#LANXESS arena

[greendayauthority]

Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany, 5 October 2009

[louisupdates]

On 17 Oct 2023, Louis Tomlinson officially sold out LANXESS ARENA in Cologne, with a 20,000 capacity.

[kathis-welt93]

Ein Traum wurde dieses Jahr wahr, ich war das erste mal auf ein Konzert von Helene Fischer, die Frau ist einfach der Hammer und ich es war eine Mega Show und ein unvergesslicher Moment, einfach wow... ich hoffe ich sehe sie irgendwann nochmal auf ein Konzert oder bei HFS ich bin einfach Geflasht... 😍❤️‍🔥❤️

Eigene Aufnahme 25.08.23 Repost Verboten 🚫

[menitrust]

Hello! We are about to embark on our last stretch of shows for 2024, yahoo, looking forward to see you!

tix: https://menitrust.com/

09/19 – Sayreville NJ, Starland Ballroom 09/20 – Queens NY, Forest Hills Stadium* 09/21 – Queens NY, Forest Hills Stadium* 09/26 – London UK, The O2^ 09/29 – Brussels BE, Forest National^ 10/01 – Amsterdam NL, Ziggo Dome^ 10/02 – Paris FR, Accor Arena^ 10/04 – Lyon FR, LDLC Arena^ 10/05 – Barcelona ES, Palau Sant Jordi^ 10/07 – Madrid ES, WiZink Center^ 10/10 – Cologne DE, LANXESS Arena^ 10/11 – Frankfurt DE, Festhalle Frankfurt^ 10/12 – Hamburg DE, Barclays Arena^ 10/15 – Lodz PL, Atlas Arena^ 10/16 – Prague CZ, O2 Arena^ 10/18 – Bologna IT, Unipol Arena^ 10/19 – Milan IT, Unipol Forum^ * supporting Khruangbin ^ supporting Melanie Martinez

[generouskittendragon]

Prince 28 July 2011 Lanxess Arena Cologne, Germany

[fayet]

The Kpop Experiment (II): More musings on Ateez in Colonge

Hi! I'm back with opinions by popular demand (e.g. three people read my first post and liked it). Read under cut, otherwise move on, nothing to see here.

I'd like to talk about the sound quality briefly first, because I mentioned it to a few people (you wouldn't believe how many people think you're off your rooker for going to a kpop concert but then want to know all the gorey details, it's fascinating) and learnt that some of them had been to Lanxess Arena before and had all complained that the sound quality there is atrocious. One of my colleagues saw Prince (PRINCE!) at Lanxess and said he halfway through the concert took a moment and apologised to his audience for the bad sound, saying they hadn't allowed him to bring in his own sound people and he had to use what was there, which apparently was terrible. Ateez def. had their own sound crew, and they provided us with maybe the best sound I've ever heard at a concert. It was very well balanced taking into consideration there were eight people to keep well adjusted in the mix, all with variable vocal habits and level of sound. Keeping them from sounding "soupy" but at the same time letting them blend together is quite a challenge, and I'm impressed by whoever mixed both Mingi and San into one good soundscape (I think Jongho could outscream Mingi if he truely wanted to, dude can project like crazy so he doesn't count). Mingi is loud, but he didn't seem loud, just powerful, and that's some really good sound mixing.

That being said the concert itself was SO LOUD. I like going to metal concerts. Ateez outdid my usual hearing protection geared towards metal concerts, and if you're louder than a fully flegded metal band with all the trimings you're too loud. No subwoofer, though, which is sad. Guerilla could do with a subwoofer, I feel.

Looking back at the show what remains is the impression of perfection and seamlessness. It was very "korean" in this regard, as in that I consider korean culture to be one striving for utter perfection and complete seriousness in everything, with very high demands for quality (obvs that is a western POV, and not fully encapuslating all that korean culture is in all it's many traits and characteristics. It's a simplification, please bear with me here.). The show was practically perfect. Everything was on point, every entrance, dance formation, timing, light change, the sound and the backup dancers. There was a lot going on and it wasn't boring, but it also wasn't really what I think a concert is, as in the presentation of art by an artist in front of a crowd that may provide feedback in some form, often leaving room for spontaneous developments and the creation of new art or unique moments. That is not a critique! I was perfectly entertained and very happy upon leaving the arena, just like I am watching a musical that has run for 300 shows. The chandelier will crash onto stage when the Phantom of the Opera is there, and Ateez will showcase perfect formations in their choreography. You get what you paid for (I paid a lot, mind you) and everybody is happy. Just don't expect them to play your fav song if it's not on the setlist or to come back after the encore. They won't. The story has been told. Move along.

