When you are surrounded in a stadium with thousands people screaming in unison, the feeling creates a specific barometric pressure. It hits you in the chest before the house lights even go down. It gives you more reasons to hold your beer tighter, and sway back and fourth in anticipation. Last night the United Center in Chicago felt less like a pop concert and more like a beautifully coordinated flashmob with light-up inflatables, and fans with Korean Idols faces printed onto them. TWICE, the big thing in K-POP right now, sold the room out completely for their second night here in Chicago. They built a fully exposed stage right in the middle of the same room where so much history has been made in the city. Every angle was visible with enough LED lights to boast a highly financed tour. There was nowhere to hide from the peering eyes of thousands of patrons ready to worship their favorite member of TWICE.

Walking into the venue I was shocked with the rich diversity of the crowd. Even for shows for ACE, Blackpink, and BTS we have talked about, this was the first show where I applaud the diversity coming out to support this group. It was beautiful, and truly something I hope we can see more in the future. I brought with me in my pocket a beat up Kodak to my seat instead of the usual large format rig. Working with an old ten megapixel camera in a dark arena surrounded by thousands of synchronized LED light sticks is a strange clash of eras. Granted, this was not my first choice, but I was so excited to share this experience every way I could nonetheless. You have to wait for the perfect moment when working with, well, really any camera. You cannot just hold the shutter down and pray. The mechanical click of the camera forces you to actually watch the spectacle instead of just hoarding data on a 1gb card (especially with card prices these days).

Moving back to the show, the spectacle itself once it started made my long cold face grin from one ear to the next. They dropped Strategy for their second song and the concrete floor physically shook. Dancing to every word as if my daughter was in the backseat with me was an understatement. I had a blast bopping along to the song that has been a stable every day on the drive to daycare. No, TWICE, is not a The kids group, as they are for everyone. The two families near me all jumped along to the lyrics in english as a few who found them through the K Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack were entirely unhinged next to me, screaming every word. That exact same aggressive energy erupted strangers I met before the performance shouted every word of thier next song in Korean showing each song meant something else to each person there. When Jihyo, Jeongyeon, and Chaeyoung ripped through TAKEDOWN. The bass was completely lethal and only made me want to fist pump and cheer on this group more undignified than I had ever cheered on a group.

But the real story is the ecosystem in the room. I spent the night getting a crash course in the lore from the people sitting next to me. Western pop crowds simply do not operate like this. What fascinated me the most was the culture of the fanbase. I spent a good portion of the evening just hanging out and letting the people next to me explain the complex lore and geometry of the group. It is a living and breathing ecosystem. As it is very easy to be cynical about massive arena pop shows. It is much harder to stand in a room with thousands screaming fans and not get completely swept up in the current. I walked in as an outsider with an old camera and a blank slate. I walked out thoroughly educated and entirely entertained. Cannot recommend families, friends, lovers, and even retirees to take one night a year and go see a K-POP group in concert.