NCT 127 NEO CITY THE LINK: Atlanta
Jan. 15th, 2023 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kpopwinemomAce and I kicked 2023 off by once more driving to Atlanta to see NCT. Unlike previous visits, we got a hotel walking distance from the arena, which honestly made a world of difference. We were able to walk over early, grab the merch we wanted (I really wanted the grey and lime hoodie, especially because I forgot my coat at home and it was in the 30s!) and then hang out and eat dinner and chat with other attendees before actually entering the venue.
I like to talk about the whole experience of the concert, because it very much impacts the overall experience for me, and this time it felt like we got all of our bad luck out of the way very early in the day! I made a few bad turns during the drive, which added some time, and then we had to stop because my car started throwing up frightening (and thankfully false!) alerts. And of course...my coat did not make it into the car.
Alas, in the long run, these issues were really minor, and we got to the State Farm Arena with plenty of time to get merch, have dinner, and make friends - one of my favorite aspects of k-pop concerts! I missed this last time I went to the arena, but there is an attached food court, so we ended up not having to wait outside in the cold at all! Truly excellent.
When I was last at State Farm Arena, in November, we had last minute nosebleed seats that were so steep I panicked, and had to be moved. This time, we had really really good seats! Ace hadn't been able to snag tix when they had originally gone on sale, but we both kept an eye out, and they were able to grab us really, really excellent resale tickets on Twitter! (When Twitter dies, where will we resell tickets?????) We were pretty close to the stage. Unfortunately, the angle we were at meant our vision was partially obscured by the two video panels they moved back and forth across the stage - we didn't see ANY of Johnny's sexy little dance at all, and we were also blocked from seeing the slide for Love On The Floor. But honestly, from the way the stage was set up, I don't know that there were necessarily better seats available? The best view would have been lower level back center - I think that is the only place you would have been able to have a fully unobscured view for this stage setup, but it's pretty far from the main stage!
I will admit that while there are individual members of 127 I really like (Taeyong, and Yuta) they aren't one of my favorite groups. But Ace loves them, and I like them enough to be willing to go and be sold on them. They were really, really good! They opened with Kick It, which I generally do not love - the opening is so good, but the rest of the song doesn't hook me. But live it was actually really awesome, and that turned out to be the case for a lot of their songs - I didn't love the studio version, but they worked really well in concert. I told a girl jokingly that I was planning to leave for the toilets during Sticker, and she cajoled me into staying, saying that it was likely to be better live - and she was absolutely right. The crowd drowned out the whining pipes, and for the first time ever, I made it through Sticker and enjoyed it. Other songs that were good live that I hadn't previously loved: Cherry Bomb, Touch, Love Me Now.
If you're someone who loves ballads, there was a lot for you here! Taeil and Doyoung had gorgeous solos, and The Rainy Night, White Night and Back 2 U were beautifully sung. Unfortunately, I hate ballads, so this was my toilet break. I think they are boring. Sorry to the ballads, they have done nothing wrong, I just do not prefer them.
I love dancy, upbeat tracks, and there were also a lot of those, thankfully! I entered the concert really looking forward to Breakfast (HORNY!) Lemonade, Love on the Floor and Regular (specifically the English version...looking casket fresh? I love it.) and those were all super good, along with some other songs I wasn't as familiar with. I will note NO ONE around us was dancing, which was so strange to me! I danced the whole way through the show, and had a fabulous time.
A few other songs I was particularly looking forward to were Favorite, which is not only my favorite 127 song, but possibly one of my favorite k-pop songs of all time; Highway to Heaven (also horny, and set right before Breakfast in a combo that was truly perfect) and of course 2 Baddies. All of those were so much fun. The audience was super into the two English songs! While crowds still sing along to Korean songs, everyone was really shouting out the lyrics to the two English ones! I don't think there was a single person in the crowd who didn't know Highway to Heaven and Regular.
