[Herald Review] From laughter to tears, BTOB gifts fans with 10th anniversary concert

As the lights went off to signal the beginning of the long-awaited concert of the K-pop boy band BTOB, the concert hall turned into a sea of shimmering blue as chanting fans waved their fandom light sticks.

BTOB kicked off their 10th-anniversary concert, “2022 BTOB TIME [Be Together],” on Friday at the KSPO Dome in Jamsil, Seoul, singing “Finale.”

The act of six was overwhelmed with emotions as they were welcomed onstage with cries of joy from their fandom, Melody, whom they haven’t been able to meet for the past four years.

The three sold-out shows held over the weekend drew a total of 25,000 people.

The BTOB members came onto the musical stage-looking set in chic black uniforms with shiny embellishments.

“This is the song that we ended the concert with four years ago when we said our goodbyes due to some of our members beginning their military service. So we wanted to come back with this same song to express that we are now back to you Melody,” said Hyunsik at the opening of the 180-minute gig.

The song “Finale” is considered the group’s official encore song at concerts.

The band then dialed up the temperature with a sensual performance of "Whiskey," each holding a glass of whiskey in front of small round tables.

During “Higher,” the bandmates moved around the O-shaped stage to get closer to the fans.

Then came the solo stages. Starting with Eunkwang, the leader and main vocalist, he covered Baek Ji-young's “The man,” showing off his falsetto that accentuated his mellow voice.

He had covered the song on the TV show “Immortal Songs: Singing the Legend 2” and a YouTube clip of that performance has since surpassed 2 million views.

Sungjae, the youngest of the act, held the first live performance of “Come With The Wind” from his special album “YOOK O’clock.”

Peniel, the rapper in the group, performed his solo hip-hop track “FLY23,” but he could not dance as he recently ruptured his Achilles tendon.

Hyunsik played the acoustic guitar to his solo debut track, “Dear Love,” his deep voice captivating the hearts of the audience.

During a press conference that took place right before the Friday concert, Peniel had said Hyunsik still takes guitar lessons as well as vocal lessons along with Eunkwang and Changsub to continue nurturing their skills.

Changsub sang “Shelter” for his solo stage in a red suit and showed off his powerful vocals.

Minhyuk put on a powerful and charismatic performance with a medley of his solo tracks “BOOM” and “Tonight.”

A special girl group medley stage prepared by Eunkwang, Minhyuk and Sungjae drew great response from the fans.

They danced to “Love Dive” by IVE, “Antifragile” by Le Sserafim, and “Hype boy” by NewJeans.

Next up was a series of their hits including “Beautiful Pain,” “WOW,” and “I’ll Be Your Man.”

During these stages, they threw presents into the crowd and heated up the dome with their perfectly in-sync choreographies.

BTOB made sure that fans from all corners of the stadium could get a good look of them and continuously called out their fandom while singing.

The fandom, on the other hand, had fan chants for each of the members and for all the hit songs.

The concert showed what the special bond between an idol group and its fandom is like.

“Preparing for the concert brought back old memories as we tried to remember what kind of gestures we had done when performing our old songs. We also wanted to give Melody a gift so we used our own money to prepare these for you,” explained Sungjae.

BTOB also bought face masks with their own money to hand them out to everyone that had come to the concert.

Nearing the end of the night, fans surprised the band by simultaneously holding up a banner that read, “Our blue-tinted 10 years that were possible because we were together” and started to sing “The Song” for their beloved artists.

The bandmates were awestruck by the gesture.

“This concert evoked a lot of emotions within us and we are so thankful for your love and support. We hope to plan the next 10 years with you Melody,” said Eunkwang wrapping up the concert.

Earlier, the members had remarked during the press conference that their 10th anniversary feels like an interim inspection or an intermission.

“As time goes by and our experience accumulates, we want BTOB to grow as better artists,” Changsub said when asked what their goals were for the next 10 years to come.

“We are planning for concerts abroad in 2023 because we want to meet not only Melody in South Korea but also Melody living abroad,” Hyunsik said.