South Korean Superstar Rain Back For Thailand Concert

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Deluge of delirium

By Kitchana Lersakvanitchakul

THE NATION

Slick-moving superstar Rain goes green for his new concert

South Korean superstar Rain will be back in Thailand next month performing what will be his last concert before disappearing into the military for a mandatory two years.

It's the first stop on the 29-year-old K-pop idol's Asia Tour.

"It will be Rain's first [full-scale] concert here in four years and given that he has to start his military service later this year, he's promising to make it a great show," said Wanthanabhadee Jittanukroh, CEO of PD Creation and PD Showtime during the recent press conference in Pattaya.

"Rain is creating his show and taking charge of the stage production, which will follow the same pattern for all the stops in Asia but will have different gimmicks for different audiences."

Rain has picked a green theme for all his concerts and aims to raise awareness about environmental issues in his fans around the world. Even the press conference featured a distinct green visual theme.

"This upcoming concert revolves around two concepts: 'love nature', which is about how to save the world, and 'latest show', a spectacle that no fans have seen before," said Rain, who was appointed a KoreaChina Youth Environment Protection Ambassador last month.

"Like everyone, I'm so sad about the natural disasters that have hit Japan and am trying to think of a way to help the Japanese victims," he told reporters.

"I love his concept of 'Rain for the World', under which he wants to given something back to the globe. Some of the proceeds will go to help the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Rain has a lot of things to share with fans to make this world better," says Wanthanabhadee.

Rain, who remained high on Time magazine's list of the most influential people in 2010 and won the 2009 MTV Movie Award for "Biggest Badass Star" for his role in "Ninja Assassin", is best known for his slick dance moves and extravagant stage sets. His set is expected to feature songs from his album "Back to Basic" as well his latest release, "Love Song".

He is also expected to launch a campaign that asks Thais to confederate "trees" as a barrier to natural disasters.

precipitation

- Rain's concert is at Impact Arena in Muang Thong Thani on May 8 at 5pm.

- Tickets cost from Bt900 to Bt4,000.

- Call (02) 262 3456 or visit www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

-- The Nation 2011-04-23