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Wild Kpop: The Boyz, NMIXX, Infinite (14 October 2023, Qudos Bank Arena)
Although this event billed itself as a 'festival', there were only 3 artists on the lineup. The organisation as a whole was such a shambles - I did enjoy this show and I'm so, so glad to have seen it but I have to draw a line between the artists who were great and the organisation which was awful. But to the artists first:
Infinite opened the show, which honestly surprised me a bit as they were the most senior group on the line-up. They're mostly in their 30s now but this was their first visit to Australia - it's taken them all this time! And they've been on such a journey (I am still a bit sad Hoya left). One member was not present (I think still in the military? not sure) so it was a 5 member group, but given how small the odds seemed of ever seeing them at all, I'm really glad I got the chance and it was so nice to see so many fans in the crowd too. Infinite performed a bunch of their hits plus their newest title, and they seemed really charming and happy to be there. Dongwoo especially cracked me up, he was so larger than life and so funny.
Be Mine
Nothing’s Over
Love Letter
New Emotions
Paradise
Man in Love
NMIXX were next and it was a real hometown hero's welcome for Lily - she is not from Sydney lol but about 30 of her friends and family had flown up from Melbourne and in the ments she pointed them out in the crowd, two row of people distinguished by their hot pink vests. She is SO adorable and I am so glad she got to perform in Australia. As for their performance, I really do think they are a good group but their first couple of songs (O.O and Tank) were the ones that appeal to me least. As they progressed through the set, ending on their two most recent titles, I was so much happier. They're GOOD! JYP just needs to give them good songs!
O.O
Tank
Dice
My Gosh
Party O'Clock
Love Me Like This
Clip from Lily's sister Amy
Friends and family
Lily on bubble, getting excited about COLES AND ALDI she's so cute
Finally The Boyz! My favourites! I have seen them before, while I was on holiday in Europe in 2022, but I did not think they would ever come to Australia. So few groups do and this is not an especially strong fanbase for them. With all the troubles with this festival, I didn't even let myself get excited about it until the members started mentioning on bubble etc that they were actually going to the airport! They were getting on the plane!
They had a day off before the show and it was just SO nice that they got to see the harbour and Circular Quay - usually they joke that they bring the rain with them, but for these few days the sun was shining and the sky was so blue, so they saw Sydney at her best.
They only did 5 songs (which seems unfair, especially since the two other groups did 6 each) but I've never see them perform Roar or Lip Gloss before, and the other songs are all stone cold bangers that I love. It was also my first time seeing Eric! He was on hiatus when I saw them in Europe. (He did have to leave the stage briefly because he had a cramp - I hope he's okay!)
They were great headliners, they got everyone up on their feet for DDD and Thrill Ride, and it was just so good! They're performers who perform, as the kids would say. I loved seeing the unchoreographed moments too, with Hyunjae, Younghoon and Sunwoo getting sunglasses from the crowd and playing around with them, Eric and Sangyeon poking at Kevin's bare arms, Juyeon and also Kevin RUNNING back to the main stage to get to their spots in time, Jacob doing the "Aussie Aussie Aussie" chant (mercifully the only one of the night lol).
They said they were looking forward to coming back for a full concert ("30 songs!" Eric promised recklessly) and, well, I've heard that one from other groups before so I'll cross my fingers but won't hold my breath. If they do, I'll be so ready…
Maverick
Roar
Lip Gloss
DDD
Thrill Ride
Thread of fancams
Sunwoo's kiss ment: "my girls, my boys, I love you so much, I want to kiss you guys"
Hyunjae saying "why no??" so cutely when he drew an empty seat in the raffle
Hyunjae giving many hearts
Eric abs
Eric and Kevin foolish pose
Younghoon's tiny Roar
Ok now all the things that were bad, none of them to do with the artists:
By way of contrast, I will say I met up with some younger fans after the show - a mutual and a couple of their friends, all from Adelaide. For at least one of them it was their first concert ever. And despite all the problems, they had a GREAT time, they even commented on how many people there were and how big the arena was! So here I am, calling the show undersold and small, but maybe I am just a cynical old hag lol.
Infinite opened the show, which honestly surprised me a bit as they were the most senior group on the line-up. They're mostly in their 30s now but this was their first visit to Australia - it's taken them all this time! And they've been on such a journey (I am still a bit sad Hoya left). One member was not present (I think still in the military? not sure) so it was a 5 member group, but given how small the odds seemed of ever seeing them at all, I'm really glad I got the chance and it was so nice to see so many fans in the crowd too. Infinite performed a bunch of their hits plus their newest title, and they seemed really charming and happy to be there. Dongwoo especially cracked me up, he was so larger than life and so funny.
