KCON LA Day 1 - Concert

Just after 4p I left the convention hall to find some dinner. There was a mall a just two train stops north of me where I had Korean chicken and rice bowl. The shop, Ranch & Maple, was playing k-pop music videos and were were kind to hold my food hot while I figured out the mall restroom access - city bathroom situations are always hostile!

(I think it’s funny how many ampersands were in the last 24 hours on my cc statement: Salt & Straw, Pine & Crane, Ranch & Maple, all for &TEAM)

I freshened up and fetched my lightstick from my hotel room, then walked 5 minutes to the concert at the Crypto Arena around the corner. I breezed through security and still had some time to knit before the show started.

This was so fun! My seats were great considering KCON LA is always in the round. I hate shows in the round. I researched which side is typically “front” when I bought tickets and luckily that hadn’t changed. When they faced me, which was about 60% of the time, I had a great view!

By the way, I’ve been watching KCON performances for years and years. I’ve seen some stages in this very arena dozens of times. It was cool to be in this famous spot. Because they film these for the channel, I can link the stages for you to see! Look close and maybe you’ll see me in the audience ;-) Sometimes I linked the short 1 min set summary, sometimes the full song.

Let’s goooo, it’s &TEAM TIME!! These guys dominated. There were a lot of Lune in the audience for sure. K is such a unique dancer. For a tall gangly guy his lines are impeccable. I like a of them but he’s a strong bias for sure.

[TWO songs] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or8SKB4daOI). Gah! Too short! I’m so glad I saw them earlier in the day too. They did a BTS collab stage with Santos Bravos and it’s the only time I’ve enjoyed Permission to Dance.

The next exciting stage was the reunion of WannaOne! This TV contest group from 2017 includes Minhyun - former member of Nu’est and actor in one of my favorite Kdramas [Study Group] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjynjYD4psg&pp=ygUac3R1ZHkgZ3JvdXAga2RyYW1hIHRyYWlsZXI%3D). They did their big hit [Energetic] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fAl0iCnGp8) and the crowd was hyped! I’ve repeatedly watched their original 2017 KCON LA performance so this was very cool to witness.

Finally the headliner NCT 127 took the stage. Listen, I used to be a huge NCT fan. Sadly their group has fractured as a result of bad management, military service leave, and a few scandals. Plus they had a spell of truly terrible music. But I’m still very fond of the old stuff and Taeyong was my first bias ever.

I had my lightstick from the NCT DREAM concert, letting me wave neon green with all the other nctizens.

Everyone came out to wave good-bye and the show ended. I walked across the street and tumbled into bed. What a great day!