San E and Mad Clown, two Korean American rap artists are currently on a tour of the US. This tour happened to be coming through my city, Pittsburgh, and I had to go, cause not only were they performing, but they were also bringing food trucks… so duh! Food and music? My kind of a great idea. The real question is which one did I actually come for, as even I don’t know.
So the concert was in a small venue in downtown Pittsburgh, called the August Wilson Center, and as expected, most of the people there were in fact Korean, although I was still shocked at how many locals were there, as most of the Korean population is university students at CMU and Pitt. When you got there, they had you go and get a wrist band for the K-Pop Party that they had afterwards (the wristbands were split by color based off of whether you could legally drink or not). Since the venue was small, even from the back, you felt up close and personal with Mad Clown and San E (as well as SoBae (소배) who opened for them.
As for the music itself, honestly I loved all of it. After listening to them both, and watching them perform, the concert really was an opposites attract situation. Mad Clown is much more introverted and shy, and San E definitely has more of a Beagle of a personality. San E definitely LOVED to mess with Mad Clown a little bit, he also was all about throwing the 애교 (aegyo for all you who can’t read Hangeul). He threw hearts all over the place, jumped around like a goofball, and was just honestly adorable. SoBae was pretty dang adorable as well, and I really loved her style. She did very well when surrounded by men, and just seemed extremely down to earth. I personally want to be her friend.
By the end of the concert, I figured out that I was DEFINITELY there to see San E. His personality was so greatly reflected in his music, and I loved how he was basically a living meme. He really had so much personality and knew how to work a crowd. He was skipping, shaking his butt, and just being an overall troll. On top of that, his music is actually just really good. It seems to match my own personality. This of course isn’t to say that I didn’t like Mad Clown as well. I just liked San E more.
Overall, I had a really good time at the concert, until I was disappointed in the food trucks, because there was only one, and I wasn’t hungry, as I had two lunches that day because they didn’t tell us they were bringing us food, and I had already bought Chipotle. What the heck. They also wanted ten bucks for Bulgogi at like 10:30 and I wouldn’t even finish it. So I just went home, thinking about how much fun that was.
Have you seen any K-Pop artists in concert? WHo was your favorite? Let me know in the comments below, K-Nuggets!
사랑합니다!
–Rachel
