Seventeen Live Viewing Experience Post!
Dec. 17th, 2023 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lachrymosyI went to the Seventeen Tour ‘Follow’ to Japan: Live Viewing here in North America yesterday! I’ve never done one of these concert movies before and I thought the experience was super interesting. I didn’t get to see Seventeen when the Be The Sun tour hit the city nearest me (there were some scheduling problems and then I got COVID, so I couldn’t have gone) and I’m even more eager to get to see them live now! They’ve clearly become such seasoned performers.
All my thoughts:
Experience
I was not prepared for the concert movie experience at all. My theater was almost sold out and everyone there was treating it like a concert. Because I’m visiting my parents right now, I went by myself, and I honestly might not have gone alone if I’d known what the vibe would be lol. I sat down and the person next to me immediately goes “who’s your bias?” I was so thrown! I answered but I just had no idea how to interact with Kpop in real life! The whole time I felt awkward because I couldn’t tell if the people I was sitting between already knew each other or when we were supposed to make small talk—I was also late getting to the theater—so that was a whole thing. I don’t think I came off very well LOL
My theater seemed to mainly be full of Woozi, The8, and DK stans. There was one person who would let out these guttural screams every time Woozi was on screen. The theater collectively went “awww” every time footage of Jeonghan appeared and screamed for SCoups. The screams when Performance Unit started taking off their clothes for “I Don’t Understand But I Love You” were maybe the loudest of the night which, valid. I wasn’t prepared for all the screaming or for singing the songs?? It made me realize that Kpop has, for me, been a primarily online and quiet activity which is clearly NOT others’ experience.
When I was leaving the theater there was a girl handing out these little (unofficial) photocards to everyone just as a gift, which was so cute but also did make me feel like I’d just accidentally joined a new religion.
The Members
For some reason I thought the concert had been recorded earlier in the week, so I had a moment of quiet devastation when I realized that Jeonghan wouldn’t be in it. I know it’s a preview of Seventeen during the enlistment years, but it does feel like the Jeongcheol absence came too soon! Jeonghan is really so central to the Seventeen dynamic that his absence felt like a gaping hole to me, even though they did an excellent job.
Woozi really deserved the guttural screams that person in my theater was making, because he was clearly feeling himself. There were a few moments where I was like “damn okay Woozi” which isn’t something I normally feel lol. He did like a little freestyle dance moment early in the Never-ending Aju Nice segment (I think) that I would love to see again because it went by quickly but it was very cool.
Mingyu might be approaching peak hotness; he looked incredible in the white outfit for the beginning set. Also his redone hairline looks more natural now so good for him LOL.
Jun was lovely but the dude does not blink when he’s performing?? I loved watching him and he really was able to shine in the Performance Unit songs but I noticed more clearly that he does NOT BLINK.
DK was in top form. Singing, entertaining, the man can do it all and he was doing it. I could not figure out what the backstory to his booty pop gag was (or if there was a backstory) but it was hilarious. When Anyone came on the girl next to me was like “it’s a travesty that he’s wearing a jacket right now” LOL. Honestly I really wished they would have done a BSS song because they all had so much energy.
Hoshi’s whole Tiger nonsense is even funnier in the context of a concert. I’ve really been appreciating Hoshi as an entertainer more lately and it was really fun to get to see the comic timing with all the horanghae stuff.
I don’t really have notes on the other members but they were excellent too! I gained a new appreciation of Seventeen for their performance skills after getting to see what their three and a half hour show looks like, and it definitely made me wish I’d tried to see them live earlier in their careers, but it’s also cool to see how they’re now at a very mature place as performers. They managed the whole thing really well.
Oh ALSO I thought it was interesting that not a lot of ship fodder made it into the recording but what did was Mingyu holding Wonwoo’s hand and singing to him?? I will never understand this ship 😂
Production
After watching this, I want so badly to see the behind-the-scenes of how a concert like this gets produced. I do, in fact, want to see how the sausage gets made. The whole time I really was in awe of the level of production, and I can only imagine the hundreds of people that come together to create a production on that scale.
With the members, you could really see the impact of hundreds of hours of rehearsal. This was my complaint with Day6’s concert, but with a production like this you can see how necessary it is to schedule everything down to the minute. Of course this was filmed and edited but the WORK involved to pull that off, multiple times, is so impressive. And the way the members were able to manage the crowd’s energy, feed it and draw from it, really speaks to how performing is a skill honed over time.
The three and a half hour run time did feel very long. Also it was only when God of Music started playing that it occurred to me they hadn’t performed it, LOL whoops. There were other songs I expected them to perform that they didn’t (I’d seen the setlist before I think but I forgot) like Fallin’ Flower. I thought the unit sets worked REALLY well. Hot is so much better in concert than any other setting apparently. I went to the bathroom during Ima lol.
Having never seen the never ending Aju Nice bit in person, I don’t think I was able to fully appreciate it. Plus, I think it’s just not going to play the same in a movie theater as it does in the actual concert. That said, I found myself really wishing they’d sing the ending part of the song again instead of just the chorus over and over. It was really fun though and made for such a cute and enjoyable concert ending.
I know the concert was recorded like twelve hours before or something, but the subtitles were still surprisingly terrible? Not only were random things incorrect or incomprehensible, but they were also extremely delayed. It felt like the one piece of the puzzle that was not done well, and I just feel someone should pay a translator top dollar to crank out higher quality subs more quickly.
