[Recap] Best 7 Moments from B1A4's Road Trip to the U.S.

Last week B1A4 wrapped up their first U.S. solo tour, “Road Trip to U.S” with their final stop in San Francisco. The five boys began their 2014 B1A4 Road Trip with Taiwan in August, followed by stops in China, Philippines, Japan, Australia, and most recently, the United States.

Soompi had a chance to stop by and check out the boy bands’s first world tour. Join us in reliving the seven best moments of B1A4’s San Francisco tour! If you haven’t already, be sure to also check out B1A4’s shoutout to Soompiers & enter to win an autographed album!

1. Surprise, B1A4! A flash mob in the heart of San Francisco

After touring New York, Chicago, and Dallas, the boys were given a warm welcome to California with a flash mob!

Mnet America staff prepared the treat by asking B1A4 to sit on steps and record bits of them singing with a guitar. Little did they know, a group of dancers on standby, waiting to the perfect moment to surprise the idol group with choreographed medley of B1A4’s “Solo Day,” “Lonely,” and “What’s Happening.”

While Jinyoung, Sandeul, and CNU were left stunned and stuttering “wow,” Baro took the chance to jump in with the dancers in the fun! (Unfortunately Gongchan was resting from a cold and missed the flash mob). B1A4 saw what fans prepared on Friday, and now it was their turn step it up a notch and put on an unforgettable show.

2. “If your boyfriend is B1A4?”

It’s every fangirl’s wild dream to have their idol serenade them and shower them with back hugs and googly eyes. Lucky for one BANA, she had that dream come true!

As B1A4 stepped off stage for a costume change, the screen lit up with a behind-the-scene clip. While taking a break from concert rehearsal, Jinyoung sends lovey dovey text messages to his lover,  saying things like “Hi honey” and “thinking of me?” He asks her to come see him, but it appears she can’t, and so Jinyoung says “Okay! I’ll go to you!”

At this point, the staff tosses a handful of cell phones to the audience, and the girl who answered the ringing phone was pulled onto the stage! Wearing B1A4’s signature bean sprouts headband, the girl was seated on the stage and the jazzy track “Chu Chu Chu” began playing.

Leave it to B1A4 to take turns showering her with full on back hugs and squeezing their face next to hers during the chorus, leaving the audience screaming in jealousy and surprise.

3. Forget the backtrack. We have a live band

I have been to many K-Pop concerts, but this is the first time I’ve seen an idol group perform their entire setlist with a live band. And I have to say, it is pretty darn amazing.

Most audiences are familiar with concerts that use a backtrack throughout the entire show. The major plus side of a live band is that they work with the artist and audience to drum up energy and control the momentum.

4. No solo concert is complete without special stages

B1A4 prepared acoustic versions of many songs, including “Tried To Walk” with a piano accompaniment. As the lights dimmed to set a romantic mood, the boys took a seat on stools and leader Jinyoung got ready with his guitar. They showed off their English in a cover Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” followed by unplugged versions of “Wonderful Tonight” and “You Make Me a Fool.”

5. Get up! Let’s dance with B1A4

Asking the crowd “Shall we dance together?,” B1A4 prepared a very simple choreography for the audience to dance along with during the chorus of “Who Am I.”

Concerts are fantastic because you are in a room with other fans who want to sing, dance, and enjoy the music with each other. I’m sure fans would take that over listening to K-Pop alone in a room with headphones, resisting the urge to dance!

6.  Not your typical encore chant

Rather than defaulting to the usual “encore, encore” chant, the audience gave the encore a special BANA-touch by chanting “B1A4.”

7. There’s no such thing as too much fan service

While performing “Pretty,” B1A4 paused the stage and asked the audience: “Who’s the most beautiful tonight?” Baro boasted “I think I’m the cutest one here,” but followed up by looking into the audience, saying “I think everyone looks so beautiful” and admitted that the song was created while thinking of BANA.

Baro also the audience to please take a lot of pictures, upload them to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and introduce B1A4 to their friends.

B1A4 also did a fantastic job with speaking plenty of English to the delight of the American audience. Giving their closing thanks, they said “Thank you for coming to our concert. [We are] very touched by our BANA friends. We have to be back next year. Please come to the tour and support us!”

B1A4 is on the next leg of their tour with “Road Trip in Japan” which runs October 16-20. You can catch up on all their adventures with “Go! B1A4: Road Trip” series on Mnet America’s YouTube page.

Still haven’t had enough B1A4? There are also behind-the-scene videos accompanying the Mnet America series on B1A4’s YouTube channel. After all, you don’t want to miss out on Sandeul’s reaction to a seagull stealing his ice cream!

Thanks to Mnet America and Powerhouse for this opportunity!