wave to earth hit Los Angeles’ The Wiltern with two back to to back sold out shows on September 25th and 26th. The group formed in 2019, releasing two studio albums and have since amassed a wide and loving fan base. Ahead of their latest tour, ‘0.03 World Tour’ wave to earth has sold out nearly every stop, following the success of their last sold out North American Tour. Kim Daniel (김다니엘) and Shin Dongkyu (신동규) are the group’s frontmen and founders, joined by newest permanent member John Cha (차순종) on bass and current session members Cho Junggeun (조종근) on keyboard and Jeonmin (전민) on saxophone with Hong Seunggi (홍 승기) behind the scenes.
On September 25th, fans filled the venue's lobby while maintaining a steady merch line that snaked through the building, even leading down the stairs into the basement lobby.
The show opened with a performance from two member band PRYVT, comprised of Hanuel and Justin. The duo shot on the scene in fall 2023 with single ‘tell me, will we survive?’. Fresh off their latest tour, ‘The &SCENE’, PRYVT performed their debut song along with 'blue saliva' to which an audience member even shouted “voices of angels” to the duo. They then gave the crowd a peak at their newest unreleased single ‘YOURS’, which dropped several days after their performance. The pair finished with powerful gut wrench-er ‘if it’s not you’ to a sea of starry lights as fans illuminated the venue with their phone lights.
Shortly after, the lights dim and wave to earth casually sauntered on stage amidst roaring screams from the crowd. The group opened with dreamy track ‘play with earth!’ off their newest album play with earth! 0.03, before heading straight into tender slow jam, 'peach eyes', off album 0.1 flaws and all.
The group went on to perform ‘beck’, playing out the song with silky vocals and a triumphant orchestral sound as the stage lights flashed vigorously. Bathed in a green light with fog flowing around the quintet, they transitioned into melancholic ‘slow dive’ and ‘holyland’, the crowd not missing a word as they sang along. With the rich and smooth vocals of Daniel floating through the air, John strikes each chord fiercely. Meanwhile Dongkyu, Junggeun and Jeonmin rounding out the passion filled tracks with their vibrant sound.
The members take a moment to chat with fans, John asking “Did you miss us?”, receiving a thunderous cheer. Dongkyu takes a moment to introduce their newest members Junggeun and Jeonmin stating “because of your generous love we finally brought these two guys on stage”, to which Jeonmin blows the crowd kisses. Daniel goes on to express his heartfelt thanks, “I feel so special tonight, I can feel so much love from you”.
wave to earth wind down the night with their debut single ‘wave’, Daniel taking a moment to share how special the song is to them. Before exiting the group play their going against the grain track ‘annie’ to which the whole audience joyously sings along shouting “fuck you” loudly.
As screams of "Encore" echo through the crowd the members don’t keep them waiting long and appear one by one to perform encore songs ‘evening glow’, ‘seasons’ and ‘love.’ Daniel takes a moment to mention this is the group’s second time performing in LA, but that it "feels better than last year" before launching into ‘evening glow’. It took one note for the audience to recognize ‘seasons’ and erupt into roaring screams at it’s intro. Jeonmin shouts, in a deeper voice than expected, "What's up LA!" before the group plays final song ‘pink’, flooding the stage with appropriate pink lights. As a final goodbye, they accept a California flag from the audience with ‘wave to earth’ inscribed across and gather to take one final photo before exiting the stage.
Wave To Earth
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