Concert Review: AMPERS&ONE Brings the 'Crazy Stupid Fun' on First North American Tour 'MY FIRST_'

I had the honor of interviewing the K-pop boy group AMPERS&ONE when they were barely-debuted rookies back in 2023, and now the group has kicked off their first-ever North American tour, "My First_", with a stop in New York City on February 24. 

The group consists of members Kamden, Brian, Jiho, Siyun, Kyrell, Mackiah, and Seungmo, some of whom gained popularity prior to debut after appearing as contestants on the survival show Boys Planet. The group is also known for representing a span of nationalities including Korean, American, Canadian, Chinese, and Australian, which makes them a treat for international K-pop fans.

Since their debut, AMPERS&ONE has released three mini-albums, and to fans' delight, they perform every track from each of the albums on this tour. The setlist opened with the group's debut song, "On & On", a perfect kickoff to the high-energy set, which gave the audience a taste of the full spectrum of what the group's career has been like thus far.

In addition to fun and energetic performances of their own songs, the members also performed several covers of songs from popular groups like BTS, Tomorrow X Together, and Stray Kids. They also split into units to perform covers of songs by some non-K-pop artists, like "Sorry" by Justin Bieber, and "That's What I Like" by Bruno Mars - and prompted their fans to sing along.

While not at all a necessity, several of the members of AMPERS&ONE are fluent in English, which made communication with the audience seamless. Even the members who are not as fluent noted that they had been practicing English in preparation for the tour and they delivered comments to their fans beautifully.

After saying their final ments and departing the stage, the memebrs returned for an encore to close the show. They performed the English version of their song "He + She = We", which followed the Korean version that they performed earlier in the night. Then the show ended with arguably the group's most fun song, "Crazy Stupid Fun", an energetic club-dance track that everyone in the audience couldn't help but jump along to.

I have seen a lot of young rookie groups perform but AMPERS&ONE is truly one of the most promising. The members' boundless energy and talent made me forget that the group is just barely over a year old. I am eager to see what they do next.