Climbing Moss

Last Friday we headed off to Greenwich to see another KPop Group in Concert, this time the 7 member group Enhypen. Here is what we thought of the venue, the band, the Pop-Up Shop and the fans!

In all our time going to concerts neither of us had ever been to the O2 for one, sure we have been to The Greenwich Peninsula for the GDIF Art Show, the Nature Park and even Ikea, but never to see a band.

Upon arriving at the station and the walkway outside it, we were overwhelmed (in a lovely way) by the volume of Vampires! Yes Vampires, the entire walkways was filled with the tens of thousands of fans all there (like us) to experience one of the biggest and best KPop had to offer and if you are an Engene (A Fan of Enhypen) then you would know that there is an ongoing Vampiric theme. The expectant crowd outside were dressed up for the event and so many were adorned in Gothic Dress, from Corsets and Fishnet Tights, mini-skirts, wedding dresses and a lot of black and red.
Ash: If you didn’t know you would think it was a Heavy Metal Band playing inside the Dome.
There were brides with blood pouring from their punctured necks to well dressed denizens of death in suits and ties, but there was – it has to be said – a fair number of the female based fandom that seemed to think Vampires don’t wear lower attire, a noticeable amount of the females were in white shirts, waistcoats, corsets, flowing shirts and no bottom half to their costume save for a pair of safety shorts or black knickers. Good on them for having the confidence to travel London’s Public Transport this way and attend a concert.

We had been to the location a week before to visit the Pop-Up Shop around the corner from the venue with the intent on possibly buying a item of the Merch, one of the items not available in the numerous Merchandise Kiosks and a little more chilled then queuing for the hoodies and T-Shirts on the day. The venue was decorated with portraits of the boys and the discography of albums, but what had been promised to be a cheaper deal on the range, turned out to be untrue. What we later discovered is that the Fan run Pop-Up had been taken over by Sokollabs the London KPop Shop that has the famed ‘Mega Sale’ where you can get up to 5% off albums that they charge 300% mark-up on – the Shop is notorious as a rip off and yet still take a mass of the London sales of KPop due to the lack of anywhere else to go in London. In taking over the Pop-Up they had hiked the prices through the roof of the lofty, stylish building! What was meant to be a £35 t-shirt became £100, the hoodies went from £55 to £140, we ended up buying a pair of keyrings to at least say we had made the effort and they were meant to be £12 but ended up costing £18 due to extra charges the staff forgot to mention!

So, with our keyrings and plushies attached to our bags we returned to the Peninsula a week later to experience the concert.

As we came out of the station the first thing we saw was a large enclosure that was for the Engene Zone (The Weverse membership) This was bought by Bob in order to get earlier access to the presale tickets in the first place.

The area was ultimately a huge area filled with winding barriers, creating a maze to get to a couple of tents with staff who were equipped with a En- Stamp and a stack of photocards to distribute – one per member only. At the end of the tent area there was a line of girls who had been handed their card and wanted to trade for their bias – seemingly a lot of people at the same time as us got the same two members (Jay and Jake) We decided to not bother to wait around and instead go in search of Coffee (Review coming soon).

Before any KPop event there is one tradition that seems unique to the genre, ‘Freebies’ fans can spend months prior to the gig making bracelets, badges, printing photo cards and all sorts to give away to the other random strangers outside the venue. Literally hundreds of fans crowd around and hand out these goody bags. Bob chose to make and share a small(ish) selection of bags with bracelets, stickers and photocards, etc in. Around 60 of them. We traded a couple of the freebies with other fans doing the same and then one group approached and within literally seconds 100’s of eager and somewhat greedy fans smothered us with grabby hands trying to get at a bag of treasures, within 2 minutes the hoard had descended and taken all Bob had to offer, leaving her with a handful of returned trinkets. There is a huge difference between the fans at Enhypen and Stray Kids if anything Engenes seemed a lot friendlier, which is not the rep that the fandom carry but maybe it’s just a London thing…

With that over and done with we wandered around a little more but eventually moved into the queue and headed inside. The queue took a LONG time we went through two bag checks, two body scanners and two security checks.

Then we headed upstairs, first we checked the food – there was none only a beef burger and it looked like the kitchen was closed the same as half the beers were off! So we settled for two IPA’s and FYI the Beer was EXPENSIVE!!

