Hi everybody!!!

Here's what happened at the concert...hope it's detailed enough for you. =P

Tuesday night, December 22nd...a very cold night outside in LA (37 degrees F), but very HOT inside Shrine Auditorium w/ Leon performing =P .The concert was scheduled to start at 8:00 PM, but it didn't start until almost 8:30 PM.

This time the concert was more exciting and more fun to watch than the 1996 LA concert. I was sitting in row 9 center section D, one row closer than 2 years ago, so it was a pretty good seat as compared to last time when I was sitting on the right side section ...also I have a better zoom on my camera this time, so the pictures should be better than last time.

*I'm not sure if this is the correct song name for the duet (I'm just using the Australian concert songlist as a reference..if this is the wrong song, please correct me.)

If I were to rate the concert on a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 9.5 (0.5 more than last time). I would have given a 10 if he sang "Happy 2000" and if he had better clothes (the clothes don't look as good or as HOT as those he wore in the Australian concert a few months ago) and if he didn't sit down as much. Leon did dance more than last time, but I was expecting him to do the complete dance moves (like he did in his HK concert) to "100 Possibilities" and to "DNA Gone Wrong" instead of just dancing a little bit during the middle part of the song when he doesn't sing. I was so disappointed he didn't sing "Happy 2000"..or "If I Can See You Again." He sang "If I Can See You Again" at the San Fran Charity concert less than one month ago, so the lyrics should be quite fresh on his mind still, but he didn't sing it!..aiy!..oh well, at least he sang ONE new song "Never Ever" from 'City of Glass'. I'm guessing he didn't dance to the other songs because he didn't have enough time to rehearse the dance steps, but Leon should be familiar w/ the "Happy 2000" dance steps...dang!..I really wanted to see him dance to this song..ugh! I was hoping Leon would sing "Try to Remember" and play the guitar like last time, but he didn't..too bad! Other than the one new song ("Never Ever") and the song requested by the audience ("Accumulating All My Love"), all the other songs are in the exact same order as the Australian concert! ...I just brought the Australian songlist along w/ me to the concert just to see how similar the rundown would be, but I didn't expect it to be THAT similar.

As usual, the concert only lasted about 1hr. 45 min (MAX)...if Leon didn't sing the one extra song ("Accumulating All My Love") which wasn't a planned song on the songlist, then the concert would have been a few minutes shorter. I honestly wish Leon didn't have a special guest..then he could have sang at least 3 more songs!

I also added that 0.5 mark this time because I caught a little soft heart!...*^_^*...I've sat thru 2 L.A. concerts and was never lucky enough to catch any of Leon's gifts that he threw out to the audience. I was smart enough to go into the aisle this time..if I just stayed in my chair, I wouldn't have got the heart. I was surprised Leon actually came down from the stage to throw those hearts out to the audience...the crowd was totally surrounding him..wanting to get a handshake from him and also wanting to catch a heart. So for the people going to the Atlantic City and the Toronto concerts, get ready to go into the aisle when Leon is singing "Original Love" and try to get a handshake. OH, also, since it's getting close to Christmas, Leon said he would be giving out a few gifts to the audience. Leon didn't have anything else to throw out to the audience, so someone screamed, "Throw out your shoe!"..and Leon said, "oh no..I can't.".. So instead, Leon asked some of his workers to find something that he could throw out to the audience...what he did was he threw out 4 small pieces of candy, 1 orange, 1 pack of cheese crackers, and a candybar to the audience, and he gave a pear to a little kid...once a person caught any of these items, they were supposed to write their name and address down on the item, give it back to one of Leon's workers, and then Leon would send the person a gift in the mail when he got back to Hong Kong. DANG!!...I was sooo close to catching the candybar and the crackers!...the guy sitting right behind my friend who was sitting next to me caught the crackers...and then the lady sitting right in front of me caught the candybar (actually she found the candybar...the 2 ladies in front of us and me and my friend Vivian were looking all over the place for the candybar cuz we thought it fell on the ground..and then finally the lady in front found the candybar stuck in her chair..ugh!!). According to my e-mail pal, Leon said that he would only be throwing out the gifts at the LA concerts (and it has been confirmed by a few people who saw his concert in Atlantic City on 12/25). Also, the hearts were only thrown in the LA concert, since it was "TV Monthly" magazine (a TVB magazine printed in LA) which was a sponsor in creating those hearts.

Some of the Leon FAMILY members (fanclub) were sitting in row 5 center section, and they had green and red lightsticks. And Kitty, who was sitting a few rows in front of them, had a bunch of colored lightsticks..red, green, yellow, blue, plus some other props. I would say there was more 'lightstick' action this time from the Leon fans...more people had lightsticks, including me and my friend Vivian...it was fun!..good exercise for the arms, but a bit tiring. =P Although more people had lightsticks this time as compared to last time, the audience still sounded kinda dead...not many people clapped after Leon finished singing a song. I didn't think that clapping was a very effective way of showing how much I liked a song (since it's not as loud as a scream), so after almost every song, me and Vivian would scream, "Wooooohh!!!"

