[Concert] 2019 ONEUS ‘FLY WITH US’ TOUR IN USA: New York Concert Report
“Moved the fans with the stages full of love towards To Moons… Highly anticipate the rest of the tour!”

Since the debut, group ONEUS garnered attention with the description, ‘MAMAMOO’s younger brother group.’ Fully fitting that description with the outstanding singing, rap, performance, and visuals, the group has begun the journey that is 2019 ‘FLY WITH US’ TOUR in USA starting with New York on November 3rd. Hanteo News joined the scene where ONEUS took their first step to become a true ‘Earth Idol¹.’

The first U.S. concert of ONEUS was held in ‘The Town Hall,’ located right next to Times Square in Manhattan, New York. Even before the show began, the atmosphere in the concert hall was heated with the excitement from the American To Moons (fandom name of ONEUS). Not long after, ‘LIT,’ the title track of the 3rd Mini Album ‘FLY WITH US,’ was blasted through the speakers, and began ONEUS’s first concert in the United States along with the fans’ loud cheer.

Opening the stage with ‘Intro : Time,’ the intro track of the 2nd Mini Album ‘RAISE US,’ ONEUS continued to perform ‘Valkyrie,’ the title track of the 1st Mini Album, ‘LIGHT US.’ The fans enthusiastically welcomed ONEUS and chanted along with the band the repeating phrase in the song, ‘밝히리².’
 

During the talk segment that followed the stages, each member of ONEUS said hello to To Moons. Member Hwanwoong said, “Thank you so much for your loud cheer even when it’s just the beginning of the show,” and member Xion gave his thoughts, “I’m so glad and happy to meet you,” and asked the fans, “You are happy, too, right?”, receiving a loud cheer of agreement from the fans. Member Lee Do also expressed his joy and said, “I actually was wondering if many people would come to see us before I came on the stage, and I couldn’t really feel it even during the stage since I couldn’t see the audience that well. But now I see that so many of you came.”

Before continuing onto the main part of the concert, member Keonhee said, “As you know, ONEUS is originally 6 members. But there is a member who couldn’t join us, unfortunately. I miss Seoho, who looked forward to the tour the most,” revealing the group’s will to fill in the part of member Seoho, who unfortunately could not join the group on the tour due to a health issue.

Even though one of the members could not join, the five members of ONEUS filled the stage with their passion and showed flawless performances. In almost all of the stages, including those of  ‘Plastic Flower’ and ‘English Girl,’ some of the formation and the movements in the choreography were perfect for the five members and showed no sign of a missing member.
 

As one of the biggest charms of the group is the ability to digest a variety of music genres, ONEUS’s concert was full of things to see and listen to. A total of three VCRs were on the screen during the concert; the first was ‘Show Me The Us,’ a parody of ‘Show Me The Money,’ during which rappers RAVN and Lee Do judge and picked a member to join the stage of ‘Crazy & Crazy,’ which is mainly a rap track. The other two were the behind-the-scenes of the ‘LIT’ recording and a concept video in which the members became swordfighters and contended with each other in a bamboo forest.

After the ‘Show Me The Us’ VCR, Hwanwoong and the rappers put the ‘Crazy & Crazy’ performance on stage, and the following ‘Level Up’ stage also demonstrated a powerful performance from all the members. During the talk segment that followed those two stages, the members hinted that other members than Hwanwoong would perform ‘Crazy & Crazy’ in other cities during the tour, receiving excited cheer from the fans.

Well known for their performance skills, ONEUS also prepared special performance stages for American To Moons. They performed amazing choreographies along with the pop remix that started with Lil Nas X’s hit song, ‘Old Town Road,’ and closed with the dance cover of Nao’s ‘Bad Blood,’ which global fans showed a lot of love on YouTube in the past months.

Of course, one cannot talk about ONEUS without the vocal skills that ‘delight the eardrums.’ In order to treat the American fans with the sweet voice, ONEUS prepared the stages of ‘White Night’ and ‘Red Thread,’ both of which are B-side ballad tracks. Especially, the members asked the audience to turn on their flashlights during the ‘White Night’ stage. The harmony of the beautiful singing voice of ONEUS and the flashlights from the fans who filled the concert hall together created a touching stage of ‘White Night.’

As expected, the stages that were received the best from the fans were those of the title tracks. After laughing and enjoying together the behind-the-scene VCR of the recording studio, the fans got up from the seats and danced to the stage of ‘LIT,’ of which the lyrics and melody are inspired by Korean culture. Especially, the fans danced along with the group the point choreography that drops both hands towards the floor while singing ‘Ooh’ during the chorus. As for the stage of ‘Twilight,’ which was the last stage before the encore, most of the American fans sang along not only the chorus but also the beginning of the song, which starts with a long Korean lyrics that means, ‘Covered by darkness, the red sun is losing its light and spreading into the sunset.’ 

The special affection of ONEUS towards their fans was also highlighted during the talks and other segments in between the stages. The members melted the hearts of the local fans by waving and making hearts with their hands and arms toward the audience, holding the cheering items that fans brought in their own hands, and showing off their charms near the fans’ cell phone cameras. ONEUS members even danced with fans who won the raffle of the polaroid photos that the group took in the backstage before the show.
 

During the message to To Moons after all the main stages, Keonhee shared his thoughts, “We came to New York as the first city in the U.S. tour. Today, I felt once again that there are so many fans who really love us and support us. We will become ONEUS who try hard and continue to improve.”

Lee Do thanked, “I really didn’t know that so many of you would come, but many of you did, and I’m so grateful for that.” “It’s not even been a year since our debut, but today was a very meaningful day to meet To Moons on the other side of the Earth on the day of our 300th day since debut,” added Hwanwoong. He expressed the love towards the To Moon who came to the show, “It was such a happy day to be together. I love you!”

Member Xion also started by pointing out the significance of the first concert of the U.S. tour and reveled his love of fans, “There is a phrase in Korean, ‘hundreds and thousands of years.’ To Moons who will be with us for hundreds and thousands of years, I love you!” Befitting his position as the eldest member of the group, RAVN first thanked the staff and crew of the New York concert and wrapped up the farewell by saying, “Thank you so much, and see you again.” During the farewell, a plush of Seoho was with the members instead of Seoho who could not join the group on the stage.

ONEUS reappeared on the encore stage after the fans hailed ‘ONEUS’ at the top of their voices. The group successfully finished the first concert in the United States with the stages of ‘BingBing,’ a song with witty lyrics and bouncy melody, and ‘LAST SONG,’ a track that ONEUS worked with group ONEWE during the ‘I Shall Debut’ project.

ONEUS boasted their love of fans to the very last minute by taking group photos three separate times to include everyone in the concert hall in the shots. As much as they successfully finished the first show, we wish the best for ONEUS to continue on their amazing performances on stage in front of the support and cheer from the American To Moons in the tour’s remaining five concerts in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles.

¹One of ONEUS’s nicknames based on the similarity in pronunciation between Earth and US of ONEUS.

²Pronounced ‘Bal-khi-ri.’ A wordplay on ‘Valkyrie,’ the title of the song