ReviewNCT 127 makes missing members part of Seoul show

The loudest KSPO Dome got on Sunday, where K-pop boy band NCT 127 wrapped the Seoul leg of its "NEO CITY – THE REDLINE" tour, had less to do with anyone standing onstage.

Midway through "Ay-Yo," the screens cut to members Doyoung and Jungwoo, both away on military service. Their verses played out on video while the five who were actually there held the floor, as an audience that had already been loud for more than an hour found another register.

That turned out to be the logic of the entire show. The fifth tour by the SM Entertainment act, which debuted a decade ago as a nine-piece group, opened with four of those members off the stage — two have left the group, while Doyoung and Jungwoo are serving in the military.

Rather than detouring around the gaps, the production kept putting them in front of the crowd.

The three-night run, which opened Friday, drew about 31,500 fans. It was the group's first headlining show in Korea in a year and eight months, and the first tour with the five-member lineup of Taeyong, Johnny, Yuta, Jaehyun and Haechan.

The night opened with the five strung up on wires against the rearmost LED wall drenched in the group's signature neon green, bodies tangled in the lines holding them. Intro track "Legacy" gave way to "Step Up" and "Walk," the title track of the group's sixth album.

A kinetic set in the shape of an enormous arm also hung over the floor from that first cue onward, lending the show a grand, almost grotesque edge.

Then came "Simon Says," "Cherry Bomb" and "Lemonade," songs written for a lineup nearly twice this size, delivered without much strain. "Punch" followed inside a laser-drawn boxing ring, with "Bring The Noize" and "2 Baddies" closing out the opening run.

That was nine songs before the group said a word to the audience, with three costume changes packed into the stretch.

"It's the last day already. Time is flying, faster than ever," Haechan told the crowd.

Jaehyun added that the show would not come back once it passed, and asked them to stop worrying about whether their phone footage was in focus. Johnny, who said he rarely sweats at work and expected to be soaked by the end, switched to English.

"Sitting down is all fun, but no one's watching. So why not just get up."

"NonStop," "IKR" and "Ay-Yo" restarted the momentum, and it was in that last song that the absent members returned on video.

Parts belonging to members not onstage went around the room, and for anyone not tracking NCT 127 line by line, watching who picked up what became a pleasure rather than a reminder of what was missing. Haechan's range was never in question, while Yuta, absorbing vocal lines well outside his usual territory, was the night's genuine surprise.

The audience seemed to register the effort. At the close of several sections, the noise resolved into applause rather than screaming — an odd, almost formal gesture of gratitude at a K-pop concert.

A video then looked back over the group's 10 years, pulling up footage of the members as rookie idols, and the show turned with it. "Not Alone" and "Day After Day" slowed the room down, followed by "0 Mile," "Summer 127" and "Getaway."

It was at this point that a large celebratory rice cake was sent onstage as a surprise, and Doyoung and Jungwoo, who had arranged it, actually turned up in the seats, drawing the sort of roars usually reserved for people on the stage.

Whatever softening that produced did not survive the final stretch.

"Piñata" arrived with the five riding in on a Hummer, followed by "Fire Truck," the 2016 debut single rebuilt as a rock version. "Fact Check" followed, then "Kick It," then the group's latest lead single "Blingy." The crowd's volume sat at the edge of painful.

The members returned for the encore in red tracksuits, running through "Paper Plane," "Touch" and "Promise You" before lingering onstage to talk to a crowd in no hurry to let the night end.

The tour continues through Jakarta, Hong Kong, Singapore, Saitama, Bangkok, Manila, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Macao, closing there on Jan. 16.