Dec 1, 2023

[Concert Recap] KiSu In Amsterdam

Updated: Nov 11

Photo By: Eva Bergsma KpopConcertsEurope

On November 21st, Choi Kisu, more famously known for his stage name KiSu stopped in Amsterdam for his second stop of his second world tour titled Dal Segno at a cosy venue named CineTol. Even though he was extremely busy, we were lucky enough to gain press access and even got to perform an interview with Kisu!

The Venue

CineTol is a smaller venue near Amsterdam Amstel that fits approximately 150 fans. The venue is next to a café where you can buy food and drinks while you wait outside for the concert to start, which makes it the perfect space to chat with your friends when the weather is unbearable while still being near to the venue. Upon entering the venue tonight, there was a sign in table where you had to sign-in and get a wristband as well as a merchandise table with plenty of Kisu merchandise.

There is also a free wardrobe that is unsupervised, but because the venue is smaller, I felt comfortable to leave my jacket there. When I got to my spot on the floor of the venue, the concert stage was lower to the ground which made the setting more intimate.

The Concert

The hype started even before the concert began when we walked into the venue and saw Kisu himself signing multiple items of merchandise for the VIP fans. You could even by a “selfie card” which would grant you either a selfie photo or video selfie with Kisu. After the fansign, he retreated backstage to get ready for the concert.

The room was buzzing with excitement that turned to cheers and screams as the audience lights turned off and Kisu began to perform.

Photo: Eva Bergsma @ KpopConcertsEurope

He opened with his song “Waves of You” and immediately the venue exploded with people screaming the lyrics, even though the song had a more acoustic sounds with elements of acoustic guitar and drums, but was spiced up with impressive high notes that Kisu sang without effort. The smooth transition into the next song “Drive” lead to more cheers and screaming and by now you could tell Kisu was more comfortable being not only on stage but in front of his fans. He stroked the hair of fans in the front row and even winked and smiled at others, despite jumping around with the happy song.

He truly made every fan in the venue feel seen. Seeing as this was his first time in the Netherlands since he was still a part of his ex-group 24K he repeatedly apologized for taking so long to come back to visit and how much he loved the country before showing a glimpse of his polite nature by asking the audience if it was okay if he took a quick drink of water.

During the next song “By Chance”, he asked a fan to join him on stage and sat them down on a barstool; serenading them with the song and having plenty of sweet moments like giving the lucky fan a flower. After the song ended and the fan was safely returned back to their spot, Kisu took this opportunity to tease the crowd about the experience.

Photo: Eva Bergsma @ KpopConcertsEurope

Kisu asked the crowd if they were jealous and they erupted in a loud ‘Yes!’, to which he then replied with “Don't be jealous you’re all my best friend!”, which he quickly changed to “girlfriend" and continued to point at fans saying ”You’re my girlfriend, you’re my girlfriend”.

The next song was more upbeat and energetic, an A.I generated song ‘Love You Back’ which he said was a cool and unique experience, despite having difficulties with the words sounding weird. He even performed several unreleased songs which were more relaxed than the previous ones. Despite the more relaxed vibe, Kisu never let up on his stage presence. There was even a bit where he slid on the carpet that was laid on the stage, and said he felt like the character Aladdin, which then made the crowd erupt in singing “A Whole New World”.

Photo: Eva Bergsma @ KpopConcertsEurope

Kisu gained his popularity in the group 24K,and to honour his time in the group, he performed a medley of 24K song including; ‘Only you’ , ‘BINGO’ , ‘Hey You!’ and ‘Super Fly’. These songs are more hip hop based and the whole venue was jumping, dancing and screaming along. Right after the medley a VCR started playing unfortunately the VCR was to bright to actually see what was being shown on it, but fans were still super excited. After the VCR ended he explained that the next song was very meaningful for him and made him emotional and asked us not to cry as the energy began to shift and he proceeded to perform his solo debut ‘BOY’.

After that song he wanted to lift spirits again and asked the crowd what a famous desert was in the Netherlands and they answered “Stroopwafel”. He explained that he did this at every stop and altered the song “Cheeseburger” to say the local desert instead of the word “Cheeseburger”. He continued the fan interactions by going onto the subject of fandom names and talked about how the fans of 24K were called 24U ( two for you ) which was then used to transition to perform the song 24U. He also shared the new name of his fandom “Kiss U” which is also the title of his new song. He then talked about how he has a lot of songs prepared with his producer and even let us listen to six instrumentals of new songs. After performing his newest song, he performed two covers, ‘Stay - Justin Bieber’ and ‘As it Was - Harry Styles’, stating that he was very jealous of Harry that everyone knows his songs. The next song ‘As One’ has a harmony in the song that he taught the crowd, and he said it was so easy and catchy that even parents and cats will be singing it. But all good things do have to come to an end and as he was starting to finish the concert he took a photo with the crowd and the Dutch flag signed by fans and performed his last song of the

night, ‘To the stars’. As soon as the song ended fans chanted for an encore and after a brief moment he came back on stage and asked us to bring out the flash lights on our phones so that he could film a video to include in his music video for ‘Kiss U’. To end the night for real he performed the songs ‘Waves of you’ and ‘Drive’ again.