So the show was perfect, and I came out utterly impressed and also a little bit confused. I had gone in wanting to see Yunho dance and to finally see what everyone means when they say Mingi is such a beast on stage, and I came back with a deep appreciation for Seonghwa, Yeosang and Hongjoong. All three deeply impressed me, but Yeosang surprised me most, because I'd never really thought of him before? But he had so much charisma that I couldn't help but be impressed, I found him so utterly charming whenever he came around and his performance was captivating (and yes, he is that beautiful.). Seonghwa was obviously my favorite for all the flirting reasons, Hongjoong had such a cool vibe, and for some reason I always overlooked Yunho whenever he came to our side.

Mingi seemed to be having an off day or maybe I just couldn't "get" him, but I was surprised when the arena tried to bark for him at the beginning and he just ignored it and bulldozed right over it and in the end thanked the crowd for chanting his name when he rapped during the Bouncy-part. I heard from a few people that he doesn't usually do that because the crowd always shouts his name with him, so I was wondering if he had something going on in his mind that made him do that.

In any case while I couldn't really vibe with whatever was going on with him, but he did deliver one nice example of just how well rehearsed they are: he was standing close to my side of the stage rapping (towards the end of the show, I have forgotten what song it was), with one foot up on one of the black plastic holder that had either a confetti cannon or something else inside - the cannons had gone off already so that was fine. He was hyping up the crowd in the standing area while spitting his lines, very focussed on the text and them, but at the same time trying to figure out if the plastic box could hold his weight (I think he wanted to use it to jump off from it or something, not into the pit but back onto the stage). But the box wasn't firmly attached to the stage and he noticed it wouldn't hold his weight, but he kept on playing with the give it had, bringing his bodyweight forwards again, waiting until the box tilted and pulling back, over and over again - while hyping the crowd, rapping and generally being aware of where he had to be next, where everyone else was etc. I'm not sure if he was even aware of doing it. I love it when people are so well rehearsed they can just split off parts of their brain and let them do something completely pointless while everything else runs on autopilot, muscle memory at this point in time, nothing to think about.

Here's a random sidenote: I told my partner to pick a bias during the concert, and despite Seonghwa working hard to be his forever bias he didn't make the cut. Instead my partner halfway through the concert decided that Yunho was going to be it, because, as he explained later, it seemed to him that Yunho was somehow in control of the dance formations and from the back organising everything. My partner (who also has many years of dance experience) also enjoyed his clean technique and then lamented that Yunho didn't have enough lines in the songs despite being what he called "the most handsome one and he even sings well!". (Yunho is very handsome of course, but watching Seonghwa smile at my partner LIKE THAT made even my knees weak, so I don't understand how my partner could be so nonchalant about flirting with him. How. Why. Somebody explain.) I found it interesting that he spotted the dance captain despite having no idea that this role even exists. I also found it interesting that he did not like Mingi. Like, at all.

Okay, this is getting long again. I had a very interesting conversation with @storkmuffin about Yunho vs. Mingi dancing styles/roles in the group with a brief detour into whether or not San has taken ballet classes (we both believe he has, my conviction coming from a choreography moment where he raised his arms above his head and ended up in a perfect fifth/third position - fyi, numbers vary depending on whether you're russian or english trained as a ballet dancer, the position is the same- with a lovely port des bras, and we agreed that Ateez probably at some point had ballet or at least contemporary ballet training.) I think Yunho might have done more than just a few classes, look at the lines of his body! I wish I could see more of his feet, but alas. Anyway, I don't have space for this here, but let me know if you want me to write that down as well (and maybe Storkmuffin might like to elaborate on my rough ideas). See ya around, or something!

