Western Arohas got to start off 2018 right with a visit from their favorite boys of ASTRO in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and New York, courtesy of North American promoter Kpopme.

So Easy To Love You

The adoration that Arohas collectively have for ASTRO was apparent from the moment “Crazy Sexy Cool” began playing to entertain fans before the boys came out. The fanchants were so loud it was almost deafening, the enthusiasm complemented by the bright purple glow of ASTRO’s official lightsticks scattered across the audience. The atmosphere was certainly exciting and added to the anticipation of the boys beginning the show.

The show began with member JinJin performing a short solo dance, followed immediately by member Rocky performing his own piece before the two joined together for a dance duet to open the show. The rest of the boys joined them on stage to perform “Again” followed by “Baby” before taking a break to introduce themselves and sit down for the Q&A session.

Next came performances of “Run” and latest title track “Crazy Sexy Cool.” Round two of fan engagements was the “guess-what’s-in-the-box” game, where the boys split up into the older and younger teams to play. Members MJ and Rocky were particularly vocal in their displeasure of the game, screeching through their entire turn in trying to identify the item in the box. JinJin had quite a fun time bouncing around and teasing the others as they cringed and screamed in fear of the unknown.

In the end, the older team successfully guessed their box item, leaving the younger boys to take the punishment of spelling their names with their butts. And, of course, they were egged on to make it sexy, much to the delight of the fans in the audience. Moonbin went first and had to stop multiple times due to embarrassment, while Rocky was absolutely loving the attention he got as he flawlessly executed the punishment without stumbling once. As your local noona fan, I could not even watch maknae Sanha take his turn to do the punishment for obvious reasons. I still cannot handle boy group members born after the 90s.

The second game to follow was a choreography game in which one member would dance certain choreography and the other member on his team would have to guess the song based on that. After randomly selecting straws, the groups were decided as Eunwoo and Moonbin, Rocky and MJ, and Sanha and JinJin. Sanha and JinJin did the worst by far, so much so that it was comical, and they ended up having to each do 40 pushups as punishment. As a third mini game, three songs were played and the boys were to execute the choreography. It began with BTS’s “DOPE,” followed by Apink’s “NoNoNo,” and finally the group’s own “Every Minute.”

The boys then went on to perform their last two tracks, “Breathless” and “Confession,” before finishing with their ending ment. They also taught the audience the key point dance to their final performance “You & Me,” a song that is dedicated to thank Arohas and is universally loved. Upon finishing the vocal performance, the boys said a goodbye to loud screams from the audience, who managed to pull them back out for an encore in which they threw gifts out to the crowd and ran around with selfie cameras.

There is no question that ASTRO is well-loved by their fans, but their charms have even managed to convert someone like me, a member of the K-Pop community who was lukewarm in relation to a group that seemed to only focus on cute concepts. ASTRO has not only proven their popularity with this tour, but their immense talent and charming personalities as well that certainly shouldn’t be ignored.