For Bobo.Xx’s First Show at the Forum, He Painted a Constellation

“My mentality now is I wanna show everyone what I can do, break boundaries and conquer those new challenges for future generations to be even better than I am,” the rockstar says.

On the morning that Bobo.Xx opened for The Rose at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum Arena, he realized he was experiencing a full circle moment. 

Bobo’s custom jacket using lyrics from “PAIN”.

For the past seven years, the singer has built a one-of-a-kind career. He began as a tour photographer and videographer, cutting his teeth by working for musicians like the Jonas Brothers, Hippie Sabotage, Epik High, dumbfoundead, Gryffin and Eric Nam. But it’s his work with Asian American musicians, many caught on the cusp of a breakthrough, that has made his career incendiary. His output is heartening to look back on because Bobo is right there, in the thick of it all, capturing one of the most exciting periods for Asian American musicians as they chart to record-breaking heights. 

But in 2021, Bobo leaned into a long-held passion and started to release music. “I wanted to break through the stereotype, and show a different side of Asian Americans,” he told me in our first interview. Last week on his birthday, he dropped “Airing It Out”, a fire mid-tempo song and the first of its kind in his discography. But the music Bobo is most known for is the volatile, fiery tracks, like “No More Talking'', that have positioned him as one of the first Asian American rockstars. 

This year though, Bobo explained, something surreal happened. After spending nearly a decade chronicling so many meteoric careers, those same musicians began to champion him. In June, Epik High’s Tablo jumped on a verse for Bobo's single “PAIN”. Then he asked Bobo to open for a few dates on Epik High’s tour. Woosung, The Rose’s leader who opened for the “Epik High Is Here” tour, also became one of Bobo’s biggest supporters. “Woosung is my brother,” he said. “He’s always championed me. We all had some wild times on the Epik High tour while we were all traveling together.”

Last year at an after party in LA, Woosung played “No More Talking” and said he wanted Bobo to open for The Rose in 2023. “Woosung is a man of his word,” Bobo said, “and he made it happen.”

Woosung could have easily put Bobo on a smaller show in a less prominent city, but he was adamant that Bobo join them at the Forum.  

Flash forward to that show, and Bobo entered the arena not as a photographer, but as the performer. “It was surreal pulling into the venue and telling them I’m Bobo.Xx.” he said with a pause, “the artist.” Bobo had already pulled together a team of friends for his show, bringing all of them on board from The Jonas Brothers’ and Epik High’s tours. Through a stroke of serendipity, the guys now work with Eric Nam and were already in LA for his show the night before. “They all stayed an extra night to help me,” he said, which made the evening feel almost like a regular night on tour. But this time, the crew he worked with to capture these tours were now photographing and running tech for him. 

“It’s hard to comprehend. I was way less nervous than I was for the Oakland show,” Bobo remembered. When Bobo opened for Epik High that night in Oakland, trading his camera for a microphone and backflips, he played for over 3,000 people. But The Rose’s show was unlike any size Bobo had played. He credits Woosung, again, for believing in him. “He wanted me at their biggest show of the tour and I was so grateful,” he said.  

Bobo with members of The Rose (from left: Jaehyeong, Bobo, Dojoon, Hajoon, and Woosung)

Bobo is one of the first Vietnamese American artists to play the Forum, a historic accomplishment for the rockstar. But this show was significant, not only because Bobo has put in years of intense legwork to arrive here, but because of how few Asian Americans are making it in rock music. For the fans who saw him tear apart the stage that night, using his tricking background (a training discipline that incorporates martial arts with kicks and flips), he looked like a maniac superstar.

Bobo’s learned something from every artist he’s worked with. He purposely puts Easter eggs from every artist he’s worked with into his set. “I took the hype from Hippie Sabotage. I learned from Tablo how to tell a story and commit to the character. Eric taught me how to pose after a song for the magic photos. I took elements from the Jonas Brothers on how to work with the mic stand,” he explained. What he’s learning now from firsthand experience is just as important: Take the fucking risk. Share your story, loudly, and push through the pain because that’s where you find meaning. 

I wondered how Bobo’s parents, who escaped the Vietnam war to give Bobo the opportunity to do something just as insane as this, felt about his performance. “My mom is kinda like a Facebook Mom,” he said with a laugh, noting that she often gets more likes than him on social media. “And everyone keeps telling her how proud of me they are.” 

His luck has caught nearly everyone, including Bobo, by surprise. Bobo knows several kids he grew up with who lead normal lives now, something he was destined for had he not believed in himself and taken the risk. Some kids of the immigrant families he grew up with are now doctors or lawyers. But how many immigrant parents can say their son is a rockstar who played for 10,000 people? 

At The Forum that night, Bobo paid tribute to his parents. On stage, he talked about how he’d be a fool to not work his ass off after how much his parents sacrificed for him. These kinds of moments aren’t lost on Bobo. He’s had nearly a decade to manifest and contemplate what it would be like to stand in this position, and the time has transformed him into an artist who demands your attention. Most importantly, Bobo’s music gives Asian Americans like him the freedom to make mistakes, to fuck up without judgment and ultimately, find freedom in the mess of it all. That means more than a six-figure salary could. 

“The risk-taking is so worth it,” he said when he thought back to how far he’s come. “My mentality now is I wanna show everyone what I can do, break boundaries and conquer those new challenges for future generations to be even better than I am.” 

On stage at The Forum, Bobo took a moment to look out into the crowd, soaking in a vision he could only dream of years ago. “I always had this dream ever since I first started making music of painting a constellation on stage,” he explained. On tours, he would often tell artists to be sure their fans used their phone lights for one song because the photos look like stars surrounding the band. 

Bobo finally gets his constellation.

At first, Bobo was worried he wouldn’t have time to create the constellation. He’d rushed through several stories and his allotted time of fifteen minutes was quickly running out. “But I decided to do it,” he said, and he told everyone to pull their phones out. “Together, we’re going to paint this constellation,” he declared. 

What’s funny is that the constellation was actually for a girl that was in attendance at the show, an ex he dedicated his vision to and show that he can do this just like he promised before they broke up. “She actually had no idea I was gonna do that,” said Bobo. But as the phones lit up a starry universe, he realized this was the culmination of all of his hard work. The constellation was as much for him as it was for her. 

“So they lit it the fuck up,” he recalled, “and I realized this is a moment I’ve wanted forever.” 

Photographer credits: CJ Moy, Jack Vu and Daniel Hyunwoo Park