“Everybody post us on your story,” Kim Chaewon grins. LE SSERAFIM’s leader stands at the front of the Sahara stage, throwing up peace signs to the front of the crowd while she and her bandmates take a water break. We’re only three songs into the girl group’s debut Coachella appearance, but it’s already clear the festival airwaves are going to be jammed with fans trying to share footage of the moment once the set is over.
Ever since BLACKPINK were first booked to perform at Coachella in 2019, K-pop’s presence on the festival’s stages has slowly become the norm rather than an oddity. This year, LE SSERAFIM have set a new record, becoming the fastest-invited K-pop group to perform here, making their mark in the desert before their two-year anniversary. It’s a reflection of the impact the five-piece have already made on the music scene, carving out a space for themselves as a badass girl gang with a grungy edge.
That feeling shines through from the first moment of their set tonight (April 13). Joined by a live band, the members strut onto stage one by one to the grinding riffs of ‘Good Bones’, taking their individual moment in the spotlight but coming together as one powerful entity. As they launch into ‘Antifragile’, it’s clear they didn’t come to play – and that they get what the energy of a festival performance should be. The chorus lines become chanted boasts of the group’s toughness, their full-bodied shouts matching the crunch of their backing band and getting the crowd hyped up further.
LE SSERAFIM CREDIT: Natt Lim/Getty Images for Coachella
Where K-pop can often be focused on pristine perfection, LE SSERAFIM’s set loosens things up and brings out a new rawness. The viral ‘Eve, Psyche & the Bluebeard’s wife’ feels even more electrifying on this stage, its closing “girls wanna have fun” rally a call to arms the group immediately answers with the bright ‘Perfect Night’. ‘Smart’, meanwhile – preceded by Huh Yunjin cheekily asking the crowd: “Are you ready to shake some fucking ass?” – becomes even more irresistible, with pockets of the crowd break into groups performing their own takes on the hip-swinging choreography.
That looseness colours the attitude in LE SSERAFIM’s new song, ‘1-800-Hot-N-Fun’, which receives its premiere on the Sahara stage tonight. “I like to dance when I party / I like to kiss everybody,” the group sing over a surging, bass-y riff, the English-language song growing into a contender for the world’s new weekend anthem. It lives up to its title perfectly, its playfulness coming to a peak with the closing refrain “1-800-hot-n-fun, that’s my number / Hit my line” a coquettish invitation.
Although the focus tonight is strictly on the girl group, they bring out one special guest for the performance. As they bring the spaghetti western ‘Unforgiven’ to life, Nile Rodgers – their collaborator on that track – quietly slots into the band behind them. It’s not until the group shout out his presence the crowd picks up on his presence, but when they do, he’s greeted with a roar befitting of such a legend.
It’s just one part of what makes this performance “a dream come true” for LE SSERAFIM, as Sakura describes it towards the end of their time on stage. Watching the group, you get the sense that, for the group, another big part of that feeling comes from being able to conquer Coachella with each other.
As they take a final bow, all stood in a line with hands clasped, they can’t help but show their excitement about what they’ve just done. Torsos still bent towards the floor, the five members giddily shake their still-interlocked hands, an action that wordlessly screams, “We did it”. If “it” is put on a fierce, fun performance that makes the Sahara stage their own, even if just for 40 minutes, then LE SSERAFIM certainly did.
LE SSERAFIM CREDIT: Natt Lim/Getty Images for Coachella
LE SSERAFIM played:
‘Antifragile’
‘Fearless’
‘The Great Mermaid’
‘1-800-Hot-N-Fun’
‘Unforgiven’
‘Eve, Psyche & the Bluebeard’s wife’
‘Perfect Night’
‘Smart’
‘Easy’
‘Fire in the belly’
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