“I can‘t believe it” DAY6, the first Korean band to enter Gocheok Sky Dome... Creates new history in their 10th year (Comprehensive) [DA:On-site]

DAY6, the trending band that tore up various charts in their 10th year since debut and achieved a ‘career high’ this year, created yet another new history. In the winter of 2015, the year of their debut, DAY6 held their first solo concert at Yes24 Move Hall in Mapo-gu, Seoul, which seats approximately 1,000 people. In the winter of 2024, ahead of their 10th debut anniversary, they completed a narrative like a ‘youth movie’ as the first K-pop band to enter Gocheok Sky Dome, considered the largest indoor concert hall in Korea.

On the 21st at 6 PM, DAY6’s solo concert ‘2024 DAY6 Special Concert ‘The Present’’(2024 DAY6 Special Concert ‘The Present’) was held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Gyeongin-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul. This concert, which was held over two days following the previous day, met a total of 38,000 My Day (official fandom) with a total of two performances.

Young K said, “(The year-end concert) is back this year too. Welcome to the 2024 concert ‘The Present’. But the location is not ordinary”. “We prepared really hard for this concert as well. I think there will be surprising things,” he said upon entering the Gocheok Dome. Wonpil said, “I can’t believe this day has come for us. We are standing right now at Gocheok Dome. I can’t believe it. Last year, we had a year-end performance at Hwajeong Gymnasium, but I think it’s very meaningful to be performing at Gocheok Dome in 2024.”


The performance, which lasted over 3 hours and 30 minutes, condensed DAY6’s famous songs that they have created themselves over the past 10 years, from their debut album ‘The Day’ (더 DAY) in 2015 to their 9th mini-album ‘Band Aid’ (반아이드) released in September of this year. The opening stage was ‘Colors’ (색스), a track from their debut album ‘The Day’. The party of famous songs continued from the beginning. The concert featured stages that fans had been eagerly awaiting, such as ‘I Need Someone’, ‘Monster’, ‘Like the Flowing Wind’, ‘COUNTER’, ‘Mang Game’, ‘Somehow It Happened’.

Starting with their debut song ‘Congratulations’, the group‘s representative songs from their comeback, ‘You Were Pretty’, ‘Become a Page’, as well as new hits of the year, such as ‘Melting’, ‘HAPPY’, which ranked #1 on Melon’s Top 100 chart. In March of this year, after their military service, the full group revealed their mini album ‘Fourever’ title song ‘Welcome to the Show’ stage, and My Day‘s cheers resonated powerfully through the roof of Gocheok Sky Dome.

In particular, DAY6 expressed their gratitude to My Day for giving them strength after finishing their performance of their debut song ‘Congratulations’, the title song of their 1st mini album ‘The Day’ in 2015. Young K said, “My Day must be feeling similarly. Just now, I thought to myself that I was singing ‘Congratulations while watching the scene unfolding before my eyes, and rather than focusing on the song itself, I started to care about the situation. “Many thoughts were floating through my head. I thought I would just take it in stride, but I am so touched. It’s all thanks to you all. Thank you,“ he confessed.

Wonpil left the stage for a while to overcome his emotional pent-up emotions after finishing the stage. Upon his return, he said, ”I did it because I was grateful that I could be on this stage. I‘m sorry,“ and confessed, ”I’ve been working hard this year, working hard on songs, and keeping up with my schedule, so I‘ve been busy with the members and My Day this year, but I’m grateful that I can share the stage with these people I love here.“ Young K also agreed, saying, ”I‘m touched that I’m singing this song with all these people in this space.“

On the ”Shoot Me“ stage, a solo performance that went from drums to bass and guitar was surprisingly revealed, greatly touching My Day. Young K explained, ”You might have expected the guitar to come out after the drums, but I made the bass come out in between. I thought it would be a section that could overturn expectations.“ Sungjin said, ”Young K was greedy for that part and actively recommended it,“ and Wonpil also praised it, saying, ”It was a perfect fit.“ Young K expressed his satisfaction, saying, ”We made a lot of versions. We watched videos of our past performances and saw how other bassists play. I‘m glad you guys enjoyed it.“


In addition, DAY6 lived up to the title of ”Special Concert“ by performing a fantastic band live as well as a large-scale orchestra on stage. ‘Still Living There’, ‘I Didn’t Know That Was Your Love’, ‘I‘m Fine’, ‘Sweet Chaos’, ‘Love Me or Leave Me’, etc. were arranged with an orchestra, filling the Gocheok Sky Dome with an even richer sound.

