...easy to decide on.
As the ultimate girl group connoisseur, you can trust my opinion over any other. I've seen many, many girl group performances over the years, so I have a fairly accurate internal barometer for judging girl group live stages.
In fact, next month I will actually achieve the unexpected but welcomed achievement of seeing every top 4th gen girl group live, once I see LE SSERAFIM.
That list is:
IDLE
Soon I will likely rank all of them based on their lives.
But without further ado, here are the ACTUAL most impressive girl groups I saw at KCON, and I'm going to keep this concise after such a long preamble.
Best Overall Stage: idle
This may surprise some, but I thought idle were the best combination of live vocals, incredible stage presence and high energy.
There is a reason they opened the concert for the final night, and their 7+ years of experience shined through.
Wife was probably my favorite stage closely followed by Queencard.
Most Impressive Stage: MEOVV
They very nearly took best overall stage, and maybe it's semantics, but MEOVV impressed me the most considering they're rookies and I didn't know what to expect from them on such a big stage.
They used very minimal backtrack, engaged with the crowd constantly, did an awesome Abracadabra cover, and I could hear the crowd buzzing about them all night. I gave idle the edge slightly just due to their advantage in performance experience, but it was close.
Biggest Crowd Response: aespa
This was easy. aespa is the only girl group that got a pop from the crowd as loud as the most popular boy groups. If you've ever been in an arena full of boy group stans, you know that's LOUD. The arena went into a frenzy for aespa, and then Whiplash started and they went even more berserk.
It was also a really good stage. Not my absolute best, since Soyeon is a cheat code, but talking about cheat codes, going from Whiplash to Supernova in that environment? Insane. I thought I was back at the aespa concert. Also, Dirty Work live slaps. I don't care what anyone says.
Most Memorable Stage: IVE
Dives, you know why. Please someone tag me the moment IVE has their first live stream post-KCON. I need to know what they say about the biggest mic drop in KCON history.
No, really. What a magnificent meme moment. Liz's mic hitting the ground sounded like a gunshot going off, but IVE were professionals and recovered smoothly enough. They're also very, very pretty, but we knew that already.
Most Surprising Stage: ifeye
You're probably wondering "who?", but this rookie nugu group absolutely impressed me and made the most of their opportunities.
I had no idea who they were before KCON, but after seeing their insane dance choreography and synergy, as well as their legitimately great songs and confidence on stage despite their rookie status, I will be keeping tabs on them.
I saw them at different stages during the festival and they also were the pre-concert opener for the final night.
r u ok? is an absolute bop
STILL THE QUEEN: Hwasa
I don't really need to explain this choice. The vocals, the charisma, the aura, the stage presence, and she even did a Mamamoo hit song medley to close her set; that made this MooMoo so happy.
Special mention to, of course, NMIXX, izna and Kep1er. There wasn't a bad stage any night; I just chose my personal standout stages.
And I would've placed ALL DAY PROJECT on the list for MOST LIT stage, but they're a co-ed group.
THEBLACKLABEL artists killed it last weekend.
