Highlight’s “Lights Go On, Again” concert on Saturday looked different from most other K-pop concerts; several fans carried two lightsticks. Fully aware of this, the members asked fans to turn off the lightbulb-shaped Highlight lightsticks so they could enjoy looking at the other rose-shaped lightsticks.

This only meant one thing — Beast was back.

“So Beast! Hello, we are Beast!” The quartet — Yoon Du-jun, Yang Yo-seop, Lee Gi-kwang and Son Dong-woon — energetically introduced themselves again, merely an hour after calling themselves members of Highlight during the concert held Saturday afternoon at the KSPO Dome in Songpa District, southern Seoul.

“You guys can also shout the name as much as you wish,” Yoon said as fans responded by shouting back, “So Beauty! Hi, we are B2uty!”

The three-day-long “Lights Go On, Again” concert was the first time that the four members of Highlight were able to officially call themselves Beast, after Highlight came to an agreement in April with Cube Entertainment to use its original name. While the members were able to perform past Beast releases prior to the agreement, they were not able to use the name. Therefore, the band had to have a second debut under the new name Highlight, change their fandom name from B2uty to Light and make a new lightstick.

As the members asked fans to turn off the Highlight lightsticks, a considerable amount of fans proudly held up their Beast lightsticks. While the venue wasn’t filled with them, the faded and dimly lit Beast lightsticks brought back past memories; many fans were emotional, with some trying to hide their tears.

“You know, my memory might be wrong, but didn’t people call it the molar lightstick [due to its shape]?” Yang said, making both the members and the audience laugh.

“It feels special to have you guys use the ‘molar lightstick’ once again after 15 years.”

The meaningful concert was matched with a meaningful structure. The band first performed 10 songs released under Highlight’s name such as “Switch On", “Alone" (2022) and “Calling You" (2017). Then the members performed the lead track from Highlight's debut, the upbeat hit "Plz Don't Be Sad" (2017), and reintroduced themselves as Beast to launch into a series of Beast's hit songs.

“We thought of an overall narrative flow with the set list,” Son explained. “At first, we only sang Highlight songs, representing our present, then we sang Beast songs that show our past, and we will soon be showing the future of Highlight, too.”

Beast’s past releases such as “Bad Girl” (2009), “Shock” (2010) and “Breath” (2010) were all met with big cheers, which only got louder as the concert continued, worthy of being the highlight — no pun intended — of the concert. The band’s performances of “On Rainy Days” (2011), “Fiction” (2011), “I Like You the Best” (2010) and more were further reminders of the band’s long list of hit releases from the past.

“We have a certain decibel level we expect when we perform ‘Bad Girl’ — the sound of cheering penetrates through our in-ear earpieces,” Yang said. “And your cheers always exceed our expectations. I can tell that this is a meaningful song for you guys as much as it is for us.”

The concert also saw Beast members singing short verses of “Freeze” (2011), “Clenching A Tight First” (2010), “YeY” (2015), “Though I Call Your Name” (2011), “One Day” (2014), “We Up” (2014), “Drive” (2014) and “Oasis” (2009) unprepared, upon fans' request, even when that sometimes meant that members mumbled the lyrics as they struggled to remember them.

The fan interaction section of the concert during the intermission also showed that Highlight — and Beast — had a lively and ever-expanding fan base. Friday’s concert saw the bandmates looking for the youngest member of the crowd, which turned out to be seven-year-old and 10-year-old fans of Highlight.

“I really thought someone born in 2014 would be the youngest, but I was surprised to see a seven-year-old baby who came to the concert with their mom,” Yoon said.

Saturday’s concert looked for fans living the closest and farthest from the concert venue: fans who lived the closest came from the dormitories of Korea National Sport University — mere hundreds of meters away from the KSPO Dome — followed by fans who came from Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Ukraine, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia and the United States.

The 3.5-hourlong concert ended with the two different songs titled “How to Love.” The band first performed the song from Highlight’s latest album followed by Beast’s “How to Love” from 2013.

“I think we first performed at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in 2012, as we held our first encore concert. And if someone asked me back then if I would be able to hold a concert here 15 years later, I probably would’ve said ‘I’m not sure,’ and think that it would probably be difficult to do so,” Yoon said.

“This is why I want to make more happy memories in the times to come, with Highlight members and Beast members, and with B2uty and Light.”

To find out more about Highlight, visit Celeb Confirmed!

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]