Mamamoo were the chosen ones by the Korean music industry to showcase this year at SXSW. A group that was formed a few years ago, Mamamoo has quickly risen up the ranks of power among the girl group factions in Korea. The Belmont was packed to the roof for them and the excitement was high. You know, I’ve been going to K-Pop nights at SXSW for four years now and they never take the time to serve free Korean food. Why is that? It’d be a great opportunity for Korea to introduce a lot of Texans to the wonders of bulgogi and bimbimbap as well as all those cool bands and cell phones they are making.
Anyways, the group took the stage and people just lost it. Four grown ass men next to me pulled out print out paper signs with the names of the girls and waved them throughout the show, trying to get the girls attention. These were grown ass men I’m talking about. I’m like, well if you are going to make signs, put a little more effort into it and not just a shitty black and white printout. Much to my delight, the girls ignored them. Does that make me a bad person? Maybe.
Mamamoo’s music was quite refreshing, they incorporated many different genres into the music, ranging from 50’s style doo-wop sound to straight up hip hop track sounded like it was produced by ‘Dre. It made for an interesting show and I can see why they have separated themselves from all the other girl factions in Korea. Their dance moves were on par and quite flirtatious, which brought all the boys to the yard. I found it charming that even though it was obvious that hey didn’t know a lick of English, they would just yell out random stuff like “Let’s go!” or “Are you ready!”. A very charming show.
I would say go check them out but they probably aren’t touring, so watch this video instead.
Here’s a video