KCON LA Day 3 · Rainy Morning

I had a ticket for the convention today but found no reason to attend. There were other, more exciting places to visit in LA with fewer lines. I took my time getting dressed and then walked a few blocks to Muffin Can Stop Us for breakfast

View from my hotel room 9:20am, the line wrapped around the block

Security robot doing his rounds outside the shop

Unlike a regular concert, they don’t sell artist merch at KCON except a few con-themed items. I went to Koreatown for some proper fan merch and perhaps lunch. I popped into Kpop Toss on my way to the mall and it turned out to be the best store! They had an incredible array of photocards and albums - old and new! I was impressed by their stock in less popular groups. they had albums I’ve never seen in person! I got Ben some photocards of his hard-to-find members and my favorite TXT album, Blue Hour.

Across the street in the mall there were a few more stores, including Music Plaza, from where I have bought lightsticks online. I found a restroom (remarkably unlocked and not a disaster scene!) and then walked up to Wilshire for more stores. I was hunting for &TEAM merch and sadly found none.

So tempted by the Seventeen Wonwoo keyboard....

On the north end I went to Monty's Good Burger for fries/tots and a vegan strawberry shake.

AmazeVR makes short music concerts for movie theaters. They’re very limited engagement, touring from city to city and mostly in Asia. Only one came to Denver and I couldn’t attend (I think it was Ateez?). I ordered an at-home kit for the TXT VR concert and it was sort of meh because it uses a phone for the screen. Kinda blurry and not very effective. I was curious to attend a real VR movie and, what do you know, &TEAM have one that’s screening in DTLA for two weeks while I’m here!

When I mentioned to Ben that I might try the VR show as an alternative to attending the con he enthusiastically encouraged me to try it. At the very least, sitting in air conditioning for an hour would be a relaxing.

I’m so happy I did! It ended up being a really cool experience. The VR was very effective, it felt surreal and real. The sound and camera work were great. The other attendees were fun (maybe TOO fun - there was a lot of shrieking and even sobbing throughout). If I get the chance to do this again I’ll definately attend! (right after my trip Enhypen announced a new VR concert and whomp whomp, it’s not coming anywhere near Denver - boo!

I walked to pick up dinner and dessert to eat in my room.

This last concert was the most disappointing. Remember that pin in “good seats?” When I booked tickets everyone said they do a pretty good job of facing both directions. AXS ticketing doesn’t let you select from a map, they randomly assign you a seat in the price zone. I couldn’t get it to assign a lower bowl seat on the “front.” I finally settled for a lower bowl seat in the rear. It was priced the same as my ticket on the first night and everyone said it would be great. It was NOT. The majority of the show was facing the wrong way. I tried to get over this and just enjoy the experience, but I couldn’t. Maybe three concerts in a row is too much and I was just tired. I was salty that this clearly inferior seat cost the same as the front. Also the groups DID do a better job switching on the first night. I swear it was split 60/40 Friday, and 80/20 Sunday. So here I was, amped to see TXT, the group I wanted to see on tour next, and they only performed ONE song facing me! Gah!! I was so upset. Anyway. Rant over.

Onepact are a "nugu" boy group (literally "who?") They were pretty good, but their music is forgettable.

Dance stage with Riehata, famed Japanese choreographer

NEXZ are a JYP-Japan group formed on TV (same with &TEAM under Hybe). I like a few of there songs, including mmchk. Their live dancing was great!

Bonus points for facing me during mmchk!

Alpha Drive One are a newer boy group, same TV show contest that formed Zerobaseone. I don’t care for them but they had a lot of fans, including my seat neighbor, and they have cool steering wheel shaped lightsticks.

The girl group Rescene is a couple years old and Ben keeps a watch on them, he likes most of their music. This year they had a runaway hit over the summer and got promoted to a more prominent spot at KCON.

AllDay Project is a co-ed dance and rap group.

MEOVV (pronounced "meow" but I can only say "me-yohv) They're alright. A couple years old. No huge hits, but my Saturday Zumba has one of their songs in our playlist.

Evan is formerly Heeseung of Enhypen. He was my favorite performer up until he suddenly (and suspciously) left last spring to pursue a solo career. Makes no sense, we’re obviously missing a bigger story. He only had three songs out by KCON, I thought it was weird he even came. But a lot of the crowd were there just to see him. His songs bore me. I’m still a huge Enhypen fan without him (especially their summer release Bloody Paradise!)

Alpha Drive One came back to perform a cover of BTS Fake Love.

JO1 are well-established Japanese group. Their music doesn't work for me but they turn out some good dance performances. They got bonus points for wearing oversized hot pink clothes and for facing my side for a dance song.

Finally it’s time for Tomorrow X Together aka TXT! I was so hyped!! I love most of their music AND they are great dancers. They have a unique sound. Soobin is my bias and I was really excited to see them all live. Me and the crowd were READY:

Behold this beautiful fancam I shot from my expensive seat:

Selfie with the group! (from the back...) and then they performed Good Boy Gone Bad walking about the stage and dancing the chorus with their back to me.

I'll See You There Tomorrow (from the back)

Facing me again! But for Anti-Romantic as a standing ballad

So What performed walking about the stage

And finally another favorite song, Loser = Lover. Behold my fancam!

And then they left. That was it?? Nine songs, TWO songs facing me and one is a freakin’ ballad???? I was super disappointed. Time for the wave goodbye.

Hmm, TXT are on the front side. At least they do a lap before exiting so I can see--

huh, nope. They walked stage-left and exited without coming along the backside. SIGH.

Bummer that the last show was so disappointing. Perhaps I was overtired. But I ended the day feeling like the VR movie was a better concert experience than this.

The trip confirmed 3 things I suspected were true: I hate standing GA floor I hate shows in the round Music Festivals are not worth it unless you want to see MOST of the artists, not just one or two.

Luckily that last point was true for me. It was crazy how many groups I got to see that I actively follow, let alone passively enjoy! There were even some I didn’t post about - Ko1keyz, from20 and HelloGloom, So!YoON, and a bunch of actor presenters. If I had come soley for TXT or &TEAM I would have been supremely disappointed. Instead I got to see many new stages from groups I like a lot!

I look forward to seeing TXT properly on tour. They’ve already announced US stops for spring 2027, so it might be soon.