After a successful appearance at last year’s KCON 2022 LA and KCON 2022 US Tour, STAYC, K-Pop’s resident “high-teen” 4th generation idols, finally returned stateside for the US leg of their STAYC 1st World Tour [Teenfresh]. On Sunday, October 29, STAYC concluded the seven-city US tour on a high note at The Novo in Los Angeles where SWITHs, the official fandom name for STAYC fans, eagerly welcomed the girls with open arms.
The six-member girl group debuted in 2020 under High Up Entertainment, founded by the South Korean producer group Black Eyed Pilseung who is behind many of the hit songs of girl groups like TWICE, APink and Sistar. Since their debut, STAYC has captured fans with their fresh, trendy sound and first experienced mainstream success after their hit song “ASAP” because of the addicting chorus and viral “cat kneading” / “biscuit” dance.
To begin the night, a dazzling light and microphone themed VCR showcased the members’ angelic visuals. SWITHs exploded into cheers when STAYC entered the stage in sparkly black and white, ballerina inspired outfits. STAYC kicked off the night with their debut song “So Bad” and red string confetti exploded into the crowd at the climax of the song. The girls continued the momentum with the energetic “Run2U” and bouncy “Poppy” with fans loudly singing the choruses and J’s iconic low-tone raps and Sieun hyping up the crowd to scream.
The girls introduced themselves to the crowd and even though they were sad it was the last night of their tour, they were determined to burn up the stage. Seeun brought up how STAYC had asked SWITHs for local recommendations and had actually gone to Santa Monica Pier the previous night and took lots of cute photos. STAYC recognized new and returning fans and even special fans that went to multiple North America tour stops.
For the next stage of “YOUNG LUV,” the members looked like angels under the dreamy, bright spotlights as they sang into their mic stands. The members cutely did their own fan chants of “cold cold” in the chorus and mesmerized fans with their live vocals.
A single spotlight illuminated J during her opening verse of “Complex” before she joined the rest of the members singing while sitting on stools. Sieun visibly shocked and amazed fans as she casually hit her whistle high notes while perched on her seat during the last chorus of the song.
The lights blacked out and SWITHs were immediately chanting “STAYC! STAYC!” for more. A colorful, 8-bit video game-inspired VCR titled “Teenfresh Arcade” showed the members cutely posing with fruits and candy while the girls prepared for their next stage.
Returning to the stage in various jerseys of Los Angeles sports teams, STAYC performed the sassy, hip-hop inspired track of “Not Like You” from their latest mini album TEENFRESH that lends its name to the tour. Sieun teasingly warned “LA, you better not have a stereotype” to transition the stage to “Stereotype.” SWITHs sang along to every word in the chorus, despite it being all in Korean (and even the “ahhh” sound effects) and went crazy for Isa’s spotlighted stripped down chorus. In the next stage of “Teddy Bear,” STAYC broke out of their dance routine during the bridge to interact with the audience and white confetti exploded in coordination with Yoon’s high notes.
Yoon complimented and made SWITHs laugh by shouting “Incredible! Daebak!” because she was so impressed by the crowd’s energy. Having changed outfits, the girls remarked that they “transformed” because they came here to “play with the best in the west. They then gave shoutouts to each of the teams they were repping which included the Angels, Dodgers, Rams, Chargers, Lakers and Clippers. When Yoon spotted someone that wore a Dodgers jersey like her, she made a clever reference to their song by exclaiming “same same”!
The dress code for the United States shows was the color purple and the girls pointed out all the fans that were impeccably dressed up in purple. Sumin also noticed a lot of fans with banners and asked fans to hold them up so she can read all the signs. Because The Novo is mainly a standing general admission venue, the girls also took the time to instruct the audience to take a step backwards to make room and ensure that every fan was safe.
Sieun expressed her love for LA and emphasized her love for the fans in order to transition to the next stage, “LOVE.” Throughout “LOVE” and the next song “247,” the girls walked around and interacted with every section of the crowd, with Sumin even going to the very corners of the stage to spend time with fans tucked in the corner and in blind spots. Immediately after “247,” the girls switched things up with a dance performance of “Like This.”
Catching their breath, Yoon remarked how her favorite song is “LOVE” because “I love you” and even sang it acapella, prompting the audience to finish the lyric with her. The girls then recapped what songs they just performed by singing acapella snippets from “247” and “Like This.”
