[Events] Cityscapes — New Horizons In London: An Unforgettable Night with GAHO & KAVE

Hello and welcome back to HallyuTones – always focused on sound, stage and substance.

You might have heard of Gaho from the Itaewon Class phenomenon a few years ago. With the massive success of OST Part. 2 “Start Over”, Gaho made himself known to not only the K-Drama enthusiasts, but also the mainstream audience for his gem of a voice. Becoming established with more OSTs like ‘Come to Me’ for While You Were Sleeping and ‘Running’ for Start Up allowed Gaho to branch out with his own musical productions, which also led to the forming of KAVE, a 5-piece rock band in 2024, comprised of Kekinu (drums), Jisang (guitar), Hyun (piano, keyboard), and Ownr (keyboard, DJ) and fronted by Gaho himself.

KAVE opened a new chapter in Gaho’s musical journey, this time with his beloved friends, and together they have produced the EPs ‘Flight of Ideas’ and ‘Say My Name’. With Cityscapes — New Horizons, the five embark on a journey visiting a total of seven European cities, London being the final stop of the tour, and what a finale that was!

Gaho wasted no time in pumping up the compact venue that is ‘The Underworld London’, which he emphasised multiple times, ‘I can see all your faces so clearly that y’all will know if I mess up’, he jokes. ‘It’s okay!’ fans shouted in response, reassuring the artist to give his all for the night, while Gaho definitely returned the favour ten-fold.

The band dived into the set with ‘Beautiful Night’ and ‘High’, waves of applause one after another towards Gaho’s effortless high notes. Energy heightened at the anticipated ‘Start Over’, with the London crowd delivering the iconic chants in the song. We were also blessed with a reworked ballad outro, and Gaho complimenting the crowd’s singing-along in Korean.

A skit between Gaho and his best mate Hyun on the keyboard drew laughs from the crowd, as the pair kept bringing joy to the fans with their interactions throughout the night, before bringing us his most recent single ‘To Mars’. Despite the song only coming out 10 days ago, the London crowd managed a sing-along almost word for word, putting their mobile flashlights on. This culminated in a beautiful moment when the artist expressed gratitude at the end, ‘thank you so much for singing along!’.

Before performing his debut single, ‘Stay Here’, Gaho mentions having written this song with Hyun when they were 20 years old, while also being the first song they wrote together. With this new layer of reminiscence, the live version was made so much more special with Hyun’s beautiful piano arrangement. Then, the venue fell silent and spotlight all on Hyun as he indulged in a piano solo, going aggressive towards the end transitioning us into the later half of the night.

KAVE unleashed the inner-rock souls within the London crowd with tracks like ‘Venom ‘and ‘Die For U‘, filling the venue with electrifying energy and gleeful screams. ‘This venue is like a club, so you guys should just play like you’re in a club!’ Gaho comments, now in his black tank and wet from splashing water during the songs. As we braced for not one, but two unreleased songs from the band, we got to choose which one is going to be the title song.

It was neck-to-neck given the absolute metal reactions from the crowd, with groovy dances, headbops, and even barks amidst it all. Gaho invited a fan onstage for their barking during ‘Dangerous‘, a moment that was just so wholesome and won the biggest cheers of the night.

With closing ments from each member from the band, we were heading towards the last few songs, and the crowd certainly continued to rock until the end.

Gaho delivered a heartfelt speech, ‘This is my band KAVE and I hope we can do this for a long time together, we’re bunch of lucky guys to go to place to almost another side of the world and have you sing along – we will do everything in our great power to be able to repay you with great music.’ With that, he came into the crowd for ‘STONE ‘and ‘Right Now‘ and kept singing even with music stopped, refusing to end this wild night.

At last, Gaho and KAVE promised to come back soon, with the crowd responding with the loudest cheers. Mutual gratitude was definitely found between the artist and his fans; London is already awaiting their return.