Aespa’s Oakland show brought out fans from all over NorCal

By Jason Yu


If there’s one K-pop concert that many fans anticipated in early 2025, it was definitely Aespa.

The four-member, female group from SM Entertainment has exploded in popularity since their 2020 debut. Since then, Aespa has cemented themselves as a top-tier group, as they’re widely known to be one of the premiere girl groups in 4th generation.

The group first performed in the US back in 2022 called Showcase Synk in LA, followed that up with a 2023 SYNK : Hyper Line world tour, and are now on their 2025 SYNK : PARALLEL LINE world tour.

While Aespa are no strangers to touring in the US – this being their third time here – it is their first time performing in Oakland, CA. Fans from all over Northern California – often called NorCal by natives – quickly bought tickets, selling out in a mere few hours. Oakland Arena would need every seat in their venue, as they hosted 19,200 people – its maximum occupancy – during Aespa’s Oakland debut.

Photo credits: Chloe Catajan / SM Entertainment

When the lights started to fade at 8:00 pm, the loud cheers vibrated throughout Oakland Arena. The fans were waiting to see one of SM’s premiere girl groups perform. As the four girls – Karina, Ningning, Giselle, and Winter – came out, they started performing right away.

Throughout the concert, the girls were all business. There was little talking and conversing with the audience until the very end of the concert. There would be no “let’s play the wave game,” quiz games, or any banter with the audience.

Instead, the girls performed three songs in succession, “Drama,” “Black Mamba,” and “Salty & Sweet,” before taking a quick break for a water break. Then they would continue performing banger after banger, much to the delight of MYs, the name for the Aespa fandom.

Aespa performed a variety of genres, ranging from hard rock and EDM to their well-known pop and dance tracks. Towards the middle of the concert, each member would perform their own solos, consisting mostly of energetic pop, as well as slower pop.

Photo credits: Chloe Catajan / SM Entertainment

While the girls performed many of their iconic bangers – such as “Armageddon,” “Next Level,” and “Supernova” – two songs that were notably absent were “Dreams Come True” and “Savage.” Both the iconic, 90s remake of the S.E.S song- “Dreams Come True”, as well as the 2021 EDM, trap song – “Savage” were not on the Oakland set list, much to the dismay of many fans.

The concert had a high-budget, with three big projection screens to show the girls, multiple camera angles, fancy graphics during certain songs, and multiple costume changes. These outfits ranged from white dresses, a black-colored wardrobe, and hoodie and jeans. SM also flew out eight backup dancers to perform alongside the girls and shined the spotlight on each dancer at the end of the concert.

The SM polish was in full force during Aespa’s concert, as they spared no expense in making the show high quality.

Throughout the show, there were five VCR intermissions placed within the schedule to allow the girls to take a water break and rest up a bit. While the VCR’s story was intended to show each member living in parallel universes, sadly, the story did not resonate with the audience. The narration was a bit confusing and felt like the metaverse lore was awkwardly inserted into the concert.

Speaking of the metaverse concept, it was largely missing in the concert, with only one notable exception with Naevis (more on this soon). Aespa’s virtual idol counterparts, called æ, were also non-existent. For the past few years, SM Entertainment has been deemphasizing the virtual avatar aspect of Aespa. Rather than showcasing Aespa as eight members – the four human members and their four virtual avatar æ – SM has been focusing on the four human members instead. There were a lot of instances of incorporating the aes if SM really wanted to, such as during their VCR video intermissions mentioned earlier.

Photo credits: Chloe Catajan / SM Entertainment

Unfortunately for SM, the virtual idol, metaverse concept of the group never really took off. This was painfully apparent during the only time the concert showcased the virtual idol concept.

Naevis, the group’s AI system that’s portrayed as a girl, performed “Done” during an intermission. While technically impressive, as Naevis’ 3D model and voice were well-produced and had the SM polish, the virtual idol concept was sadly not well-received by fans. There was a large silence throughout the audience, with many fans snickering and quietly laughing, not knowing what to think. Many fans used the Naevis intermission to go to the bathroom, get snacks, or buy merch.

When the girls came back out after the Naevis performance to perform “Whiplash,” the massive cheering came back in full force, doing a complete 180 from the previously silent reaction of “Done.” Just from this reaction, fans vastly preferred the real life, Aespa members, rather than their æ spinoffs and virtual idol lore.

As the confetti started falling during the encore, it was apparent that Aespa further cemented themselves as one the top female K-pop groups in 4th gen. Between their choreography, their singing, massive hits, and immense star power – Karina being a prime example as one of K-pop’s “It” girls – these girls showed why they’re a premiere attraction in K-pop today. These girls are one of the handful of groups that many fans regarded as “must see” K-pop.

Photo credits: Chloe Catajan / SM Entertainment

The girls used the final 10 minutes to converse with the audience, marking the longest time the girls interacted with the audience during the concert. The girls had a fun time trying to speak to the audience in English, before letting the translator give their heartfelt messages in Korean to the Oakland audiences. Giselle, as the fluent English speaker in the group, joked around with the audience and talked about what it meant to tour again in the US.

Before the girl’s final sendoff, marking the end of the concert, Giselle asked the rapid Oakland audience, “what is a call sign that Oakland uses?” A chorus of “woo woo woo” answered back, as Giselle mimicked the Bay Area chant.

After the two-and-a-half hour show, the Aespa members vowed to return, as they told the star-struck audience, “we would like to come back Oakland!” It’s safe to say from the fans’ reaction that they would welcome Aespa back to the Bay Area with open arms.

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