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

Don’t be fooled by the upbeat sound of most Noah Kahan songs. Take a closer look at the lyrics and you’ll find that they are quite the opposite— and he makes sure that you know it. “My name is Noah Kahan, and I’m here to make you miserable” was the first thing he said to Denver’s sold out crowd Saturday night. At the start of June, Kahan embarked on a sold out tour of baseball and football stadiums across the United States, and Saturday was the first of two shows at the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field. With a setlist heavily featuring tracks from his new album, The Great Divide, and hits from the album that rocketed him into the spotlight, Stick Season, Kahan managed to both shatter and heal over 55,000 fans in the span of two and a half hours. 

Indie folk artist Annabelle Dinda kicked off the night with music built on her background in poetry and creative writing. She played her breakout single “The Hand” and treated the crowd to an unreleased song titled “Learn Something Baby”. She handed the evening off to singer-songwriter Gigi Perez, whose emotional lyrics warmed up the crowd for what emotional turmoil lay ahead. 

The voice of Perez’s late older sister, Celene, opened her set. A voicemail left by Celene wishing Perez luck on her performance echoed through the stadium before she and her band dove into “Please Be Rude”, off of her debut album At the Beach, in Every Life. “Fable”, an emotionally charged song about her sister followed, along with a cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness”. Perez closed out her time on stage with her viral hit “Sailor Song”, adding the host city into the lyrics “I can be the cat, baby, Denver you can be the mouse”. 

A countdown appeared on the large screen at the back of the stage, along with sketches of ants and ladybugs, a motif present throughout Kahan’s new album and accompanying tour. Members of the stage crew began constructing a life sized cabin on stage, and as the countdown hit zero, a roof descended from the rafters completing the set. 

“American Cars,” a tribute to Kahan’s older sister, kicked off his set, and the band was met with roaring cheers as Kahan entered the stage through the front door of the cabin. The first act of Kahan’s set highlighted new releases from The Great Divide, with Stick Season’s “All My Love” woven in. After assuring the crowd that he was going to wipe the smiles off of their faces with his set, Kahan joked that this was his first show without falling or injuring himself. A still-healing cut above his eye from hitting himself with his guitar at his stop in St. Louis was visible, which drew a large laugh from the ballpark. 

Act Two of the show brought him to the B Stage, where he played new hits including “Haircut” and “Downfall.” Before heading back to the main stage for Act Three, Kahan hopped off of the stage down to a ringing phone booth. “Vail Resorts? Go fuck yourselves,” was the short and sweet answer to the mock phone call. Coloradans immediately understood the reference and a loud roar ripped through Coors Field. The song “Paul Revere,” off of his album Stick Season, includes the line “Vail bought the mountains, and nothing was the same” in reference to Vail Resorts’ acquisition of several Vermont ski resorts. The song was notably not on the setlist for night one, but Kahan made sure to play it the next night, saying he loves playing the song in Colorado because of his hatred for Vail.

He then brought Perez out to sing “She Calls Me Back” with him on the main stage to begin Act Three. The LED bracelets that were handed out as concert goers entered the venue began to flash red and blue, and sirens echoed in the stadium. Kahan was shoved against a Vermont State Police car by a police officer, arrested, and loaded into the vehicle, and sang “Dial Drunk” from the car. 

To start Act Four, Kahan took to the roof of the cabin to perform “Willing and Able,” a song widely interpreted by fans to be about a strained relationship between siblings and a wish to reconcile. The atmosphere quickly shifted to the somber one he promised at the beginning, and it remained through Act 5. The C Stage is where he introduced the song “Orbiter,” telling the crowd about his 2025 Grammy loss, which the song references. Kahan recounted his time at the award show, which included his mom making friends with singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile, while he sat at the table alone and ripped the label off of his beer can. 