[endlich-allein]

Till 😍 Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany, 29-11-2009 © Peter Wafzig

[multiple-ffandom-trash]

Ateez at the Lanxess arena in Cologne 11.02.2025 (Wonderland)

[hldailyupdate]

Louis being presented his award for his sold out show at the Lanxess Arena. (17 October 2023)

x

[shapersmind]

memento mori world tour , depeche mode (05/04/2024)

𖡡 köln, germany | lanxess arena

[timberlakegallery]

The Forget Tomorrow World Tour at the LANXESS Arena in Cologne, Germany.

Photo by Melanie S.

[louisupdates]

FITFWT23: TOUR RECAP MASTERPOST

FASHION RECAP: NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE (Top Ten)

LITHOGRAPHS and PORTRAITS

OUTRO SONGS

IQ 123: Tour promo and production interviews

TOUR TECHNICAL SPECS [TPI MAGAZINE]

GROUP PHOTOS NA

Louis’ care for his fans

NORTH AMERICA

26 May - Mohegan Sun Arena, UNCASVILLE, CT

27 May - Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion, GILFORD, NH

29 May - Place Bell, LAVAL QC

30 May - Budweiser Stage, TORONTO ON

1 Jun - Blossom Music Center, CUYAHOGA FALLS, OH

2 Jun - Michigan Lottery Amphitheater, STERLING HEIGHTS, MI

FITFWT23: WEEK 1

3 Jun - The Icon Festival Stage, CINCINNATI, OH

6 Jun - Kemba Live! Outdoor, COLUMBUS, OH

7 Jun - TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park, INDIANAPOLIS, IN

9 Jun - Saint Louis Music Park, ST. LOUIS, MO

PORTRAITS, 1st set [10.6.2023]

IG stories and selfies [10.6.2023]

10 Jun - Starlight Theatre, KANSAS CITY, MO

13 Jun - BMO Pavilion, MILWAUKEE, WI

15 Jun - Huntington Bank Pavilion, CHICAGO, IL

16 Jun - The Armory, MINNEAPOLIS, MN

17 Jun - Harrah’s Stir Cove, COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA

19 Jun - Denny Sanford Premiere Center, SIOUX FALLS, SD

21 Jun - Red Rocks Amphitheatre, MORRISON, CO: CANCELLED 😪

24 Jun - Wamu Theater, SEATTLE, WA

26 Jun - Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Center, VANCOUVER BC

27 Jun - McMenamins Edgefield Concerts, TROUTDALE, OR

29 Jun - The Greek Theatre, BERKELEY, CA

PORTRAITS, 2nd set [29.6.2023]

PORTRAITS posted 30.6 [x]

30 Jun - Louis Instagram recap

30 Jun - The Hollywood Bowl, LOS ANGELES, CA

1 Jul - The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan, LAS VEGAS, NV

3 Jul - Arizona Financial Theatre, PHOENIX, AZ

6 Jul - The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, IRVING, TX

7 Jul - Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park, AUSTIN, TX

8 Jul - The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, THE WOODLANDS, TX

PORTRAITS, 3rd set [9.7.2023]

9 Jul: Louis Instagram recap

10 Jul RTL Radio Interviews

11 Jul - St. Augustine Amphitheatre, ST. AUGUSTINE, FL

13 Jul - Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, HOLLYWOOD, FL

14 Jul - Yuengling Center, TAMPA, FL

15 Jul - Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park, ATLANTA, GA

18 Jul - Ascend Amphitheater, NASHVILLE, TN

19 Jul - Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre, CHARLOTTE, NC

21 Jul - Red Hat Amphitheater, RALEIGH, NC

22 Jul - Merriweather Post Pavilion, COLUMBIA, MD

PORTRAITS, 4th set [23.7.2023]

24 Jul - MGM Music Hall at Fenway, BOSTON1, MA

25 Jul - MGM Music Hall at Fenway, BOSTON2, MA

27 Jul - TD Pavilion at the Mann, PHILADELPHIA, PA

28 Jul - Stone Pony Summer Stage, ASBURY PARK, NJ

29 Jul - Forrest Hills Stadium, NEW YORK, NY

PORTRAITS, 5th set [31.7.2023]

North America FAN EDIT

AUGUST 2023 GAP 1 recap

AWAY FROM HOME FESTIVAL

19 Aug - Parco Bussoladomani, LIDO DI CAMAIORE, Italy

AUGUST 2023 GAP 2 recap (including the 28 launch)

