Having the “Time of Our Life”

by The Cowl Editor on September 26, 2019


Arts & Entertainment


DAY6 Celebrates on Their ‘GRAVITY’ World Tour in Boston

by Sara Conway ’21 A&E Co-Editor

Promotional Poster DAY6 'GRAVITY' Tour
PHOTO COURTESY OF TICKETMASTER

“Tonight, Boston is a page in our lives, and you guys are all on that page.”

These were the words of Sungjin, the leader of the Korean pop-rock band DAY6, at the Boston show of their ‘GRAVITY’ world tour on Sept. 15 at the Orpheum Theatre. Their Boston performance landed on a special date as the 15th also marked the oldest member Jae’s birthday. 

The five-member Korean pop-rock group DAY6 is comprised of leader, rhythm guitarist, and vocalist Sungjin; guitarist and vocalist Jae; bassist, rapper, and vocalist Young K; keyboardist and vocalist, Wonpil; and drummer and youngest, Dowoon. DAY6 debuted under JYP Entertainment on September 7, 2015 with the mini album The Day. The band launched their Every DAY6 project in early 2017 when they released a song or two every month for about a year from January to November. As DAY6 gained more attention on the international music scene, they had their first fanmeet tour, DAY6 Live & Meet in North America in 2017 as well as the group’s first world tour titled DAY6 1st World Tour ‘Youth’ in 2018. 

DAY6 recently released their fifth mini album called The Book of Us: Gravity on July 15, featuring six new songs including the title song, “Time of Our Life.” A few months after the release, the band embarked on the United States leg of their second world tour, ‘GRAVITY,’ stopping first in New York City before traveling to Boston. The massive tour will take DAY6 across the United States, to Australia and parts of Asia in November, as well as to cities in Europe in the new year with a show in Madrid this January. 

When asked about the inspiration behind the lyrics of The Book of Us: Gravity in an interview with Billboard, Young K, the primary lyricist of the group, weighed in saying that they wanted to “focus more on human relationships” in their new album. Inspiration for the music in The Book of Us, therefore, came from things like “everyday conversations, how people live, how they talk, [and] the expressions they have on their faces.”

Young K also revealed the reason behind the name of the album in the Billboard interview. The “book” is a metaphor for a life, and, as Young K mentioned, The Book of Us: Gravity is a “story we write down as we live.” The title song of the album connects to the theme of the book of a life as well. While the English title is “Time of Our Life,” the Korean name translates to “So That It Becomes One of the Pages.” Young K expressed that he hopes that this song “can become one of your pages, a moment in your life, your book.”

DAY6 'GRAVITY' Members
PHOTO COURTESY OF JYP ENTERTAINMENT

DAY6 began writing a new chapter of their musical journey with the release of their new album, which indicated a new era for the band. Their last two albums of 2018 made up the “Youth” era. The Book of Us: Gravity places an emphasis on beginnings, demonstrated through DAY6’s brighter sound and their focus on everyday emotions in their lyrics. The slightly different sound of the album was prompted by DAY6’s desire to have “more concert music,” according to Jae in an MTV News interview. For this new feel, he refers particularly to “Best Part” and “Time of Our Life,” songs that contributed to sustaining the high-energy concert in Boston. 

The setlist of the ‘GRAVITY’ tour weaved together DAY6’s new music and songs from their previous eras. The band opened with “Best Part” from The Book of Us: Gravity, the song that concludes their latest mini album. Music from their first EP made frequent appearances such as their songs “Colors,” “Freely,” which closed the dynamic show, and “Congratulations,” DAY6’s debut song. The ‘GRAVITY’ tour proved to be a celebration of DAY6, a way to pay tribute to the books of their lives and the evolution of the band, as they had recently marked their fourth anniversary as a group earlier in September. 

As Sept. 15 was also Jae’s 27th birthday, the rest of the members of DAY6 and the fans—called My Day—made the show particularly memorable by singing “Happy Birthday” to him. Although special attention was placed on Jae as the birthday boy, the others of the band got the opportunity to perform solos for My Day and spotlight their instrumental skills throughout the two-and-a-half hour set. Eyes were then placed on the fans when Wonpil asked everyone to sing “Time of Our Life” as the members played the instrumentals, watching in awe as the theater was filled with My Day singing their Korean lyrics. 

The environment of pure energy that DAY6 created at their Boston concert allowed fans—and the members themselves—to let go of any of the stress, anxiety, or worries they had carried into the Orpheum Theatre before the show. As Wonpil said in his ending statement, “I feel like that there are hardships in life and without those hardships there [wouldn’t] be happy moments, but I hope that we can make music that will give you the strength to push through and overcome those hardships.” Emotional burdens were released through the high-energy performances that did not wane in the slightest—although DAY6 played 16 songs almost nonstop in two hours—and fans did not cease  to sing along or cheer. DAY6 and My Day, in fact, responded to each other’s excitement with increasing energy as the night went on. 

DAY6’s ‘GRAVITY’ concert celebrated something else besides a birthday and the existence of the group. The members of the band and the fans who came out to see them play were there for a connected reason: music. In Jae’s ending statement he contemplated the power of music saying, “I think that’s a beautiful thing; music is a beautiful thing.”

And the My Day of Boston there in the Orpheum Theatre that night wholeheartedly agreed.