KCON LA 2025: Day 1

 I waited until I had access to my laptop again before getting to work on this. I figured if I was going to do this little blog thing, I'd do it right, and while these won't be properly traditional reviews, I'd still like to share my thoughts, such as they are.

I'm going to preface this with saying that if y'all have been following this for a while, y'all know that I have opinions on certain things, but I also recognize that this is an incredibly difficult job that they do, and they deserve our respect because they have to put up with a lot and have to do a lot in order to have this profession. It's part of why I have frustrations with debuting minors, especially fifteen or younger, and with short songs and with bland songs. But in most instances, the idols are hella talented. It's just that they're not shown off well.

Now, if you're still reading and you're new here, welcome! If you're not new here, welcome back! 

Let's get into it! I yapped enough. Thank you for your patience. And the link immediately following their respective paragraphs go to YouTube. 

Our openers were Kik5o and 82MAJOR, which were two very different sounds. KIK5O has some dimples on her and a good voice that she showed off. And while 82MAJOR may not ever be on my favorite list of groups, I'll be watching their careers with curiosity.

Lee Youngji

I mostly know her as the drinking buddy that made Hoshi cry over the ice and for her part in Fighting by BSS, as well as being the rapper Hyolyn brought on for Queendom,  so I was absolutely not expecting that singing voice to come out of her. She also was pretty spectacular at working with the crowd which didn't surprise me a whole lot. I'm more surprised that I wasn't surprised, but it makes sense. She's gotten a lot of clout in a relatively short amount of time, and based on this, well-earned. 

She performed Small Girl and TELL ME!. 

izna

I'll cover the majority of their performance the day they actually had their stage, but they had a special stage where they covered Golden, made even more entertaining because of how this day opened up with Gwi-Ma himself looking for a new set of idols. I (with my ATEEZ light stick because I'd just been at the ATEEZ concert in Tacoma before KCon) made the joke that the idols he was looking for weren't there. It wasn't necessarily true, but I was still lingering in the ATINY loyalty and hadn't shaken it off yet. But I will say that I was impressed by them, though not as impressed as I was hoping to be. If you're going to cover what could be the hottest song of the year, you'd best be feeling it. I didn't get that sense from them. They could have been nervous for any number of reasons, but also given what this song is, I would have given it to one of the more experienced girl groups present this weekend. There were a few older than a year. (Alternatively, give it to Hwasa, Lily, and Miyeon. THAT could have been...something and would have fit perfectly with MNET's 30th anniversary. Top girl groups performing together with something you'll only see at KCon.)

Baby DONT Cry

One of the cutest things was when Hwasa introduced them as her younger sisters on the Artist Stage and had them perform during her time. Genuinely adorable. It was the next day, so I had already seen them, but it was still adorable. I also hadn't gotten around to doing their review, so this was my first encounter with the group (in less than a month from the date of this posting, three of the four will be eighteen or older, and the maknae turns seventeen by the end of the year). But my eyebrows were raised the entire time. It's fine when girl groups have the softer choreography, it's just not what I personally like to see. Baby DONT Cry? Wow. The dragging part of the choreography still makes me laugh when I see it. They're cute and playful in a way that matches their inexperience, without being needlessly cutesy. And even though they were obviously nervous, they did really well. 

They performed F Girl and Bet You'll Regret It.

IS:SUE

Again, we have a rookie girl group with surprisingly powerful choreography. Heck yeah. I thought this was a three member group, but one of them was apparently missing, which is a shame. Still, if this is what they were like with three, I imagine that four is more impressive. The other really cool thing I noticed was the light sticks. Because it was Day 1, there were a lot of...very distinct light sticks in the crowd of a very distinct color. And so while they started out pretty still, they did start moving pretty well as IS:SUE's performance went on. The crowd hyped for them well. 

They performed SHINING and Breaking Thru The Line.

NOWZ

These guys were one of my biggest curiosities this year. The thing is, I know I yap about xikers a lot, but I really only technically liked two of their songs, until I saw them live and in person. And with how much I want to like this group, I've been with them since debut, I was really hoping that this would be a repeat. I picked my favorite because where NU'EST would have gone straight to cheating so fast that the PDs heads would have spun, leader boy (because of course he's my favorite, I always love the leaders best) didn't act like he ever considered cheating even though he was so bad at the game they were playing. So endearing. I was also genuinely impressed by their performances, both at MCountdown and also when I'd come across them on the other stages. They weren't the steadiest of the rookies I saw, but I'm not worried about them. Once they hit year two, they'll be fine. Also, and this was actually where they seemed the most steady (hence why I'm not that worried), they did a performance of Maniac by Stray Kids. Wow. That was impressive, even with the difficulty of performing an eight member song with five. NOWZ are incredible dancers.

