The Good:
The opening was amazing. 2pm came out and owned the stage. They performed Without U, Hate You, Again and Again, and Heartbeat. They were feeding the crowds and the crowds were feeding them. Oh how Chicago loved them. They returned the love, stating how surprised they were by the turnout. They like Chicago better than New York and Seattle. The pop stars even said Chicago’s pizza was the best they had ever tasted (take that New York). After a few more words 2pm ended with their debut song 10 out of 10. The crowd (including me) went insane! Everyone was singing.
I could feel the joy 2pm had from their success here Tuesday night. My only wish is that they come back soon on their own tour.
The Wonder Girls also had a good opening. I felt a little bad for them though, because a lot of energy died after 2pm left the stage.
The Bad:
2pm only got 30 minutes of stage time, which is a shame because they owned the Chicago crowd.
The Wonder Girls, though full of energy could not rally the crowds the same way. I personally think it was because they tried to suit an American audience too much. They continuously sang the English versions to their Korean songs. No one really knew the English versions, I would have tried to sing along if they sang the Korean (and more familiar) version.
Also the Wonder Girls prepared American songs for us. My first thought was: Oh god. Each member had her own song. The first was Sunye singing Lip Gloss by Lil Mama. It sounded fine, but the crowd didn’t really react; I think we were all in shock (I was).
Next was Yoobin singing Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas. I actually liked that one, but I could tell some didn’t.
Then Yenny sang Mercy by Duffy. I’m sorry but that song is too old for a Kpop group trying to make big in America. If you sing it, sing it better than the original.
After that Hye-lim (or Hye-rim) sang Single Ladies by Beyonce. The crowd reacted well to that one; Beyonce is usually a safe choice in American music, R&B and Hip Hop especially.
Second to last was Sohee singing Paparazzi by Lady Gaga. This song fit her voice so well I liked it.
Finally, they sang Destiny’s Child Survivor together. My first thought was: Where did they dig that up? My second thought was: This isn’t so bad.
The overall Wonder Girls performance bothered me. They mostly sang in English. I did not go to a Kpop concert to hear English, and I definitely did not go to hear American songs that were better by the original artist.
Even though I seem to have many complaints, I really did enjoy the show. I expected English from the Wonder Girls so a few songs that were actually in Korean pleasantly surprised me.
