Infinite Effect Concert: London October 9th 2015

Infinite Effect
  (A.K.A. I'm Sungyeol Trash)

Friday October 9th started out like any other day- only slightly more stressful in that I had to navigate my own way from Cambridge Train Station down to the O2 Empire at Shepard's Bush, London.

Easier said than done I'm afraid!

One express train, several tube lines and stations later, after being pressed up against a handsome stranger on said tube,( Thank you Stranger for preventing me from falling! I appreciate it!), following very poor directions from the map on my mobile  phone, I eventually found myself outside the venue! Success!

Queues for the stalls extended around two corners and down residential streets, the length of the line resulting in people coming to ask "Who is performing? I've never heard of them. Can you show me a picture?"

I joined the end of the queue at approximately 6:10pm (after getting lost!) and it wasn't long before the queue extended even further behind me. I met a lovely girl next to me in the queue and we chatted as we waited. Doors opened at 7pm, however by the time I was actually inside it was already 8:10pm! My "seat" was part of the stalls, which was for the most part a free-for-all to get as close to the stage as possible.

Infinite

Before the concert started, I was standing to the left at the same side we entered from, the stage was hidden behind a large white sheet, upon which Infinite's Music Videos were being projected along with the teaser for their world tour:

The white sheet dropped and revealed INFINITE! From where Dayoung (the girl I met in the queue) and I were standing it was difficult to see even the tops of Infinite's heads, after the first few songs we migrated to the right hand side of the stalls, and managed to get closer to the stage.

Infinite performing in London.

A lot of fans have complained about the behaviour of some fans in the stalls, it seemed to be one section near the middle at the very front. DongWoo at one point, asked the fans to stop, and take a step back, "not forwards baby, back".

Dongwoo performing "Sorry, I'm Busy".

My own section of the stalls was rather nice. Yes, we were quite tightly packed together, but no one was pushing to get closer, the girl standing behind me used me as a balance for most of the concert (I don't know what she was standing on to be honest!), petted my hair and spoke into my ear in Korean to tell me that it was "very soft".

Myungsoo "L" 

 Every stage was well executed, their vocals were on point, and their dancing was just, wow. Infinite are known for being a group that can execute dance moves with extreme precision while being totally in sync with one another, Friday's concert only proved this to me.

Hoya

With the exception of Hoya who due to a leg injury couldn't dance. (Personally I thought he looked upset at having to sit out the dances, he still made an effort to interact with fans. My heart couldn't control itself during their ending speech when the entire audience chanted Hoya's name as he attempted to apologise for not being able to show a better stage to everyone.)

I went into the concert absolute Sungyeol Trash, with flickerings of pure adoration for DongWoo and Hoya. I left in very much the same state, only I found I couldn't take my eyes off Woohyun. He swept in and just caught me off guard. Whoever approved Sungyeol wearing the grey tank top that allowed me to count his ribs and catch glimpses of his chest, I thank you.

Sungyeol.

My personal favourite stages included: Woohyun's solo stage "Everyday"; Sub-unit Infinite-H's "Sorry, I'm Busy" and "예뻐  Pretty", Sub-unit Infinite-F's "My Girl", "Nothing's Over", and "Moonlight".

Don't take iPads to a concert!

I was incredibly disappointed that I didn't actually get to see them performing majority of "Bad". A member of the audience held up her iPad for the entire performance, blocking mine, and other's view of the stage. Quite a few people who I've spoken to since the concert have all mentioned the iPad blocking their view. I was looking forward to seeing them perform "Bad" so this was definitely a low point of the concert for me, which wasn't actually Infinite's fault. (Their vocals were awesome though!) The venue had rules against large camera lenses, and iPads/tablets being used during the concert. Although venue staff did confiscate several large cameras around me, they didn't take the iPad away.

Woohyun

Moving onto more positive experiences! This is the highlight reel (a highly condensed), set of fancams from the concert!

I was highly impressed with Infinite's efforts to interact with the audience; there was a large number of people in a relatively small space, spread over multiple levels.

Infinite Fans at the concert.

I'm leaving a playlist of (most of) my fancams at the bottom of this post! (Including a fancam of their new song!) 

Sungyeol and Sunjong

Sungkyu, L, and Dongwoo

Hoya

Sungkyu

Sungjong

Sungkyu and Dongwoo

I'd like to give a massive shout out to my lovely friend Stephen for letting me use his photos, (majority of the photos in this post are his!), I'd also like to say a big thank you to Dayoung for being so lovely and walking with me to get back to my train home! Finally I'd like to apologise for how long it took me to be able to get this post live! University commitments,and illness among other things unfortunately took priority over the last month.

More photos are available on Facebook: here.

INFINITE performing in London.(Photo credits to Stephen, and myself- his are obviously the HQ photos!)
Posted by Candless K-Pop Corner on Friday, 20 November 2015