AB6IX Meets ABNEW First in ABNew York — The Start of 2022 Fanmeeting ‘AB_NEW AREA!’
There’s nothing new about the dedicated and endless way K-pop group AB6IX loves their fans, their ABNEW — they’ve loved them since the start. However, for the first stop of their 2022 Fanmeeting ‘AB_NEW AREA,’ AB6IX brought their energy, talent, and excitement for performance to New York’s Webster Hall in a way that we’ve never seen before. The four members of AB6IX — Woong, Donghyun, Woojin, and Daehwi — started off their tour with a bang!
When you’re starting off a tour in the midst of a New York summer, any fan can expect some heat. But on the evening of June 20, 2022, all the heat came from AB6IX taking to the stage! Even their energy-filled sound check served as a precursor to the electric night ahead: for ticket holders with soundcheck access, seeing their biases clad in casual clothes and still delivering top-quality performance was a treat!
And the treats simply didn’t stop the whole night. “Welcome to My Hollywood” served as the perfect opener to the show, marking the origins of the members on Produce 101 Season 2. Clad in embellished suit jackets, each member made the deep house beats of the song their own! With iconic rap lines from Woojin and a flip from Woong at the bridge, AB6IX truly pulled out all the stops for their first stop!
As AB6IX settled into a break for self-introductions, they might’ve been out of breath, but never out of love for their ABNEW. The group’s self introductions were all filled with an excited softness in comparison to the darker opener of “Welcome to My Hollywood.” During this ment, the boys shared thoughts on coming to the United States: Woong recounted their adventures of having so much good food already and thinking of their ABNEWs, while Daehwi discussed how he was still super jetlagged and sleepy. Still, the boys mustered up energy to dive into the following portion of the show: even more jaw-dropping performances.
The hard-hitting beats of “Savior” were only as hard as their New York ABNEW shouting each fanchant with glee! Daehwi, in particular, was heavy on the fan service (as always) using his brief moments out of the limelight to smile and wave at fans. “Close” saw the members bathed in orange light, using the song’s star-like synths to make the boys sparkle even brighter on stage.
These songs led into AB6IX’s next ment & Q&A portion, where they discussed their solo activities: members have been producing songs for their new album, they've been making OSTS, MC-ing for broadcast shows, and more — but it all led up to their preparations for their ABNEW! ABNEW were even given a chance to ask members questions via post-it notes.
As it was their time meeting ABNEW on their tour, the members remarked that they'll have so much to talk about! As the members each picked a Q&A post-it, they made small talk with fans. Woong asked if it was hot outside, but the crowd resounded with the response of: “No, it’s you! It’s you that’s hot!” Members even showed off their impeccable vocals with short karaoke moments, singing their favorite snippets from Justin Bieber and One Direction.
The people whose questions were selected were chosen to come to the stage and receive T-shirt signed by the members! The lucky winners were all so starstruck, given the chance to speak with their biases and really share their love with their favorite boys. The moment took their breath away — luckily, AB6IX has a song for just that.
AB6IX ended their ment for “Breathe!” As the group’s iconic debut song, each ABNEW was dancing and singing along! The track let the group show off the resounding comfort that they find on stage, full of riffs. “Red Up” kept the energy going with its stylish rock beat — ABNEW went crazy over the members putting their hearts into the hip-shaking choreography of the chorus.
After another short ment, the boys dove into “Cherry,” asking ABNEW to sing along. Bathed in purple and red lights, every voice in Webster Hall sang along with smiles and playful moves, bopping to AB6IX’s iconic “You are my Cherry!” Each ABNEW came alive to Donghyun’s cheery smile and Woojin’s rap. “Sucker For Your Love” was filled with a similar amount of fan service: shining as brightly as the stars in Daehwi’s eyes, each member waved to fans with soft smiles throughout the track.
For their next event, AB6IX talked about their #AB_NEW_AREA_NY event, where fans could tweet using the hashtag to share their thoughts and excitement for the tour! Some tweets even received replies from the members — and that was only the beginning of the interactions ABNEW could get from their faves! While on stage, the boys picked a handful of their favorite tweets, with the selected fans able to take a Polaroid picture with the group.
While the members were busy picking, it was yet again time for more interactions! One fan shouted a cute “Hi!” at Donghyun, and he misheard it as “Bye,” — it made him double take, and reply with a smile: “Bye? No, not yet!” He also fielded a special request from some “Venus” enthusiasts and danced to the song. The very definition of enthusiasm came into play when the four lucky fans were finally chosen: they came up on stage and were able to take photos with AB6IX!
For many fans, the fan meeting was absolutely surreal — and there was no better way to say goodbye to it than with the track “Surreal.” Webster Hall was filled to the brim with love between AB6IX and their ABNEW, especially as a montage of fan-recorded messages to AB6IX played, with each fan wishing the members luck on the tour!
After basking in their love for ABNEW, AB6IX returned to the stage adorned in tour t-shirts and smiles. Their final track “Shining Star” served as a promise to fans to be their shining stars, lighting their way back to AB6IX — and they sealed that promise by exchanging hearts and waves with fans.
With a final gorgeous high note from Woong and their last, heart-wrenching messages to ABNEW, AB6IX shared their goodbyes to New York — but not without sharing their promises to come back for another performance. But before that, they have an entire fan meeting tour to finish!
Here are the next stops for AB6IX’s 2022 Fanmeeting ‘AB_NEW AREA,’ and make sure to check out the stop near you!
June 26, Sunday - Dallas
June 29, Wednesday - Seattle
July 1, Friday - Los Angeles
Thank you so much to Brand New Music and Helix Publicity for giving KpopStarz press access — to our readers, make sure to keep supporting AB6IX!