As expected of ‘Demange’(?) DAY6, there was an incident where the equipment broke down(?) during the performance. On that day, Wonpil realized that his keyboard had broken during the ‘Somehow’ stage. He revealed, “The keyboard is broken. It suddenly stopped working. I thought there was something wrong with the earphones”. Young K said, “Equipment can break down if there is too much vibration or if it is too hot. I think both could be the cause. You did a great job!” he said with a smile.

Then DAY6 decided to do the ‘Somehow’ stage again. Wonpil said, “You guys, you have to sing really loudly. Sing like crazy” and said to the keyboard, “Do that one more time”, making everyone laugh. The second stage was completed with the addition of My Day’s powerful cheering, making it an even more exciting stage.


At the end of the performance, the DAY6 members expressed their sincere thanks. Wonpil said, “Thanks to My Day, we were able to endure. I sincerely thank you for allowing us to keep going. My Day‘s presence alone gave us the strength to keep going” and added, “An unforgettable performance for me. Our performance at Gocheok Sky Dome. He expressed his excitement by saying, “A day like this has come. Another memory has been made.” He continued, “Next year, we will do our best to continue to show you good music and good performances. We will work really hard to become a band DAY6 that you can be proud of. DAY6 will continue.”

Sungjin also said, “We were able to come this far thanks to all of you helping us a lot. I want to tell you that I sincerely love you. You are cooler than you think. You guys are really cool,” and added, “Thanks to you all, I had a great time today and had an unforgettable year. Let’s see each other again next year. ”Thank you so much for playing with us,“ he confessed.


Dowoon joked, ”As the performance grew, I feel sad that I couldn’t see all of your faces,“ and said, ”It can‘t always be good, but when it’s hard, I‘ll be there like a tree next to you, so come talk to us anytime. I’ll be waiting. I‘m really happy when I perform in front of you. I’m the happiest when I‘m on stage. When I see your happy expressions, I feel like, ’We‘re happy that we can give them good joy.’ I love you so much. I‘m 30, but I’ll work hard to become an artist who grows even more in the future.“

Young K said, ”Thank you My Day for making my dream come true. I hope you all are overflowing with love. Thank you. I love you,“ and added, ”2024 was a really meaningful year. DAY6 has been running really hard for a long time, and now this day has come. We are so grateful that we can continue to stand on stage like this. Thank you for allowing us to dream of the future again,” he confessed. He foreshadowed an even greater tomorrow, saying, “Our 10th anniversary next year is coming up soon, aren’t you excited? We are so excited too. We are already having a meeting. We are thinking about how we can have fun, so please look forward to it.”

DAY6, who decorated the end of 2024 with MY DAY, will continue their third world tour, ‘DAY6 3RD WORLD TOUR’ (Forever Young). All tickets to the concerts around the world, including Incheon in September, Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Surabaya, and Jakarta in October, Singapore in November, Bangkok from November to December, Hong Kong in January 2025, and Los Angeles and New York in April, have been sold out. With the series of additional performances and expansion of scale, the concert will continue in Kaohsiung on January 18-19, Hong Kong on February 25-26, Osaka on February 12-13, Tokyo on February 15-16, Manila on the 22nd, Sydney on April 6, Melbourne on the 9th, Auckland, New Zealand on the 12th, Los Angeles on the 16th-17th, and New York on the 19th.

Jung Hee-yeon, Donga.com reporter shine2562@donga.com
Photo|JYP Entertainment