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XG, Lil Cherry and Goldbuuda (20 October, Hordern Pavilion)
This was billed as one of the music highlights in the SXSW Sydney schedule (the first time SXSW has taken place outside of the USA) and it was a pretty packed show. We saw P1Harmony at the same venue a few weeks ago - this crowd was bigger and perhaps less kpop and more general? I only saw a few lightsticks, compared to the many at P1H. But there were definitely lots of XG fans in the crowd, they got huge cheers and I could hear the chatter all the way back on the tram after the show.
But before XG we had Lil Cherry and Goldbuuda, a sister and brother from Korea. I wasn't super impressed by them, their raps and songs seemed fairly basic. But they had good energy and the crowd seemed into them. I feel like if you wanted to have a scene in a movie set at, like, a hip hop concert, you could easily chuck them on and establish the scene with a 3 second shot of the stage, and you would instantly go "ah I see, they are trying to appeal to young people." They played for probably close to an hour.
Then it was time for XG. As the lights went down, I had a terrible sense of deja vu - just like the P1Harmony show a few weeks ago, a guy behind us started loudly talking about how he was at a kpop show and reacting in the most dismissive mocking way. We moved away lol. Truly, if you are just there because you have an industry ticket, SHUT UP and let the people who want to be here enjoy themselves!
So the show. I find XG really interesting, I like their 90s and r'n'b influenced sound and their science fictional visual concepts. Shooting Star and Left Right are two of my favourite tracks of the year. But although they have done the bulk of their promotions in Korea, they are actually a Japanese group and they sing in English, and several are very confident in speaking in English too. This SXSW stage emphasised this point too: that they are trying to be a global girl group, rather than a kpop or jpop one.
They started the show off with a bang, performing two of their recent songs (TGIF and Girl Gvng). I had a less than ideal view (even worse than P1Harmony because SO many people were holding their phones up at this one) but from my little glimpses I enjoyed it.
Then the girls came back for unit and solo stages. Apparently this made overseas fans quite jealous because these units have only performed live once before. As someone who likes XG but doesn't follow them closely enough to know - it was fine? A couple of rap songs and a few rnb songs, with a bit of crowd pleasing covers of Michael Jackson and TLC.
Then we got back to the group as a whole and I felt like ah yes the show is picking up again. They performed Puppet Show and New Dance, songs that I like, and then did some ments. It was nice hearing from Harvey, who hasn't been back to Australia for 7 years but had her grandparents in the audience - very sweet!
Then they said "this is our last song" and played Left Right, to everyone's delight.
And then - that was the last song. It was literally the last song. Only 45 minutes had passed since the start of the show. They hadn't played Shooting Star, or Mascara, or Tippy Toes. Shooting Star especially is probably their biggest title and they didn't play it? Not even a one song encore? Not even an HOUR of show? The crowd filtered out, disappointed and surprised. On the tram back to Central we could hear several people saying, "No Shooting Star?"
Let me also note tickets were priced at $145 each. For a 45 minute set? P1Harmony - which I feel is so comparable, because same venue and similar price - played for close to three hours.
For a SXSW showcase, 45 minutes is probably par for the course. But this was billed as a concert and we paid concert prices. If I'd known it would be this short and they wouldn't play my favourite song…
I still like XG and will follow their career with interest. But I'm feeling kind of ripped off by this show.
Couple of little notes: They didn't have proper vcrs, just sizzle reels cut together from their MVs. Also as we left the show we saw a bunch of fans waiting by the exit hoping to see them leave - "sasaeng fan behaviour" said this one older guy judgily, before following them to do the exact same thing! Oh my god! (It wasn't even stalker behaviour, tbh, it was just normal fan behaviour.)
Setlist:
TGIF
Girl gvng
Chill Bill (Harvey and Jurin)
Show You Can (Cocona and Maya)
Juria, Chisa, Hinata solos including Rock with You and No Scrubs
Puppet Show
New Dance
Left Right
But before XG we had Lil Cherry and Goldbuuda, a sister and brother from Korea. I wasn't super impressed by them, their raps and songs seemed fairly basic. But they had good energy and the crowd seemed into them. I feel like if you wanted to have a scene in a movie set at, like, a hip hop concert, you could easily chuck them on and establish the scene with a 3 second shot of the stage, and you would instantly go "ah I see, they are trying to appeal to young people." They played for probably close to an hour.
Then it was time for XG. As the lights went down, I had a terrible sense of deja vu - just like the P1Harmony show a few weeks ago, a guy behind us started loudly talking about how he was at a kpop show and reacting in the most dismissive mocking way. We moved away lol. Truly, if you are just there because you have an industry ticket, SHUT UP and let the people who want to be here enjoy themselves!
So the show. I find XG really interesting, I like their 90s and r'n'b influenced sound and their science fictional visual concepts. Shooting Star and Left Right are two of my favourite tracks of the year. But although they have done the bulk of their promotions in Korea, they are actually a Japanese group and they sing in English, and several are very confident in speaking in English too. This SXSW stage emphasised this point too: that they are trying to be a global girl group, rather than a kpop or jpop one.
They started the show off with a bang, performing two of their recent songs (TGIF and Girl Gvng). I had a less than ideal view (even worse than P1Harmony because SO many people were holding their phones up at this one) but from my little glimpses I enjoyed it.
Then the girls came back for unit and solo stages. Apparently this made overseas fans quite jealous because these units have only performed live once before. As someone who likes XG but doesn't follow them closely enough to know - it was fine? A couple of rap songs and a few rnb songs, with a bit of crowd pleasing covers of Michael Jackson and TLC.
Then we got back to the group as a whole and I felt like ah yes the show is picking up again. They performed Puppet Show and New Dance, songs that I like, and then did some ments. It was nice hearing from Harvey, who hasn't been back to Australia for 7 years but had her grandparents in the audience - very sweet!
Then they said "this is our last song" and played Left Right, to everyone's delight.
And then - that was the last song. It was literally the last song. Only 45 minutes had passed since the start of the show. They hadn't played Shooting Star, or Mascara, or Tippy Toes. Shooting Star especially is probably their biggest title and they didn't play it? Not even a one song encore? Not even an HOUR of show? The crowd filtered out, disappointed and surprised. On the tram back to Central we could hear several people saying, "No Shooting Star?"
Let me also note tickets were priced at $145 each. For a 45 minute set? P1Harmony - which I feel is so comparable, because same venue and similar price - played for close to three hours.
For a SXSW showcase, 45 minutes is probably par for the course. But this was billed as a concert and we paid concert prices. If I'd known it would be this short and they wouldn't play my favourite song…
I still like XG and will follow their career with interest. But I'm feeling kind of ripped off by this show.
Couple of little notes: They didn't have proper vcrs, just sizzle reels cut together from their MVs. Also as we left the show we saw a bunch of fans waiting by the exit hoping to see them leave - "sasaeng fan behaviour" said this one older guy judgily, before following them to do the exact same thing! Oh my god! (It wasn't even stalker behaviour, tbh, it was just normal fan behaviour.)
Setlist:
TGIF
Girl gvng
Chill Bill (Harvey and Jurin)
Show You Can (Cocona and Maya)
Juria, Chisa, Hinata solos including Rock with You and No Scrubs
Puppet Show
New Dance
Left Right