little bit of banter with the rapper, but other than that, it seemed a bit unplanned and haphazard, especially when it came down to the last song, it seemed like he forgot until the last minute to introduce to the audience who his dancers were and his entourage. I think with the cost of the tickets, they could have at least included more of his old songs, not just Yellow Gold and his ballad, but a few more hits from previous tours, and maybe even new material, not just from the CD. I'm not sure about others, but seriously, for a quite short show (including a 15 minute intermission), the value did not seem to match up for me. (especially knowing he bought a new car with money he has. hMmmMm). Well, hope more tours will come and that this is just a jumping off point to improve :).