This past weekend, Seoul's Jamsil Indoor Stadium was not so much a concert venue as a hub of celebration for the three years that TOMORROW X TOGETHER have been active in the music scene. Two-thirds of their career have been marked by the pandemic, making their ACT:LOVESICK tour their first-ever headlining tour and their first live concerts in front of fans following last year's ACT:BOY online concert.
The group's setlist featured a selection of hits from the nine records (seven Korean, two Japanese) they've released since 2019, opening the show with 2021 mega-hit '0X1=LOVESONG'. The group's focus on their in-depth and magic-based visual concepts has been strong since their 2019 debut, and the 25 song-long setlist utilised these themes to full effect, with both the VCRs in between stages and the stages themselves providing a visually stunning companion to the group's music.
The group's music has often featured brighter soundscapes or more upbeat tempi to contrast with the myriad of emotions and conflicts (both internal and external) that the group endeavour to express in their music. Viewers found the setlist well-divided in order to explore these different aspects together in a way the group has never done before, from the intensity of love, happiness and self-reflection seen in tracks such as 'Wishlist', 'Magic' and 'Ghosting' (the first segment), to the personal difficulties to be found in the second segment of the concert, from songs such as 'New Rules' to 'Trust Fund Baby'.
Fans of the group's most escapist and magical tracks were surely delighted by the concert's third segment that saw them through some of their biggest hits in 'CROWN', 'Magic Island', '9 and Three Quarters (Run Away)' and 'Blue Hour'. It was one of the best segments of the night, showing off both the group's captivating visual language and the beauty of how the magical concepts complement the group's strong performance skills.
Segments four and five started to take viewers to the more overtly dark corners of the group's discography, with a run from 'Frost' to 'Eternally', then 'Can't You See Me?' and 'Opening Sequence' before rounding out with the sixth segment of the show, which featured the first live performance of Yeonjun and Hueningkai's unit track 'Lonely Boy (The tattoo on my ring finger)'. It was a reminder that whilst a lot of the group's general persona might appear at first to be bright and larger-than-life, a deeper dive into their B-sides brings out how eclectic and exploratory much of their music is.
After ending the main portion of the concert with a performance of their most recent title track 'Good Boy Gone Bad', the group hit the stage with a joyous encore which saw members Soobin, Beomgyu and Taehyun bring their unit track 'Thursday's Child Has Far To Go' to the stage for the first time whilst also making time to weave through the crowds of fans (also called MOA) in attendance. The encore was clearly a space for MOA above all, with the specially-created-for-MOA song 'MOA Diary (Dubaddu Wari Wari)' performed, before a magical ending to the show came by way of the exclusive song 'Sweat', that has only ever been released as a secret track for fans.
It was a sweet finale to a concert bound by both tight storytelling thanks to the careful use of the VCRs in between the concert segments, and the song selections that also helped to emphasise just how much the group have had to trust they have many fans and listeners merely through online numbers and data without actually seeing them for the majority of their careers. As a result it was a concert loaded with emotions: amazement, catharsis and happiness to name a few. The group will be bringing their dazzling and moving ACT:LOVESICK tour to more venues around the world very soon, so surely these emotions will not be in short supply anytime soon.
Across the two days, TOMORROW X TOGETHER exhibited a level of polish and earnestness that showed off why they are one of the most popular boy groups of their generation, and beloved in so many countries around the world. Fans are in for a treat.