The solo stages were also a lot of fun. I particularly loved Taeyong's, which I do not have a single intelligent thing to say about it except OH MY GOD, ARMS! and Yuta's, which was objectively the best. His voice is so captivating! He sang a bit, and then did a VERY sexy floor dance, and it was all just perfect, and very sexy. Yuta had by and far the best on stage charisma, he was really fun to watch! I will say we probably would have loved Johnny's stage...if we didn't have to watch it in completion on the screen. I'll watch the fancams of that later and get the same experience, sadly.
Haechan was absent from the concert (I hope he feels better soon and I am SO glad he is getting a break. He and Mark have been running nonstop for a while now!) but he was still included in the concert, which I thought was sweet. They left his voice in for some of his more iconic lines, and he was in all the video materials. Ace said he was spliced in during the ballads, too, but I did not notice because as I mentioned previously, I hate ballads. Fans also brought sunflowers to show they were thinking of him! Very cute.
The concert was very, very good, and all the boys were great - the songs sounded amazing, the dancing was amazing. But I want to note this was the most choreographed concert I have ever seen, and honestly in my mind, to it's detriment. There just weren't a lot of organic "moments" among the members, not a lot of playfulness, teasing, or fanservice because most of the time was spent dancing. And personally, I find I like the organic moments? Since I saw Ateez so recently and at the same venue I found myself comparing them to Ateez a lot - and Ateez comes out on top. They are just so solidly a performance group, and their chemistry and charisma and love for performance really comes across. Even when they are choreographed, they are playing with and teasing each other, and because of it no two shows feel the same. Nct didn't have much playfulness, and I found myself missing that! I love the little small moments - I feel like those are the most fun! Like the ON STAGE SHOWER at TBZ (truly WTF was that, I was feral) or San getting mad at members for cutting him out of the choreo. NCT was dancing if they were dancing, and singing if they were singing, with the notable exception of Yuta, who truly just lights up on stage.
All in all, they were very good, and I am glad we went! But also, if they toured nearby again, I wouldn't be pressed to get tickets again.
I like to talk about the whole experience of the concert, because it very much impacts the overall experience for me, and this time it felt like we got all of our bad luck out of the way very early in the day! I made a few bad turns during the drive, which added some time, and then we had to stop because my car started throwing up frightening (and thankfully false!) alerts. And of course...my coat did not make it into the car.
Alas, in the long run, these issues were really minor, and we got to the State Farm Arena with plenty of time to get merch, have dinner, and make friends - one of my favorite aspects of k-pop concerts! I missed this last time I went to the arena, but there is an attached food court, so we ended up not having to wait outside in the cold at all! Truly excellent.
When I was last at State Farm Arena, in November, we had last minute nosebleed seats that were so steep I panicked, and had to be moved. This time, we had really really good seats! Ace hadn't been able to snag tix when they had originally gone on sale, but we both kept an eye out, and they were able to grab us really, really excellent resale tickets on Twitter! (When Twitter dies, where will we resell tickets?????) We were pretty close to the stage. Unfortunately, the angle we were at meant our vision was partially obscured by the two video panels they moved back and forth across the stage - we didn't see ANY of Johnny's sexy little dance at all, and we were also blocked from seeing the slide for Love On The Floor. But honestly, from the way the stage was set up, I don't know that there were necessarily better seats available? The best view would have been lower level back center - I think that is the only place you would have been able to have a fully unobscured view for this stage setup, but it's pretty far from the main stage!
I will admit that while there are individual members of 127 I really like (Taeyong, and Yuta) they aren't one of my favorite groups. But Ace loves them, and I like them enough to be willing to go and be sold on them. They were really, really good! They opened with Kick It, which I generally do not love - the opening is so good, but the rest of the song doesn't hook me. But live it was actually really awesome, and that turned out to be the case for a lot of their songs - I didn't love the studio version, but they worked really well in concert. I told a girl jokingly that I was planning to leave for the toilets during Sticker, and she cajoled me into staying, saying that it was likely to be better live - and she was absolutely right. The crowd drowned out the whining pipes, and for the first time ever, I made it through Sticker and enjoyed it. Other songs that were good live that I hadn't previously loved: Cherry Bomb, Touch, Love Me Now.
