For their WE ROSE YOU TOUR European leg, The Rose return to London for the second time with two concerts at the Scala. I attended day one and also bought a ticket to their Rose Garden Event which took place before the concert.
The Rose Garden Event took place at Business Design Centre in Angel. A well-known venue for holding exhibitions for careers and higher education in the past, it was nostalgic to visit this place only this time for another event. MyMusicTaste had teamed up with The Main Thing again for this special event and I recognised some of the staff from my previous concert for KNK. The Black Roses who bought tickets to the Rose Garden Event were escorted up the stairs into a large meeting room where we waited further for The Rose to arrive. It was meant to start at 2pm and we had all waited since 1.30pm which was the meeting time.
The Rose arrived eventually and sat at a row of tables near the front of the room. There were a lot of people (moreso than when I went to the KNK special event) and I ended up near the back row. Every attendee had one of their three questions read out to the band and they answered. I sensed my question to Jaehyeong on what colours he associated the rest of the members would be picked (though I suspected he would have gone with the colours of the band's individual roses after much research).
Jaehyeong and Hajoon impressed the fans with their English and it was incredible how much more enthusiastic they were that they understood more of what each fan was talking about. I noticed Jaehyeong using English in a much cuter fashion than before and before this concert, I had noticed in interviews how he and even Hajoon had grown more comfortable answering questions more freely.
After a delay in the Q+A session, it was the fan sign and unsurprisingly it was rushed so I couldn't really say much and it got awkward near the beginning when a Black Rose in front of me had left her place in the queue and didn't want to go back to the front again so there was a delay in me saying hello to Woosung. Nerves got to me but I soldiered on as I said hello to Hajoon and he asked where I was from. Jaehyeong was sweet and just as polite. I said thanks for coming back and he said thanks for coming, see you at the concert. I then said it was my second time seeing The Rose and that I saw them last February. He was grateful and said thanks again before I moved to Dojoon.
Dojoon was awfully casual and all hi and hey to me, asking whether I lived in London all my life. I said yes and agreed with him that it was an expensive city. Keeping it short and simple I then said I'd try to move back and forth from London and Malaysia to make some conversation up. Interesting how the members who were not as chatty before when I met them at the last concert somehow had more interest and enthusiasm while interacting.
After fansign, it was time for a photo with the band. We passed our mobile phones to the crew and requested various poses with The Rose. I quickly thought about finger hearts and left it there. Woosung poked a little fun at the British RP accent and then attempted cockney when it came to pronouncing water. Once the photo session finished, everyone disappeared from the venue to make way to Kings Cross for the concert later on.
For the main concert, the doors opened around 6.30pm and Black Roses in the Top 10 Tastemaker and Special Event categories were let in first. Scala is a good intimate venue when appropriate but when you have a large crowd, it might not always be suitable for everyone. The whole night was cramped, just like when I was at ULU Live last year when The Rose came here, however I was further back. Here in the Scala, because of my wristband number I was able to be almost close to the front though difficult to view because of taller people and others just simply not caring.
The Rose took to the stage at 7.30pm on the dot and opened the night with angst rock ballad ILY. An interesting song to choose for an opening. In addition to new, unreleased tracks they added some covers to the setlist. Hey Jude by The Beatles to name an example, as well as solo stages for each member. The younger members shared an acoustic stage and sang a song by Before You Exit.
Like with previous MyMusicTaste concerts, different fans in different tiers had a chance to win signed Polaroids and evidently I didn't have any luck in that giveaway during the evening. Despite the small dramas lurking and perhaps an overselling of tickets, Black Roses enjoyed what they could and endlessly recording or taking photos with their phones from start to finish. The Rose always know how to put on a show and can entertain their fans constantly. The crowd were incredibly loud from all corners that even the band had to wait and just engulf the passion from the Black Roses' screams.
The concert ended around 9.30pm to prepare for hi-touch. A queue eventually came about (it was sloppy organising and of course people were going to push) and we were all lead to another part of the venue where The Rose stood behind tables before we were then escorted back to another set of stairs. Scala is like a maze in all honesty. The order of hi-touch --> Woosung, Hajoon, Jaehyeong and Dojoon. Exactly the same order as the signing session. It went by quickly and to be fair I was tired. Dojoon remembered me from the Rose Garden event and said hi, thanks nice to see you again. How pleasant. After hi-touch some of the Rose Garden Event attendees went to the merchandise area to collect the rest of their package before calling it a night.
As tempting as it was to go to the second concert for London, I decided to just go with the one. I do quietly regret not taking annual leave on Monday but appreciated the enjoyable night on Sunday. The Rose are always welcome to London and let's hope they return next year sometime.
Photos
Merchandise and extra goodies I received on the day
The rest of the photos can be seen here or here
Fancams
Face A wild Woosung appears near the barrier
Like We Used To Tied as my favourite song from their earlier era
Sorry Their debut and one of my favourite songs
Red Ending the song with their latest single and a very jumpy, good feeling track.
Setlist
ILY
Insomnia
I Don't Know You
Candy (So Good)
Beautiful Girl
Like We Used To
California
She's In The Rain
ILYSB (Lany cover)
Hollywood Breaking (Post Malone cover)
Breakeven (The Script cover)
Hey Jude (The Beatles cover)
Hold Back The River (James Bay cover by Dojoon)
Soldier (Before You Exit cover by Hajoon and Jaehyeong)
Moon (Woosung solo)
Face (Woosung solo)
Photographer (unreleased)
OMG (unreleased)
Can't Let Go (unreleased)
Baby
Sorry
Take Me Down
RED
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