On November 10th, 2016, Woollim released Infinite's
Infinite Effect Advance Live CD + DVD set. This set contains the concert DVD and live tracks from Infinite's second world tour encore concert in Seoul Day 2 from February 2nd, 2016. This post is going to be pretty lengthy, where I talk about Infinite's second world tour in general, and intertwine that with my unboxing.
I'm going to go off-topic really quickly, to talk about Ktown4u's and YesAsia's cancellation policies. Long story short, I was overwhelmed with this pre-order: I first pre-ordered from Ktown4u, then cancelled that order, then pre-ordered from YesAsia, then cancelled that order, and finally re-pre-ordered from Ktown4u. To cancel an order from Ktown4u, I simply used the site's 1:1 customer service, and they automatically cancelled my order within a few hours, no questions asked. To cancel an order from YesAsia, I used their customer service contact section, and it took them about one day to cancel my order. YesAsia doesn't bill your credit card until after they ship out the order, so my transactions from YesAsia weren't on my credit card bill. Both sites were very efficient in their cancellation process.
I ultimately decided to pre-order from Ktown4u because this set comes with 2 exterior posters only for first press, and Ktown4u always provides folded posters with their pre-orders. Ktown4u also held an event where they would randomly send a signed poster to 10 individuals for those who pre-ordered. My order was under $65USD with shipping. My order was shipped out really quickly on November 10th PST - I love how Ktown4u is always so efficient on their shipments. My package arrived on November 25th in an orange waterproof, bubblewrap-lined envelope (like Kpoptown's). My item and the 2 folded posters came carefully wrapped in 3 layers of bubblewrap. I was thrilled to see that everything had arrived in perfect condition - no exterior damage at all!
Sometimes readers ask me about Ktown4u's customers declaration, so I have included a picture of what the mailing sheet looked like on my package. In my order, I had chosen to state the full retail value of the item and that it is merchandise, not a gift.
Here are the 2 external posters that come with first press.
These posters are the same dimensions as Infinite's usual album posters.
This set is packaged in a metallic blue, square box. The front cover has a transparent plastic film with a geometric pattern on it, matching Infinite's One Great Step Returns Live album design. The box dimensions are 7" x 7" x 1.75".
The bottom of the box has the CD tracklist and technical DVD information. The DVDs are for all regions, have subtitles in Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese, and are 180 minutes in total. The concert tracklist is not listed here.
Packaged inside the box, on the top is the disc case (blue) and on the bottom is the photobook (white).
The exterior design of the disc case and the photobook are quite similar. Also you can see how metallic and shiny the disc case is here. Both the disc case and the photobook are very smooth and glossy.
Here is the front cover of the disc case and photobook.
And here is the back cover.
The disc case is quad-fold. Unfolding it once reveals the tracklists.
The left side contains the tracklist for the DVDs.
The right side contains the tracklist for the CDs. I know it's hard to see the tracklists, so I've included them in a table below.
The two DVDs are on the left and the two CDs are on the right. The first DVD is just over 1 hour and 27 minutes long and the second DVD is just over 1 hour and 32 minutes.
The photobook has 92 pages (as stated by YesAsia) and is broken up into sections. There are no page numbers, but the sections start with the individual promotional photos, 1 for each member, that are the same photos as in the collage poster (also refer to the Myungsoo and Sungyeol promotional pages below).
Between Sungjong's and Sungkyu's promotional pages are photos from rehearsal.
Between Sungkyu's and Myungsoo's promotional pages are photos from backstage.
Between Myungsoo's and Sungyeol's, and Sungyeol's and Hoya's, are photos from live group stages.
Between Hoya's and Dongwoo's are photos from the solo stages. There are 2 pages dedicated to each solo stage, which is nice since Hoya's, Sungyeol's, and Sungjong's stages aren't in the concert DVDs.
Between Dongwoo's and Woohyun's are individual member's photos. These specific photos contain all 7 member photocards' photos. The group photocard photo is not in the photobook.
Between Woohyun's promotional page and the credits are photos from the ending stage.
This also comes with a random photocard out of 8 (there's a group card!). I feel like no one will be bulk buying this just to collect and trade the photocards, so I'm so thankful to have gotten Myungsoo!!! (← fangirl moment of silence: this is my second time pulling Myungsoo ever!)
Here is the back of the photocard.
The back designs are all slightly different - Myungsoo's "ADVANCE" is in white, just like the page opposite of his promotional photo in the photobook. The card is quite glossy unlike Infinite's other cards.
The photocard was placed deep into the photobook on this page - oh, the way Myungsoo is looking at Sungyeol!^^
I wanted to provide a comparison of the setlists from Infinite Effect, Infinite Effect Advance, the IEA DVDs, and the IEA CDs. Throughout the IE world tour, the setlist changed here and there. So I decided to give 2 setlists from IE, one from the first show in Seoul (I think...it's really hard to find this setlist!) and the one from IE in LA. (I hope you guys don't mind if I put some of the song titles in Korean, just so everything can fit more nicely in the table^^)
*JALN = Just Another Lonely Night
*
엔부해 = 엔딩을 부탁해
Thoughts about Infinite's second world tour, IEA, and this CD + DVD set, all in one go:
- With the start of IE in Seoul, I was so thrilled to see that their setlist included the Korean versions of Infinite's many Japanese releases. I thought this meant that Infinite would perform these songs at every stop AND that Woollim would soon release a Korean album of Infinite's Japanese releases. Sadly neither happened.
