Seventeen holds perfect ‘Ode to You World Tour’ ending in Manila

When it comes to watching a K-pop concert, it doesn’t pay to watch with preconceived notions.

For example, if you watch it thinking, “Oh they’re going to sing and dance like all the other K-pop groups,” then you’ll probably be done with the concert in the first 15 minutes. I mean, if you’re a fan you probably know all their songs and faces, and singing most of their songs is probably the most routine you’ve ever done in the long stretch of fangirling you’ve been through.

But if you’re there for the entertainment, the energy, the fun and camaraderie of celebrating a united effort, then attending a concert is quite an event—something you may not truly be prepared for.

As someone who’s been checking out concerts since 2010, I’m pretty familiar with how K-pop concerts are run.

They’re lengthy (much longer than Western concerts), they’re super fascinating, and they’re guaranteed to keep you preoccupied for two-and-a-half hours—at the very least.

But if you’ve been watching Seventeen since they’ve been coming here in 2016, you’re used to something more.

Seventeen concerts are conducted like the events that they truly are.

This is because, I think, Seventeen really wants to sing and perform for the crowd, no matter how small or big these are, and pulls something extra to make their concerts really something to watch—not to mention talk, gush and go mad about.

In the case of Carats (what Seventeen fans are called), it’s also the perfect opportunity to meet up with each other, come together, and ooh about biases with significant whines of “miss ko na sila” after the concert.

This time around—February 8, in fact, for their Ode to You World Tour—Seventeen came with so many things to make up for.

Aside from the usual traffic and crowded streets, concertgoers had to deal with the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, enforcing concert organizer Pulp to make sure everyone came wearing face masks.

Then also there was the absence of team leader Choi Seungcheol, otherwise known as S.Coups, who was on hiatus because he was suffering from anxiety attacks—a fact no sane Carat could forget during the event.

As concerts go, this one was not really expected to be as big a hit as its usual shows.

But, of course, a lot of these non K-pop fans did not really account for Seventeen and the devotion of Carats.

The venue began filling up really early, as Carats and fansites began arriving at the Mall of Asia area way before lunch. (Of course, it did, as most came to catch up with their fan friends, give away, sell or trade merchandise and meet up with fans from overseas.)

Pulp started things off properly by issuing health notices that each concertgoer had to fill up and submit before getting his and her temperature taken. There were no crowds—opening other entrances made things easier for everyone. Everyone met up and stayed inside to make sure order was kept. To be honest, Carats stayed properly seated until the concert started (which totally surprised me actually).

It took a while, but the seats and the standing areas really filled up—which, unless you’re watching other concerts except for Exo and BTS, was really kind of pleasantly unusual.

The Mall of Asia Arena kept up a stream of Seventeen songs that the audience kept singing along with—from “Don’t Wanna Cry” to “Rock,” and other songs in between. And every time a Seungcheol part came along, everyone started cheering louder than usual.

And can we say the fan chants rocked? They did.

Attendees were armed with their phones, Carat bongs (Seventeen lightsticks), uchiwas (image pickets or fans) and different kinds of banners to show their biases. They swayed to the music even as MOA issued warnings against taking photos and recordings of the group (offenders would be asked to leave the venue without any refunds).

The concert got started with a frenetic edition of “Getting Closer,” as all 12 members danced to the song.

That’s all 12 members, plus the majority of the arena, since everyone sang the song with them.

This was followed by “Rock” and “Clap,” old-time favorites, before they gathered together for their opening ments (speaking parts).

The boys noted that it had been a long time since they performed in Manila and missed Filipino audiences.

“Hello Manila, long time no see. Mahal kita,” acknowledged DK.

Minghao said, “Miss ko na kayo!” while Seungkwan called the crowd, “Beautiful,” earning the undying love of Carats.

Hoshi, who took over the leader chores in the absence of Seungcheol, enjoyed his “wangjanim [prince]” time with the crowd and sent them some “horanghae” (his version of Hoshi love).

He also taught everyone a simple choreo for “Ode to You,” which he asked everyone to practice together.

The group then essayed into “Thanks” and “Don’t Wanna Cry,” with Mingyu doing the Seungcheol parts.

Carats enjoyed a string of videos focusing on the individual units in the group—hiphop, performance and vocal. Each unit then played two of their songs to the enjoyment of the Carats.

The hiphop unit, in red and black outfits, performed “Trauma” and a jazzed up version of “Chilli.” The performance team, in black outfits and white kimonos, followed this up with “Lilili Yabbay” and “Whisper.” The vocal unit closed things up with “Hug” and “Don’t Listen in Secret.”

You would think people would refrain from recording the performances, right? Nope. It seems like everything was allowed that night (except going up to the boys and hugging them onstage).

Seventeen then sang “Can’t See the End,” with extra cheering and singing from the crowd during the Seungcheol parts, and “Smile Flower” (at one point Hoshi just stood and listened to the crowd singing).

Then came another string of videos before the boys got into the “history” part of the show—the Seventeen Museum—in which they sang all-time faves “Akkinda [Adore You],” “Mansae,” “Pretty You,” “Oh My” and an all-12 version of BooSeokSoon’s “Just Do It.” Everyone in the arena had a rocking time dancing!

More videos were showed before the boys followed up with “Good to Me” and the hippy hippy swaying of “Happy Ending,” which technically ended the concert.

The boys tried to do audience request but when the audience asked them to do “Tala” like Winner, they skipped, mainly because Mingyu couldn’t get what Filipinos wanted them to do. So they decided to just do their ending spiels.

Dino, who was going to celebrate his birthday two days later, enjoyed quite a lot of attention (yes, he’s pretty popular, along with Jeonghan, Josh and Vernon).

Jun, another popular Seventeener, said he was happy to be in Manila and ate pata tim to commemorate things.

Vocal boss Woozi spoke about being excited to see the Manila crowd and was happy that fans came out to watch.

All of Seventeen, most vocally Hoshi, said they were “totally impressed” with the energy in Manila and were so glad to be back here. They told their fans to await Seventeen’s next promos and not to forget them—something that Carats are unlikely to do—until they come back.

The crowd answered with “Walang uuwi!” and waited for the boys to do their encore—which included “Fear,” “19” and innumerable comebacks (at least 10!) of “Aju Nice”—before they finally filed out of MOA, happy and satisfied, but kind of sad because another concert was done.

Later, Pledis announced it had suspended all following concerts because of the coronavirus and Manila was effectively the last stop in the Seventeen “Ode To You World Tour.”

It was unexpected and oddly poetic that the world tour ended as it did, but the Manila crowd was so happy Seventeen managed to make the show and will remember things until the next Seventeen concert.

Image Credits: Neleen Camama, Kei Rubaya