It was the girls first ever US tour! K- pop sensation, MAMAMOO kicked off their first ever US tour, ‘MY CON,’ with their initial stop at New York’s Belmont Park UBS arena. The quartet, made up of Solar, Moonbyul, Wheein, and Hwasa, we’re excited to see their fans, Moomoos.
With Moobongs, the MAMAMOO lightsticks (which resembles a radish) illuminating the arena, MAMAMOO stepped out on stage right on time to treat their fans to their hit, “1,2,3 Eoi!.” The girls were clad in high waisted black tight pants with diamond details and white tops surrounded by a haze of purple lights with shimmering sparkling backdrops. The purple faded into bright red and white as the girls performed “Mr. Ambiguous.” With their signature moves and placing their fingers underneath their nose back-and-forth the crowd irrupted in delight. After the song, the girls took a second to greet their fans. The girl spoke in short English phrases as well as from the heart in their native language with a translator helping them to translate Korean. Hwasa said how amazing it was “to see our New York Moomoos.
The girls then moved onto the song, “Aya,” following a quit dance break. They had sultry and sassy moves with a colorful and at times a 3-D backdrop. Solar showed off her amazing vocal prowess hitting extraordinary high notes and holding them for an astoundingly long time during the song. The colorfulness continued as the girls moved onto the song, “ILLELLA.” During this new song the girls at exuded confidence with a colorful city backdrop that sometimes strobed into different cityscapes full of color. Then the girls took another talk break to encourage their fans to participate in a wave. Moonbyul it was astounded by the fans effort in attempting this arena wave. The girls seem to be in their element interacting with their fans.
The girls moved onto the next song, which had a little bit of a rock vibe to it. As the girls performed “Decalcomanie,” a beautiful palace with various rooms were projected behind them. The girls then got the crowd jumping with their monster hit, “HIP.” However, this time, for this performance, the girls implored a live rock band giving their performance a lot of edge. Doing this song each girl had a moment to perform their own individual solo dance break it showed off their individual charms and strengths as performers with killer moves and breathtaking vocals.
Following the performance of “HIP,” the girls took a second for themselves. disappearing off stage and allowing a video to play. During the uber cute video animated character speaking in Korean express their desire to attend a MAMAMOO concert. Not to give away the video too much, but it was very adorable with a lot of funny twists and turns. After the video the girls return to the stage wearing funny masks of each other. They showed off their playful and fun sides interacting with each other. The girls tease one another about their height and even doing a call and response with the audience. It was during this time that the running joke of the concert was kicked off when Moonbyul noticed a crowd making a woo-woo sound that would make Arsenio Hall proud. Before performing their next song, the girls admitted that Solar wrote the story for the very cute cartoonish video and then they carried on teasing each other about their heights before performing this song, “Taller Than You.” Before the girls disappeared off stage again, Hwasa promise the next performance would be one that has never been seen before.
MAMAMOO change things up yet again by switching songs with each other and by tapping into nostalgia. First to reappear was Solar who performed Wheein’s song, “Water Color,” wearing her signature outfit. The set then moved onto Hwasa who took to the stage to preform Moonbyul’s “Eclipse,” wearing a uniform. Next up was Wheein decked out in a fuzzy yellow outfit that reminded the audience of Solar’s her music video for “Honey.” Rounding out the set, Moonbyul came out wearing a cropped white tank top and ripped up jeans channeling Hwasa to perform her song, “Twit.” The girls then reunited on stage as one for a mash up of “Spit it out / Make Me Happy / LUNATIC / Maria.” The girls and vanished again allowing a video to play of them having fun while dining out.
Coming back on stage, this time the girls were decked out in navy blue outfits with velvet details and sparkling diamonds. For this set they performed “Paint Me,” “Star Wind Flower Sun,” “Egotistic, “and “Gogobebe.” Again, they decided to go with a rock version of “Gogobebe.” This fresh take of “Gogobebe” was quite unique and saw confetti flying at the end. The girls finish the set by taking a talk break to share their thoughts and feelings with the audience. Hwasa admitted that she was really happy, whereas Moonbyul convinced the arena to bring up the house lights so that she could see all those in attendance. As a group, the admitted that they will remember this night forever, before acknowledging that they only had two songs left in the concert.
There was a quick video break of the girls going through various physical challenges before they returned on stage for the mega hit “Starry Night” and “Wind Flower.” For “Starry Night” the girls transported the audience into a beautiful night sky. They also flex their strong performance prowess with strong vocals and range to which the girls all showed off their musical abilities and talents. They officially closed out the show with their song, “Wind Flower.”
At the end of the concert, then another video played, but things were not over. The girls had prepared an encore performance. Returning to stage in T-shirts and either comfy pants or shorts the girls performed “Travel, “ “Yes I am,” “L.I.E.C ,” and “Um Oh Ah Yeah.” Fun and energetic, the encore performance was full of songs that allowed the girls to bounce around to colorful backdrops with confetti flying everywhere. They also took time for a moving moment with fans in which a video had been prepared of fans from all over America wishing the girls to have a wonderful and safe tour. The girls genuinely seem touched and almost became emotional when they were welcome by their beloved fans. The girls also before finishing out the final song took one last time to talk to fans. They expressed their desire to come back and how much they love the Empire State. The girls then promised to return before taking a photo with the audience, a complete classic K-pop concert move that has been absent lately as K-pop artists sadly try to become more like western Popstars. With confetti flying the girls knew that the concert was over and that they should leave the stage, but they just couldn’t stop waving at their fans they lingered a while as if to say I don’t wanna leave don’t make me leave I love this moment.
The whole show harkened back to those traditional K-pop concerts that have seems so foreign in our modern era. From the show beginning on time to killer live vocals with limited backing tracks, the show kicked off with a classic K-pop concert vibe. While so many newer K-pop acts are force to speak in English, MAMAMOO spoke freely and comfortably with the help of a translator. Despite more k-pop groups embracing more western concert concepts, it was truly refreshing to feel the energy, observe the talent and taken in a more traditional K-pop concert, with a photo finish.
Next stop for the girls will be heading down to Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena. The girls are performing nine days across a two-month period. They will have shows in Nashville, Chicago as well as Oakland and Los Angeles. The tour will culminate in the state of California.