EUROPE

29 Aug - Barclays Arena, HAMBURG

31 Aug - Royal Arena, COPENHAGEN

1 Sep - Spektrum, OSLO [Bigger Than Me anniversary content]

PORTRAITS, 6th set [2.9.2023]

2 Sep - Hovet, STOCKHOLM

4 Sep - Ice Hall, HELSINKI

DORK MAGAZINE PHOTOS 2022 w/ links

5 Sep - Saku Arena, TALLINN

7 Sep - Arena Riga, RIGA

PORTRAITS, 7th set [8.9.2023]

8 Sep - Zalgiris Arena, KAUNAS

10 Sep - Tauron Arena, KRAKOW

11 Sep - Atlas Arena, ŁÓDŹ

13 Sep - Wiener Stadhalle D, VIENNA

14 Sep - Stozice Arena, LJUBLJANA

15 Sep - Budapest Arena, BUDAPEST

PORTRAITS, 8th set [16.9.2023]

17 Sep - Arenele Romane, BUCHAREST

18 Sep - Arena Armeets, SOFIA

20 Sep - Plateia Nerou, ATHENS w/ links to AOTV announcements

SEPTEMBER 2023 GAP recap

1 Oct - Bilbao Arena Miribilla, BILBAO (VIZCAYA)

3 Oct - Altice Arena, LISBON

5 Oct - Wizink Center, MADRID

6 Oct - Palau Sant Jordi, BARCELONA

PORTRAITS, 9th set [7.10]

8 Oct - Pala Alpitur, TURIN

9 Oct - Unipol Arena, BOLOGNA

11 Oct - Rockhal, ESCH-SUR-ALZETTE

12 Oct - Sportspaleis, ANTWERP

14 Oct - Accor Arena, PARIS

15 Oct - Ziggo Dome, AMSTERDAM

17 Oct - Lanxess Arena, COLOGNE

19 Oct - O2 Arena, PRAGUE

20 Oct - Mercedes Benz Arena, BERLIN

PORTRAITS, 10th set [21.10]

22 Oct - Olympiahalle, MUNICH

23 Oct - Hallenstadion, ZURICH

FITFWT23: LATAM promo begins [28.10]

Twitter spree: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 Hall Of Fame, [31.10]

IGTV [1.11]: transcript, gifs [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]

8 Nov - 3Arena, DUBLIN

10 Nov - Utilita Arena, SHEFFIELD

11 Nov - AO Arena, MANCHESTER

12 Nov - Ovo Hydro, GLASGOW

14 Nov - Brighton Center, BRIGHTON

15 Nov - International Arena, CARDIFF

17 Nov - The O2, LONDON

18 Nov - Resorts World Arena, BIRMINGHAM

FITFWT23 has come to an end!

ROLLING STONE UK 2023 AWARDS

23 Nov - Camden Roundhouse, LONDON

[menitrust]

Hello! Here’s a list of all our upcoming shows for 2024. We’ve also been working on new music. Looking forward to share it with you!

Tix: https://menitrust.com

07/14 – Seattle WA, Day In Day Out Fest. 08/09 – Bellevue NE, Outlandia Fest. 08/10 – San Francisco CA, Outside Lands Fest. 08/18 – London UK, All Points East Fest. 09/19 – Sayreville NJ, Starland Ballroom 09/20 – Queens NY, Forest Hills Stadium* 09/21 – Queens NY, Forest Hills Stadium* 09/26 – London UK, The O2^ 09/29 – Brussels BE, Forest National^ 10/01 – Amsterdam NL, Ziggo Dome^ 10/02 – Paris FR, Accor Arena^ 10/04 – Lyon FR, LDLC Arena^ 10/05 – Barcelona ES, Palau Sant Jordi^ 10/07 – Madrid ES, WiZink Center^ 10/10 – Cologne DE, LANXESS Arena^ 10/11 – Frankfurt DE, Festhalle Frankfurt^ 10/12 – Hamburg DE, Barclays Arena^ 10/15 – Lodz PL, Atlas Arena^ 10/16 – Prague CZ, O2 Arena^ 10/18 – Bologna IT, Unipol Arena^ 10/19 – Milan IT, Unipol Forum^

* supporting Khruangbin ^ supporting Melanie Martinez

[fallinginreversefanblog]

Falling In Reverse live in Cologne/Germany, 12/2/2024

The last show of the Europe Tour 2024 for Falling In Reverse was in Cologne, Germany, Lanxess Arena, on Dec 2nd, 2024. This was also an upgraded venue, sold out, so there were an incredible amount of people watching.