Overall, it was a great experience and I gained a whole new appreciation for Seventeen as performers. I really would give anything to see a five-hour multi-part documentary getting into the nitty gritty of how a concert like this comes together, because it was incredible!
All my thoughts:
Experience
I was not prepared for the concert movie experience at all. My theater was almost sold out and everyone there was treating it like a concert. Because I’m visiting my parents right now, I went by myself, and I honestly might not have gone alone if I’d known what the vibe would be lol. I sat down and the person next to me immediately goes “who’s your bias?” I was so thrown! I answered but I just had no idea how to interact with Kpop in real life! The whole time I felt awkward because I couldn’t tell if the people I was sitting between already knew each other or when we were supposed to make small talk—I was also late getting to the theater—so that was a whole thing. I don’t think I came off very well LOL
My theater seemed to mainly be full of Woozi, The8, and DK stans. There was one person who would let out these guttural screams every time Woozi was on screen. The theater collectively went “awww” every time footage of Jeonghan appeared and screamed for SCoups. The screams when Performance Unit started taking off their clothes for “I Don’t Understand But I Love You” were maybe the loudest of the night which, valid. I wasn’t prepared for all the screaming or for singing the songs?? It made me realize that Kpop has, for me, been a primarily online and quiet activity which is clearly NOT others’ experience.
When I was leaving the theater there was a girl handing out these little (unofficial) photocards to everyone just as a gift, which was so cute but also did make me feel like I’d just accidentally joined a new religion.
The Members
For some reason I thought the concert had been recorded earlier in the week, so I had a moment of quiet devastation when I realized that Jeonghan wouldn’t be in it. I know it’s a preview of Seventeen during the enlistment years, but it does feel like the Jeongcheol absence came too soon! Jeonghan is really so central to the Seventeen dynamic that his absence felt like a gaping hole to me, even though they did an excellent job.
Woozi really deserved the guttural screams that person in my theater was making, because he was clearly feeling himself. There were a few moments where I was like “damn okay Woozi” which isn’t something I normally feel lol. He did like a little freestyle dance moment early in the Never-ending Aju Nice segment (I think) that I would love to see again because it went by quickly but it was very cool.
Mingyu might be approaching peak hotness; he looked incredible in the white outfit for the beginning set. Also his redone hairline looks more natural now so good for him LOL.
Jun was lovely but the dude does not blink when he’s performing?? I loved watching him and he really was able to shine in the Performance Unit songs but I noticed more clearly that he does NOT BLINK.
DK was in top form. Singing, entertaining, the man can do it all and he was doing it. I could not figure out what the backstory to his booty pop gag was (or if there was a backstory) but it was hilarious. When Anyone came on the girl next to me was like “it’s a travesty that he’s wearing a jacket right now” LOL. Honestly I really wished they would have done a BSS song because they all had so much energy.
Hoshi’s whole Tiger nonsense is even funnier in the context of a concert. I’ve really been appreciating Hoshi as an entertainer more lately and it was really fun to get to see the comic timing with all the horanghae stuff.
I don’t really have notes on the other members but they were excellent too! I gained a new appreciation of Seventeen for their performance skills after getting to see what their three and a half hour show looks like, and it definitely made me wish I’d tried to see them live earlier in their careers, but it’s also cool to see how they’re now at a very mature place as performers. They managed the whole thing really well.
Oh ALSO I thought it was interesting that not a lot of ship fodder made it into the recording but what did was Mingyu holding Wonwoo’s hand and singing to him?? I will never understand this ship 😂
Production
After watching this, I want so badly to see the behind-the-scenes of how a concert like this gets produced. I do, in fact, want to see how the sausage gets made. The whole time I really was in awe of the level of production, and I can only imagine the hundreds of people that come together to create a production on that scale.
With the members, you could really see the impact of hundreds of hours of rehearsal. This was my complaint with Day6’s concert, but with a production like this you can see how necessary it is to schedule everything down to the minute. Of course this was filmed and edited but the WORK involved to pull that off, multiple times, is so impressive. And the way the members were able to manage the crowd’s energy, feed it and draw from it, really speaks to how performing is a skill honed over time.
The three and a half hour run time did feel very long. Also it was only when God of Music started playing that it occurred to me they hadn’t performed it, LOL whoops. There were other songs I expected them to perform that they didn’t (I’d seen the setlist before I think but I forgot) like Fallin’ Flower. I thought the unit sets worked REALLY well. Hot is so much better in concert than any other setting apparently. I went to the bathroom during Ima lol.
Having never seen the never ending Aju Nice bit in person, I don’t think I was able to fully appreciate it. Plus, I think it’s just not going to play the same in a movie theater as it does in the actual concert. That said, I found myself really wishing they’d sing the ending part of the song again instead of just the chorus over and over. It was really fun though and made for such a cute and enjoyable concert ending.
I know the concert was recorded like twelve hours before or something, but the subtitles were still surprisingly terrible? Not only were random things incorrect or incomprehensible, but they were also extremely delayed. It felt like the one piece of the puzzle that was not done well, and I just feel someone should pay a translator top dollar to crank out higher quality subs more quickly.
Overall, it was a great experience and I gained a whole new appreciation for Seventeen as performers. I really would give anything to see a five-hour multi-part documentary getting into the nitty gritty of how a concert like this comes together, because it was incredible!
