On ‘MOST WANTED IN NORTH AMERICA’, P1Harmony Take a Victory Lap
The group is touring their new English language EP EX and making a case for why they could be next to crossover into the mainstream.
Live Nation and FNC
Near the end of P1Harmony’s LIVE TOUR [P1ustage H: MOST WANTED] IN NORTH AMERICA show in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday night, Keeho, the group’s leader, looked back at their five-year journey. “For whatever reason, lately, I’ve been remembering our debut days,” he reflected. In the beginning, Keeho recounted, P1 performed in movie theaters. “From performing in theaters,” he continued, “to coming to Dickies Arena is such a crazy thing to experience.”
Talented as they are, P1’s success was never guaranteed. They debuted under FNC Entertainment, a small company that, for a long time, was most known for groups like SF9 and CNBLUE, who have strong fanbases in Asia. P1 was the first group FNC strategically marketed in the West, and in the past five years, the group has come to the U.S. repeatedly for tours that have fostered a small but mighty fanbase called P1eces.
In fact, the group has been so Western-focused that it might come as a surprise that EX is their first project recorded entirely in English. Both sonically and conceptually, EX reminds me of MONSTA X's seminal English-language album ALL ABOUT LUV. That album took a bet that K-pop was about to become a global phenomenon and gave the MONSTAs fun, light-hearted music to appeal to a wide general public. P1’s music is similarly geared to cast a wide net towards American fans with songs that sound ready-made for top 40 radio.
It should come as no surprise, then, that MOST WANTED is a tour built around the release of EX. It is also a demonstration of success for the group: Pop-up shops organized by K-pop giant Hello82 will open in every city and, most importantly, the group is performing in arenas for the first time.
If you’re attending this tour, though, arrive early at 7:30 to see the openers AMPERS&ONE. The seven-member group is FNC’s newest (members are Kamden, Brian, Jiho, Siyun, Mackiah, Kyrell, and Seungmo), and they are currently promoting their latest EP LOUD&PROUD. Openers at K-pop shows are a rarity, and it’s a treat to see one as talented as AMPERS&ONE on this stint. I’m a big fan of the boys’ bright, positive energy on songs like “Kick-Start” and “See Saw”. Given enough time, I can see their potential, perhaps following in the footsteps of TOMORROW X TOGETHER, a group that always embraced a more soothing side than many contemporary boy groups do.
In typical K-pop concert fashion, P1 followed at 8 o'clock on the dot and proceeded to serve an insanely athletic and thrilling two-and-a-half-hour show. One thing to know about P1 before seeing this show is that they are incredibly hard workers. I noticed this within fifteen minutes of the show opening: The group is excelling with ease at challenging choreography and vocal runs. They make use of every inch of their arena stage, too, and the visuals onstage, which focus on a space-themed concept, are stunning.
Perhaps to amplify the fact that P1 is now a veteran group, each member was given a solo stage for this tour. There were sure fire crowd pleasers with Jiung and Theo, both of whom succeeded in getting the audience to participate in sing-alongs to American classics like “Uptown Funk” (Jiung’s choice) and “What’s Going On?” (Theo’s choice; he played electric guitar).
There were hints of K-history, too: When Keeho strutted out to Rihanna’s “Phresh off the Runway”, I was reminded of SHINee’s Key’s solo stages from the early 2010s when he performed Lady Gaga songs with absolutely no sense of irony. Elsewhere, Jongseob gave an inspired and unexpected cover of Tyler, the Creator’s “Sticky,” while Soul performed an ambitious, choreographed routine. But I was most taken by Intak’s performance of “Good Kisser”, which highlighted why he is one of his generation’s best dancers. Styled in a cowboy hat (“I wore it for Texas,” he beamed later), Intak didn’t rap or sing, but that didn’t matter: His weapon has always been his charisma and his insane skills as a dancer.
Anticipating that many new fans might be in the crowd because of EX, P1 took their time to reach the new music, only introducing it in the third and final act. For the first half, the group focused entirely on their Korean releases: revisiting their heavy-hitting debut “Scared”, a performance that still is as thrilling as the first time I saw it, and the fun silliness of “Do It Like This”.
When the boys finally introduced the new EP’s b-side “Stupid Brain”, Keeho took an opportunity to acknowledge how uncertain the world feels right now. “This is a song where I hope you can turn your brain off for a few minutes,” he said, adding poignancy and depth to the song.
Later, in a moment of vulnerability, Keeho admitted that he had doubts about doing an English release. “I thought, ‘We’re a K-pop group. Will this really work?” The group, to be sure, goes for broke performing their newest music. Their new lead single, "Dancing Queen," sounds built for an arena, and the title track, "EX," is a powerful female-centered track for a boy group to perform.
But a day later, Billboard announced that EX debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. The EP did, in fact, do it’s job. I wasn’t surprised: Saturday night in Dickies Arena, P1 seemed on the cusp of a major crossover to the mainstream.