Via Instagram

The show was fantastic!!! Even though the band was right after the Paris show and they were probably exhausted, Ronnie was an energy bomb and the audience was highly receptive as well.

Via Ronnie's IG account

The footage was very poor, I was benefited with a friend attending the show, but I was struggling to get good videos regardless.

There were more good pictures than videos, you can follow for more after this post, separately.

Via Instagram

This time neither FIR and Ronnie, nor we knew that this will be the last show of the whole EU/UK tour. Despite Ronnie being the best frontman ever existed, as he always is, nothing special was added to this show.

There is a video (will post separately) in which Ronnie confers "The Drug In Me Is You" and asks the crowd to let it all out and sing the song with him. After he begins it, he suddenly stops playing ans tell the crowd to be even more wild bc he wants to feel it in his chest ❤️❤️❤️

Via Instagram

"Watch The World Burn" is already fixed with the intro telling people to leave the house before the world is set on fire, and then confirming they just joined "the cult of Ronnie Radke".

This pic ⬇️ was uploaded originally by a member of the opening band Hollywood Undead. Ronnie shared it in his IG stories. Sweet one, full of joy 🫶

Via Ronnie's IG stories

The crowd selfie was uploaded by Christian Thompson, a little late after the show, I have already known thers will be one by Ronnie saying it at the end of a video. Ronnie also shared a zon of beautiful crowd pictures, and totals of the venue.

A sad moment follows, as I already mentioned, unfortunately, w/o anyone knowing it before, this turned out to be the last show of the whole tour. A day later, on the 3rd Ronnie Radke was rejected from entering the UK, his visa has been denied.

Falling In Reverse had to postpone all 7 (SEVEN) UK shows to a 2025 date, sometime after Ronnie gets permission to enter the country. Fans were disappointed and turned against the UK government. They seven signed petition appealing to the law forces of the UK. Ronnie released a T-shirt abt the sad event, helping the UK prison law renewal by the income.

[fayet]

The Kpop Experiment: Musings on Ateez in Cologne

Okay. I think most of you won't care for this, so keep on scrolling for your regularly scheduled posting. This is a very, very, very long wall of text. You've been warned.

Anyway, if you're still here - hi! I decided to write up my musings on my Cologne concert experience, mostly because I was asked to and also to keep a few notes for myself. Here's the disclaimer: I'm a little bit into kpop as part of a sort of sociological research thing. I'm fascinated by Kpop, the structure of the industry, the status of it in the west as a cultural export and part of Korea's soft power, the crossover of fancultures and international ties, the performance aspect of it as a very visual art while at the same time being kind of, well, music, and the status of Kpop artists as a product in a capitalistic society.

I started listening to kpop as a means to connect with a family member who is really into it, and then travelled across South Korea and realised how present kpop is in korean everyday culture, even from what I could see as a stupid tourist. So the spiral began... and here we are. I'm not going to touch on any of that here, but, yk, as a little disclaimer it might not go wrong. I also might have some controversial opinions, so read at your own risk.

TL:DR: I'm not a "real" fan, but I wanted to see a kpop concert and I like Ateez' music. Also they are good looking. And I could get tickets, which is also no mean feat.

As a general side note: the organisation in Cologne was kinda meh. We stood outside the arena for quite a long time, and I felt very sorry for the fans who'd gotten dressed up. A lot of young women wore costumes with skirts or other short clothing items, and a lot of them were very cold. I had seats, so I arrived two hours before the show, but I think others were waiting for a long time and I have no idea how the standing room people fared. It just generally seemed like the organisation could have been better.

