Seventeen, VIXX, Girl's Day and more transform Staples Center into "KCON Land" on KCON 2017 LA Day 1 > K-POP

KCON 2017 LA presented by Toyota proved to be the biggest draw yet in its 6 years of existence, bringing in a record 85,000 attendees to the 3-day convention and 2-night concert. Some of the most popular Korean acts currently took to the stage, much to the delight of the numerous screaming fans present.

Staples Center transforms itself into “KCON Land”

Dubbed ‘KCON Land” this year, the first performance of the night paid homage to the hit movie of 2016, ‘La La Land’ as Girl’s Day’s Minah and VIXX’s Leo performed a special rendition of ‘City of Stars’. The fans in the audience turned on their camera phone flashlights, transforming the stadium into a city of stars indeed.

 ​Photo: SF9 / KCON 2017 LA / Lippin Group​​

SF9 rocks the stage with much ‘Fanfare’

The first group act of the night belonged to rookie group SF9, hailing from FNC Entertainment and no doubt star struck to perform in LA. But if they were star struck, it was hard to tell as the 9-member group performed ‘Fanfare’, ‘Jungle Game’ and ‘Easy Love’ with ease like experienced veterans. Though SF9 may be new to KCON LA, this marked the second appearance of the group as they performed back in June at KCON 2017 NY.

 ​Photo: Cosmic Girls / KCON 2017 LA / Lippin Group​

Are you ‘Happy’? Cosmics Girls certainly are!

One of two girl groups rocking the stage that night, 13-member Cosmic Girls entered the stadium with pom-poms in hand on the ground floor, passing by throngs of adoring and screaming fans. After taking the stage, they launched into their most recent song, the peppy, go-lucky song ‘Happy’. However, it was the fan favorite songs of ‘I Wish’ and ‘Secret’ that received the loudest cheers of the night, allowing fans to see live the ethereal and mythical songs that propelled Cosmic Girls into fans’ radars.

Unit Groups shine on stage

Following Cosmic Girls were the three unit groups of 13-member Seventeen, who were actually without member Hoshi (he was pulled out last minute due to an illness), broken down into performance, vocal, and hip-hop. The performance unit of Jun, The8, and Dino put on a riveting dance display for ‘The Swimming Fool’ before clearing the stage for the vocal unit (Jeonghan, Joshua, Woozi, DK, and Seunghwan), who mesmerized the crowd with their ear-pleasing vocals in ‘Habit’. Last but not least was the hip-hop unit, comprised of S.Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu, and Vernon, and their track ‘Check-In’, leaving the audience pumped for veteran group Girl’s Day.

 ​​Photo: Girl's Day / KCON 2017 LA / Lippin Group​

Girl’s Day always brings ‘Something’ to each performance

Carrying themselves with poise and maturity that seven years of industry experience brought, Girl’s Day kicked off their night with ‘I’ll Be Yours’, released earlier in the year and allowed Minah to once again show off her vocal prowess. The quartet then performed their provocative hit song ‘Something’ along with the floor hugging dance that left innocent younger fans covering their eyes. They ended the night with funky, groovy song ‘Ring My Bell’, leading fans to clamor loudly for more.

Old meets New: Rookie groups dance to older KPOP hits

Seventeen’s Joshua, Vernon, and Mingyu returned to the stage to get the crowd participating and showing off their own dance moves, successfully getting the crowd involved with the signature moves of TWICE’s ‘TT’ and BIG BANG’s ‘Bang Bang Bang’. This seamlessly transitioned into Cosmic Girls taking the stage once more to put on a flawless performance of BTS’s ‘I Need U’ (though it could be argued whether this is considered an older KPOP hit). SF9 followed next with their rendition of Super Junior’s ‘Sorry Sorry’ before being shortly joined thereafter with Cosmic Girls.

Super Junior-D&E makes it a ‘Saturday Night’ to remember

Fresh off their two-year military stint, Super Junior-D&E (Donghae and Eunhyuk) made their first US appearance since 2015, much to the joy and adoration of the audience. With over 10 years of experience in the KPOP industry and newer groups coming out every day, the duo proved why they are still a force to be reckoned with. Starting off with ‘Growing Pains’, a melancholy, wistful song of yearning, the duo quickly turned the mood around with club-like dance songs in ‘I Wanna Dance’, ‘Saturday Night’, and ‘Oppa Oppa’, songs that left the crowd grooving and dancing in their seats.

VIXX calls forth their ‘Fantasy’

Six-member group VIXX got in touch with their dark side as they put on a slew of fantastical performances. First up, complete with its fan-dance, was ‘Shangri-La’, which incorporated different cultural elements in both song and dance. The group surprised fans with ‘Pinata Time’, a fun interactive game that had 6 choices and ended with VIXX doing ‘Photo Time’ and making special poses for fans to commemorate the evening with. In the blink of an eye, VIXX transformed themselves once more into moody, sullen performers as they finished the night with ‘Black Out’ and ‘Fantasy’.

We ‘Don’t Wanna Cry’ as Seventeen wraps up the night

The last group performances of the night were reserved for Seventeen, with fans chanting 17 times for Seventeen to appear. The members lived up to their name as ‘self-producing idols’ with an eye-opening routine of ‘Don’t Wanna Cry’ that effortlessly displayed the group’s perfectly timed and executed danced moves. Though the song itself may have been on the slower side, the choreography was nothing to scoff at. Next on the list was ‘Rock’, which left fans bopping up and down to the beat of the music. Seventeen as well was accorded some ‘Pinata Time’ and the roulette landed on ‘Random Play Dance’ – the gist of the game is that random song snippets will play and the idols have to remember the dance that goes along with that snippet. Seventeen danced to ‘Uptown Funk’ and ‘Mansae’ and wrapped up the segment by launching autographed shirts out of bazooka guns. As to the last song of the night, Seventeen left fans guessing as to what song would be performed, mercilessly teasing fans with ‘Adore U’ and ‘BoomBoomBoom’ before revealing the title in store: ‘Very Nice’. The playful song and dance had everyone present smiling wide as the concert drew to a close.

What a fitting end to the night – very nice indeed!

Korea.com would like to thank The Lippin Group​ for extending a media invitation to KCON 2016 LA Presented by Toyota, and CJ E&M, ​Mnet America​, ​Toyota​, ​KCON USA​, and ​Staples Center/LA Convention Center​ for hosting and working hard to make this 3-day event a success.