As a K-pop enthusiast, Seventeen has been on my must-see list. This 13-member boy band is known as a self-producing group and they have a great reputation for their electrifying stage presence, impeccable synchronisation and amazing ability to entertain audiences.
Last year, Seventeen became the first K-pop act to perform on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury Festival, the largest greenfield music festival in the world. They were also the first K-pop act to headline Lollapalooza Berlin. Videos on YouTube show Seventeen hyping up the crowd at both festivals even though many festivalgoers probably did not know them.
Due to their impressive performances, Seventeen draws massive turnouts to their concerts. As a result, they won the Top K-Pop Touring Artist Award at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards.
Since I had heard a lot about how great their concerts were, I had high expectations of Seventeen's performance at their "Seventeen [Right Here] World Tour in Bangkok", organised by Live Nation Tero. The concerts, held earlier this month at Rajamangala National Stadium, were sold out.
Eleven members from a total of 13 members -- S.Coups, 29, Joshua, 29, Hoshi, 28, Wonwoo, 28, Woozi, 28, DK, 27, Mingyu, 27, The8, 27, Seungkwan, 27, Vernon, 26 and Dino, 26 -- participated in the concert. The two other members -- Jeonghan and Jun -- did not participate. Jeonghan is currently in military service while Jun is working on an acting project.
Adorned in black outfits, the members kicked off the concert with Fear, an R&B and dance song which portrays a dark concept in which members explore their inner selves while struggling as public figures. The song features a sensual dance routine, which caused their fan club, Carats, to scream wildly.
In the opening set, Fear, Fearless and Maestro were presented as a spectacular musical play. While members performed these songs, a huge high-definition LED video wall behind them depicted moving images to tell stories and create different vibes.
During Fear, the video wall displayed a red backdrop with moving images that resembled a storm. Snakes appeared at the end of the song to symbolise struggle. In Fearless, the screen displayed thunder and mountains in flashy colours while the members' facial expressions showed they were ready to fight obstacles.
In Maestro -- an R&B track with some EDM elements -- Woozi, a member and producer of Seventeen, played the song intro on the piano. The stage turned into a dystopian world where humans fight against AI, but at the end, Seventeen dominated the world as they are music masterminds.
After the thrilling opening set, the members greeted Thai Carats and many members tried to speak Thai. S.Coups, the leader of Seventeen, received the loudest cheers because he was absent at the previous concert in 2023 due to health issues. S.Coups smiled and told Thai Carats that Bangkok was their final destination in the tour, so they would do their best, and urged people to enjoy themselves.
An intriguing part of the concert was when they performed as subunits: a hip-hop unit, a performance unit and a vocal unit. The hip-hop unit consisted of S.Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu and Vernon.
The four members mesmerised the audience with captivating hip-hop tunes Water and Monster. While the video wall displayed spectacular flowing water, the audience was drawn into a fascinating surreal world and fell under the spell of their mysterious and haunting tunes.
In the performance unit Hoshi, The8 and Dino appeared with masks to perform Rain and Lilili Yabbay, a pop dance tune with EDM elements. The trio delivered the most energetic and synchronised dance moves among Seventeen members, especially Hoshi, the leader of the unit. His moves were fluid and sharp.
The vocal unit -- Woozi, Joshua, DK and Seungkwan -- crooned two ballads, Candy and Cheers To Youth. It was a moment that many in the audience wanted to extend, so they could have more time to appreciate the mellow singing and seamlessly beautiful harmony.
The concert featured 27 songs and lasted three hours. To create diversity, the setlist was selected from many albums, such as An Ode (2019), Face The Sun (2022), God Of Music (2023) and 17 Is Right Here (2024). Through various genres, their beautiful songs can inspire, heal and appeal to listeners.
In addition to catchy melodies and meaningful lyrics, Seventeen's dance moves were perfectly in sync. There are many synchronised groups in the K-pop industry, but Seventeen's choreography is top-notch. Their remarkable performance showed their solid teamwork and dedication.
In the middle of the concert, Seventeen became more laid-back and showed off their funny personalities. At one point, the band members changed a routine and came up with their own improvisions. Vernon did continuous somersaults onstage while S.Coups came up with creative choreography which even wowed his own team.
Seventeen's real encore was extremely fulfilling since they belted out songs like Run To You (2022), Don Quixote (2022) and 9teeen (2019), which they had not sung for years.
Although I had high expectations of Seventeen's performance, the concert exceeded them. The only downside was that the stadium was filled with more international fans than Thai fans, who are known for their positive energy and interaction as they enjoy singing along with performers.
Since the stadium was filled with international fans, the energy dropped in some areas because they did not understand what was happening. Hoshi even pointed out that many fans did not interact with him during Very Nice even though it was another peak moment where everyone jumped out of their seats and danced along.
Since this concert was aimed at the Seventeen fan club in Thailand, it would be nice to allow priority to Thai fans to secure tickets before international fans. The concert was prepared with a Thai audience in mind and Seventeen had even prepared Thai phrases to converse, and the translator spoke in Thai which non-Thais did not understand.