I went to the concert for the atmosphere almost as much as I did for the music. And boy was it interesting! Fandom is an interesting thing, and I was very impressed by how creative people were. A lot of people were dressed up to the nines, dressed to fit in with some sort of theme/concept (usually either pirate/bouncy area/IOMT style outfits), but there was so much creativity - a lot of people had clothing styled to show their bias, reconstructed garments, patches and names embroidered onto jean jackets, lots of extravagant cowboy hats, it was really impressive to see. Plus the complicated make-up, hair in all colours of the rainbow, funky shoes and bags, glow-in-the-dark accessoires, people were going all out. There was also a generally friendly atmosphere at least where I was hanging around, people talking to each other, chatting, swapping information that could be useful later on. (Side note: there seems to be a rather large overlap of Ateez-fans and Stray Kids-fans, because a lot of people mentioned they'd be going to the Stray Kids concert to be held this summer).

I've never been to an arena concert, and boy was Lanxess big (and it's not the biggest one around), and packed. I'd always wanted to see the sea of lights from the lightsticks, and it did deliver - it looked fantastic, with the colour patterns and the movement and everything. Do I still think lightsticks are a cash crab? Yeah, I do. Does it look amazing? Absolutely.

Speaking of cash: kpop is a business, and groups tour to make money. I would murder someone to have the numbers behind the recent Ateez tour, how much everything cost, how much stays with the company, how much the members actually get. Seriously, that breakdown would make me weep with joy, I'm so damn curious.

I wager most money comes in via the ticket pricing, but I'd guess the merch sales also bring in a ton of moeny, because people had MERCH. in capital letters. So much merch. The average person I saw had a lightstick, maybe some accessory for it, maybe a t-shirt or a hoodie, some keyrings to their bags, maybe a fan with their fav printed on it, one of these plushies and so on and so on. I checked the prices, and d'uh. I have no idea about the quality of the stuff, but fashion has incredible margins and makes money easily, so they do have that going on for them.

I also nearly had a heart attack when I saw the price of the lightsticks. I'd say the average fan i saw dropped around 150 Euros on Merch - e.g. if you bought one lightstick and a t-shirt you'd be roughly in that price area, and a lot of people bought a lot more. There were long lines with people waiting to buy stuff, and I got told by various people where I could find items that were sold out at one stand (without asking them specifically, everybody just randomly told me where I could buy merch). Besides the stalls at the arena there was also the pop-up store, but I didn't go there. I saw people with Ateez merch all over Cologne the day before, so, ka-ching! Those fur coats are purring, baby.

(This is not a dig towards Ateez, obvs - all bands make money via merch, and I think all big name artists are riding this wave. Munich was flodded with people carrying Adele totes last summer! Apparently Taylor Swift sells light sticks shaped lke stars? I just noticed that there seemed to be a lot of merch sales here, unlike e.g. the concerts I usually go to, where there seems to be a lot less merch.)

So we had no merch and weren't dressed up, which was a little dumb later on because it turned out I had accidentally booked seats very close to the stage (disclaimer: i knew we had good seats and they were very expensive, I just hadn't realised they were this close.), and with very close I mean three rows up, basically on eye height with whoever happened to wander over to this corner of the stage. Which was basically almost everyone (besides Mingi, whom I had specifically wanted to see up close - he passed by a few times and jumped around close to us, but he didn't look at my section. Bro. Why. I came to stare at your incredible face.)

It kind of was nice to be this close, but it also meant we saw the show from the side and not form the front, and everything that happened on the part of the stage jutting out into the arena was basically not in our line of sight. The big screen was directly above us so we could watch there, but it also meant it was hard to keep an eye on the stage and watch the screen. I basically ignored the screen after a while in favor of watching what was happening on the other side of the walkway stage, so I saw most of the formations, well, from behind. And that was super interesting because it showed a lot about the spacing and the synchronisation, but also, d'uh. I'd been looking forward to see the "Say My Name" choreo (because, well, Mingi, you catch my drift), but like this I kinda saw it from behind (and Mingi tends to wear longer costume pieces that cover his backside all the way down to mid thighs, so no staring at that, either. Oh, well.).

Yeah, anyway, the seats were still good because up this close I got to see some interesting choreo things closer up (I have a lot of thoughts on Yunho vs Mingi's dance styles now), but also experience the magic of a kpop group working their crowd. And boy are they good at this, it's incredible. I'm fascinated by the whole parasocial relationships kpop as an industry fosters, but the way the concerts deepen this already existing relationship is incredible.

