For the benefit of you TLDR people. Here’s the table of contents so you can skip to whatever section you want.
So, it was back to finding an early dinner and killing time in my hotel. At 6:15 pm, I packed up all my concert gear and headed back to the venue. The line wasn’t long, and much like at the VIP check-in, I could see many people dressed in OTP gear. You could probably field at least 2 full soccer teams with the amount of OTP gear I saw at this concert.
Anyway, it didn’t take long to get back into the building. Then it was up to merch again to buy five more signed OMAs and to fulfill a request from home to buy a signed vinyl. So yeah, I went way over budget on merch, but YOLO. I’ll figure out the logistics of paying off the credit card in full later.
I had better luck with my pulls in this second go and managed to get another of the chase cards I wanted, Chaewon. With more people around, it was back to Discord to beg for a Yooyeon, Nien, or Kotone. I knew Yooyeon and Kotone would be difficult to obtain, and Nien was the more realistic one I could acquire in a fair trade. Fortunately, a last-minute trade came through, and I flipped Shion for Nien. Sadly, no Yooyeon or Kotone, and I’m not going on eBay or Kijiji or wherever to get their signed OMAs from a scalper just yet.
I still need to save some money for LE SSERAFIM in Tokyo in November, so maybe closer to the end of the year, I can search for the cards I couldn’t get.
On to the concert itself. I was seated in the center of row B. It had a great view, and it would have been even better if there had been no orchestra pit between the first two rows and the stage. So sadly, I was not within baby-giving distance of the stage. But I was within good distance to throw wedding rings to Yooyeon. However, there was a strict rule against throwing anything on stage for the safety of other concertgoers and the performers.
Moving on, I had spoiled myself when the @% tour began by watching a fancam of the entire concert from Toronto. Usually, I don’t watch fancams, but I wanted to get a sense of what I was in for so I could plan around what I would take video of, what I would take pictures of, and what I would just take in during the moment. Since I didn’t receive a press or photo pass for this concert, I was left to gather my own media for this article.
tripleS Alphie World Tour @% : The Centre Vancouver September 22 Setlist
VCR 1
Girls Never Die
Bionic Power
Black Soul Dress
MENT 1
Atmosphere
Beam
Just Do It
Generation
Love Child
Lit Pop
MENT 2
VCR 2
Inner Dance
Cherry Talk
Girls’ Capitalism
MENT 3
Non Scale
Love2Love
Hit The Floor
MENT 4
Rising
깨어 (Are You Alive)
VCR 3
Too Hot
Midnight Flower
MENT 5
미열 37.5
Compared to tripleS’ last tour, @% had some rather interesting choices in the set list. The highlight song was Alphie’s English-language track, Lit Pop, which was performed for the first time during this tour. It’s definitely a fun song, and I’m looking forward to the eventual release of the studio version.
My personal favourites among the album cuts in the setlist were Black Soul Dress, Atmosphere, Midnight Flower, Love2Love, and 미열 37.5. Among the a-sides, it was cool to see 깨어 (Are You Alive) live and Generation with Yooyeon as part of the members performing it.
Of course, being there live with the members in front of you is a whole different experience from a fancam. Much like the Come True tour, there were certain members who were always in my field of view. Last time it was Nien and Hayeon. This time, it was Nien, Kotone, Lynn, and Chaewon. Sadly, Yooyeon was usually off to the sides, but when she was front and center, I made sure to pay attention. Of the members I had not seen before who were in my field of view, the latter three left the biggest impression in terms of performance.
Kotone had a Hip-Hop type of swagger, while Chaewon and Lynn looked sweet on the outside but had some crazy charisma when performing. Lynn, in particular, was quite stunning. I didn’t expect her to be that tall. When it came to the MC segments, Kotone also impressed with her sense of humor. She’s too funny. This particular grouping of members overall was pretty goofy compared to the Come True roster. They kept messing with each other throughout the entire show, which required one to pay attention to the subtle things they were doing.
The concert portion was fantastic, and the two hours it was scheduled for went by quickly. I was left wanting a bit more once the final encore song ended. But since I knew there were after-show activities to prepare for, I was okay with having some time to calm my nerves before the hi-touch and photo ops.
