As someone who has spent more than a year living in the shadow of chronic illness, agoraphobia, and the kind of anxiety that makes simply stepping outside feel like a siege, I have felt estranged from myself and from the world I once loved. Whole seasons have passed in near isolation. I have watched press events slip by on my calendar, declined red carpets I once ran toward, and let the part of me that loves covering live music go quiet. In moments of anguish, doubt, shame, and fear, I find myself searching for courage in the same way one searches for a friend in a crowd, scanning the horizon for some reminder that I am not alone.
Just the day before the show, I had taken a small but meaningful step forward by attending the LE SSERAFIM x Amazon Music pop-up activation in downtown Seattle, my first press event in what feels like forever. And on this night, returning to Climate Pledge Arena for LE SSERAFIM’s EASY CRAZY HOT World Tour, I felt the gravity of another first: my first live concert in over a year. It was a reunion not just with the group I have followed since their pre-debut teasers, but with myself, returning to live music as a sanctuary.
For me, and I suspect for many others, the arrival of LE SSERAFIM felt exactly like meeting that friend again after far too long. I even ate Chipotle beforehand, a favorite meal of theirs. The quintet’s first world tour marks a milestone moment for them and, unexpectedly, for me too. They are the first girl group under SOURCE Music since the acquisition by HYBE, and if you’ve been following K-pop as long as I have, you might have known Kim Chaewon and Miyawaki Sakura during their time in girl group IZ*ONE or even Sakura from her idol beginnings in Japan’s AKB48 system. For many of us, LE SSERAFIM are not just idols but sororal companions we’ve watched grow up.
In just three short years, LE SSERAFIM has not just debuted but flourished, carving out a discography that is simply no skips. They’ve taken the Billboard 200 by storm, building formidable cachet along the way: ANTIFRAGILE (No. 14), then reaching a new peak at No. 6 with their first full-length UNFORGIVEN. They became the fastest K-pop act to perform at Coachella after debut and picked up their first MTV VMA for “PUSH Performance of the Year.” And just last month, their fifth mini album HOT debuted at No. 9, cementing them as the fastest girl group to earn four Top 10 Billboard 200 entries.
But for all their historic wins, LE SSERAFIM still feels approachable, like the girls next door you’d want to hang out with after school—if your neighbors just happened to be global pop stars with impeccable choreography. Their lore is almost cinematic: Nakamura Kazuha, the ballerina who left world-class academies in Japan, Moscow, London, and the Netherlands to become an idol; Huh Yunjin, the Korean American who was eliminated on Produce 48 and thought her idol dream was over until HYBE called her back years later; Chaewon and Sakura, who weathered the abrupt disbandment of IZ*ONE only to rebuild something even stronger; and Eunchae, the group’s youngest, growing up in front of millions of fans’ eyes, a little bolder every comeback.
Parasocial relationships are a given in K-pop, but LE SSERAFIM makes it feel different. It feels easy, the intimacy almost casual, the badinage of long running jokes between them and their loyal fanbase FEARNOT.
After the group’s enticing opening numbers like “Come Over,” they added a special Seattle-only ending choreograph, fake hockey moves, a wink at the city’s still relatively new NHL team, the Kraken. The joke landed softly at first, met with scattered cheers, until Yunjin teased the audience for our lack of enthusiasm. She reminded us that in San Francisco, the crowd had gone wild for their crab-walk ending pose, so Seattle had to redeem itself. The group mimed a hockey match again, and this time the arena roared. Even the youngest member Hong Eunchae got in on the teasing, rating Seattle’s participation a brutal three out of ten before upgrading us later in the night.
Meanwhile, the performances themselves deserved a near-perfect score. The setlist unfolded like a triptych, each act mirroring the titles of their albums EASY, CRAZY, and HOT, charting a journey from vulnerability to freedom to full, unbridled power. There were no backup dancers or elaborate theatrics to hide behind, just the five members and a shifting LED backdrop of kaleidoscopic visuals that felt like living mosaics.
During “Sour Grapes,” the screen bathed the stage in a wash of violet and indigo, casting the girls in stained-glass silhouettes. Kazuha, in particular, seemed almost ethereal, her natural halo-like aura catching the light in a way that made the moment feel airy and reverent. Each time recapturing that spirit with her steadfast fouettés throughout the evening. On “Blue Flame,” LE SSERAFIM turned the entire arena into a choir, pausing mid-song to guide FEARNOTs through the fanchant until the call-and-response rang through Climate Pledge like a spell.
If those moments were a showcase of their diaphanous, angelic side with vocals pristine and harmonies cascading like silk, the rest of the night burned with an altogether different explosive energy. The Latin-flavored “Fire in the Belly” transformed the arena into something like a fútbol stadium, the crowd answering with a thunderous “Olé, olé, olé” chant that shook the rafters. “Crazy” was a dizzying blur of kinetic movement and sly grins, a song that practically tested the audience to keep up.
When they launched into the Coachella-debuted “1-800 Hot N Fun,” the vibes hit its playful peak. The track itself is pert, dripping with a wink-and-nudge attitude. Midway through the song, the members scanned the crowd in mock frustration, acting out the lyric “Where the heck is Saki, she’s waiting down in the lobby,” before singling out to a chosen FEARNOT in the audience to be their Saki and flex their moves.
The concert’s finale before the encore struck like a thunderclap as LE SSERAFIM unleashed the rock-infused versions of “UNFORGIVEN” and “ANTIFRAGILE,” showcasing the full intensity of their vocals and aggressive almost non-stop cavalcade of choreography. Chaewon, in particular, commanded the stage with ferocity, fully living up to her moniker of “C*nty Bob.”
While some might argue for more production, backup dancers, and props, there is something quietly daring about LE SSERAFIM’s choice to forgo elaborate smoke and mirrors on their first world tour. This approach allowed them to shine as true raconteurs, sharing stories that introduced them first and foremost as people. They wandered into the pit area, greeting FEARNOT with smiles and waves, recounting colorful tales from their day in Seattle, including visits to Pike Place Market and sampling clam chowder, mac and cheese, gelato, and Greek yogurt, each culinary mention punctuated by Sakura’s playful, “Ate.” They even told of a run-in with fans at the somewhat sketchy downtown Target, who would later sit front row at the concert. These small, human stories grounded the spectacle in a rare intimacy for a K-pop act of their caliber.
During the encore of “Perfect Night,” the group added a personal twist: Seattle-specific choreography that included salmon tossing, tipping their hats to the iconic Pike Place tradition. A few members wore University of Washington gear, a thoughtful lagniappe that caught the UW Instagram’s attention. Go Huskies!
Yunjin shared a story of a Reddit post she had stumbled upon, a heartfelt review from a fan who had overcome social anxiety to attend a LE SSERAFIM show. Her words resonated deeply, encouraging everyone to take their own leaps of courage, to step forward even in doubt, and to remember that the group is walking beside them in spirit.
It is in these gestures, these shared moments of vulnerability, that the ensemble embodies the very essence of their mantra. Thanks to these five friends, these artists, anyone can know what it truly means to FEARNOT, and in doing so, to live up to the name itself: an anagram of I’M FEARLESS.
