Featured Image: Stray Kids at T-Mobile Park. Photo Credit Dave Endicott & JYP Entertainment
Having been to my fair share of Kpop shows at this point, and many of them in Seattle or the outlying areas, I have a better lay of the land so to speak. From Itzy at WAMU and Aespa at Showare to TXT and Ateez at Tacoma Dome, the Emerald City is quickly becoming a starting point on the US leg a lot of Korean groups’ tours.
However, we’ve never seen the sheer size and pomp that was Stray Kids’ show at T-Mobile park on Saturday of last week. After all, it is the first time a K-pop group has performed at the massive Seattle venue kicking off the North American stint of shows for their “dominATE” world tour. The attendance record is rumored to have surpassed even the Rolling Stones’ 41,736, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. Either way, the eight member group had the venue packed with screaming fans for nearly three hours of flailing of light sticks, streamer cannon explosions, pyrotechnics, and fireworks lighting up the skies. Screams of “I love you Bang Chan!” (the group’s leader) and “Stray Kids make us Stay!” (the name of their fans are Stays) could be heard throughout the night to accompany sing-alongs and unrestrained dancing to the infectious tunes.
The set ran the gamut of their discography like “Hellevator” from their first EP Mixtape, “Gods Menu” from their first full-length release Go Live, highly charged “Thunderous” and dance-inducing “Domino” from the sophomore release No Easy as well as fan favorites “Chk Chk Boom” and “Giant” from their most recent release Giant. Any Stay would hear more than a few of their favorite songs during the extensive showcase of music.
While there were a couple snafus like streamers getting caught on drone lines, microphones partially cutting out and restless fans getting agitated in line after waiting three hours in the sun just to enter the venue, all the stresses and frustrations seemed to melt away as the white-clad performers rose up from the belly of the venue and greeted fans with huge smiles. Typically, the Kpop shows I’ve experienced last around two hours, maybe two and a half, but Stray Kids put on an energetic show for their fans riding around on man-powered raised carts so they could great people sitting in the back sections, performing sub-unit songs (where only a few members of the group sing) and interacted with fans lucky enough to surround the stage. I can’t imagine there were many Stays that didn’t walk away on Saturday night with smiles plastered on their faces and a boatload of memories to fill their minds and their phone’s photo gallery until the next time Stray Kids visit.