It’s been a long time coming. Stray Kids are only one of the biggest phenomena to come out of South Korea, and it’s a name even your great aunt knows. Despite being uber-famous, the boy group has barely touched the reaches of the planet on world tours, with Europe often being an afterthought (except for one “showcase” tour yonks ago). So when the boys showed up to BST Hyde Park Festival in London last year, STAYs (Stray Kids fans) were rightfully hopeful that the explosive show and massive reception would warrant their return on tour.
And return they did. For the third stop in the Europe leg of their colossal dominATE world tour to end all tours, the shiny octet descended on one of the only venues big enough to hold them: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, of course. It’s housed the likes of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé (twice!), and it doesn’t get any less legendary than that. Stray Kids are simply one of the only names big enough to fill almost 100,000 seats across two days.
The visibly sold-out stadium made attendees look like a billion tiny popcorn kernels in their seats: a visual that transformed into erupting popcorn as soon as the boys made their most extravagant entrance. Introduced with a rousing flag parade by the group’s very own dedicated dancers of Team SKZ, Stray Kids only emerged from their platform once enough buzz had been summoned in the stadium. Looking untouchable in their glimmering black garb, Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N jumped right in with “MOUNTAINS”: an unrelenting anthem that, when transformed to the stage, warranted fantastic formations involving dozens of synchronised back-up dancers.
As it was the first ever full Stray Kids gig in the city, going all-out was mandatory for everyone. Fans donning anything red were geared up in the correct fandom colour: a vivid ruby not exclusively presented by concert attendees, but by the boys on stage themselves. “Chk Chk Boom” and “DOMINO”, two of Stray Kids’ biggest hits to date, brought the scarlet garments embellished with something black, dangling and sparkly, a cherry-red car (we’d need our binos to check which model, sorry car enthusiasts), intense headbanging, and a million strings of cerise confetti. Basically, it was all very red.
DominATE definitely feels like an excuse to flex the budget. And, if you had time to see it through to its three hour duration, you’d be treated with an encore parade involving the boys orbiting general standing on carts, followed closely behind by their representative animal cartoons as car-sized balloons. Welcome to K-Pop.
More treats in between this buffet of high-budget mania included unit song performances: such as Han and Felix’s “Truman”, which involved handheld smoke flares (guess in what colour), and an impressively Eminem-esque rap verse by the older member. Changbin and I.N’s “Burnin’ Tires” also brought some fun car chase-emulating choreo, while the remaining two pairs mellowed things out for “ESCAPE” and “CINEMA”. An incredible firework display could be missed by no one at the emotion-charged end of the latter song, and there’s more where that came from.
If you missed the absolute spectacle that was Stray Kids’ celebratory show-end bedazzled with the light of top-tier pyrotechnics at Hyde Park last year, just come to one of their gigs. They’ll one-up their own show every time. Just like the glorious snippet we saw in that similarly melting July, the boys cranked up every dial in sight for a performance (or more appropriately, party) of “MIROH”: their ol’ reliable of crowd thrillers. It’s just about the maximum amount of fun a human can have.
Stray Kids are on Instagram. Tickets for dominATE world tour can be found here.
