I posted an overview of all girl group concerts I had attended a month ago, but it was before I went to the most recent Aespa and Le Sserafim shows in Los Angeles. Just for convenience this is my current ranking (4th gen girl group only):
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NMIXX (2026)
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Le Sserafim (2025, 2026)
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IVE (2024, 2026)
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ITZY (2024)
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STAYC (2025)
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Aespa (2026)
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fromis_9 (2025)
TLDR: Le Sserafim have improved, IVE have regressed, Aespa are not impressive.
It was kinda surreal to see all top 4th gen girl groups touring in my city basically one after another (IVE in August, Le Sserafim in September, Aespa in October), but for the purpose of just ranking that’s quite fortunate because I have pretty fresh memory of all concerts. I-dle were supposed to come in August too before the tour was cancelled, but hopefully I’ll see them next year. And I definitely want to see NMIXX arena show at some point in the future.
I actualy had IVE above Le Sserafim based on their previous tours (I saw IVE in 2024 and Le Sserafim in 2025), but this year LSF gave a much better show in my opinion. I’m not sure what happened, but IVE have noticeably regressed in terms of their live performances. It was pretty much Yujin trying to carry the show by herself, and the overall low-effort production did not do them any favors either. The setlist was worse, the backtrack was much louder, the energy was not there, basically a downgrade from their previous tour for me. Honestly the reason they are still 3rd in my list is because their discography is great, Yujin is amazing, and I’ll give them some slack because Rei was seemingly sick and their schedule was brutal.
Le Sserafim have definitely improved since last year, with Kazuha being the biggest change. She was more confident singing, sounded pretty well live, and they just overall relied much less on the backtrack than in previous tour. They also had the loudest crowd by far and the most intricate production, the girls were high-energy throughout the entire show and it made everything much more exciting. Also the group overall is the best at performing among the Big 3. Very charming and natural at interacting with the crowd as well during breaks, it didn’t feel awkward.
Well, I don’t think I have a lot to say about Aespa that other people haven’t said before. I went into the concert aware of the mixed reviews, and left not very impressed. It was a decent show, they have a lot of bangers, Winter was a trooper for pushing through despite the illness, but I did expect more from one of the leading girl groups. For a group that has good vocalists they were quite liberal with the backtrack. I heard Giselle’s real voice for maybe 20% of the show. And honestly she seemed just checked out, it was especially noticeable during their duo stage with Ningning who was killing it. The production and the way the setlist was progressing were also a tad underwhelming, with a lot of pauses. Their crowd work was minimal as well.
NMIXX are still my favorite concert this year, and honestly they deserve the bigger venues for their next tour. Girls are monsters on stage, and it was just an amazing experience even though I’m less familiar with their discography than with the other 3 girl groups mentioned above.
Hopefully next year I’ll get to see I-dle and ITZY. Maybe STAYC too if they decide to renew their contracts. Also I’m pretty optimistic for the 5th gen girl group shows as well, I love BabyMonster who are probably touring veterans at this point. I saw Hearts2Hearts showcase, and while it obviously wasn’t the same as a concert, they seemed pretty natural and confident on stage, which is always a good sign. Overall 2026 was a good year as a concert goer, hopefully 2027 will become an even better one!
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