The concert was clearly seperated into the strictly choreographed parts (songs/dances/interludes) where everybody as focused on getting everything right down to the second, and then the "freeform" parts where they were just walking around, working the crowd. But these are of course also choreographed, and I think rather tightly so. There was the obvious mandate of everyone having to work every side of the stage at some point and they were really good with it. I kept count of who came to my side of the stage to wave at my block, and besides Mingi (who for some reason didn't really drop by, but then I also think he wasn't having a great day at the Cologne concert - incidentally I also watched him to track when exactly they were doing tightly choreographed parts and where they were moving into the more "freeform" moments because it was very obvious when he went from 'I gotta be there do this move look at the camera' to 'okay, chill, hit your mark but otherwise it's fine' mode just by the way his eyeline would change when his focus shifted).

Okay, so since this is getting very long, here's my favorite example of why working the crowd is such a brilliant move, beause it works even on someone who isn't a fan: my poor partner, whom I had more or less forced to come with me despite his dislike for popular culture in general.

He had no former experience with kpop, he didn't know Ateez (I gave him the task to pick a bias during the concert, which lended some fun results). So we were generally not blending into the crowd very well because we did not have merch, no lightstick and we were the only ones in our block who did not have phones out. I took three pictures in total, but then I just put my phone away. But we were also very much in sight of whoever came to the side of our stage, and I could tell we were getting noticed for not performing fandom properly, to the point where clearly at least one member - Seonghwa - apparently started to wonder what the hell we were doing at the show (though we were both vibing, whopping and generally showing obvious signs of having a very good time - at some point I was grooving to the beat and Hongjoong came up and laughed at me, grooving along).

So one time Seonghwa came to our side of the stage, and simply stood there waving - and he didn't stop until my utterly confused partner realised that he was the target of the whole thing and waved back. Then Seonghwa pointed at my partner and made a heart, my partner made a heart back, then Seonghwa gave him a thumbs up and raised an eyebrow, and my partner did some combination of a thumbs-up and a heart to convery that he liked the show, and Seonghwa actually laughed, waved once more and wandered away.

It worked fantastically, on both of us: my confused partner spent the rest of the show manically giggeling (because Seonghwa kind of came over to ask him if he liked the show??), and I was so stunned having witnessed Seonghwa beaming at my dude (like, wtf, how did my man not faint) that I missed half of the next song. My partner was stupidly proud of himself for the remaining evening, and nearly bought a t-shirt on the way out. (He still didn't pick Songhwa as his bias, which will never stop confusing me. After all of that?! I'd also like to add that Seonghwa is really and seriously drop-dead gorgeous.).

Okay, this is getting way out of hand. Let me sum up the remaining thoughts with bullet points: the sound quality was the best I've ever experienced in a concert; please wear hearing protection if you're ever going to a concert of this type; they were indeed singing live, Hongjoong asked us to sing "Lemon Tree" bcs it's from a german band and then was confused when the whole arena started to belt the entire song out forming an impromptu 20.000-ppl-strong choir; I felt like Mingi had an off day and needed some time to get his mojo on; Yeosang is a fantastic performer and while I never been interested in him he really caught my eye on stage because he was so good; San really looks like that (what the hell); I felt there was an interesting dichotomy of those members who were playing to the audience around them and those who were more focussed on the camera (Wooyoung being the latter one, for example); BBTripping were amazing, holy shit; Ateez' english was difficult to understand but I guess they tried.

And everybody kept talking about the energy in the room and I've read reviews of people being amazed, but I thought the crowd was a bit lame (please note that I am old, I have experienced boyband concerts in the late 1990s and I thought I'd once more witness an entire arena loose their fucking shit over some hot guys - but they didn't! Girls and Boys and Queers, what's wrong with you?! Everybody was dressed so amazingly and showed so much creativity, and then? Sure, there was some screaming, but I'd expected more hysterics, more hype, more party? Everybody just stood around waving their lightstick a bit or maybe some jumping, but they couldn't dance because they would have dropped their damn phones and missed out on the twentieth picture of San smiling. Today's youth, I don't get it.)

I also have thoughts on the performance (concert vs musical style) and because I spent an insane amount staring at Yunho's feet and Mingi's arms on those two and their very different dance styles. But this is too long. Let me know if you want a second part, and also, why did you read all of this? You're insane. G'night!

[endlich-allein]

Till 😍 Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany, 29-11-2009 © Peter Wafzig