Hi! It’s Annie!
I mentioned briefly in a past post that my sister and I actually managed to get pretty good tickets to see ATEEZ in November and I am absolutely ecstatic! I was there for their concert in LA in January and the day I was at happened to be the day that Hongjoong announced they would be back later this year. The concert was so important to me, and I remember standing there and promising myself that I’d get tickets when they were back. Some Atiny were wondering if that meant K-Con when they announced their appearance there (I was hoping not because getting tickets for K-Con proved impossible for my friends and I); but they actually did announce a concert. Everything surrounding this announcement and what happened afterwards was odd though, and that’s part of what I’m going to cover here. On top of that, ATEEZ has been releasing a lot of content recently that I wanted to talk about. I’ve been so happy with how much I’ve seen ATEEZ on my timeline recently. Opening my phone almost daily to see the smiling faces of all of the guys has been making my slightly stressful days so much better. So, I’m just going to get into it! I’m so excited to see them in November!
The Concert Debacle:
We were expecting a concert announcement not long after the album release, and we definitely got one! Actually pretty soon after the release! But there were a few oddities about the announcement. For one, the announcement wasn’t followed by any other news anytime soon after. Usually a tour announcement comes out with dates or is at least closely followed by tour dates and locations. But it was over a month before we heard anything else about the tour other than that there would be one. It is still unclear as to why they waited so long to release any information about the tour; but one theory is that they didn’t have any of the locations solidified. That theory feels like it might hold more weight once you start looking at the dates and locations that they did eventually release. This tour has about half the dates and locations than the last tour had. As dates started selling out, they did add on a couple dates to a couple locations. But they haven’t added on any other locations. They are playing bigger venues for the most part this time around though!
The weirdness of the concert already combined with the fiasco that became presale day made everything so much worse. The website was freezing all over the place for multiple locations, but I don’t think any location had it as bad as Anaheim. A glitch on the website made it so that everyone could only buy one ticket, even though the website clearly stated that the maximum was four. And every time you tried to press on a ticket, the website would bring up an error that you had left another seat stranded. I got in very early into the sale, but my sister was a bit later. I ended up having to wait for her to get in while we both attempted to find seats near each other. Not long into us doing this, masses of remaining seats started to blink out as the site corrected itself and they updated nobody on this revelation. I was only able to get tickets in the end by choosing any two seats in my desired spots that popped up after other people timed out and waiting for Ticketmaster to load. This ended up working for me, but I know that most Anaheim fans weren’t able to get ideal seats at all or weren’t able to sit with friends and family. As someone who has navigated a couple of BTS pre-sales at this point and gotten to see them twice, I have to say that this is by far the worst ticket sale experience I’ve ever had. I was sure for a while there that I wasn’t getting tickets, which thankfully only fed my stubborn persistence to try for them. There’s also a sense of pride when you actually nab tickets! This is actually the first time that I secured tickets for a K-Pop concert. Before I needed the help of family or friends. But that aside, I’m incredibly angry for all of the Atiny who ended up in nosebleeds or not getting tickets at all because of Ticketmaster. These glitches should have never happened and re-sale tickets for this concert are double the original price and more in some cases. Especially because ATEEZ is in higher demand than last tour for them having a shorter tour this time around.
Overworking:
A lot of people have said that the answer to the Ticketmaster fiasco, is ATEEZ adding more dates to the locations that suffered. And while that did happen for some locations, it didn’t happen for Anaheim. Probably because they mostly added dates to locations that only had one concert while Anaheim already had two. And I don’t think that adding more dates is the answer to this. The only reason why I say this, is that it’s no secret that the fourth generation K-Pop groups are being way overworked right now. This could account for the shorter tour too. Think about it; ATEEZ has had almost no breaks in about two years now. And their schedule has only seemed to become more packed. They had several concerts towards the beginning of the year, they practiced for release, they released a new album, they attended several K-Pop conventions and fan-signs, they are actually still traveling for fan-signs, and now in a couple months they’ll be traveling again for more concerts. Part of this universal K-Pop schedule packing for fourth gen groups is the K-Pop industry desperately trying to fill the BTS void. Though BTS is still active in some ways, most companies saw their break announcement as an opportunity for their groups to become the next global sensation. And I think this is a little ridiculous. Especially because BTS took a break to promote mental health and now K-Pop industries are treating their idols worse instead of also giving their idols breaks so that they don’t burn out too. I’m hoping that at least a shorter tour will let them get some rest. Several of the members have already hinted that they haven’t been getting much sleep at all. I hope they get to more countries and locations after some well deserved rest. If their company will let them have it.
‘WANTEEZ’:
Now that we’ve gotten through the chaos; I’m going to talk about the new ATEEZ series that’s been making my days brighter. This KQ-created variety show sends ATEEZ back to High School as transfer students and it has been so much fun. So far there are only three episodes, but each of them has been hilarious! The first episode saw them running with a bunch of non-transfer students to get to class on time. That was literally all the first episode was; but it was one of the best episodes of any variety show I’ve ever seen. They had them each react to this separately by having the person walk calmly in one way and then having the group of students run towards them from the other direction. I think my favorite moment was when Mingi ran with the group and after claimed that it was only because he felt the show would be boring if he didn’t. I was also shocked alongside Mingi when the teacher told him to do a punishment alongside a student on the ground and that student looked up and it was just Yunho. I also loved that they all were apart of the running group for the very last member to go through it, screaming alongside them. Each subsequent episode has been just as adorably hilarious! The most recent episode saw Yunho, Wooyoung, and Jongho protecting the other members while playing dodgeball against the other students. Their variety shows have been absolutely brilliant recently! I loved watching them in the haunted house where only Yunho and Jongho were brave and their most recent adventurous outings where they laughed hysterically on those car-boats while they all got soaked. They seem so carefree and happy in the shows and you can’t help but laugh along with them!
ATEEZ is quickly becoming a staple in my house. Definitely the favorite K-Pop group of most of my family now and they’re only becoming more and more important to me as each day passes. My day isn’t complete now without a Yunho smile on my Pinterest. And I am already counting the days until I get to see them again! I really hope all of you who wanted tickets got them and I hope that those who didn’t will still get to see them soon. This was a mess, that’s for sure. Hopefully the next concert will have a better ticketing system. I know Ticketmaster is at the top of ticket sales websites, but I’m really hoping another company takes over soon. Because Ticketmaster always has been and continues to be completely awful!
See you across the pond!
Sincerely, Annie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 