Cloud USA

I want to know what your favorite Rain ballads are too, and why you love them. Please share! 🙂 ^@@^

“Because of You” (Eternal Rain, 2006). The favorite of my favorites, played more in my car than any other!

Setting the scene: It was December 2009, near Christmas.  (It would be another month before Cloud USA was even born.) I’d been a Rain fan all by my lonesome for 2 – 3 years, and Terri was brand spanking new, just becoming one since we’d seen newly released Ninja Assassin twice in theaters a month earlier (November). I was feeling bummed out one night because Rain was coming to the U.S. for his Legend of Rainism concert tour stop in Las Vegas and I couldn’t go, so I went on YouTube, hunted down an earlier LoR stop (the very first one, at Saitama Super Arena in Japan), and watched the whole two and a half hour concert in my living room, the next best thing. Sort of like being in Vegas in spirit…^^

Well, Rain’s presence, charisma, stamina, and perfect command of stage and audience simply floored me. I’d honestly never seen anything like him. And “Because of You”… *sigh* I can’t even explain that, really. What a mind-blowingly beautiful song. The expression in his hands and fingers hypnotized you. He could thrust those hips with the best of ’em. A couple of times when he adlibbed, he reminded me of Prince. His facial expressions. His voice. And it was as if his mic stand was actually a woman and he was telling her what was what, showing her who was boss, and giving her what for. I remember just sitting there with my mouth open, in some kind of fog. And calling Terri up on the phone and demanding she be at my house after work to watch the entire concert with me that next day. (She was, with bells on.)

FYI: “Because of You” at Saitama is unique from every other stop in the tour, from the way he takes the stage (he looked like MJ!) to the last minute, when the crew left him alone on stage to do what he did to that defenseless mic stand lying there. All the other “Because of You” performances were very similar to each other in that Rain played to the audience near the end. But in Saitama, he played to no one. It was just him, that mic stand, and what adrenalin and the music pulled out of him that first show. He couldn’t help but do what came naturally and I remain thankful for that to this day. @_@ Whew!

Incidentally, Terri’s favorite “Because of You” was at the next LoR tour stop, in Seoul. I don’t blame her. He almost threw himself off his feet during the second hook! Did you see that? ^@@^

“To You” (It’s Raining, 2004).

Setting the scene: Cloud USA was officially 5 months old at the end of June 2010. In that time, we saw Rain come back to the Korean music scene with mini album Back To The Basic, was thrust into the world of radio shows, variety shows, and chart shows (Sketchbook, Music Core, Inkigayo, etc.) by his successes with “Love Song” and “Hip Song”, saw him wrestle in the streets of Myeongdong, saw his killer schedule take a toll on him and scare the crap out of us, descended upon MTV here in the U.S. and helped vote for him as the MTV Movie Awards’ first Biggest Badass Star, saw him come to L.A. and win and accept the award, saw him start filming The Fugitive: Plan B, saw him go to Japan for his first ZEPP hall tour. And this isn’t even the half of what all he did. We were emotionally and physically exhausted!

Along with Cloud sisters across the world, we waited with bated breath for the first fan cams from the Rain Loves ZEPP Japan tour to hit. Security is always so tight in Japan, we were all afraid we’d miss out, but attending Clouds and some media sources came through for everyone, big time. Halleluia! Because of the intimacy of the ZEPP halls, the fans were so much closer to Rain, which was awesome. Everything about him was on point, from his costuming to his glorious hair, which seemed to have a mind and performance of its own. I remember remarking in a post how surely it had its own separate contracts, agent, and management, Lol.^^

“To You” was already near and dear to my heart, so when this adorable fan cam from the ZEPP Osaka stop found its way to me for the first time, I truly swooned and latched onto the song even more. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why. I challenge you to try to watch it all the way through without grinning at him at least once. And if you say you didn’t, I won’t believe you. LOL! Get ready for all kinds of insane handsomeness, sweat, adork-able charm, and a Gun Show (wow, those arms). ❤ ^@@^

~ by Cloud USA on August 18, 2017.

Posted in Bi Rain, Bi Rain News, Cloud USA
Tags: bi rain fan cams, Bi Rain Legend of Rainism 2009/2010, bi rain on tv, Bi Rain performance, Bi Rain Saitama, Bi Rain singer/actor/entertainer, Bi Rain song, Bi Rain TV clip, Bi Rain ZEPP Osaka, From Stephe's desk, Jung Ji Hoon, Korean pop, Rain ZEPP Tour Japan 2010