Earlier this year, IU announced she would embark on her ninth concert tour supporting her sixth EP, The Winning. The HEREH World Tour (originally the H.E.R. World Tour) is IU’s first world tour, which consists of concerts in Asia, North America, and Europe.
The tour started in Seoul on March 2, 2024, and will end in Seoul on September 22, 2024. The North American leg of the tour began in mid-July in Newark, New Jersey, and ended at the beginning of August in Inglewood, California (labelled as Los Angeles in promotional materials)
The Los Angeles show is the one I attended.
For total transparency, I was not planning on attending this concert since I had failed to get a ticket at retail price. Given the popularity of IU’s shows, I would have to pay scalper prices if I wanted to go. I had accepted that I would not see the mythical Pokemon IU live in the flesh.
However, a Hail Mary thrown via the power of journalism and a smile from the gods of fortune scored me a ticket. I considered myself very lucky to see her final show in North America, even if it meant doing a lot of last minute planning.
I would be considered a casual fan of IU as a musician. I know her more as an actress, spokesmodel, YouTube show host, etc. Her music is still something I’m learning about. I know most of her big hits and some b-sides from her most recent works, but I can’t immediately name her songs if you played snippets and quizzed me.
Regardless, my level of anticipation and expectation were high.
On concert day, I arrived at the Kia Forum just before 3 p.m. and immediately checked out the early merchandise. I had a request from home to get a hoodie, but I wasn’t interested in getting merchandise for myself since I wasn’t fond of the designs on the shirts. I preferred the design of the shirt IU was wearing during the second encore over what was sold at the merch booths. With my promise to purchase fulfilled, I looked for a shaded area to escape the afternoon California heat.
At 5 p.m., ticket holders were allowed to enter the Forum’s terrace. More merch booths, food, and liquor were scattered around the area to fuel up for the concert. In the middle of the terrace was a KIA photo area you could participate in by completing a survey. It didn’t hurt to give it a go. Will I get my picture in exchange for letting KIA harvest my data? I still need to get it as of the publishing of this article.
I entered the building once I got out of the KIA photo area. After verifying my ticket, I was told, “No photography.” Once I was seated, a security person came down to each row, saying if they saw anyone using their phone during the concert, there would be a warning for the first violation and ejection for the second. That had the people around me protesting loudly for being unable to flex their amateur photography and video skills for social media credit. Before the concert wasn’t a big deal, many (including myself) took some opportunity to take pics of our seat views, the gifts at the seats, and selfies before Supercop starting cracking the whip.
The show started shortly after 7:30 p.m., and it was apparent that Forum staff were serious about enforcing the no phone use rule as I saw one person being escorted away three songs in. On my side of the arena were staff patrolling, the screaming matches between them, and fans who thought not using your phone was only a suggestion and not a hard rule could be heard under IU’s performances. I don’t know about the rest of the building, but the word going around after the concert had ended is that the staff was strict about any photos or videos from this last show in North America.
As for what was happening on the stage, IU was live and in person. To say seeing her was mind blowing is an understatement. The mythical Pokemon exists. IU is the first K-pop soloist whose concert I have attended. Given that her music is generally less about trend hopping and more about artistic expression, I assumed her show would have a different vibe than other K-pop artists I have seen.
IU HEREH World Tour 2024 Los Angeles Setlist
Part 1: Hypnotic
- Holssi
- Jam Jam
- Ah puh (key-up version)
- BBIBBI
- Obliviate
Part 2: Energetic
- Celebrity
- Blueming
- eight
- Coin
- I stan U
VCR
- Heart as bgm
Part 3: Romantic
- Havana
- Meaning of You
- strawberry moon (Acoustic)
- Through the Night
Part 4: Ecstatic
- Shopper
- Above the Time
- YOU&I
- Love wins all
Encore: Heroic
- Shh..
- Twenty-three
- Holssi (rock version)
En-encore
- Friday
- Lullaby (Snippet)
- Good Day (Snippet)
- Ending Scene (Snippet)
- Hold My Hand
- LILAC
- Palette
The setlist for this tour was split into four acts: Hypnotic, Energetic, Romantic, and Ecstatic. Each act had songs that reflected its theme in one way or another. Of course, most songs were from The Winning, but she also performed other tracks from her discography.
Even though all four acts were great, the last two resonated with me the most since they contained the style of music I prefer when listening to artists in the same lane IU occupies. My favourites from this group were Strawberry Moon and Love Wins All.
I mainly attend concerts or festivals that involve multi-member groups whose music prompts one to stand up and get hyped as they dance on stage. What surprised me the most about this concert was how rowdy and hyped IU fans can get during her shows. Even those sitting down in the bowl sections were getting over-excited. It reminded me of the type of K-pop crowds I usually see. Thankfully, no one around me smacked me in the head or kicked my chair forcefully. It was restrained excitement.
Again, her music generally doesn’t sound like it would generate such a response, so it was shocking to see it in person.
The whole cell phone ban ended up being a good thing and added to the excitement. It forced the crowd to focus on IU rather than themselves. Instead of seeing the dull glow of cell phone screens, all I saw was the glow of light sticks through the KIA forum, which was great.
It was nice to see the crowd living in the moment, especially since being in the building for this rare occasion is something many K-Pop fans who could not get a ticket would trade anything for. Seeing this unfold made me again thankful for being there after getting shut out during the initial ticket sale.
The second encore was another memorable part of the concert. I had heard that the crowd was asked to sing one of IU’s songs to bring her out at previous stops. The song chosen for Los Angeles was Celebrity. Theoretically, this would have been a fantastic idea if the crowd could read Hangul or Romanized Korean properly. Instead, it became an unintentionally funny struggle as the crowd quietly tried to sing in Korean and waited for the English part of the chorus so they could sing it as loudly as possible.
From what I heard of her shows in Korea, the “unofficial” part of IU’s concerts lasts long. However, time is money in America, so there was no infinite request show in Los Angeles. She cut a few songs short to stay within her overrun time. Seeing complete performances of Friday, Hold My Hand, and LILAC within the brief period was fantastic.
Sadly, the three-plus hours had to end. It’s safe to say that many of the crowd who stuck around for the entire thing didn’t want to go home and would probably ask IU to sing her whole catalogue of songs if allowed. And she probably would have obliged if the venue had no time limitations.
The Los Angeles HEREH World Tour 2024 was a well-paced, engaging concert. There were no obvious stalls for time, and the movement between acts was smooth. And while not as grand as her shows in Korea, the production quality was still top-notch, and her band kicked all sorts of ass. It was so efficient that it felt like the three hours had passed instantly.
After experiencing IU in concert, I left with joy after seeing her in real life and then calm, as if I had been through some healing session with 18,000 other people. As I mentioned, it’s an entirely different vibe compared to the acts I usually travel to see in concert.
I also gained a greater appreciation for her music, and I will go back through her discography again to see what I’ve been missing.
