I wrote a little blurb in the Confessions of an Uncle Fan column yesterday about how dedicated international fans are when their favorite groups are visiting their country. That's one of the things that I missed as a K-pop fan back in the late 1990's because international tours or concerts basically didn't exist, especially if you didn't happen to live in LA or New York (H.O.T. did visit Washington, DC back in 1997 but even that was in a high school auditorium - Fin.K.L visited Atlanta in 2000 as well but Joohyun & Lee Jin had VISA issues and couldn't make the trip). At the time, before the prominence of the internet, K-pop wasn't generating the kind of revenues or drawing the huge number of international fans as they are now so it just wasn't an option.

Today's Way Back Wednesday is focused on the 10 groups or singers that I would have loved to have seen live in concert if given the chance. Most of these groups are repeats from other articles but some might actually surprise you.

Seo Taiji and Boys

Watching the greatest Korean group in history live would have been the show of a lifetime for me. Even watching some of the old live shows on YouTube gave me chills.

Drunken Tiger, Yoon Mi Rae, Leessang

I'm not a huge fan of Korean hip hop but I am totally in the tank for Tiger JK, Yoon Mi Rae, and the boys from Leessang. They're the closest I've heard to replicating the sounds that I group up listening to and I think they have their own style and substance whihc make them unique. Also, as much as I like Bizzy , I would love to see the original Drunken Tiger with DJ Shine as well.

SMTown, Christmas 2000

Pretty specific huh? The reason I chose this was because this was the last SMTown that included H.O.T. becase by the following Christmas, H.O.T had disbanded and only Moon Hee Jun and Kangta were still with the company. Plus, the 2000 version also included BoA, Shinhwa, Fly to the Sky, S.E.S, and Yoo Young Jin.

Solid

For years, I wanted to go to Korea to see these guys live after I saw the video of this very performance at one of the famous Dream Concerts back in 1995. It never happened but still one of my favorite performances from the group.

YG Family

I'm talking the old school YG Family though. Jinusean, 1TYM, Lexy, Perry, Yang Hyun Suk (when he still performed). I'll even go as far as Wheesung, Big Mama, Gummy, and Se7en but even that's pushing it.

Lee Juk

If I were to go to an Lee Juk concert, I wouldn't want like a big stadium show. I would want something fairly intimate and have him talk about the inspiration for each of the songs he performs. The guy is a genius.

UP, Young Turks Club, Roo'Ra, S#arp

I wouldn't want to see an entire concert for any of these groups but if they had a joint show and performed like 3-4 of their biggest hits, that would be amazing.

Uhm Jung Hwa, Hyori, BoA

Kind of like the K-pop version of that VH1 Divas show that used to be popular back in the day. I mean, what fanboy wouldn't sell a portion of his soul to get tickets to this concert?

YB

The band formerly known as Yoon Do Hyun Band and YB Band have emerged as the de facto rock group of Korea and their long list of hits and amazing energy would be amazing in any venue from big stadium show to small rock club.

C'est Si Bon

Some of you may recognize this name from an episode of the show 'Come to Play' which reunited legendary singers Cho Young Nam, Song Chang Sik, Kim Se Hwan, and Yoon Hyung Joo. The name C'est Si Bon was the name of a famous live music venue in Seoul during the 1960's and 1970's at which they performed but has come to encompass an entire generation of singers from that era. While this music was way before my time, I grew up listening to it because of my parents and I think it would be a cool experience to go this show with them.