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Live Review: Stray Kids – 14th July 2024 – BST Hyde Park, London, UK

5 min read
South Korean K-pop outfit @Stray_Kids brought the @BSTHydePark series to an energetic, flame filled end with an electrifying performance as they become the first male K-pop act to headline a major festival in the UK..... @StrayKidsGlobal @StrayKidsINTL_ @ukskzunited @SKZCBGuide

It was our final night of the year making our way into Hyde Park to see the closing show of this year’s BST Hyde Park series, and we must admit – as exhausted as we felt as we made the trek back to a location that feels like we have spent more hours in than our own home over the last couple of weeks, we felt a little sad it was once again coming to an end.

This year’s line-up has been one of the best since the now world-renowned London residency began back in 2013. Over the course of 9 major shows hosting up to 65,000 music lovers each night, most genres in music were strongly represented with the likes of SZA, Robbie Williams, Shania Twain, Andrea Bocelli and Kylie Minogue all having time to shine on the massive Great Oak stage this year. Last night it was time for the teenage girls of the capital to assemble to take over Hyde Park for their K-pop heroes, Stray Kids.

We weren’t too familiar with Stray Kids before heading along to this final BST show but as soon as we stepped out of Hyde Park Corner station and made our way to the park at just shy of 8pm, we could already hear the high pitched screams of female fans – known as STAYS – echoing over the outskirts of the park and from that moment we knew two things – that this group is something quite unique and that our eardrums would never be the same again after this last round.

Making our way in the Golden Circle area of the performance space, we were met with a predominantly teenage girl fanbase that was frenzied and rearing to go as they had already starting singing at the tops of their lungs to Stray Kids tracks being played over the speakers while waving snow-globe like merchandise items in the air in salute of each other and of their mutual obsession with the K-pop icons.

Stray Kids | Photo by @JRCMCCORD

Arriving behind big red curtain that dropped to the floor and was quickly carried away by stage staff, a stage platform revealed each of the 8-member band in slick poses before tearing into their catchy catalogue of hits, opening with full throttle versions of S-Class, Freeze and Super Bowl. In fact, full throttle doesn’t even come close to describing each song being hurled at us during the boy’s charging set. With barely room for the 8 members to take a breath between songs, each number offered up was delivered with as much energy as the last, as if the group are trying to outdo themselves with each songs unveiling.

Over the course of 90 minutes, each of the 8 members of Stray Kids performed each song with razor eye focus and remained committed to delivering exceptional individual performances when their line was up in any given number. They also all had their own time to acknowledge the crowd and you could hear pockets of fans scream for different members in a very Spice Girl era type of moment with Bang Chan getting the biggest response after asking the crowd, “Does anyone know the results for the finals?” – a nod to the Euro finals being played at the same time as the bands performance. Not that a major sporting event would deter any of these fans from missing a historic concert moment in London like this one.

Topline, Domino and Charmer stood out as mid-set highlights; all coming hand in hand with impressive visuals lighting up the mammoth Great Oak screens and regular bursts of flames erupting in front of the group as they delivered impressive choreography on the majority of the songs within the weighty set, especially during their performance of man set closer, God’s Menu. No expense was spared on this show.

Stray Kids | Photo by @JRCMCCORD

Songs featured last night were not pigeon-holed into one genre with injections of rapid rap lines by members Bang Chan, Changbin, Han and Felix providing hip hop elements to the punk-pop and rock instrumentation of the tracks which came courtesy of their talented 3 piece band.

While the group have a brand new mini album titled ATE due out this Friday, the band didn’t need to promote the collection through including any songs in the nights set – they have long ago sold themselves on an evidently fixated fanbase that will no doubt make the record a success anyway. Instead, they offered a set of songs that the fans wanted to hear and really made their mark, not just on the STAYS but on new fans as they celebrated being the first male K-pop act to headline a major festival on this side of the pond.

With a high energy encore that was dotted with some of the groups biggest hits including LALALALA and the eccentric closer of Megaverse, the bands time to dominate the Hyde Park stage came to a close, the fans spread out and the masterful performance by South Korea’s finest marked the close of yet another astounding BST Hyde Park series. We went into last nights show unfamiliar with the hype and success of Stray Kids but were really pleased we decided to give it a go. They definitely won us over.

Setlist:
S-Class
Freeze
Super Bowl
Topline
Thunderous
Item
Domino
Lonely St.
Social Path
Charmer
My Pace
Back Door
Maniac
God’s Menu

Encore:
LALALALA
Victory Song
Miroh
Topline
Haven
Megaverse