Climbing Moss

When we broke down what we were doing this year I (Bob) said she was going to go to a couple of concerts, well we all know Stray Kids was a no brainer, ditto with Enhypen but there was a few more artists that she wants to see/wanted to see. This includes 8Turn, well finally I was able to find and buy tickets the concert was last Sunday so here is how it all went.

8Turn are a Kpop group who debuted in 2023 and last year was on Kingdom Ace of Aces (that’s where we learnt of them) Bob instantly liked them – Ash…. didn’t.

Back in May I bought 8Turn tickets to go and see them at Shepherds Bush on the13th July, as time went on the venue changed to somewhere a little more local – Islington Assembly Hall.
Which was great for me as this is the first ever gig I have been to alone and I was unlikely to get lost. Well Sunday came along, I didn’t overly dress up because, well the group doesn’t seem to have a set look yet apart from maybe Denim which is a no go for me, so that took some of the pressure off.
The tickets this time didn’t make your eyes bulge at the prices, which was a lovely surprise.

After some emails, texts and social media posts I was baffled as to what time the gig started – the tickets said 5pm, the text said 6.40pm and the social media post said 7.15pm. So at 6pm I walked there and hoped that it wouldn’t be a long wait and also maybe that I would force myself out of my comfort zone and might talk to someone.

Outside the assembly hall it was actually really crowded! which was really good to see, but I did notice the age range was more on the younger side – I did find another ‘over 20’s friend’ and waited for the doors to open. Some friendly people were giving out banners and asking for people to sign the flags to give to the group.

Shortly after that the doors were opened and the infinite queue began, rather chaotically and it took just over 40 minutes to actually get in, even on priority there was still a long wait.

Once in I bought a drink, I made my way into the crowd to see where I ended up in comparison to the stage – I was only three people away! This is the closest I have got to the stage in a Long, LONG time.

About 30 Minutes later the gig started, the group came on they played a couple of their better known songs and then did a talking section where they introduced themselves and spoke a little about their experience of London so far.

They were quite a charismatic group with one member (Jaeyun) doing most of the talking – the Translator was bad and was either translating late or always being slightly off even at times not bothering and leaving Jaeyun to do it for her. I have never been happier with learning Korean as I didn’t have to wait for the poor translation and just did it myself.

There was a couple of covers thrown into the mix, including a random Jet2Holiday meme which is so so popular at the moment. Then there was some of the Kingdom performance songs mostly in a mashup style. A very quick dance off between one half of the group and the other, which lasted 30 seconds each side.

There was quite a lot of audience interaction including the group asking for London locations that weren’t touristy to visit and some British food recommendations – sadly the audience seemed to have no taste as they only shouted Greggs and Nandos that was it. The locations were odd – Stratford Westfields, Piccadilly Circus and Camden – I called out Hampstead Heath which seemed to get some acknowledgement.

After the talking they came out in smaller groups to perform Kendrick Lamar – Not like us, BTS – Black Swan and one other which I can’t really say what it was.

It didn’t seem like it had been very long but the gig came to a wind down – a brief encore happened where some of the members walked into the front of the crowd, took phones from fans and filmed themselves. There was the final flag and crowd photo and then it was all over

We were ushered fairly quickly to the merch stand and then out onto the street where people dispersed.

All in all it was a pretty decent venue, the crowd was proactive, singing, calling out and talking. There was a strange delay when the members talked and then 4 minutes later the crowd reacted once the translator kicked in. The group were really good, had lots of energy and talent hopefully next time they come back they will have a bigger fanbase and a better translator.