Infinite: That Summer Concert DVD Review

In August 2012, Infinite began the first run of their Summer Concert series. These summer concerts are held at smaller venues and for a longer period of time (this one being five days), so Infinite and Inspirits can be closer together. They are meant to be more casual and relaxed, like a summer vacation setting. In late April 2013, Woollim released the last day's concert on DVD. There is the Korean version that is for all regions except Region 2 and contains Korean, English, and Chinese subtitles, which I'm reviewing here, and then there is the Japanese version that is for Region 2 and just has Japanese subtitles.

This was one of my first Infinite products, yet I don't know why I never blogged about it. But it's better to be late than never, so here it is~ I bought this from Kpoptown.com and sadly my box arrived a bit squished...I didn't think much of it at the time though, because I just thought that that's the way it was. The box is made of cardboard and all the contents inside have a papery finish. It's also the same dimensions as Infinite's typical albums (obviously just thicker).

Here you can see the third item from the left was squished, creating that huge crease along the spine.

The backside of the includes the setlists for all three discs, as well as the DVD information.

This collection includes, from top to bottom, the set of photocards, the pouch,  the photobook, and lastly the DVD box.

All four contents come in a thinner cardboard container. The front cover has a basic image of the content; it reminds me of the materials page of those instruction manuals for building furniture.

Here is the backside of those contents. It's simplistic, with just the concert emblem and that content's respective bring color.

Photocards

The case of the photocards is like a mini folder with a sleeve. It contains eight photocards sealed in a clear wrap.

The photocards came in the order from top left to bottom right. The member cards have their printed autographs and a little message to Inspirits. The last card is of the group. Some of these images are the same as the one on the member's profile page in the photobook.

The front is matte while the backside is glossy, silver, and has the matching, simple design as the back of the photocard case. These are really postcards, just larger than 5" x 7", and are really thick and high quality. They're very similar to the format of the postcards from the Be Mine Japanese single postcards.

Pouch

This collection also, oddly enough, includes a pouch. The container is a thicker version of the one for the photocards, but because the pouch is so roomy and the cardboard so thin, this is the container that the spine got crushed. The pouch also comes in a clear wrap.

The pouch is simple with its canvas material and the concert emblem. It's of really nice quality, but it's too precious to be used! Like the photocards, it's also 7" x 5" and is 3D (like there's a flat bottom) so you can store a lot.

Being the oblivious person that I am, I didn't notice the cute details of this pouch until now, two years after I've had this. The zipper has "INFINITE" on one side and the Over The Top era logo on the other side. And if you flip over that bottom part, there's a cute little concert logo too!

Photobook

This photobook is definitely one of my favorite concert DVD photobooks. It has 112 pages of high quality, color photos and conveniently has page numbers (in lime green, to match the photobook font color).

The first 10 pages show a two-page photo spread for each day of the concert, but at different stages of the concert.

Then there are four pages per member spread throughout the photobook. It also includes a profile of each member.

There are also four to six pages for each unit stage. I'm happy they included photos of Infinite Band, despite not including the performance on the DVD.

One section is dedicated to rehearsal the day before the first concert. XXX

The remainder of the pages are filled with gorgeous pictures of the rehearsal, behind-the-scenes, and on stage. The last two pages are for the credits.

One of the outfits Myungsoo is wearing, he also wore in the She's Back photoshoot^^ It was really hard taking this photo while holding down both photobooks...

DVDs

The DVD container is in a trifold case, where the right flap lists the setlists of all three discs. Also I thought it was cool how the underside of the spine has the intent of the lettering. The discs are really sturdy in this case and don't fall out, unlike some of Infinite's other DVDs.

Here is a closeup of the backside of the entire set, though I'm so sorry you probably can't read it, it's so small. The first and second discs are 80 minutes long each, and contain the concert and "Special Live Cam." The third disc is 100 minutes and contains special features.

The concert itself is really amazing. It's a very small venue, holding just a few thousand fans, and it feels like you can connect with Infinite more because of the closeness. Also the summer theme has such a relaxing feel, which matches with Infinite performing some of their songs acoustically (such as "That Year's Summer," "Amazing," "I Like You," and "Wings"). It's just nice seeing a different type of concert than Infinite's past giant and powerful concerts. The VCRs also fit the summer vacation theme, with Infinite having fun at a summer house, having an indoor campfire, and playing games like the Truth Game and Rolling Paper (this is not paper for cigarettes...it's where you pass a piece of paper around, writing messages about a specific person). Another VCR is like a chat room, where L gives advice to the other members. As for solo and unit performances, Infinite H performed "Without You" before its official release, Infinite V Sunggyu and Woohyun performed "Lately" and Infinite Band, consisting of Dongwoo, Sungyeol, Myungsoo, and Sungjong, performed, but sadly the DVD didn't include this performance (possibly due to copyright issues?). Some footage of Infinite Band is included in the behind-the-scenes and photobook, however. Also this concert is the only time Infinite performed "Feel So Bad" live. The last song, "With..." was especially emotional. In the middle of their performance, the music stopped and a VCR of Infinite working hard and Inspirits thanking Infinite appeared, and then a cake (from Paris Baguette!) with candles arrived in celebration of Infinite. The member became emotional, especially Dongwoo who cried a lot. As the members performed the song again, Sungyeol, Myungsoo, and Dongwoo choked on their lines and Woohyun teared up during his...ahh, it was all just very touching and emotional, and what a way to end a concert.

The second disc also contains a "Special Live Cam," which is like a high quality fancam of each member. Oddly enough and disappointingly, they didn't include one of Myungsoo. The songs for each member are "I Like You" (Sunggyu), "Without You" (Dongwoo), "Be Mine" (Woohyun), "She's Back" (Hoya), "The Chaser" (Sungyeol), and "Entrust" (Sungjong). It's fun seeing how the different members perform in various stages; like with Sunggyu, you could see how much emotion he put into his lines, and how he was having fun lip singing the other members' lines.

The third disc contains three special features. The first one is the "Making Film: Concert Marking," which is 27 minutes long and shows Infinite throughout the seven days prior to the concert. It was cool seeing the various stages of practicing for the concert, such as rearranging the songs, practicing the choreography, and actually rehearsing at the venue. They also had a long segment of Infinite Band, which was really nice. The second feature is "Making Film: Concert D-Day," which is 40 minutes long and shows Infinite during the five days of the concert series. It showed them arriving at the venue, rehearsing on the stage, as well as actual footage from each concert day. I liked how they also showed a bit of Infinite Band here, though they didn't provide the audio of it. It was also cool seeing Infinite wearing different costumes, like sometimes they wore black outfits instead of the feathered ones used in the concert DVD. The last day also included Infinite's celebration afterward, which included other celebrities like Seo In Guk from Reply 1997. The last feature is titled "Special Interview," and is 32 minutes long. It is a more formal interview with Infinite wearing their Chaser outfits and answering questions such as their childhood aspirations, when they knew they wanted to become singers, during their trainee days, what they plan to do 10 years from now, etc. My favorite was seeing Hoya go through the dance points of their songs~

Overall, before I received my One Great Step Returns concert DVD, That Summer Concert was definitely my most favorite of Infinite's concert DVDs. I absolutely loved the new and different arrangements of many of their songs and how they made them acoustic. Also the relaxed, casual vibe was cool as I could almost feel like I'm on a more personal level with Infinite. Now that the That Summer Concert 2 DVD has been released, I can't wait to see that one as well!