In the grand scheme of girl groups, I consider Red Velvet a top-tier team. They rocketed up my Girl Group Power Rankings throughout 2017 and since 2018 started have been a perennial contender for being the best. Irene and Seulgi headlined my biases, while the rest of the gang made up in the variety aspects. Their addicting dance numbers were sure to get love - though I was dreading a couple of them. I was really hoping we'd get a live "One Of These Nights" because slower Red Velvet songs are my favorite but admittedly I wasn't counting on it.
The concert itself had the expected marathon of music intervened with short videos (the Facebook event called them VCRs) here and there. Most of these were relatively unexciting and scripted but there was a haunted house video that I couldn't handle because I'm a little girl when it comes to horror and suspense. At least it led into "Bad Boy!" In terms of the songs they played almost every major title track with a few exceptions. My friend and I tried to predict which song they'd start with (we did not peek at the released tentative setlist beforehand) and neither of us picked "Russian Roulette." I'll be honest, seeing it live has changed some of my opinions about the song but it remains on the weaker side of their discography. "Rookie" on the other hand fared a little better, and I can see myself adding it to my library in another week as I listen to it some more. In the complete opposite direction, I was dreading "Happiness" while my friend was excited for it so you can imagine the teasing she gave me when "SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA BE BOLD" started up. That song is still painful in my opinion but the general crowd seemed to like it so go them ha.
Something that I certainly enjoyed was that there were seemingly no technical miscues of any sort. SM Town and KCON were muddled with audio issues that ramped up the pitch in the microphones. If that had happened here I might have gone insane since most of the RV girls have high voices to begin with. Speaking of their voices, Wendy continues to kill it and honestly everyone else got opportunities to shine whether it be in the singing or rapping game. Seulgi is still the star dancer and my eyes were glued to her, though Irene and Joy did provide some good competition for 2nd place. It seemed that most people were big fans of Seulgi, Joy, and Yeri. Not that Wendy and Irene were left out - because they certainly got their share of extreme hype - but I definitely felt the audience gravitated towards the first three. Yeri in particular got plenty of hype whenever she used her English to talk to the crowd and while it was sometimes tough on her, she did an admirable job and we the crowd loved her effort. The lower Irene love certainly refueled my favoritism for her and slightly reduced that of Seulgi since she was so popular (and I tend to stray from the #1 consensus picks) Of course, this time I succumbed to the pressure and switched Irene and Seulgi on my list but hey! That's what happens after a concert.
Not all stages had the extra camera display behind the girls, which definitely hurt me since I'm fucking blind as shit but that can't be helped given the smaller venue. Had I known this would be a thing, I might have been willing to fork over the extra cash needed for closer seats. One of these days I'll break the bank for some quality seats (though it'd have to be for like Younha, Taeyeon, or Mamamoo). I did appreciate how at the end they showed a final VCR revealing Irene as the mastermind behind the various video shenanigans. Truly top 10 anime betrayals. The pseudo-fanmeet and encore was a solid finishing touch, and slightly made up for the fact that there was no fan interaction (which sure would have raised ticket prices). Definitely a strong conclusion to a great night.
At the end of the day, Redmare was a fantastic concert for a fantastic group and I was very pleased (not to mention grateful) for the weekend. Times like these really make me wish I had more income because I'd love to do more traveling for concerts so I'll simply have to keep working hard! The next few posts should be (in no particular order): Loona Power Ranking, a song review, and February's Late Report.
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