Be Mine
Nothing’s Over
Love Letter
New Emotions
Paradise
Man in Love
NMIXX were next and it was a real hometown hero's welcome for Lily - she is not from Sydney lol but about 30 of her friends and family had flown up from Melbourne and in the ments she pointed them out in the crowd, two row of people distinguished by their hot pink vests. She is SO adorable and I am so glad she got to perform in Australia. As for their performance, I really do think they are a good group but their first couple of songs (O.O and Tank) were the ones that appeal to me least. As they progressed through the set, ending on their two most recent titles, I was so much happier. They're GOOD! JYP just needs to give them good songs!
O.O
Tank
Dice
My Gosh
Party O'Clock
Love Me Like This
Clip from Lily's sister Amy
Friends and family
Lily on bubble, getting excited about COLES AND ALDI she's so cute
Finally The Boyz! My favourites! I have seen them before, while I was on holiday in Europe in 2022, but I did not think they would ever come to Australia. So few groups do and this is not an especially strong fanbase for them. With all the troubles with this festival, I didn't even let myself get excited about it until the members started mentioning on bubble etc that they were actually going to the airport! They were getting on the plane!
They had a day off before the show and it was just SO nice that they got to see the harbour and Circular Quay - usually they joke that they bring the rain with them, but for these few days the sun was shining and the sky was so blue, so they saw Sydney at her best.
They only did 5 songs (which seems unfair, especially since the two other groups did 6 each) but I've never see them perform Roar or Lip Gloss before, and the other songs are all stone cold bangers that I love. It was also my first time seeing Eric! He was on hiatus when I saw them in Europe. (He did have to leave the stage briefly because he had a cramp - I hope he's okay!)
They were great headliners, they got everyone up on their feet for DDD and Thrill Ride, and it was just so good! They're performers who perform, as the kids would say. I loved seeing the unchoreographed moments too, with Hyunjae, Younghoon and Sunwoo getting sunglasses from the crowd and playing around with them, Eric and Sangyeon poking at Kevin's bare arms, Juyeon and also Kevin RUNNING back to the main stage to get to their spots in time, Jacob doing the "Aussie Aussie Aussie" chant (mercifully the only one of the night lol).
They said they were looking forward to coming back for a full concert ("30 songs!" Eric promised recklessly) and, well, I've heard that one from other groups before so I'll cross my fingers but won't hold my breath. If they do, I'll be so ready…
Maverick
Roar
Lip Gloss
DDD
Thrill Ride
Thread of fancams
Sunwoo's kiss ment: "my girls, my boys, I love you so much, I want to kiss you guys"
Hyunjae saying "why no??" so cutely when he drew an empty seat in the raffle
Hyunjae giving many hearts
Eric abs
Eric and Kevin foolish pose
Younghoon's tiny Roar
Ok now all the things that were bad, none of them to do with the artists:
- Ticketing. I bought my tickets in pre-sale only to find that in general sale I could've got them cheaper and better because they re-drew the map. Everyone was so unhappy about this that the promoters JK Entertainment had to turn off comments on their Instagram.
- The tickets were very expensive and the show was poorly promoted. It did not sell well. It was so depressing looking at the map of empty seats and I was so worried it would be cancelled (like London's recent festival and so many others). Thankfully they didn't - a couple of weeks before the show, they changed the map AGAIN and also moved everyone's seats so we were just filling the ground and lower tiers. I'm glad they did that but also it was just all so messy, why not just promote properly or choose a different venue!
- The arena looked surprisingly decent on the night, not too empty! Which I am very glad of. But in reality there were still plenty of empty seats as we found out when the show paused mid-set for each group so that the MC could force them all to draw raffles to give away signed albums and polaroids. This absolutely KILLED the vibe, it took about 10 minutes each time (2 songs worth of time!), and there were SO many times they called out an empty seat and had to redraw… Mortifying and also very boring.
- The whole raffle was fucked tbh, because one girl got her seat drawn THREE times (2x for Infinite and 1x for NMIXX) whereas my entire section did not get a SINGLE SEAT drawn ever. It got to the point where my section started chanting angrily, we were ready to riot lol.
- The MC was also just awful. She was so unnecessary. These groups are professionals and they know how to introduce themselves and do their ments. She came on 2x during each set (for t-shirt giveaways and the raffle) and she just killed the vibe every time, she could not read the room at all. Get rid of the MC role please.
- I did not buy VIP but many people did, for twice the price of A reserve, and people were reporting not getting their full benefits (one tweet said: no small group photo, no polaroid, no vvip gift, no hi wave; and I did hear from several people there was no hi wave). What an absolute rip off!
- This is getting really petty now but why not - they got each group to pose for photos in front of the arena, very normal - but it's been DAYS now and the photos are still not posted on social media! What in the hell!
By way of contrast, I will say I met up with some younger fans after the show - a mutual and a couple of their friends, all from Adelaide. For at least one of them it was their first concert ever. And despite all the problems, they had a GREAT time, they even commented on how many people there were and how big the arena was! So here I am, calling the show undersold and small, but maybe I am just a cynical old hag lol.