![]() ![]() “I'm still nervous before I perform onstage,” says Hongjoong, the intuitive leader of ATEEZ who takes on the responsibility of steering most of our conversation. All there is is ATEEZ, introducing themselves to fans with the same sentiment they’d open their biggest European tour to date with four years later: “Hello, world.” There are no backing dancers, no 40-foot screens showing them in close-up and no fireworks, except the ones they create themselves. It captures them occupying the small stage alone in matching white shirts, performing with the kind of synchronized ferocity that has earned them a record legion of fans in the short time since. ![]() This sensory overload is a far cry away from the first time they performed in the city in 2019, in a venue with about one-10th the capacity for fans.Ī few days before the concert over a conference table, all eight members - Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung, and Jongho - sharply dressed in dark and tan suits, break out in a chorus of “whoas” and “aaaahs” as I show them a badly taken video in my Instagram archive from the rafters of that first London show. It’s a feat of production, a thrilling assault on the senses that combines their typically booming musicality with a razor-sharp narrative vision that places them at the center of a fictional anarchist regime. The concert then kicks into high gear with pyrotechnics and light shows as the group commands its dancers with puppeteer-level control until their cloaks are shed and they stand face-on, resolute in their power. As the opening bars to their Earth-rattling song “ New World” starts, one by one the members’ faces are lit up by neon tube lights, each to an eruption of ear-ringing screams by fans (fondly dubbed by the group as ATINY). A flood of red lights then spotlight the eight members of ATEEZ, the first fourth-generation K-pop group to headline the iconic venue.ĭressed in cloaks that cover them head to toe, they walk from the main stage to a second one near the center of the room, striding with a measured intensity that says they know everyone is waiting for a big release. 22, darkness engulfs a packed crowd of thousands, leaving just a constellation of illuminated light sticks patterned across the room. ![]()
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