Two years on from this post and I’m back with another concert account and some tips I hope will be helpful for those going to any future concerts!
Since 2023, I’ve seen Twice three more times in Melbourne at Marvel (2023) and the most recent ones at Rod Laver. Having now seen them 5 times, with terrific but different experiences each time, I thought I would try compile what has been helpful for me so far and what I’ve learnt with this new 360 stage for those going in the future! This is a seat map with my seat positions, which I will refer to throughout.
Should I go to a Twice concert?
Honestly? If you’re a big fan and have the financial & practical means to? GO TO A TWICE CONCERT. It really is remarkable how seeing them in person can be so different to watching them on a screen, no matter how big or 4k your screen is. Especially with this tour and the 360° stage, it is impossible to capture the experience with a camera, more so than previous concerts. I’ve gone to the concerts alone, with casual fans, and stans and it’s always a blast. The girls know how to put on a show and girl, do they put a good one (and sometimes also sexy, which seems to somehow happen in Melbourne) on. And there are songs that are elevated with the live band and choreo (hello hell in heaven)!
My personal tip here to remain unspoiled as much as possible. I try not to watch any performances until I go to the concert, which was difficult as Australia this time was many stops in. But the surprise and wonder of seeing the performance and choreography for the first time is genuinely amazing. Especially as the 360° stage is a very unique experience, which leads to…
What is a 360 stage like?
The 360 stage is visually amazing. Awesome screen work/visuals/stage stuff that immerse you in the experience. The performances occur facing different directions all in one song, with the girls themselves facing different directions at times. It is truly difficult to see what a performance is actually like through a fancam or even from one night as it’s only from one angle.
Something I wish I knew before is that the girls begin soundcheck and some of their ments facing one side of the stage (facing my D1 seat). They also mostly keep specific positions for their different ments. I think this is the same for other tour stops but I could be wrong as I have not kept up with the other stops for spoiler reasons as mentioned.
For performances, the girls also have “standard” choreographed positions, so if you have a seat on one side of the main stage, you are unlikely to see the front of the members whose choreographed positions are not where you are seated. We were extremely fortunate with our D1 seats that Mina and Jihyo (our biases) were largely positioned in front of us for most of the performances. However, this meant that because we were in the pit the next night, I felt like we barely saw Jihyo and Mina for the choreographed performances. We would only see them when they performed on our extended stage (spoiler: Gone, Cry for me) and during free walking songs (spoiler: Yes or Yes, What is Love, Encore songs). It was a little bit sad, but the trade off is that they’re more interactive during the free-standing moments and we got to see more of the other girls! So even though I got to see their choreography more on D1, we got more interactions on D2. On D2 though, we saw a lot of Dahyun and Momo where we were.
Should I get standing or seated tickets?
This was my biggest question for this tour. The previous concerts I’d been to had seated floor, which I like as I’m not a fan of crowd crushes or camping or not peeing for a long time. However, I decided to do both this time and got extremely lucky with my seat & positions (Day 1 and Day 2). Here are my pros and cons of standing vs. seated, but while I try to keep it general, they’re still skewed towards my personality and the positions I got.
Seated
Pros: don’t need to stand (duh), very good views of all performances on main and extended stages, you can see your bias or pee anytime you want, and twice looking at you often if you’re seated in the front rows.
Cons: none really imo if you are in the lower bowl; but if I really had to come up with some, then less to no interactions if you’re not in the first few rows, and of course you’re further from the stage the further/higher up your row is.
Some vids from our seats – Fancy; and Mina, Sana, and Tzuyu in The Feels. Not quite sure why Sana was looking at us in the Feels like that though, ha!
Standing
Pros: you get to dance and rave with twice and the crowd, and more chances of interactions, especially if you’re closer to barricade.
Cons: the queueing/staying in place to maintain your spot; the stages are tall (one extended stage is not too tall, main stage is tall, and other extended stage is very tall), which means you can only see whatever is happening on your extended stage and your side of the main stage, and it is near impossible to see what’s happening on the other side of main stage and the other extended stage; the crowd and possible annoying people around you or people in front of you who just hold their signs/phones to film; if you are main stage barricade or close, you will barely be able to look at the screens which are high above you.
Where should I stand?
From experience and the people I spoke to at the concerts, most people in standing try to rush for main stage. Understandably as twice spends most of their time and performances there. At the extended stage, you can better see the performances around your pit and you can also watch the screen when they’re out of your view. The solos all also have fixed positions on different stages. This also meant that people would also run from stage to stage when the girls moved around.
If you want a more relaxed standing experience, I suggest going closer to barricade around the extended stages, which is where we went (and also we wanted to be see Jihyo’s solo up close). However, the height of the stage meant you can’t really get a full or good view of the performances.
I can’t answer any questions about when to queue/camp etc. This will totally depend on your venue and their procedures. Our VIP tickets initially included exclusive floor access but got switched to only priority access a week before due to low sales so they could sell GA tickets for half the price. But this meant that even though we only showed up when doors opened, we still managed to get front rows barricade on extended stage whereas main stage was about 6-7 rows deep.
What are the optimal camera settings?
I learnt from my mistakes in the last tour, and dutifully looked up guides for camera settings. This summarises it for an iphone. I also recommend tapping the zoom buttons manually (down the bottom of the screen) rather than zooming in and out on the camera. They add a lot of graininess to the video (example of both grainy and normal zoom in this very devilish Mina fancam).
That being said, I really do think being in the moment as much as possible is best. Twice themselves ask for people to stand up and dance and not film. We even got told off by Jihyo for not standing after Jeongyeon asked us to. It must be difficult to be giving the most during performances and see only a static wall of phones in your face. I also think interactions occur more when you’re watching/dancing with them. Most of my interactions occurred off camera. And because there’s always someone filming (whether it be your friend you’ve made a deal with to film whenever your bias comes in front of you or the people around you), if you did have an interaction you can usually find it from someone else around you. E.g., Me disappointing Jihyo by singing the wrong thing when she points the mic at me. Most people are super kind and very willing to share their videos.
However, my memory is also faulty and I’ve found that even with being in the moment, I love having videos to look back on to remind me of interactions/favourite moments of performances or even what the view was like from my seat. And, if you have the luck to be really close to Twice, especially if it’s your first time, there really is an overwhelming sense of pressure to take photos/videos to remember how it was like or capture any interactions or even just capture their beauty. I remember that FOMO pressure even when I kept wanting to be in the moment. A balance that works for you between filming and being in the moment will be key. 🙂
How do I get an interaction?
Good seating/standing positions and a whole lot of luck. Other helpful things: dress up/put on a costume, have a respectful sign, and don’t be a dick! Some interactions I had through signs, some from dancing and/or being in the moment like this one, some from total luck like this one at Marvel where I was glancing back and forth from Mina and fiddling with exposure/zoom such that I didn’t even notice her flash a heart. From what I’ve noticed, they also tend to avoid people that are too much/annoying/creepy/shouting anything just to get an interaction.
Phew, okay. I hope this helps. Thanks again for coming to my ted talk. I had an amazing time and am currently in the throes of PCD. If you have any questions, I will try my best to answer them!
PS: if anyone has videos of Mina dancing to the feels in soundcheck D2 please please please DM me.
by inevitablee