[K-Concert Review] KCON’12: The KPOP Fan Experience

The American KPOP fan community was given an amazing gift last weekend: an event to call our own!  KCON ’12 delivered on their promise, giving KPOP fans a way to not only experience Hallyu, but be immersed in it.

It’s been difficult up until now to truly feel like America is a part of the global Hallyu movement.  Although it’s quite obvious that we are and we are lucky enough to have plenty of KPOP events in the Southern California area each year, most successful events felt like they were planned with a Korean audience in mind.  For the first time, it truly felt like it was our day!

The panels provided a great way for attendees to get exciting and rare insight directly from the industry.  Through the interactive sessions, various contests, and fanclub booths, fans had a platform to connect through their passions, a rare opportunity for KPOP fans that mostly connect through online venues.

All in all, the convention part of the day really gave a vision of community.  Walking through the crowd, the electrifying feeling of pure excitement and joy – that feeling each fan has felt before when she/he first discovered KPOP, was palpable.   Seeing fans dressed up in their best KPOP cosplay, waving around their sparkly bias poster signs, and piling on the fandom wristbands on any other day would seem silly, but at KCON ’12, it was the norm.  Even if your favorite group wasn’t in attendance, it sure was nice to be in a place where everyone else was a passionate fangirl or boy.

Even after spending 9 long hours experiencing the convention, the crowd at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, CA was even more excited to see B.A.P, Nu’est, G.NA, VIXX, 4Minute and Exo-M perform on stage.

The concert started off with Paul “PK” Kim, host of MNET America’s Kollaboration Star 2012 and founder of the Kollaboration movement, coming out to hype up the crowd and introduce the 3 opening acts.  Kicking off the concert, singer/songwriter, AJ Rafael and guitarist Andrew Rhim performed a mellow acoustic set of songs from the “Red Roses” album.  Following AJ, Dumbfoundead took the stage with “Are We There Yet?”, along with a sea of official rainbow-colored KCON lightsticks, waving to the rhythm of the beat.  Rounding out the opening acts was the electronic duo DAZE47 collaborating with World Poppin Champions BWB (Blue Whale Brothers), Korea’s Got Talent 2 Finalists. DAZE47 performed their single “R U Ready?” with member Do Yesung taking off his shirt to the delight of all the fangirls in the crowd.

The concert then moved on to what the fans had been waiting to see, their idol groups! B.A.P made their grand entrance from the top of the stage in bright yellow, black and white outfits performing “No Mercy”! After that powerful stage, they performed the ballad “What My Heart Tells Me” followed by the song “Crash” which had the fans having as much fun as B.A.P was on stage.  The boys then introduced the MC for the night, Danny Im, who debuted as part of YG Entertainment’s Kpop group 1TYM in the 90s and is now the host of MNET America’s Danny From LA.  Danny, of course, needed a female MC to help so he introduced solo artist G.NA who started off her set with “2Hot”.  She then followed up with the English version of her debut single “I’ll Back Off So You Can Live Better” and then her hit “Black & White” where you can hear the crowd singing along.  G.NA and Danny were finally reunited as the MCs of the night and started off by having Jake from MNET America’s JJang TV and Danny’s co-host Kevin Shea from Danny From LA come out.

Following them, VIXX performed “Rock Ur Body”.  They introduced themselves and leader N prepared a speech for the fans, all in English! Following this, they performed the cute song “아픈데 좋아 (UUUUU)” filled with fan service while sitting on stools at the top of the stage.  They then performed their debut song “Superhero” before leaving the stage.  Nu’est came up next, starting off on chairs for their debut song “Face” in red and black outfits that went well with the charisma they showed on stage.  All of the boys were excited to be there and they expressed this by trying to speak to the crowd in English which was no problem from member Aron, who is originally from Los Angeles and was glad to be back.  They then performed “Not Over You” and “Action”!

With the announcement of Chinese-Korean group EXO-M, the fans went wild showing who the fans were mainly there to see. The boys started off with “History” where they showcased their pants dance.  They then followed with “你 的世界 (ANGEL)” and then gave the fans a surprise when members Luhan and Chen performed the sweet powerful ballad “What Is Love” for the audience there. They then ended their set with their official debut song “MAMA”! Last to take the stage was girl group 4Minute who were considered the seniors of the night.  Member Ga Yoon was absent so it could be why it felt like something was missing from the performance.  They started off with “Volume Up”, then performed “Mirror Mirror”.  The girls then started getting warmed up with the crowd interaction and performed “Heart 2 Heart”, “Huh”, and their debut song “Hot Issue” which had the biggest reaction.  All of the artists as well as MCs came out one last time at the end to say goodbye to the fans and to tell everyone to make sure to come to KCON’13 next year.

Although the event wasn’t perfect, we’re looking forward to seeing it develop into an even bigger and better event in the future!  Thank you to MNET for allowing HypnoticAsia staff to be a part of the first annual KCON!  We hope to see everyone there next year!  For more pictures from KCON, visit facebook.com/hypnoticasia.