“We Lit Up the Stage”: Brave Girls meet FEARLESS on first US Tour
Brave Girls meeting ATL FEARLESS. Photo: Michael, Bias Wrecker
It’s hard to believe that just a little over a year ago, Brave Girls were close to disbanding. Nevermind that they never believed they could tour North America and play to venues of adoring fans called FEARLESS. Yet impossible things are happening every day when a video of the group performing “Rollin’” for the Korean military went viral, the girls shot to number one and became national treasures.
This month Brave Girls are traveling the US with Studio Pav for the first international tour of their career. When I saw them in Atlanta at Masquerade, Minyoung, Yujeong, Eunji and Yuna were effervescent, funny, and incredible show women. They ran through all of their hits, including some deep B-side cuts, and bantered with a very vocal, raucous crowd who were thrilled to finally see the girls in person.
Photo: Michael, Bias Wrecker
“Because this is our first US tour since our debut I was very excited and nervous,” Eunji, the group’s insanely talented lead dancer, said near the opening of the show. She frequently hyped up the crowd throughout the concert and looked to be absorbing every ounce of their energy.
Minyoung, the group’s leader who I wrote about during their run on QUEENDOM 2, was particularly moved by the crowd. Newly blonde and looking thrilled to be playing in Atlanta, Minyoung thought back to the pandemic. “I was a little sad last year,” she said, referring to the past year of COVID-19 restrictions. “Because I couldn’t meet FEARLESS before but now I’m excited because we can.”
The girls opened with “THANK YOU”, their latest title track from the EP of the same name, that is dedicated to FEARLESS – and the world as a whole for embracing them over the past year. “So many days I cried in secret,” they sing in the chorus, “I don’t know if I’d be here without you.”
Despite how easy it would be for the girls to rest on their laurels after the runaway success of “Rollin’” they have no interest in doing so. As they stated on QUEENDOM 2, Brave Girls want to show fans that they have so much more to offer. Their tour is an excellent reminder of their incredible discography that dives deep into disco and pure pop. “We Ride”, “After We Ride”, “Chi Mat Ba Ram”, and “High Heels” are all here and make a strong case to question why these ladies were overlooked for so long. Their discography is immaculate.
The girls each hand selected the setlist and sprinkled in some of their favorite songs. “When I was coming to the States one of the songs I was really excited to perform was ‘We Ride’”, Yujeong said with her trademark wide smile. Minyoung added that she chose “Fever” as a deep cut that she hoped FEARLESS would enjoy. “We’ve never been able to perform this one!”
As this is the first time Brave Girls have come face to face with FEARLESS, they added a chance halfway through the show to talk with each other. This was an intimate segueway where the girls answered questions they knew the fans were wondering, and gave two members a chance to cool off before performing again.
The tour began in Philadelphia a few days prior, and Minyoung spoke of her shock seeing so many fans there to support them. “I couldn’t even imagine how many cheers and support we got in Philadelphia,” she said.
This was also, notably, the first time the girls had visited North America. Yujeong laughed and said that on the flight over she mostly drank alcohol and slept. On the morning of the show, Eunji explained that she was excited to explore the neighborhood they stayed in. “I’m rooming with Yuna for this tour, and because she wakes up so early,” she started as she cut her eyes at the macknae member, “I decided I should start my day. So we found a bagel shop and had breakfast.”
Brave Girls as Disco Queens! Photo: Michael, Bias Wrecker
After a break to speak with the audience, the girls dove in to perform their biggest smashes. “Rollin’” was insane to witness live and is worth the ticket price for this performance alone. And while there was palpable excitement for “Rollin’” (I heard at least one fan whisper breathlessly, “They’re putting out chairs!” in a reference to the choreography), the girls made sure nearly every number was a highlight. “Red Sun”, a recent triumphant moment on QUEENDOM 2 that earned them a number one spot, was touching to see live. “Look at me now,” they shout in a meta-moment.
Watching the girls live that night, I thought of Yujeong’s interview the week of “Rollin’s” reverse engineered success. “It wasn’t just that it didn’t work out. It was so hard. We’re in our sixth year now and have been dragging this out for so long that I think we know better just how valuable this is and how thankful we are,” she said. “There are now so many people who are giving me strength and have expectations for me that I feel that much more responsibility so I just want to show our original selves. After debuting, I fell over, but I eventually got to where I wanted to go. You can’t know the course of one’s life. If you’re thinking ‘Can I do this?’ ‘Can I start chasing this dream?’ just because of your age, then I hope that you won’t have those thoughts.”
A year and a half later, Brave Girls are finally getting their roses. After “We Ride”, Minyoung looked out into an audience of FEARLESS, some new and some old, and smiled.
“We lit up the stage,” the leader stated and laughed.
Photo: Michael, Bias Wrecker
