This past weekend South Korean Pop group P1Harmony played to a sold out house at the Kia Forum, filling the arena with around 8,000 P1ece, the group’s fanbase. ‘UTOP1A’ marks the group’s first headlining arena tour and after visiting eleven cities the tour concludes it’s North American leg at the landmark in Los Angeles. Jongseob describes that “Utopia can be everywhere as long as we’re together”.
Photo Rebecca R
As the lights dim and the first VCR beings to play, like a switch turned on the crowd erupts in screams. Just a moment later we see the members, a now completed six, Keeho(기호), Theo(테오), Jiung(지웅), Intak(인탁), Soul(소울) and Jongseob(종섭), rise from atop the staircase that sits at the back of the stage. The Los Angeles crowd provided the returning member and the rest of the group with a welcome worth wearing your earplugs. After taking a moment to stand proud and soak in the cheers the group dives into songs ‘Street Star’, ‘Emergency’ and ‘Everybody Clap’ from their most recent album 때깔 (Killin’ It). With pyrotechnics, explosive dance breaks and powerful vocals P1Harmony begins the show with a bang, literally.
Photo Rebecca R
The group takes a moment to introduce themselves and say hello to fans before heading into ‘Heartbeat Drum’, ’I Am You’ and ‘Butterfly’. The idols gather once more offering their admiration to P1ece. After hearing fans sing along to past songs Jiung states there “are no words to describe” while Keeho comments “the view is beautiful” on the ever growing audiences who light up the arena with their light sticks. As Soul chooses pink for fans to change their lights to the group heads into 때깔(Killin' It) and ‘Back Down’ finishing up the moment with bursts of confetti and a barking crowd.
Photo Rebecca R
Each member, about to create fan-cam memories for P1ece to hold on to, enter into their solo stages. As the arena lights up with cell phone flashlights and white colored light sticks Theo enters the stage with his guitar to serenade the crowd with his rendition of 'Until I Found You' by Stephen Sanchez. Accompanied by backup dancers, Intak delivers his sensual dance number to 'On My Mama' by Victoria Monét giving the once again barking crowd grinding and belt choreography. Next up was Jongseob to rap 'Praise The Lord' by A$AP Rocky as he makes his way down the catwalk while the crowd loudly chants along to the highly anticipated number. Soul makes his entrance atop the stairs, as the lights flash on and off he makes his way down and across the catwalk giving an illusion of "teleporting". He performs an iconic dance number of a instrumental track which he described the night's performance being an "exclusive version" freestyle. Supplying P1ece with his his gorgeous riffs Keeho sings along to SZA’s ‘Kill Bill’ while toting a sword. Lastly Jiung makes his way onstage to a crowd booming with excitement to once again cheer on the returned idol as he performs pop dance number to ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber.
The solo stages are easily one of the highlights of the show, as each member gets to showcase their skills and tastes as individuals and take a moment to connect one on one with P1ece.
Photo Rebecca R
Soon after, music swells and the lights begin to flash while the screen reads “We’re here to break chains. Shout it out loud, I’m on top”. The members once again rise from atop the staircase and perform high energy numbers ‘Pyramid’, ‘Black Hole’ and ‘Look At Me Now’.
Next are sentimental numbers “Fall in Love Again” and “BFF”. "I think were ready to bring the energy back up. LA I want to hear you scream.” shouts Keeho before the group transitions into hype song ‘DOOM DU DU’ and crowd favorite ‘Jump’. As the show begins to come to a close the members perform ‘Follow Me’ and ‘Countdown to Love’, amplifying their performance as bursts of confetti go off and balloons bounce around filling the arena. As the countdown that appears across the screens hits 00:00 the members wave goodbye to fans before being lowered into the stage.
You couldn’t even hear the idols amidst the screams as they enter with encore ‘I See U’ while descending from the crowds, starting all the way in the upper levels and making their way through excited fans. The encore continues with ‘If You Call Me’, ‘Siren’ and ‘Scared’, the members now toting gifts collected as they interacted with fans. Taking in their largest crowd as headliners the members take one last moment to thank fans, “Thank you for making our dreams come true”, Keeho says. Finishing with “AYAYA” the North American Tour came to a heartfelt and memorable end. The members, not ready to leave stop one last time to take a selfie with P1ece before saying “Please wait for us, we’ll be back very soon.”
Photo Rebecca R
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