If you're someone who loves ballads, there was a lot for you here! Taeil and Doyoung had gorgeous solos, and The Rainy Night, White Night and Back 2 U were beautifully sung. Unfortunately, I hate ballads, so this was my toilet break. I think they are boring. Sorry to the ballads, they have done nothing wrong, I just do not prefer them.
I love dancy, upbeat tracks, and there were also a lot of those, thankfully! I entered the concert really looking forward to Breakfast (HORNY!) Lemonade, Love on the Floor and Regular (specifically the English version...looking casket fresh? I love it.) and those were all super good, along with some other songs I wasn't as familiar with. I will note NO ONE around us was dancing, which was so strange to me! I danced the whole way through the show, and had a fabulous time.
A few other songs I was particularly looking forward to were Favorite, which is not only my favorite 127 song, but possibly one of my favorite k-pop songs of all time; Highway to Heaven (also horny, and set right before Breakfast in a combo that was truly perfect) and of course 2 Baddies. All of those were so much fun. The audience was super into the two English songs! While crowds still sing along to Korean songs, everyone was really shouting out the lyrics to the two English ones! I don't think there was a single person in the crowd who didn't know Highway to Heaven and Regular.
The solo stages were also a lot of fun. I particularly loved Taeyong's, which I do not have a single intelligent thing to say about it except OH MY GOD, ARMS! and Yuta's, which was objectively the best. His voice is so captivating! He sang a bit, and then did a VERY sexy floor dance, and it was all just perfect, and very sexy. Yuta had by and far the best on stage charisma, he was really fun to watch! I will say we probably would have loved Johnny's stage...if we didn't have to watch it in completion on the screen. I'll watch the fancams of that later and get the same experience, sadly.
Haechan was absent from the concert (I hope he feels better soon and I am SO glad he is getting a break. He and Mark have been running nonstop for a while now!) but he was still included in the concert, which I thought was sweet. They left his voice in for some of his more iconic lines, and he was in all the video materials. Ace said he was spliced in during the ballads, too, but I did not notice because as I mentioned previously, I hate ballads. Fans also brought sunflowers to show they were thinking of him! Very cute.
The concert was very, very good, and all the boys were great - the songs sounded amazing, the dancing was amazing. But I want to note this was the most choreographed concert I have ever seen, and honestly in my mind, to it's detriment. There just weren't a lot of organic "moments" among the members, not a lot of playfulness, teasing, or fanservice because most of the time was spent dancing. And personally, I find I like the organic moments? Since I saw Ateez so recently and at the same venue I found myself comparing them to Ateez a lot - and Ateez comes out on top. They are just so solidly a performance group, and their chemistry and charisma and love for performance really comes across. Even when they are choreographed, they are playing with and teasing each other, and because of it no two shows feel the same. Nct didn't have much playfulness, and I found myself missing that! I love the little small moments - I feel like those are the most fun! Like the ON STAGE SHOWER at TBZ (truly WTF was that, I was feral) or San getting mad at members for cutting him out of the choreo. NCT was dancing if they were dancing, and singing if they were singing, with the notable exception of Yuta, who truly just lights up on stage.
All in all, they were very good, and I am glad we went! But also, if they toured nearby again, I wouldn't be pressed to get tickets again.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-23 08:01 pm (UTC)IT WAS supposed to be up this year. But SM has done some weird stuff with the contracts so not all their time counts, so we're going to see contract renewals come up soon. Dream's too. Also, likely Ten, since he debuted and then undebuted.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-27 09:21 pm (UTC)You're right, Dream's been there for a long time (I checked on Google and they debuted in 2016. WHAT where has time gone?!)
Stray Kids' contract has time to end before it ends for NCT, thinking about it.