Concerts Reviews
IVE ‘Show What I Am’ Tour Lives Up to Its Name in Vancouver
A few months ago, I walked into Rogers Arena for my first K-pop concert. That show was TWICE’s This Is For Tour, and it was a bit of a crash course. I knew the group, knew some of the songs, but I was still trying to figure out what made a K-pop concert different from the rock and pop shows I had spent years photographing and reviewing.
Since then, I’ve done my homework. I’ve listened to more groups, learned more about the culture around K-pop, and started to understand why the relationship between a group and its fans is such a big part of the experience. So when IVE ended the North American leg of their Show What I Am Tour to Rogers Arena on August 9, I was much more prepared.
I still wasn’t an expert on IVE. I couldn’t have named every song going in, and I certainly wasn’t going to pretend I could match the DIVE fandom’s encyclopedic knowledge of the group. What I did have was curiosity, and by the end of the night, I had a much better idea of why IVE has become one of K-pop’s biggest fourth-generation girl groups.
IVE — An Yujin, Gaeul, Rei, Jang Wonyoung, Liz and Leeseo — has built its identity around confidence since debuting in 2021. The group’s catalogue includes some of K-pop’s biggest recent hits, including “LOVE DIVE,” “After LIKE,” “I AM,” “Kitsch” and “Baddie.” The Show What I Am Tour takes that idea of confidence and stretches it across a concert that deliberately gives each member room to stand on her own.
The show opens with a cinematic video sequence before the six members appear in black leather outfits, surrounded by dancers, lasers and sparks. “GOTCHA (Baddest Eros)” gets things moving before “XOXZ” and “Baddie” keep the momentum going. There is very little patience for a slow start here.
“ICE QUEEN” brings a more elegant edge, followed by “BLACKHOLE,” where the live band gives the song considerably more weight than its studio version. The band is one of the smartest choices in the production. The arrangements aren’t simply backing tracks played louder ; songs get extended instrumental sections, heavier percussion and moments where the musicians can actually breathe. It makes the show feel like a concert rather than a two-hour music video with a very large budget.
“TKO” brings the members down the runway for the first time, putting them much closer to the audience. “Holy Moly” follows, before “My Satisfaction” shifts the mood again with darker lighting, dancers and tight camera shots projected onto the arena screens (K-pop bands’ camera work really excels during live performance).
Then IVE breaks apart. The solo section is probably the strongest part of the show. Each member gets a chance to show a different side of herself, and the performances are different enough that the sequence never feels like six variations of the same idea. Wonyoung’s “8” is confident and controlled. Rei turns “In Your Heart” into a cute, playful Y2K-style performance. Liz’s “Unreal” strips things back and puts her vocals front and centre. Gaeul’s “Odd” is dreamy and understated before Leeseo completely changes the temperature with the hyperactive “Super ICY.” Yujin closes the sequence with “Force,” combining live vocals with demanding choreography before handing the stage over to the dancers.
For someone coming into the show without a deep knowledge of IVE, this was the section that made the group click for me. They are six distinct performers, not six interchangeable pieces of a larger machine.
The group eventually reunites for “♥beats,” changing into white outfits with angel wings and moving into a lighter part of the show. “WOW,” “Off The Record” and “FLU” lean heavily into fan interaction. There are waves, heart gestures, posing for cameras and plenty of moments where the members seem just as entertained by the audience as the audience is by them.
That connection is hard to miss. K-pop fans don’t just know the songs, they know the choreography, the members, the inside jokes and the tiny details. Watching thousands of people respond to the same cue at exactly the same time can feel slightly surreal when you’re still learning the language of the genre.
And then IVE brings out the big guns. “ATTITUDE,” “LOVE DIVE,” “REBEL HEART” and “I AM” arrive in quick succession, turning Rogers Arena into one enormous singalong. “I AM,” in particular, gets the kind of response you expect from a band playing its signature song.
“BANG BANG” follows, with the group teasing the crowd that it is the final song before an extended outro sends the members racing back across the stage.
Of course, it isn’t the final song. The first encore brings “Wild Bird” and a more relaxed version of IVE, with the members wearing tour merchandise and spending more time talking to the audience. Then comes another surprise: Wonyoung takes over a DJ booth for “Supernova Love,” the group’s collaboration with David Guetta. “Kitsch” follows, and then “After LIKE” closes the night with thousands of fans singing along.
I came into Rogers Arena knowing far less about IVE than the people sitting around me. I left with a much better understanding of the group, and more importantly, a better understanding of why K-pop concerts have become such a force.
The spectacle is impressive, but that isn’t what stuck with me. It was the personalities. Show What I Am works best when IVE stops trying to prove how big the production can be and simply lets the six members show what makes each of them different. The choreography is sharp, the live band adds real punch, and the production rarely sits still for long. But the biggest success is that the show gives fans plenty of reasons to feel like they are part of it.
A few months after my first K-pop concert, I’m still learning the names and catching up on the catalogue. I’m starting to get it, though. And IVE made a pretty convincing case for keeping up.
Upcoming IVE Show What I Am Tour dates:
Sept. 4 – Hong Kong – Asia World Arena
Sept. 5 – Hong Kong – Asia World Arena
Sept. 11 – Taipei, Taiwan – Taipei Arena
Sept. 12 – Taipei, Taiwan – Taipei Arena
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: The Red Clay Strays Bring the Grateful Tour to Rogers Arena
The Red Clay Strays brought their Grateful Tour to Vancouver on August 30, supported by Wyatt Flores and Sweet Talk. I’ll admit it: before Sunday night, my familiarity with The Red Clay Strays went about as far as “Wondering Why.”
