Shortly after landing in New York to kick off their U.S. tour, Korean boy band The Boyz headed to SoHo for some shopping.
The night before their concert at Radio City Music Hall, several of the group’s 11 members decided to stop by the Amiri boutique. Kevin and Eric, who broke off from the group to visit another store nearby, later followed suit and called attention to the fact that Sunwoo, Amiri’s newest brand ambassador, had just come through.
“We were like, ‘Did you guys see any familiar faces up in here?’” said Kevin, recalling the story onstage between sets as he turned and patted Sunwoo on the shoulder. “You’re famous, bro,” he said. “Mr. Worldwide.”
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A few days later the tour has moved onto Dallas, for the third stop of the U.S. leg of their “Zeneration II” world tour.
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“We make use of our time as much as possible,” Kevin says. He and Jacob are sitting side-by-side, both on press duty a few hours before their next performance. “There’s always spontaneous meetups, groups and units that happen. People always ask us, ‘Who are you the most close with?,’ but honestly, it’s just according to that day, whoever feels like going out or whoever feels like going to whatever store, it just happens,” he adds. “That’s the thing for every stop. Some people like to stay in, some people like to go out, see the city, take pictures. But with New York, as soon as we landed, we knew we had to hit the city.”
It’s early evening in Texas, and the group has just finished their afternoon rehearsal. There are still a few hours before they’ll remerge onstage suited for performance. Asked about their typical pre-performance activities, Kevin mentions a routine rooted in self care: stay hydrated, stretch and listen to music to hype themselves up.
“Beyoncé for the mental warm up, because you gotta get into that persona,” says Kevin, noting that they were currently in the singer’s home state.
“It’s been two years since we last did a U.S. tour, so we were kind of worried about how the reaction would be toward our set list,” Kevin says. “All those worries went away as soon as we hit the stage in New York. People were singing along, they were having a good time — and the fact that we can be this source of energy for people halfway across the world that we haven’t seen in two years, it was just absolutely amazing, and I think team morale is very high right now.”
“Zeneration II” marks the group’s second Stateside tour. The five stops included midsize venues with capacities ranging from 3,000 to 7,000 seats — relatively intimate crowd sizes for the group.
“We are, of course, in smaller venues than in [South] Korea, so we are actually more up close,” Jacob says. The group kicked off the tour in Seoul at a 15,000-seat arena, and will next continue to a 12,000-seat arena in Japan. “That just brings more fun interactions with the fans. I think we try to make use of that as well, try to leave as many good memories as we can with them, whether it be a picture with them, or just using their phone. And I feel like that’s something that they will remember forever, and they will have on their phones forever. That’s something we can do while we’re here — not as much in Korea, because they are much more far away from the stage.”
During their New York performance, the proximity meant that Kevin could help facilitate an engagement proposal from onstage for one of their fans, collectively known as Deobi. “I’ve been waiting for that to happen,” he says. (Afterward, he coined it his “Taylor Swift moment.”) “He basically held up a sign in Korean — I think his girlfriend didn’t know how to read Korean — saying, you know, ‘I’m proposing,’ and I saw that sign and I made that moment happen for them, and it was so spontaneous and cute.”
Also spontaneous: Kevin’s last-minute request to wear a New York Yankees jersey during their New York performance, which happened to fit the sartorial white-and-blue theme for one of many outfit changes throughout the performance. While Kevin represented the hometown team, there were other fashion allegiances on display: Sunwoo donned an “Amiri” jersey, while other branded baseball-style shirts included Balmain, Off-White, Supreme and Human Made. Juyeon paired his look with a webbed Balenciaga look, a nod to his recent appearance at the brand’s couture show.
The Boyz’s U.S. tour wrapped up in Los Angeles, and after a short break, the tour will continue to Japan. They recently released a new full-length Japanese-language album, “Gibberish,” and have already announced their next comeback while on tour. “So we’re gonna be working hard to just finish everything up and just release more cool music,” says Kevin, who cowrote an English-language duet, “Square One,” with Jacob for “Gibberish.” “It’s about the integrity of a dream,” Kevin says of their track.
“I really enjoy the music that we have been preparing for this new album,” Kevin adds. “Without saying too much, or giving away too much — because we don’t really know what’s happening, either — I think we want to keep this momentum after the tour ends, if you catch my drift. So [fans] won’t be waiting too long.”