Hmm...about what Leon wore.. the only outfit (the same outfit Leon wore in the "Happy 2000" MTV) that I really liked was the one which showed Leon's muscular arms . =P ..god his muscles look so big! =P (but too bad he was sitting on the steps far away from the edge of the stage, so it was hard to get a good pix of him at that moment). A lot of gals were screaming "AAHHHHH!!!!" when Leon took off his jacket so we could see his arms. =P He wore a sweater for his second outfit in the concert, but in my opinion, the sweater looked a bit too feminine on him.. the sweater kinda looked like a girl's sweater. Viv and I wished Leon would have shown a little more skin..or at least something see-thru...he wore long sleeves or a jacket in almost every song. Shu Kei probably felt cold, cuz she was also wearing a yellow sweaterlike jacket when she was singing (instead of just the backless top she wore in Australia). Either she was cold or she was nervous, cuz when she was singing, she sounded kinda shaky.

I think the most exciting dance moves came when he danced a little intro-dance before the song "I Love U OK?" . Some of the audience became a little more lively at that moment..gals were screaming and stuff. Leon looked SO cute in some of his dance moves on some of the songs =P.. He also looked pretty cool dancing to "Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder".

Before Leon sang "Never Ever," he said, "I think this is the first time I've sang this song live on stage before. Have any of you seen 'City of Glass'?" ..and then some of the audience screamed, "yes!!"..and then Leon said, "ah, but the only way you can see it here (in LA) is to watch the 'faan baan' (pirated) movie...and some people said, "yeah!!"..and Leon said, "It's not good to watch 'faan baan'"..and the audience laughed...myself included, since I'm one of those people who sort of watched a pirated version of it =P..the picture was okay, but the sound volume was SO low I could hardly hear anything, so the movie didn't make much sense to me...hope they hurry up and release the VCD of the movie.

Leon forgot part of the lyrics on "Blue Street Light" and had to start over again =P. While he was singing, he said, "oh, I forgot the lyrics...let's start over again..could I have some support?"..and then the audience clapped and some screamed. Vivian and I would have tried to help him out on the lyrics (since it's one of our favorite songs), but our Cantonese isn't very good. =P The second time he tried to sing "Blue Street Light" he still forgot a few of the lyrics, but whatever, he still sounded good..hehe. Also, when he was singing "Accumulating All My Love," he forgot a few of the lyrics and just said "la, la, la, la..."..and we laughed and clapped after that. Luckily Leon still remembered most of the lyrics to "Accumulating All My Love" and the band knew how to play this song...since it was an all-of-a-sudden request from the audience.

I thought the sound system at Shrine was pretty bad...WAY too much bass!! (you know it's too much bass when you can feel your heart pounding). This isn't supposed to be a rock concert... because the bass was so loud, it was hard to hear Leon singing when he was singing fast songs...the music was covering his voice! It was much easier to hear what Leon was singing when the live band was not playing while a music tape was played instead. I can't imagine the people sitting right next to the speakers..I'd probably go deaf if I was sitting there the whole time w/ the loud bass booming. Shrine's got a long way to go in sound quality when compared to the HK Coliseum..the Leon HK concert sounded much better.

Leon asked the audience which language he should speak in.... he told the people to scream if they wanted Mandarin or scream if they wanted Cantonese...the Cantonese people ruled! =P He also said his "Just to say Hi!" quote towards the end of the show. Someone in the audience screamed "Joey!" (Joey Tang, famous guitarist)..and then Leon said in Cantonese, "you want to talk to Joey?..okay" And then Joey said something like "Merry Christmas...okay, now let's listen to Leon sing" ..and the audience laughed. Before the last song, Leon said to the audience, "Take care..even though this sounds fake, but I'd like to wish everyone well" ..and some of the audience laughed.

I was kinda surprised that the security wasn't as tight as last time. Lots of people went up near the stage to take pictures, and it took the security several minutes before they told the people to go back to their seats. OH, something really funny happened w/ one of the security guards..after Leon finished his song, Leon walked up near the edge of the stage and bent down and stared at one of the security guard's bald head =P..hehe..and then Leon said something like "so he (the security guard) is watching all of you..and that guy over there is watching all of you, and that one over there..so does that mean if I come down from stage I will be watching all of you too?"..and the audience screamed "Yeah!!!".

Ok, I think that's about all I can remember from the concert. Hope it wasn't too boring to read. =P Have a Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year everyone!..I'll try to get the pictures up soon! (although there will be some delay due to the holiday season and the labs not being open on the holidays).