I knew the Alabama band had become one of the fastest-rising names in country and Southern rock, and I knew Brandon Coleman had a reputation for being the kind of frontman people compared to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and just about every other cool guy to ever stand behind a microphone. But there is always a risk when walking into a show knowing only the hit. Sometimes you spend the night waiting for the one song you recognize, but that was not the case at Rogers Arena.
Sweet Talk and Wyatt Flores got things going, giving the night a strong foundation before the headliners took over. Flores, in particular, already had plenty of fans in the building, and his set helped get the arena moving early. By the time The Red Clay Strays walked onstage, the room was ready.
The band opened with “Demons in Your Choir,” immediately showing why its sound has connected with so many people. The Red Clay Strays do not sit comfortably inside one genre. There is country in their music, obviously, but there is Southern rock, gospel, blues and plenty of old-school rock and roll mixed in. Trying to neatly categorize them feels a little beside the point.
What stood out most to me was how little the band seemed interested in playing up the scale of the room. 18 months ago, they were playing 2 sold out shows at the Commodore Ballroom, making the jump to Rogers Arena in 2026 pretty striking. Rogers Arena is a massive space, and this is the biggest kind of stage The Red Clay Strays have started playing regularly. But they never felt like they were trying to become a generic arena band overnight.
Of course, Coleman is hard to ignore. The Elvis comparisons make sense on a surface level: the pompadour, the old-school style and the way he moves around the stage all bring those comparisons to mind. But the more I watched him, the less useful those comparisons became. Coleman has his own way of commanding a stage, and his voice is the real deal.
There were several moments throughout the night when he let loose on a note and cut through everything around him. It was not polished in a way that felt overly perfect, either. There was grit in his voice, and sometimes a little roughness, which made the stronger moments hit harder.
The band moved through songs including “Stone’s Throw,” “Walking Away,” “Devil in My Ear,” “Ghosts” and “People Hatin’,” with the musicians remaining impressively tight throughout. They have reportedly been playing together in one form or another for years, and that connection was easy to see.
When it was time for “Wondering Why,” Rogers Arena predictably lost its mind. The opening moments were enough to turn the audience into one enormous singalong, and one of those goosebump moments. Even as someone who came into the show with limited knowledge of the band’s catalog, I could not help but get caught up in it. Thankfully, the show did not lose momentum after its biggest song. In fact, I found some of the strongest material came later.
“Drowning” and “I’m Still Fine” gave Coleman some of his best vocal moments of the night, while “Moments” slowed things down without killing the energy. That is not always easy in an arena show. The quieter songs can sometimes disappear in a room that size, but the audience stayed with them.
One of the evening’s most memorable moments came before the band launched back into the set when one of their three touring backing vocalists stepped forward to sing “O Canada.” She told the crowd that she regularly performs national anthems at NHL games and had always hoped to sing Canada’s anthem in Canada. The Rogers crowd loved it.
They ended with “Fool’s Gold,” “Wanna Be Loved,” “Grateful” and “No One Else Like Me,” sending the crowd home after a generous and well-paced set.
The Red Clay Strays are clearly in the middle of a major rise. Their Grateful Tour has taken them into some of the biggest venues of their career, and the rooms will probably keep getting bigger. The good news, at least based on what I saw in Vancouver, is that they have not lost the thing that got them here.
Head here for more information about The Red Clay Strays’ Grateful Tour.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
THE RED CLAY STRAYS
WYATT FLORES
SWEET TALK
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Luke Bryan Turns a Thursday Night in Ottawa Into a Country Party
People were already dancing and cheering as they walked to the line at the Canadian Tire Centre. That was probably the first sign that Luke Bryan’s Word On The Street Tour stop in Ottawa wasn’t going to feel much like a Thursday night.
Drew Baldridge got the night started while the arena was just starting to see people on their seats, but you wouldn’t have known it from watching him. He and his band played like the seats were already full. Covering Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” was also a pretty foolproof way to get an Ottawa crowd warmed up.
Lauren Watkins came next. Cowboy hats were becoming harder to avoid, people were starting to groove, and the arena was noticeably filling up. Like Baldridge before her, Watkins wasn’t trying to reinvent country music. She was there to celebrate it.
Then Lanie Gardner came flying out in sunglasses with a band that looked like they had collectively decided it was still 1993, and it worked. They hit hard from the start, and Gardner had the advantage of playing to an arena that was now getting close to what it would look like for the headliner. People were louder, drinks were flowing, and it finally felt like Luke Bryan was next.
Except he wasn’t. Not quite yet. Bryan was a little late getting onstage, so a DJ was tasked with keeping a packed Canadian Tire Centre entertained. Instead of killing the momentum, it turned the wait into its own little party. By the time the lights finally went down, people were more than ready.
And when he finally came out, the noise was unreal. The Canadian Tire Centre looked packed. For a Thursday night in Ottawa, that alone was impressive. When Bryan started playing, everyone in the building seemingly knew every word. That’s the difference between knowing someone has a lot of hits and actually seeing what those hits do to an arena.
Bryan has been one of the biggest country artists of his generation for long enough that these songs belong to his audience almost as much as they belong to him. There were moments where he could have stopped singing entirely and the show probably wouldn’t have missed a word.
The band deserves just as much credit for how good the night sounded. Everyone on that stage could play. The guitars were huge, the rhythm section hit hard, and the banjo or slide guitar rang through the entire arena in a way that was impossible to ignore.
Nothing about the show needed to be complicated. Luke Bryan showed up with a killer band, a ridiculous number of songs people knew by heart, and an arena full of fans who wanted to party. Sometimes that’s enough.
Actually, judging by the noise inside the Canadian Tire Centre, it was more than enough.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
LUKE BRYAN
LANIE GARDNER
LAUREN WATKINS
DREW BALDRIDGE
All Photo Credit: Gonzo Wassermann