Concert Review: Loona- Loona The World
Tis the concert season for my wife and I, which is to say we went to two concerts within a week of each other, first Seventeen, then Loona. I had seen Loona once before at K-con, but this was their first solo-tour, so it was definitely a very different experience. The other big note here is that Chuu is absent from this tour, instead focusing on her own promotions in Korea.
So, we missed the first song-ish. We entered the venue while it was playing and ran to the restrooms first, but made it before the next song. Luckily for me the opener is So What which is my personal least favorite Loona title track, so I didn’t feel sad at the miss. The rest of the set-list is pretty strong, and getting the subunit songs is fantastic, and funny given that Seventeen also has dedicated sub-units, and that also is a boon to their concerts too. Odd Eye Circle was the highlight for me, as they are my favorite subunit and have a lot of my top members, but I also really loved Stylish live, it works really well. The one big miss to me is the lack of Satellite, which is my personal favorite song from the full group, but you can’t always get every song you want.
In terms of styling, my wife and I have opposing opinions. While we agree the styling was good, I preferred the early outfits and liked each change less than the last, whereas she thought each outfit change got better and better. I am also not including tour t-shirt encore styling when I say this, as that’s always a win in my book. And speaking of, the merch is good, the shirts are super comfy and I love the simple design of the Loona logo on the front. I bought a black shirt and my wife a white one, which she said was actually more comfortable than the shirt from the Seventeen concert. I also bought a lightstick, and it was my first time getting to wave one around at a concert, which was fun.
We also agreed that the video segments at this concert were the best of any kpop concert we’ve ever been to, and that it wasn’t even really close. Definitely the best way to break up acts, to the point that I think people were a little reluctant to leave their seats during it. We also agreed that not having Chuu did not affect the concert as much as we thought, the whole show functioned great with just the eleven other members, and it even let Haseul’s vocals shine more which is always good. Speaking of Haseul, she is in a cast and mostly sitting on this tour, which is a bummer, but letting her vocally shine more does balance that out. And speaking of functioning well as eleven members, Olivia Hye had to leave part way through the concert due to hip injury, and that loss hurt much more, especially since she centers in so many of the big dance moments, such as at the end of PTT.
The last observation I have is that there were no close-up cameras being shown on screens, so at the back of the venue it’s much harder to make out any sort of details, which is kind of a bummer. That said, that’s probably partly due to the weird middle scale of this tour, more expensive and bigger venues than Dreamcatcher and Everglow in 2022, but not big enough for the truly fancy stuff like close-up cams like you’d see at a Ateez or Seventeen show, so those bigger venues are harder to see in. I personally like standing room scale shows, you can be a little out of the crowd and still see everything well without cameras.
Ultimately, Loona put on a good show, as expected, but it was a little stiff feeling, due to their lack of practice doing these kinds of tours. I think given more time and a slightly more relaxed atmosphere Loona will get great. Hopefully all the members get good rest after this tour though, there’s been way too many issues which means poor tour planning or negligent top staff members. I know it’s basically over, but I would say this concert is great for Loona lovers, and good fun if you have a friend that wants to go even though you are fairly neutral on Loona. This is it for concert reviews until Ateez hits America later this year, so look out for that when the time comes!