Sieun, the queen of transitions, then told us a story about how she “hopped on a plane at LAX…” The fans quickly caught on to the lyrics’ reference and the girls launched into their chill but playful cover stage of Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.”
In the following “Solo Arcade” VCR, the girls participate in a mock-variety show where they have to appeal to each other and pair off for fun games like guessing items put between the members’ cheeks.
After the fun VCR showing off their goofy sides, the members returned to the stage in snazzy, denim outfits and performed their latest title track “Bubble.” They noted that they were a bit sad during their cover of “Party in the U.S.A.” since this show was the last stop in the U.S.A., but Sumin enthusiastically promised that they will return with more good songs. Isa also reassured that there were still more songs coming up so fans shouldn’t be too sad.
Because not all of their songs were able to be on the setlist, the girls asked the audience for songs they wanted to hear and did on the spot acapella versions of notable parts. After they did the first requested song, “LOVE FOOL,” Seeun remarked that she got goosebumps from the fans singing along and jokingly told them not to look at her because she was shy. The members quickly added onto this comment by saying “Seeun is super shy,” prompting Yoon to do a little Yoon impromptu dance of “Super Shy” by New Jeans. J jokingly interrupted by saying “Wait! This is a STAYC concert!” so they should sing more STAYC songs instead.
The girls proved that they are live vocal queens with a no-skip discography as they sang acapella snippets of the fan favorite songs “Be Mine,” “I’ll Be There” and “I Want U Baby.”
Continuing the performances, the girls performed the reggae remixed version of “Beautiful Monster,” transporting fans to a tropical beach vacation. Keeping with the acapella theme today, the girls led the audience in singing the “telling you boys and girls” chant from “I Like It” as they transitioned smoothly into their opening poses for the full performance. In the middle of their next stage of “So What,” the music faded out for STAYC to sing acapella as they led the crowd in to clap and sing along.
As a present for their fans, STAYC taught fans the main hook of their unreleased song titled “Flexing on my Ex” so fans could sing along during their performance. STAYC continued to surprise their fans with the “Lucky Polaroid” event where each member picked out a best dressed fan to reward with a polaroid gift. Half the members chose fans that caught their eye from the general admission section and the other half picked fans from the second floor balcony section. Notably, a fan who went to all the US shows was recognized by the members.
Sadly, STAYC announced that it was already the last song and tried to lighten the mood by prepping everyone to do the “biscuit” dance. In the band remixed version of “ASAP,” STAYC’s vocals and SWITHs’ were chants heard clearly throughout the whole venue. The girls exited the stage and the crowd chanted for more STAYC. Answering SWITH’s calls, a music video to the tune of “Butterfly” started rolling to show the behind the scenes hard work the girls put into the concert, including photoshoots and dance practices.
Donning the Teenfresh tour merch styled in a high-teen way, STAYC returned in pairs singing “Same Same” and ventured to the edges of the stage to accept fan gifts. SWITHs gave the members various stuffed animals (at one point, Isa was clutching three teddy bears at once) and animal ear headbands that represented their official spirit animals.
The second encore song was upbeat “Slow Down.” Yoon received a rubber chicken that makes a squawking noise when squeezed and then proceeded to squeezed the chicken to the beat of the song into her microphone. After the first chorus, the members came together to dance the choreography and confetti rained down at the climax of the song. STAYC then teased fans by extending the ending of the song twice, which SWITHs did not mind at all as they continued to sing along enthusiastically.
STAYC lined up one last time for the closing ment of the night. J confessed that she teared up during “Slow Down” because she was sad about how STAYC cannot come to the States very often. In order to cheer herself up, J instead focused on having fun these last few moments of the night. She thanked international SWITHs for teaching her how to truly enjoy the stage. Sieun remarked that this entire tour has been a dream come true thanks to SWITHs and acknowledged that it was not easy for fans to make time and buy tickets to come so it touched her even more. To the crowd’s delight, Isa made a promise to come back and voiced her desire to see everyone again. Yoon pointed out how much she appreciated that even though some fans do not speak Korean, they still sang along to the Korean song lyrics. After taking a group photo with various STAYC-inspired poses, STAYC completed their encore with another performance of “Bubble.”
For their first world tour, STAYC successfully filled venues with SWITHs across seven cities in the United States. With strong attendance across all their Teenfresh stops, STAYC already has fans eagerly anticipating their next tour with the hopes of seeing them in larger venues and in more cities.