ATEEZ at Citi Field: A Reminder of Why K-Pop Shines in Concert
Late into the night on Saturday, August 3rd, ATEEZ took to a drenched stage at Citi Field stadium in Queens, NY — the seventh stop on their ongoing “TOWARDS THE LIGHT: WILL TO POWER” North American tour. After a chaotic two-hour delay caused by a torrential downpour, the poncho-clad audience greeted ATEEZ with deafening cheers.
As usual with K-pop concerts, there was no opening act. Instead, the octet kicked off the show with a fiery performance of “Crazy Form,” followed by their older hits “Say My Name” and “WIN.” By the second song of the night, it was clear the ATEEZ on stage was not the same ATEEZ that performed “Say My Name” at Prudential Center in 2022 or at a tiny venue in Brooklyn in 2019. This ATEEZ had a level of confidence and charisma that showed their maturity as artists, that they were ready for the big leagues, and that their energy could easily fill up a stadium, rather than be swallowed up by it.
ATEEZ’s remarkable growth, from their 2018 debut under a relatively tiny South Korean entertainment company to their 2024 concerts in North America and at Coachella, is a testament to their widespread appeal. ATEEZ captain Hongjoong once told The Korea Times that he believes the group's powerful performances played the biggest role in that success. I agree.
Throughout the night, song after song, ATEEZ blew me away with thrilling and dynamic performances, from Hongjoong’s guitar solo into “Guerilla,” to Jongho’s incredible vocals in “Everything.” The band’s newest title track “Work” made me want to live out my rich city girl dreams, while “Wave” captured the essence of a Saturday night in the middle of summer. The highlight of the night was a remix of “Wonderland,” featuring music from Dvořák’s “Symphony No. 9.” Yunho shot a prop gun, then Seonghwa swung a glowing sword, then Jongho sang a quadruple high note, then the stage erupted in a flurry of dancing and pyrotechnics as the final chorus of the song blasted through the speakers — and if that doesn’t summarize the energy of the majority of the night in a nutshell, I don’t know what does.
After a long final break, the show started winding with encore performances of hits like “Eternal Sunshine” and “Fireworks,” followed by ending comments. Each member took a moment to say goodbye to fans and thank them for braving the weather. Seonghwa broke down as he made a heartfelt speech expressing his love for the fans and saying goodbye to his late grandparents, while his parents were in the crowd. It was a touching few minutes that brought me, and likely much of the audience, nearly to tears. After a long round of hugs, Hongjoong announced that crowd favorite “Turbulence,” as well as “Dreamy Day,” were cut from the setlist due to the rain delay. Instead, ATEEZ launched into their closing song, “Utopia,” and gradually departed the stage amid fireworks, right as the clock struck midnight.
The show was, in many ways, a demonstration of why K-pop tends to shine especially bright in a live format. It’s often said that K-pop concerts are another breed of concerts entirely. They’re less concert and more an entire stage production with specific themes and concepts — and ATEEZ exemplifies that. Part of ATEEZ’s success, both onstage and off, is their consistent commitment to their pirate-cowboy hybrid concept and themes of empowerment in everything from their singing to styling to set design. During the concert, each of the band members even had sections of acting interspersed between songs to keep up the audience’s immersion and tie everything together thematically under the Nietzschean idea of “will to power.” Ultimately, after having gone a while without seeing a K-pop concert live, the show reminded me why I was drawn to the genre and to ATEEZ in the first place, several years ago.
The first time I listened to ATEEZ’s music, it was 2018 and I was a freshman in college chatting with a fellow K-pop enthusiast classmate. She introduced me to the band and showed me their debut album and music videos. I still remember the conversation like it was yesterday: I told her they had an interesting concept and cool performances, and then I said, “This doesn’t sound like a debut album. It’s like they’ve already figured out their sound and are a couple of years into it.” Looking back, I’m very proud of my gut instincts for telling me that ATEEZ had a unique spark to them and that they’ll probably do well. Seeing them sell out stadiums all these years later was extremely gratifying. I love being right.
It’s worth noting that ATEEZ is only the second K-pop act to ever hold a concert at Citi Field. While I’m not usually in the business of drawing comparisons between groups, I can’t help but be reminded of the first K-pop band to ever play the venue. BTS played Citi Field in 2019, in the early days of their meteoric rise to popularity. I’ve long felt that ATEEZ and BTS share many parallels, and seeing ATEEZ play Citi Field brought those similarities to the forefront. In ATEEZ, I see the same winning combination of captivating stage presence, high-quality production, and endearing authenticity that many have tried to replicate but few have naturally possessed. It allows the octet to have command over the emotions of the crowd. It’s the added layer on top of already stellar performance skills that helped take ATEEZ from a small label to North American stadiums.
So if you told my younger self, who’d just finished listening through ATEEZ’s debut albums, that the band would go on to play stadiums in half a decade’s time, I probably would have nodded, shrugged, and said, “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
