Last Friday was a very special day for me, and I just couldn’t wait to finish work at 17.30 that day. The reason? I was about to go to Infinite’s second concert in the UK! I’ve been to a couple of concerts and festivals before, but what made this one extra special was the fact that it was the first time I was going to a K-pop gig. I’ve heard a lot of good things about K-pop concerts before, mainly that they’re very well elaborated, with lots of special effects, background dancers and so on.
So, the gig was held at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush, a cosy, classic looking venue spread over 3 floors, with both standing and seated places.
The concert has been highly anticipated by fans (Inspirits) before – so much in fact that people had apparently started queueing up the day before the show! By the time I arrived there in the evening, there were already 2 huge queues full of expectant faces. The atmosphere was buzzing already, even though there was still 1 hour or so before it would actually start.
When we were finally allowed inside, a lot of fans had their cameras confiscated during bag searches. They would receive a ticket to get their belonging back once the show was finished, but some fans were so desperate to get a place inside that they pretty much fled from the employees doing the checks without taking their ticket, and bouncers had to literally chase them across the venue. I have never seen this happen before so I was quite shocked at the fact that some people would rather get a place close to the stage than being able to get their cameras back after the show.
The standing area in front of the stage filled up pretty quickly, and while we were waiting they played clips and songs from Infinite’s various albums, and people were already singing along loudly and cheering whenever a new song started.
When it was finally about the time for the boys to come on stage, they did it in the most stylish manner imaginable. The room went dark, the speakers got louder, and suddenly, the image on the screen above the stage started to change. It formed a sort of dark door that slowly began to tremble and open little by little before the shadows of the 7 members appeared behind the now white screen. Then they exploded onto the stage with their first song, which just so happens to be one of my favourites – Bad.
Infinite are well-known for their super synchronised dance routines, and they certainly proved that to be true. I don’t know how they did it but they managed to sing their lungs out all while keeping their dancing seemingly flawless. I was also impressed by the crowd for singing along with them even though the songs were all in Korean!
The boys managed to keep the 2 hour long gig interesting and fresh by switching from emotional to happy songs, as well as giving us a taste of their sub-units, Infinite H and Infinite F. Personally, I loved seeing the sub-units and individual members singing solos, as it gave the concert a special twist and also kept the crowd curious of what’s going to happen next. Specially when infinite H performed their hip hop songs, everyone was raising their hands with them and the boys just seemed to pass their confidence and energy to the crowd, which was pretty cool!
They also interacted a lot with the fans, taking breaks to speak to them, borrowing fans phones and taking selfies of themselves with them and throwing towels into the crowd, which I thought was quite amusing. From all members, Dongwoo seemed to be the most active one. He was constantly goofing around, laughing and definitely the most chatty of them all. But the other boys also tried their best even despite the language barrier.
Unfortunately, there was something going on during the concert that bothered me a LOT. When the gig first started, I was standing pretty much in the middle, and so far there was no problem with that. But as soon as the boys appeared on stage, there were literally ‘waves’ of fans in the back trying to push forward and sideways, squishing the ones there were further at the front and making it very hard to breath at certain times. The pushing was so strong that I lost my balance and almost fell a couple of times, which could have had serious consequences in a room this crowded. After about 20 minutes of this, I got fed up and started making my way out of there, as at this point even I had a hard time breathing. I stayed close to the bar on the left side of the room for the rest of the concert, but it was shocking to see how many girls were continuously being lifted over the fence because they were fainting or having panic attacks. Sadly, even though the boys repeatedly told fans to be careful, it didn’t stop throughout the concert, which I found very disappointing. It’s sad that some fans consider their own priorities to get close to stage more important than the next person’s health and safety.
Despite of this, most of us managed to have a really good time and Infinite definitely did their best to deliver a memorable night to everyone. The concert ended gloriously with two big cannons going of and spraying white confetti all over the venue, while the boys thanked their fans for coming and slowly disappeared behind the curtains.
Even after the gig was over, the atmosphere outside was buzzing with laughter and excited conversations, but for me it was really time to go home as there weren’t many trains left.
All in all, I had a great time and will surely remember my first ever K-pop concert! Infinite were great, they delivered an amazing show with lots of energy and it was nice to see that they were having fun, too. And who knows, if we can trust what they said, they might be back to the UK pretty soon!
Were you at Infinites concert? What did you think of it and what was your experience like? Make sure to let me know in the comments below!
Ps. Sorry about the bad quality of the pictures, I just didn’t manage to get a lot because it was so busy and also because my main goal was to actually enjoy the concert rather than spending a lot of time trying to get a descent photo 😛
Have a great weekend,
the glowmadic 