Right after exiting the red carpet event at BHHH, I got in an arbitrary line leading into Prudential Center, which I later found out was the correct line for any seated ticket. The line took quite awhile to inch forward due to the tight security check. There is actually another entrance for seated tickets at the opposite end (far away from BHHH) which was probably faster. Regardless, it was fun talking to everyone around me and learning about how they all got into Kpop.
While waiting in line, this Pentagon banner project was being passed around.
The backside even has the romanized fan chant for "Shine".
I finally entered Prudential Center after 7:10PM. Concession, food, and drink stands were all open, and even though I hadn't eaten all day yet, I decided to go to my seat. This is my view from Section 20, Row 12, Seat 3. I really like my view, especially because it's very close to the extended stage and I can see all the performers from the front, rather than the side or back.
There was a high quality fabric banner on my chair, along with others' chairs along this aisle within the first 3 seats of each row. It turns out a Stray Kids member would be making an entrance down this aisle! Looking at the photo of my view, you can also see across that the opposite sections had white banners. These banners were also for Stray Kids and were oddly much smaller in dimension.
Here is the full banner. The other side is white. Sunday's concert didn't have any banners.
At 7:35PM the MC came on stage and began the pre-show. Jun Curry Ahn performed first, one of a violin cover and another where he sang and danced with backup dancers. Esna came out next and performed a couple of her self-written songs. She was overflowing with confidence, making her have really strong stage presence. Later on the MC and Jun came on stage to throw some signed Pentagon and Stray Kids towels to the audience.
At 7:53PM the official concert began! They played a VCR showing Golden Child, Pentagon, and Stray Kids outlining proper concert behavior. (I took footage of this on the Sunday concert so I'll add a photo in that post). Then 5 members of Super Junior (everyone that came to KCON18NY except for Siwon) entered the main stage and walked down to the extended stage - they really owned the runway with their presence! They danced to "Sorry Sorry" before transitioning to Siwon's solo appearance (pictured above), where he introduced himself as tonight's MC and spoke quite a lot of English.
While Siwon was MCing, a member of Stray Kids (Changbin?) was getting ready to make his way down our aisle! I learned from yesterday and this time instinctively stuck my hand out for him to touch, but he only touched the girl's hand next to me. He rapped while making his way down, as well as another member on the opposite side of the venue, until they both made it to the extended stage.
They performed "District 9", had an introductory talk, then performed "Mirror", and followed by "Hellavator". Next on the main stage the screen showed "Who's Next?" I thought they meant who the next performer would be, and then the screen showed "Next Performer / Stray Kids" and I was thinking, of course they're the next performer of the night, since they're not done with their stage. But it turns out, it's MNET's segment of how Stray Kids would like to be perceived in the future - as THE next performer. The members discussed how they'd like to be known as the next performer, then ended with a performance of "YAYAYA". Majority of their time was spent on the extended stage. It was nice having a slogan towel and really being in the moment cheering for them, however I regret not filming any of their performances.
Next up was Heize. She first performed the title track from her fourth mini album. Then she had a mini talking segment, and said as a gift she would perform "And July", the song that won first on the MWave voting event "My Playlist KCON". I will explain more about this during my Sunday Concert post. She then performed "Star", followed by "And July". Her stage was pretty mellow, which made for a nice contrast between the more energetic Kpop groups of the night.
Following Heize was a special duet stage between 1 member of Red Velvet and 1 member of Super Junior.
To transition, Bangchan and Felix of Stray Kids were at the bottom of my aisle as special MCs. They talked about their own stage, then gave a quick (and really cute) rundown of the lineup to come.
Next up was Pentagon. They opened up with "Shine", where the members began the intro choreo on the main stage, then E'Dawn came to the extended stage with a conductor's baton and dramatically conducted in front of the roaring audience. He then coolly flicked the baton off the stage as the other members joined E'Dawn on the extended stage and began performing "Shine".
Pentagon then had that "Who's Next?" segment and the members talked about how they want to be known as the next singer songwriter. Afterwards they performed "Gorilla", "Can You Feel It", had one more ment, and ended with "Pretty Pretty".
Following Pentagon was Red Velvet, who opened up their segment with "Bad Boy", followed by "Red Flavor", both on the main stage.
Red Velvet stayed on the main stage and held a ment called "Red Velvet Roulette" where each member had to complete a task as instructed by the roulette. Irene said "I love ReVeLuv" in 5 languages, Seulgi performed Super Junior's choregraphy, and Wendy sang "Empire State of Mind". The remaining 2 members did couple poses with the audience, where a member does a pose and the camera tries to find an audience member with a matching pose. Red Velvet then performed "Rookie" on the main stage, followed by "Peek-A-Boo" on the extended stage.
MC Siwon came out on stage again.
Next was a collaboration dance stage with Stray Kids and Pentagon. First Pentagon performed "Wake Up" on the extended stage, then Stray Kids performed "Rock" on the main stage, and then both groups performed "Passion" together.
Lastly was the headliner of the night, Super Junior. They started with a performance of "Black Suit" on the main stage with some backup dancers.
Next Super Junior had a ment, staying on the main stage. Then Suju also did the couple pose game with the audience, but this time stepped it up by making it the couple choreo game. The members taught the audience various Suju point dances by singing and dancing to their past hits. They even sang and danced to their trot song "Rokoko"! This is one of my favorite SuJu songs and I was so happily surprised to see part of it live. Then SuJu performed "Los Siento" with Leslie Grace on the main stage, then towards the end transitioned the performance to the extended stage.
Then Super Junior stayed on the extended stage and performed a compilation of their past hits, including "Sorry Sorry" and "Mr. Simple".
Super Junior ended with another ment, then 1 last song where they gave a lot of fan service. Siwon even jumped off the extended stage to be closer to fans in pit! Super Junior's entire segment seemed like their own concert - they're such pros and really got everyone up on their feet and excited for their set.
At the end all of the artists came back on stage, walked to the extended stage with selfie sticks, then walked back to the main stage and waved goodbye. The concert ended sometime before 10:25PM.
Afterwards I went to the garage to wave goodbye to the artists, and within 20 minutes of the concert end they were there. First Super Junior left the building and even though their van was right in front of the exit, a few members were really friendly and took their time to come out to where we were standing, waved, and even took a picture of us!
Afterwards Stray Kids and Pentagon happily waved to fans as well. I might have missed Heize and Red Velvet coming out.
As the van for Stray Kids or Pentagon was driving off and stopped at a red light, fans ran up to the windows...it was a bit scary to see.
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