I’ve been a fan of Kpop girl group Aespa since their debut back in the dark old Covid days of 2020. That first track, Black Mamba, was quite a statement, as was the video. It set up their Kwangya vision of a metaverse world inhabited by their cyber doppelgangers, and introduced the main villain, the title snake character. Because they were a four member group, featuring Karina, Winter, Giselle and Chinese member Ningning, and the song sounded a bit like Blackpink, a lot of their fans ‘Blinks’ were threatened by them. I remember all the hate they spewed for Aespa and their new song on social media. And it kept up with each new release. When second song, Next Level, dropped in 2021, the ante had been upped, because it was clearly one of the best, most audacious songs of the year. All four members sang and rapped with attitude and style, and the song really showcased main singers Ningning and Winters’ superb vocal skills. There was a dramatic beat drop in the middle of the song, which took it in a completely direction, before coming back to the main theme for the ending. Car manufacturer, Hyundai, even took notice and featured a version of it in an ad for one of its latest model cars. It pretty much silenced the Blinks.
One of the things I’ve really loved about the group is their occasional existential songs. It’s in the titles: Dreams Come True, Life’s Too Short, Better Things, YOLO (you only live once). In the Kpop world where song lyrics can be light and fluffy indeed, songs about the meaning of existence are kinda rare. One of my favourite memories is to do with that first one. I’d just done an interview for what I hoped would be my first library job (I wanted it so bad), and was driving my work van to yet another bread delivery destination, when the phone rang. It was the interviewer about the job – I got it! Then the next song on my playlist came up, and it was Dreams Come True. You better believe it. So you see, for all these things and more, it was really important to me to see Aespa when they came out here.
I’ve already detailed in the Diary the tortuous, seat of the pants path I took to get to the concert, so let’s take it from there. I arrived at the venue, Rod Laver Arena, nearly half an hour late. That includes the time it took to grab some merch – an Aespa t-shirt (very important). When I got into the packed stadium and found my seat the girls were doing the song Long Chat, from the new album, Armageddon. I’d missed performances of Drama, Black Mamba and Supernova, but it didn’t seem to matter. I was finally here, and that was enough. I can’t emphasise enough how happy I was just to be there. Later, at home, I saw the footage I’d missed on Youtube, where someone had kindly put it up for our enjoyment. It was nice to have my curiosity satisfied, with the gap filled retrospectively. But, like I said, it was no big deal.
I was up on the second tier balcony, stage right. It was a long way from the stage, but still a good view. And there was always those large video screens to get the details of what the girls were doing. I settled in to enjoy the rest of the concert; but no sooner was Long Chat finished that the girls left the stage for what was the second of their intermissions. Good timing! There were a number of these throughout the concert and I’ve read a lot of comment online about how annoying and mood-killing these were, and I agree. They were mainly marked by so-called ‘lore’ video footage of the group in various situations that didn’t add up to much beyond what I’d call psychodrama. The crowd mostly sat quiet and patiently waited for the girls to return. I noticed the girl sitting in the seat in front of me always grabbed her phone at these time (as did a lot of the crowd). I saw her scrolling through her film footage in stills mode and selecting the best shots. People don’t take still photos of concerts much now: it’s much more efficient to film the action with your high quality phone and then pick the best shots from there.
When they returned it was for their solo numbers, starting with Giselle. These were fun, and I didn’t know they would happen, and certainly didn’t know the songs. Online commentators later pointed out they were lip synching during this segment (and other parts of the show), which is disappointing, but I didn’t notice or mind at the time. Hold On Tight, Armageddon, Spicy and We Go went off with a blast, with the latter fueling much ‘ooh ooh’ crowd participation. The pyrotechnics and light show were amazing. The group had back up dancers working their cute butts off for them too.
Strangely, there was no extended stage, as there had been for Twice when I saw them here. The girls didn’t interact a lot with the crowd, though there were a couple of ments and some close up mugging to the crowds at the sides. It was mostly up to Giselle, the only fluent English speaker, to connect with us. She did a good job; but there’s only so much you can do if you’re four relatively small women reaching out to a crowd of about 30,000. And it doesn’t help if that crowd is fairly restrained and conservative to begin with. So, this wasn’t Thin Lizzy in 1981 at Festival Hall. I wasn’t standing on my seat, playing air guitar and singing along loudly to every line. It was something else. Something more sedate, but still enjoyable. There was connection: I was there with all the others, sharing the moment with Aespa. It was enough.
Aespa’s virtual mentor Naevis (a CGI character, part of their Kwangya story) made an appearance on the screen with a song of her own called Done, and I liked that a lot. Reminded me of other idol avatars like Sharon Apple of Macross Plus and virtual Kpop group Mave. This is a trend I’d like to see continue. The group came back after Naevis and did one of my favourites from the new album, Bahama. I was surprised they’d do that live, as it’s one of their most atypical songs. The crowd reaction wasn’t great, but I appreciated it. They didn’t do any of the existential songs. No Dreams Come True or Better Things for me then. No Savage, either. Just goes to show their repertoire is such now they can leave out some of their best songs and still have a full and satisfying set list.
There isn’t much else I want to say about this. It wasn’t the greatest concert. I felt a certain disconnect with the staging and the pacing of the show. But that may just be me being tired and jaded – and sitting up in the balcony, away from the action. I was just glad to be there. I can’t emphasise that enough. I WAS GLAD TO BE THERE…