- Not surprisingly, IE wasn't released as a concert DVD just as OGS wasn't.
- It's always hard watching Infinite's world tour encore concert DVDs and hearing them say how much they missed Korean Inspirits...as if international Inspirits are a burden ㅠㅠ
Thoughts about the DVDs:
- At times the editing was choppy, especially between stages that were removed from the DVD.
- The VCR opening seemed just like the one from IE! I'm so happy that IEA kept the VCR theme from IE so we at least have that documented^^
- I liked how IEA started off so lively and light, whereas all of Infinite's other grand scale concerts started off very dark and strong.
- As always, "발걸음", "Love Letter", and "마주보며 서 있어" are so amazing live.
- I was so surprised and happy to see Gyu rap during his solo!
- Woohyun's solo stage was breathtaking; I am still too speechless.
- Myungsoo's solo stage was like SI, him shyly singing a ballad!
- The World Tour Interview VCR is under 6 minutes. It's a compilation of solo interviews covering generic questions on the members' thoughts of their second world tour. It did warm my heart after the members said how it's hard not to see Korean Inspirits during the 6 month period (which brings my point from earlier -.-), then Hoya said how he was excited to embark on this tour. It was also really cool seeing different rooms of the Woollim building adorned with the artists' CDs, posters, and trophies!
- Woohyun mentioned how the guitarist in their live band was his doppelganger throughout the world tour due to their matching blond hair. This is so true! When I blogged about my IE in Vancouver experience, I mentioned how I was tricked after the concert because I thought I had saw Woohyun in person!
- Because Infinite changed up the encore song from "다시 돌아와" to "Back", it was entertaining to see the confusion of the crowd! Sungkyu mentioned it, bringing more entertainment to it.
- During the ending ment, fans sang "With..." and Woohyun joined - it was so touching. It was even better when Sungkyu was saying how happy he was to hear the fans' "nice song" [With...] but he couldn't keep a straight face and started laughing because he couldn't understand what the fans were singing for the longest time!
- Every time I watch an Infinite concert DVD, Sungkyu always steals the show for me. He always owns the stage, and this time, all of his antics were just too adorable! He is such an entertaining MC. It was hilarious when Sungkyu said that Infinite will all be at Hoya's upcoming movie premier, and that the members should all try to hold in their laughter while there.
- Infinite has grown so much. Now in their ending speeches, they are much more informal and they speak in the moment, whatever comes to their minds. It feels a lot more personable, like they're talking to us in a conversation.
- In Myungsoo's ending speech, he kept referring to himself as "oppa". In this case, I guess I'm not as upset by how Infinite keeps saying that they miss their Korean fans. It's like in this instance, Myungsoo's assuming that all the fans are girls (though I did spot one guy in standing!), like how they always assume their fans are Korean citizens.
- The Making is about 22 minutes long and is broken up into 3 days: the day before the concert, Day 1 of IEA, and Day 2 of IEA. The first day showed Infinite's prep, including signing autographs (for the paper airplanes they'll throw) and doing sound checks. It was cool seeing Sungkyu and Woohyun rehearsing their solo stages and making note that the beat was faster than the original. The second day showed the fans outside the venue, Infinite rehearsing, and Infinite preparing backstage. During backstage before the concert, it was funny hearing Infinite's comments about each other's appearances - including that Dongwoo was dressed like Joon Pyo from Boys Over Flowers! There was also a glimpse of the press conference. Then there was a quick medley of the first concert, followed by informal backstage interviews. The third day followed the same pattern as the second day, sans the press conference. It was nice getting a glimpse of Hoya's, Sungyeol's, and Sungjong's solo stages since those aren't shown in the concert DVD.
Thoughts about the CDs:
- I was disappointed that there are only 19 tracks (due to individual stages), especially compared to OGSR Live. While I'm glad that only the 7 solo stages were removed from the CD tracklist and not any of the group stages, that is still a big chunk of the concert that's missing...
- With Infinite's live albums, I love listening to see if all of the tracks are from the last day of the concert, as shown on the DVD. But of course I fail at this and can't tell^^
- It would be nice if Woollim released live albums of their summer concerts where they do acoustic versions of their tracks.
- My favorites are definitely the three Reality tracks (as mentioned above) and "Follow Me".
I must admit that my above opinions seem really negative. But in reality, how could I not love an Infinite item? Of course I could not stop fangirling over the concert DVDs nor could I stop singing along to the live CDs. It's always amazing seeing and listening to Infinite shining on stage. And I really hope Infinite can continue holding world tours in the future~!
