I’m a Korean-American, and this sold-out K-pop concert in Charlotte took me by surprise
I know a little something about wild, sudden, unexpected shifts.
I was born in Korea, but raised in the U.S., and only recently — like, say, within the past year or two — have I made any sort of effort to engage with Korean culture.
Long story short, I wrote an essay reflecting on being adopted after decades of virtually zero reflection; that led me to a remarkable story about adopted twin sisters from Korea; we became friends, which in a roundabout way led me to returning to Korea for the first time last year; and in the process I’ve become way more interested in Korea than ever before.
I can see how this transformation could appear to be intentional to some, and like an accident to others. But in any event, I’m continuing to evolve in this respect.
Last year, I started to try to learn the language. (And, last year, I mostly stopped trying to learn it. Note to self: Korean is HARD.)
Not too long after that, I started periodically attending Sunday services at a Korean church. (Began going, mainly, to get some exposure to the language. Have continued going, mainly, because the people are so nice.)
I’ve also been making a concerted effort to seek out more Korean food; I’ve even prepared my own kimchi. And while yes, I realize that this almost doesn’t count now because the show has practically been co-opted by America (see: tie-in ads with Domino’s Pizza and Duolingo), I’ve watched the second season of “Squid Game” once and the first season of “Squid Game” twice.
The U.S., of course, has also been invaded by K-pop, so I’ve also been listening more and more of it, with earworms like Jennie’s “Mantra” and Rosé’s “Apt.” leading the way.
But up till Saturday night, I’d never been exposed to K-pop music in a live setting.
Not just any live setting, either. We’re talking the city’s largest indoor venue. Home to the NBA’s Hornets. A place where Taylor Swift and Beyoncé and Billy Joel have performed.
In fact, it’s actually somewhat difficult to fathom that the Gen Z girl group known as aespa — just the second K-pop act to headline Spectrum Center (Tomorrow X Together was the first, in 2023) — could do what it just did here. That is, pack the uptown arena with about 11,000 fans despite being virtually unknown to anyone not familiar with K-pop.
Even its most devoted followers would have to admit that this all has happened awfully quickly for the quartet of women with video-game-ready nicknames: Giselle, Karina, Ningning and Winter. Consider, for instance, that the artist the Grammys crowned as the best NEW one of 2024 — Chappell Roan — started cutting her teeth in the industry more than 10 years ago; then consider that aespa didn’t exist until November 2020, many months into the pandemic.
Since then, K-pop has become keun geolae in the U.S. (Translation: a big deal. I think that’s what it means, at least.)
And while BTS, Blackpink and the solo careers of members of those two groups have led the way, in just over four years aespa has cranked out a relentless onslaught of dance-trance-hip-hop-pop-inflected hits that have turned them into megastars seemingly overnight.
I mean, the group’s first fully formed studio album, “Armageddon,” came out less than nine months ago.
So let me rephrase my initial statement: It’s insane, really, that an upstart like aespa sold out the biggest indoor venue in Charlotte, with some tickets commanding upwards of $1,000 in the hours before the show. It’s so crazy, in fact, that at times on Saturday night it seemed like the ones struggling the most to adjust to aespa’s extraordinary rise to fame were the members of aespa.
Especially in the early going. For the first three songs, while dressed in glittery white tutus and burlesque-inspired tops, they looked like deer — scratch that — divas caught in headlights.
I think part of it was the fact that they started out only making direct eye contact with the camera dead-ahead of them, without engaging with or even acknowledging the crowd screaming back at them as they adhered to strict choreography through songs like “Drama,” “Black Mamba” and “Salty & Sweet.” Twin 35-foot-tall video screens gave them no place to hide, either, with close-up shots giving a cold, overly rehearsed feel to the proceedings.
But over the course of the next two-plus hours — as fans waved aespa lightsticks, tried gamely to replicate the group’s moves during an extended dance-cam session, and loudly “woof, woof, woof”ed at them after every performance — that all seemed to melt away.
It’s as if someone told them during one of their five costume changes to listen up, and it’s also as if they listened.
Maybe it was the pink hoodies, which the four came out wearing at the concert’s exact halfway point before launching into “Spicy” and (appropriately) “Pink Hoodie,” the 13th and 14th songs in a set that would include 24.
But from that point on, their performances took on a casual-ness that matched those outfits, even after they changed back out of them.
They laughed more, goofed off more, elbowed each other in the ribs more, hugged more, and diverted from choreography to get some individual grooves on more, while seeming to lip-sync less (after doing a whole lot of it in the beginning). By the time they said their long last goodbyes at the end, the four of them felt like different people from the ones who had robotically stepped onto the stage 2 hours and 20 minutes earlier.
It was so dramatic I started to wonder whether the shift was an accident or by design.
Then I thought about the wild, sudden, unexpected turn my own journey has taken, stopped trying to puzzle out theirs, and appreciated the experience for what it was: another opportunity to engage with Korean culture.
I look forward to seeing where aespa goes from here — and to seeing more K-pop in Charlotte.
aespa’s setlist
1. “Drama”
2. “Black Mamba”
3. “Salty & Sweet”
4. “Supernova”
5. “Mine”
6. “Die Trying”
7. “Flights, Not Feelings”
8. “Better Things”
9. “Dopamine”
10. “UP”
11. “Bored!”
12. “Spark”
13. “Spicy”
14. “Pink Hoodie”
15. “Hold on Tight”
16. “Live My Life”
17. “We Go”
18. “Whiplash”
19. “Set the Tone”
20. “Next Level”
21. “Armageddon”
Encore:
22. “ænergy”
23. “Just Another Girl”
24. “Life’s Too Short”
This story was originally published February 9, 2025 at 12:49 PM.
