[LA November 2019] K-Content EXPO 2019 Kpop Concert Experience

This LA trip has been very special; I blogged about my time in Koreatown here, greeting Lovelyz at LAX here, and the K-Content EXPO here, and below I'll be blogging about my experience at the Kpop Concert!

First off I'm really grateful to get to cheer for Lovelyz along with three really great Lovelinus! One is my dear Woollim stan friend who I first met at KCON NY 2018, one is my Lovelinus friend who I first met at KTMF 2019 when we coincidentally had tickets next to each other in a swarm of SHINee and Super Junior fans, and lastly is my Lovelinus' friend who I'm so glad to have met at this event! It's just such a magical feeling being surrounded by Lovelinus in real life, rather than just casual fans or general Kpop stans; there's this connection, especially when shouting the fanchants in unison.

The artists performing were Lovelyz, JBJ95, and Heize, and to my surprise, a lot of the audience truly stanned at least one of these artists. As a free concert, I thought many casual fans would come, but I was proven wrong with all the stans! It made me so happy seeing so many Lovelinus (a lot of guys) with their lightsticks and slogans.

The host came on stage and introduced a special MC, none other than Yein! Yein spoke entirely in English, hyping the crowd, and explaining the expo and special guests sitting in the reserved seats. As special MC, Yein was on stage for just over 2 minutes.

Then a VCR of Lovelyz played, however it kept glitching. Lovelyz were waiting on the right of the stage, and ended up just going on stage in getting in formation, paying no mind to the technical difficulties. To my surprise, they began with "Hi~"! This is one of their hardest fanchants, and after trying to learn it for KTMF, I gave up on it and hoped they wouldn't perform it this time. I tried to chime in while other Lovelinus performed the fanchant.

Not even 3 seconds after Lovelyz finished performing "Hi~", the next song already started playing; it's unfortunately that they were really rushing the girls throughout their set. The next song was "Now, We", my favorite Lovelyz track (thankfully with a straightforward fanchant!)! I'm so happy to finally see this performed live. I screamed my lungs out with the fanchants and cheering, along with my Lovelinus friends; we were so in sync and hopefully loud enough for the girls to hear us!

Surprisingly they didn't let Lovelyz have an intro ment yet, giving the girls just over 10 seconds before "That Day" starting playing. Us Lovelinus chanted the girls' names perfectly at the beginning; it felt so magical performing the fanchants with others in front of Lovelyz! Not to mention "That Day" is my second favorite title track, so I'm really happy they performed this one too!

After 3 songs, the girls finally got a breather and had time to rest and drink some water while the host came back on stage. The host gave the girls a brief interview in Korean while translating in English for the audience.

Q1: How do you feel meeting your fans here in the US?
A1: [Yein, in English] What's up LA! We're so happy to be here and we were here in April...[Cheers] Do you remember?! We're happy to meet our LA Lovelinus, so nice to meet you!

Q2: If you have anything to say to your fans, please do.
A2: [Yein was about to speak, then Mijoo spoke instead! In English] Sorry, I don't speak English, but really I love you so much! [I think Soul spoke next in English] See you later! [Another member] Love you~

The girls got into their next formation and one member said "Are you ready?!" Then "Beautiful Days" began playing! Out of all the fanchants I had prepared, this was the ultimate test, especially with the intense name chant in the middle! I had practiced this one with one Lovelinus friend, but the four of us never practiced it together. This was definitely my proudest moment as a Lovelinus!

After "Beautiful Days" was a long pause (meaning 25 seconds in between songs instead of 3) so the audience started cheering. But then a member (Yein?) said "Next song is 'Rewind'"! I was pleasantly surprised their set wasn't over, and on top of that they'd be performing a b-side! Another song that I didn't practice the fanchant for, which meant I could simply focus on their beautiful vocals. They continually gave fanservice, sending hearts to the audience! I'll also take this time to point out that everyone remained sitting throughout all performances, which was really great so that we could see the artists well!

The girls said "thank you" while continuing to wave, then (I think?) Yein said "Our last song is 'Ah-Choo'. Enjoy with us. Thank you". This is definitely a great way to end Lovelyz' set, especially since the mall had been playing this MV on loop since the previous night! I do admit I fumbled a bit on the fanchant...the girls then said "goodbye" while continuing to wave.

Right after Lovelyz exited the stage, they stood in front of A for about a minute, sending hearts and waving to fans as their "Ah-Choo" MV played on screen in a faster speed. We shouted the fanchant while waving to our girls!

Honestly with the lack of sleep and frustration that came with this event, I wasn't able to fully pay much attention to the other artists. But for JBJ95, there were two fans right behind us who seemed like they flew from Japan just for this event, and it was great hearing their super loud cheers and fanchants. It felt really special being with such passionate people! I do recall that JBJ95 had much more time in between songs to catch their breaths and talk to the audience.

Heize performed last, and I feel like her fans had the most luck. Heize gave a lot of fan service, giving fans in the first row of B (which of course were the reserved seats) bottles of water, signing for a fan, collecting a sign and stuffed animal from fans, and even bringing up a fan to sing a duet with her on stage! That fan turned out to be the one venting her frustration to me earlier that day, and she had the aisle seat a few rows behind me. Also as Heize began one of her songs, the sound system crashed, which was when Heize did some of her fan service and really extended her time on stage.

Afterwards, our Lovelinus group ate at Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong (KBBQ). This was my first time here and I can't get over how amazing the food was there. And to complete our evening, they played a b-side from Fall in Lovelyz (blanking out on which one...) and Infinite's "Tell Me"!

Overall, despite the circumstances, I'm so happy Lovelyz performed so many songs and that there were so many Lovelinus! 2019 was my year to see Lovelyz in the US; I hope next time I can see them at a solo concert in Korea or on a world tour!