By Hasan Beyaz
Photos by Ryan Coleman
Islington Assembly Hall is not a small room, but by the time JUSTB took the stage on 12 March for their first-ever London show, it felt like one. Five years since debut, their first time in London – and not a trace of a group finding their feet.
They looked the part immediately. Dressed in pieces from SURGERY – oversized white jumpsuits, distressed denim, layered outerwear – there are no matching outfits or coordinated idol presentation. It’s six people who clearly know exactly who they are; this is a group performing on their own terms.
That confidence has a sound now. The group's recent pivot to hyperpop – loud, leary, physically demanding – has given them a sonic identity that matches the scale of their ambition.
GEONU acknowledged the shift directly from the stage: "It's been since last year we kind of switched our sound with the genre. The hyper-pop shit." The crowd responded like they'd been waiting to hear someone say it out loud.
The energy from the off is relentless. Opening on "TRUE HEART" and moving quickly through "DOOM x3" and "SNOW ANGEL," they establish the template early: maximum output, zero coasting. The floor shakes not metaphorically, but physically – bodies jumping in a room that probably wasn't built for this kind of audience participation. K-pop concerts have historically been associated with fancam choreography and polite fan engagement. This is the opposite. The crowd is loud, physical, and completely in it.
The stage production, while minimal, earns its place too. The lighting – smoky and atmospheric – makes Islington Assembly Hall feel bigger than it is. To close the opening run, the group simply stops, lets the lights come up, and stands in poses. It's an arena-level trick deployed in a mid-size room, and it works completely. The crowd doesn't stop cheering.
Before the solos, GEONU takes a moment to just talk. He admits he'd heard British food was bad – met with loud jeers – before quickly clarifying he hasn't actually tried it yet and asking the crowd to recommend somewhere for fish and chips. Someone shouts back that the worse it looks, the better it tastes. "That's a really helpful comment," he deadpans. It's a small thing, but it matters. The crowd relaxes into it. The atmosphere shifts from concert to something more communal, and that ease carries through everything that follows.
The solo section is where the show finds another gear entirely. After JIMIN’s cover of “Forever and Ever and Always”, SIWOO enchants with a keshi cover, and it's a study in pure vocal control. DY follows with something rawer: a rock-flavoured original that reads as an ode to your twenties, fans uploading footage later under the title "Dear my 20s." It lands with a different kind of weight.
GEONU's solo arrives via YouTube’s survey ad music as an intro – tongue-in-cheek and very online. His set, known among fans as "ad / alarm," sees him step down into the crowd halfway through, moving through the room under smoky red and blue lighting that makes the whole thing feel like a fever dream. Oreo hair, leather jacket, big shades and lots of chains – he just looks absurdly cool.
SANGWOO then takes the stage alone – aggressively electronic, festival-at-2am energy – before GEONU reappears as an unannounced addition. Together they close with "Love Interaction," fan-titled but the reaction it gets is unambiguous. SANGWOO is in full hype mode, stretched vocals, constant crowd calls to “let’s go! Let’s go!”, and the kind of live dynamic that reminds you why people still go to concerts in 2026.
BAIN closes the sequence and shifts the atmosphere of the whole room. A ten-minute Lady Gaga medley – "Abracadabra," "Judas," "Scheiße" – delivered in knee-high heels, drawing comparisons to Gaga's own recent MAYHEM BALL. It's euphoric and deliberately so.
There's an emotional charge to watching someone inhabit their influences this completely and this publicly, and the crowd is entirely with him. Whatever the set had been before, it becomes something else entirely in this moment.
Then, without warning, it pivots again. "Hoodie" and "Han Geol Eum Man" pull the group into indie rock territory – moodier, more restrained, the stage picture suddenly static and cinematic where it had been kinetic. It's a genuine gear change, and it lands because they've already proved they can do everything else. The versatility just seems to be who they are.
What keeps it from tipping into chaos is the talent holding it together. SANGWOO is the most commanding presence – stretching his range across the set, adlibbing an elongated note during the climax of "Hoodie" that doesn't exist on the recorded version. It's the kind of moment that reminds you this isn't just performance, it's craft. GEONU operates differently: less demonstration, more gravity. He moves around the stage like the room arranged itself around him, and somehow it feels true.
The closing remarks linger. GEONU spoke about hardship plainly before urging the crowd to believe in themselves and the people around them. JIMIN drew on a Korean expression about a mother's unconditional presence, reframing it for the room: wherever you go, whatever you do, this moment and this energy travels with you. BAIN was the most personal. "Everyone has their own hard times," he said. "I had a hard time too, but because of all of you, I just survived bit by bit." He called himself the “mother” of the room, half-laughing, fully meaning it. It was an emotional way to end a concert and their debut foray into the European live scene. It was exactly right.
JUSTB are now heading into the North American leg of the AQUA HALO 2026 tour. London was long overdue, and it delivered. This is a group in motion – and on the evidence of Thursday night, wherever they go next, the room won't be ready either.