Throughout the tour, Kahan has been posting on X the day of each show the title of a surprise song for the night followed by “queen?”,  referencing a popular meme template that has been making its rounds on the internet since 2021. His first night in Denver broke the pattern and he posted the day before in no uncertain terms— “Young blood tomorrow. Queen.” The song that followed “Orbiter” was just that. 

“Young Blood” was the first song that Kahan released off of his debut album Busyhead, and it was the first time he played the song on this tour. The name of Kahan’s mental health non-profit, The Busyhead Project, stems from this album. He has always been outspoken about his own mental health journey, and The Busyhead Project aims to end the stigma around mental health and improve access to resources. Since launching in 2023, they have raised over $6.6M to support 170 community based organizations across the world.

The band was then introduced during “Paid Time Off,” with each member taking a solo at the microphone. The next songs on the C stage were arguably some of his saddest, including unreleased favorite, “Pain is Cold Water,” and “Maine” from Kahan’s EP Cape Elizabeth. He asked the crowd if anyone was there with their best friend, and ended Act Five with “Dan,” the closing track on The Great Divide about his own best friend. 

In the final act of the show, Kahan made his way back to the main stage while playing “The View Between Villages”. He gave a shout out to Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin who was in attendance, and wrapped the night up with his biggest hits, including “Northern Attitude,” “Orange Juice,” and “New Perspective,” disappearing through the same cabin door that he entered through at the start of the night. Cheers boomed throughout the ballpark, and eventually lights slowly began to reveal Kahan sitting at a piano for an encore. Subtle sounds of crickets chirping began to fill the air, signaling the beginning of “End of August,” the opening track on The Great Divide.

While it’s not quite the end of August yet, the song perfectly encapsulated the evening, the last stretch of a fleeting summer before darker and colder months arrive. But before the crowd dispersed out into the August night, Kahan left Coors Field with fan favorite “Homesick” and closed out the evening with “Stick Season,” ready to make another sold out crowd on Sunday just as miserable. 

Check out our favorite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!

Noah Kahan has several stops left on his sold out tour.

Upcoming The Great Divide Tour Dates:
8/15 Pasadena, CA Rose Bowl Stadium
8/17 San Diego, CA Petco Park
8/19 Phoenix, AZ Chase Field
8/21 San Francisco, CA Oracle Park
8/25 Sandy, UT America First Field
8/28 Vancouver, BC BC Place
8/30 Seattle, WA T-Mobile Park
8/31 Seattle, WA T-Mobile Park
9/25 Melbourne, AUS Rod Laver Arena
9/26 Melbourne, AUS Rod Laver Arena
9/28 Melbourne, AUS Rod Laver Arena
9/29 Melbourne, AUS Rod Laver Arena
10/2 Sydney, AUS Afterpay Arena
10/3 Sydney, AUS Afterpay Arena
10/5 Sydney, AUS Afterpay Arena
10/6 Sydney, AUS Afterpay Arena
10/9 Auckland, NZ Spark Arena
10/10 Auckland, NZ Spark Arena
11/5 Glasgow, Scotland OVO Hydro
11/6 Glasgow, Scotland OVO Hydro
11/9 Manchester, UK AO Arena
11/10 Manchester, UK AO Arena
11/13 London, UK The O2 Arena
11/14 London, UK The O2 Arena
11/17 London, UK The O2 Arena
11/19 Dublin, IE 3Arena
11/21 Dublin, IE 3Arena
11/22 Dublin, IE 3Arena
11/25 Zürich, Switzerland Hallenstadion
11/26 Cologne, DE Laxness Arena
11/28 Copenhagen, DK Royal Arena
11/29 Stockholm, SE Avicii Arena
12/1 Amsterdam, NL Ziggo Dome
12/2 Amsterdam, NL Ziggo Dome
12/4 Munich, DE Olympiahalle
12/7 Paris, FR Accor Arena
More information here.

NOAH KAHAN

GIGI PEREZ

ANNABELLE DINDA

All Photo Credit: Kelsie Kerr