Intro:

ATEEZ was formed in 2018, at the beginning of the 4th gen, with eight members: Yunho, San, Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yeosang, Wooyoung, Mingi, and Jongho. They’re from a pretty small company, and really fought to make themselves as popular as they are now.

Here are my credentials: I’ve been a fan of ATEEZ for around two years, after I watched them on Kingdom, and started considering myself an ATINY late last year. I did a review on them recently, and enjoyed their music a lot, so when I heard that they’d be coming to America for a tour while I was on summer break, I jumped at the chance to see them.

Check out my Discography Review of them: (Part One)(Part Two)

Review:

So, into the review!

I actually went to this show with my father, and not entirely on purpose. He’s both a classical music fan and a violist, and we’d originally planned to go see the K-band Lucy, who are known for their violin. But, that didn’t end up working out, and, still wanting to experience a show together, we decided on ATEEZ.

Despite this being my fourth concert, it’s safe to say I’ve never experienced a show quite like this one. First of all, it was held at Citi Field, which at over 40,000 seats is twice the size of Madison Square Garden, where I was earlier this year. Secondly, if you’ve been on Atiny twitter the last week or so, you’ll know that we were caught at the tail end of Hurricane Debby, and since Citi Field has no roof, we had to stay packed in under the shelters to wait it out. I was one of the lucky ones; my seat was for the top floor, and so I had plenty of room to move around and sit down, very different from the situation on the bottom floors where people were crowded and overheating.

It wasn’t a good situation for anyone, frankly. All of that meant that the show couldn’t start until 9:30, two hours late. You might be expecting me to say that all this nonsense ruined the experience, but honestly, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I can’t even describe the feeling that went through me when the stadium finally went dark and the tens of thousands of people around me screamed in unison. ATEEZ appeared flanked by their backup dancers, striding out from a beam of light and, without missing a beat, launched into their first song. It was one hell of an entrance, only made better when Hongjoong thanked us for waiting and yelled out, “You know, even the rain can’t stop us!”

It would be impossible to discuss the whole show in depth, despite it being an hour shorter than we’d expected, so I’m just going to focus on the highlights. Starting with, in my review, I was a bit harsh on their discography, due to the analysis, but the show won me over to many songs I’d never given the time of day before: Django, Silver Light, Wake Up, and even Bouncy (despite the parrot…who I don’t think will ever not annoy me). I especially enjoyed Django, which is a track that really needs a stage performance to truly get across its strengths. 

To add to that, every few songs, the members would either come to talk to the audience or have a kind of interlude starring one of them, keeping the excitement palpable. But if I had to name a favorite performance, I think it would have to be Youth. A unit track by childhood friends Yunho and Mingi, it starts with an exchange between them through a photo booth where they excitedly recreate the conversation when they realized they would get to debut together. For a song with lyrics that are pretty melancholy, it has no right to be so incredibly endearing. And when they ended it by hugging and saying “I love you” on stage before their trademark headspin, it’s safe to say I dissolved into a puddle of “awwwwws”.

Often when you go to concerts, one member is held above the others, but that really wasn’t the case here. Everyone got their chance to shine. Hongjoong had his guitar solo and scream-sang the intro to Guerrilla. San never lost his energy and stole the stage in Cyberpunk. Yeosang burst from a bed of feathers like a phoenix to open IT’s You. Yunho’s desperate dashes around the stage after Halazia really kept the tension high during the transition. 

Wooyoung’s obvious love of performing was infectious, in opener Crazy Form especially. Mingi’s powerful stage presence was impossible to look away from in songs like Django. Jongho’s voice was breathtaking not just in his solo Everything but in Wonderland’s climactic high note. And Seonghwa, besides his impressive acting skills, may have made over 40,000 people cry with his ending statement before Utopia.

And about that statement. It’s not unusual for idols to have “ending ments”, where they thank the audience and say that they hope you’ll come back again, etc. And while each of the members put their own spin on it and I have no doubt that they were heartfelt, none were quite as personal as Seonghwa’s. He spoke in Korean—the only time a translator was used during the show—to give a frankly beautiful speech on how he’s learned that nothing lasts forever after the passing of his grandparents this year. Though the crowd was screaming all night, it got nearly silent. He asked us all to make a promise (with our pinkies): to not be afraid to cry, to comfort each other as best we can, and most importantly, to always get back up again.

He ended by saying that where Atiny are, and where ATEEZ is, that’s where he’s home. And when the other members came up to hug him as he cried, there was not a damn dry eye in that stadium, I’ll bet on that. It was incredible when, just as he finished speaking and Hongjoong declared that their finale, Utopia, would be dedicated to Seonghwa and his family (who were in the crowd), it started to rain one more time, not enough to be a danger to anyone, but just enough to be almost hilariously poetic. 

As someone who’s gone to so many classic rock concerts he’s lost count, it was so interesting to hear from my father how ATEEZ was different from what he was used to. He’s used to a band not really interacting with the audience much, and was very surprised when the band spent a good ten minutes thanking everyone for coming to the show, took breaks talking right to us (sans translator, by the way), and even included time for skits. He and I shared the sentiment that the show felt less like a concert and a bit more like an interactive Broadway show, in the best way possible. Needless to say, we both had a great time! So, thanks Dad! Love you!

Verdict: 9.5 / 10

I was expecting to have a fun time at this show, there’s no doubt. But I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. Maybe a part of it was the going on despite the rain, or Seonghwa’s honesty, or just how thrilled every member of the audience was, but this was genuinely one of my favorites of the concerts I’ve been to. The only reason it doesn’t have a perfect score is because we didn’t get to hear the full setlist, and that felt unfair. But really, it made me love ATEEZ even more than I did before, and looking back at my first review, which was called “The Best Performers Of The Fourth Generation?”, I think I can safely remove the question mark.

~Interlude For Fashion Screams~

I was wearing a long sleeved black crop top (a bra with sleeves, really, if we’re being generous) that had red, orange, and yellow flames on it, a black mini dress, and red wedge boots. I had my hair in two braids with some ~elegant~ strays coming down, red lipstick, and flame inspired eyeshadow.

Setlist:

1. Crazy Form
2. Say My Name
3. WIN
4. This World
5. Wake Up
   1. Hongjoong Guitar solo
6. Guerrilla (Flag Version)
7. Cyberpunk
8. Halazia
   1. IT’s You (Yeosang, San, Wooyoung)
   2. Youth (Mingi, Yunho)
   3. Everything (Jongho)
9. Silver Light
10. Crescent Part 2
11. WAVE
12. Dancing Like Butterfly Wings
13. MATZ
14. Work
15. Arriba
16. Django
17. Bouncy
18. Wonderland (Symphony No. 9 Version)

~~~Encore~~~

19. Medley: Eternal Sunshine / Fireworks / The Real (Heung Version)
20. Utopia

Outro & Special Video:

That’s all for this review, folks. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time!