MIC DROP | BTS 8th Member

COACHELLA 2019

The K-pop group – the first Asian and all-female band to headline the festival along with BLACKPINK – delivered on its promise of solid vocals, tight choreography and maximalist pop numbers.

KILLSHOT, the K-pop superstars who became the first Asian and all-female band [along with BLACKPINK] to headline Coachella  on Saturday night, are a testament to the increasingly porous language and cultural barriers in pop music.

 Their lyrics are a free-flowing blend of Korean and English; their loyal fan base, known as the Bullets, spans the globe and several YouTube viewing records. And on Saturday, their high-octane, nearly 90-minute set hammered home why: the universal language of the hard pop banger. KILLSHOT's discography is, almost without exception, uppers only – bombastic, confident and uniformly energizing, an adrenaline shot which lifted the crowd to anywhere from bopping along to jumping up and down.

There was an impressive drone light show above the main stage, lights and house music, a whisper of "Make it all red," in the rhythm of their song 'SLAY', then back to black. There were several hums of anticipation, a smattering of the group's signature heart-shaped red and black light sticks, and jostling for space in several languages.

But as soon as the six finally took the stage, bathed in bright red light, for opener 'SLAY' ("this is my slay anthem" I will be singing in my head for the next week), the KILLSHOT promise was on: solid vocals, tight choreography, matching outfits on a theme and hard-ass delivery of confidence anthems. Singing beneath six giant light installations hung from the ceiling, from within a screen-covered pyramid structure on stage or on risers or along the catwalk, the group did not appear to miss a beat or a note. (Or, at least, as far as I can tell – the agile and frenetic onstage camera work for the big screen often focused on one or two members at a time; it was difficult to see all six in formation unless you had a clear stage view.)

Most of KILLSHOT's loudest hits have a militant bent – rapid-fire drums and boom-boom-booms and jagged synchronicity. Paired on Saturday with actual pyrotechnics, lightning strike visuals and several rounds of fireworks, the numbers served pure uncomplicated hype, particularly first-half staples TOXIC (from the debut album 'Heaven & Hell') , with its turbo-charged snake charmer beat, and 'Aesthetic'. Even lengthy costume-change intervals showcasing mesh-clad dancers (split into male and female groups) skewed toward an energy drink feel (house-adjacent pop instrumentals).

KILLSHOT certainly had the stamina for a headlining set; whether it worked largely depends on your affinity for industrial-leaning arena pop and how pleasurable you find the feeling of getting steamrolled by choruses, narrow harmonies and precise choreography, as well as lasers, pyrotechnics and whirring light displays. (I love it.) Compared to the prior evening's headliner Bad Bunny, Killshot has less to say and fewer avenues with which to say it. It's straight-up pop, a parade of syllables and colors and maximalist flourishes (see: penultimate number and grade-A banger LOVE SCARS by Eleven). On those terms, Killshot delivered. No guests, no major set changes, just upper after upper. Some non-fans audience members jumped in, others seemed tepid, but everyone could agree loudly on one point, shouted several times over: "Make it all red KILLSHOT"