We took our drinks and made our way to find our seats we were second tier up above the VIP standing section to the right of the stage. There was a T-shape walkway into the crowd and the only disadvantage was we couldn’t see the back of the stage. So occasionally we had to rely on the giant screens to the side but overall it was a pretty good view. We sat around for over an hour as people slowly filled out the seats and floor – it was sold out so it did take a Long time! We made friends with our seat neighbour which made the time fly by with stories of other concerts, groups and all manner of things. Whilst we waited music videos spanning the groups history played on the screens, the ever growing crowd sang along, not always in key!

Then after what seemed like an eternity later the lights dimmed the screens began playing imagery and suddenly the screams exploded as each of the members appeared one by one. All dressed in black leather, velvet and silk. Then everyone who was seated rose and stood up (just like at Stray Kids) so up we got.

Opening the concert with Brought the Heat Back, A small 2 chorus version of Fever then an Opening where they introduced themselves – The screams were deafening! Most of the members spoke English in their intro even Jay (who very rarely speaks english)

Then they dove right back into it – Paradoxx Invasion, Pass the Mic and then a brief video whilst they all changed into a different Military style blazers they came back with Given Taken. Another video then Jake, Sunghoon and Jay came on dressed as the controversial Priests for the song Lucifer. Another short video Then Heeseung, Niki, Jungwon and Sunoo came back dressed in grey and white for Teeth.

A mini video then Jay came out for a guitar solo before everyone came back this time dressed in blue blazers with silver embellishments and suit trousers for Blessed Cursed, Fatal Trouble and Bite me.

Another video while they went to get changed, this time into a more casual attire – each one in their own style – they broke into Highway 1009, Not for sale. They spoke for a bit about what they thought so far and audience interaction and a little about the fact they have a new album coming soon (When will these boys get a break?!?)

Then announcing their final songs they went into – Your Eyes Only, Orange Flower, Scream, Tamed Dashed, Sweet Venom, Loose and Go Big or Go Home. There was another brief video Then Moonstruck.

They did a closing talk – each member got to say their piece, when Sunoo’s time came the screams never seemed to end. They each said goodbye before the last couple of songs. They went off to get changed into the tour Merchandise etc.

Then Heeseung did a piano solo before XO where tonnes of pink hearts fell from the ceiling, No Doubt, Bad Desire then they did the typical pretend to end the concert and came back for the encore which was Shout Out, Helium and Paranormal where yellow streamers fell from the ceiling and smothered the audience and the group combined, which made for a funny interaction. The concert ended 30 minutes early which was a little disappointing, but we were told they had to do a Send off for the VIP’s.

We left the arena way faster than we entered as we were ushered as fast a possible out and into the surrounding restaurants etc.
We hung around for a little while as we were trying to miss the crowds and grab something to eat before heading on home. It actually wasn’t that bad getting back which is strange for us as everytime we ever go to the O2 or Greenwich the buses and trains seem suddenly to be cancelled.

Anyway that was our experience of Enhypen. This year has been great for Bob in terms of concerts as she saw both her Ults within months of each other so yay! Let’s hope they come back to London again (hopefully without the 5 years wait)

Ash – I prefer Enhypen over Stray Kids (even though I still struggle to name a couple of the members when presented with them on screen!) and this concert was a lot of fun and I knew most of the songs! I like seeing the crowd interact and there seemed to be a lot of that in the songs and the talking parts, it still seems a lot more structured than with Western Rock Band concerts that i’ve mostly spent my life going to, but in all it was one of the better KPop events i’ve experienced, so far! Watching the boys joking around during the ‘Loose’ section and at the end was a good memory, Sunoo being silly was more than I thought he would do (having only seen him in En-O’Clock (the band’s youtube show, where he seems a lot more rigid). I made a video of the show which is on YouTube here.

Bob – Well as stated above Enhypen is one of my Ult groups with all the members being in my top 100 fairly hight too! I have also bought every single album from debut which has been 5 years now. I have waited a long time for them to come here and it finally happened!! I can honestly say I loved it. It was also amazing finally seeing them in person and pretty close too! They also seemed less rushed, structured and truly having fun which made the vibe that much better. I must add the freebie giving out was so incredibly nerve wracking for me as I have social anxiety.

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What did you think of the experience? Did you go? Who was your bias? Was it everything you ever dreamt of? Leave a comment and tell us 🙂