They performed Problem Child and EVERGLOW.

IVE

Moving on to more the experienced idols, I don't know if this got caught on camera, but there was a mic-on-mic collision and one of the member's mics hit the stage. Several of the members had shocked Pikachu faces. There was a surprised squeak. I laughed a little. I still laugh a little, thinking about it. But even with that, kudos to the members for recovering quickly or ignoring it, whichever camp they fell into. But, once again, we have a girl group with surprisingly powerful choreography. This pleases me. But the thing about that little bump is that it proved the mics were live, and I'm pretty sure I remember hearing the double voices of the back track and the live vocals.

They performed Rebel Heart, I AM, TKO, and ATTITUDE.

P1Harmony

I was pretty darn excited to see these guys again. Last year I was aware of them being Keeho's group and also of Soul being in the group, but other than that I didn't have much of an idea of anything that they did. After last year, I get excited every time I see them doing anything, even if they aren't one of the groups that I listen to often. Now, though, I imagine they put on a really good concert. So if you get a chance for them, I'd recommend taking it.

They Performed Street Star, Pretty Boy, and DUH!.

ZEROBASEONE

This is the group I'm most familiar with for Day 1, having watched Boys Planet and being able to name most of the members. Like P1Harmony, I just get excited any time they do anything and this time around, I was double checking to see if they were as good as I remembered or if I was swept up in the excitement last time. Friends, I was not just swept up in the excitement. They won for a reason. And I might get into a little bit of controversy for this, but honestly, I think Jiwoong and Ricky might be the most charismatic of the bunch. Jiwoong especially, and he seems to thrive on stage, so I'm glad for this experience. And if things go a certain way considering they're coming up on the end of their contracts, and this ends up being ZEROBASEONE's last KCon LA, then their very excellent performances will be a good memory and a good addition to my standards of performance. Also, I got to see them do my favorite song of theirs live (But not Day 1). The other thing I felt about ZEROBASEONE's constant presence the entire weekend was that it felt a little bit more of a shrine to them than I was expecting.

They performed BLUE, Feel the POP, Doctor! Doctor!, GOOD SO BAD.

NCT 127

And here we have the headliners, the big name, the final performance. The reason for all those very distinct light sticks. Did you guys know that they haven't had a release in the year that I've been doing this? I've covered Dream, WayV, and Wish. But I haven't done a 127 release because they haven't had one. To be fair, I also haven't done a U release either, but I don't know when the last time NCT U released anything. But the members of 127 that were there are a very impressive group of performers. They turn ten next year and you can tell. They know how to work the crowd and perform like this is all they've ever known, and they sound and look incredible while doing it. SM is the worst, but they certainly know how to train their idols. I feel like this may have been roughly the same setlist as we got last year, so I do know the songs a little better, but I was looking at the list of 127 songs that I have in my playlists yesterday. I don't even actively listen to them and I have twelve songs (I apparently really like U songs because I have a ton of them). I get that they (or SM or MNET, because let's be honest here) want to stick to the classics when they're not performing for NCTzens exclusively, such as at a concert, but they do have more songs than this. As is evidenced by the fact that not a single one of those songs are in my big playlist or my maybe setlist. I have to go into my angry work playlist to find 2 Baddies, and that's it. So that's where I'm at. Their performances are as always very strong. Disappointed by the setlist. (I personally was hoping for Vampire or LIMITLESS, which I don't think are obscure songs). And I still think I hear them say "boomslang" instead of "Bruce Lee".

They performed Kick It, Whiplash, Lemonade, Walk, 2 Baddies, and Fact Check.

Links to any reviews for the songs that I've done.

IVE: Rebel Heart, ATTITUDE

P1Harmony: DUH! 

ZEROBASEONE: GOOD SO BAD, Doctor! Doctor!, BLUE

(this may be updated later as I post reviews, but in the mean time, if you have any specific suggestions, The Form is always available for regular reviews of literally any song or GH or BBS. And I will be getting back to those, I'm working on a Stray Kids one).