Stray Kids and NMIXX live in Milan!

Stray Kids brought great energy, but festival performances give European fans the short end of the stick from Kpop boy groups.

When Stray Kids tickets went on sale for their performance at Milan’s I-Days festival, it turned out to be so popular it had to be moved to a larger venue in order to accommodate demand. This meant Stray Kids would be performing at the same venue as only a select few other I-Days headliners - Metallica, Lana Del Rey, and Green Day. Almost 70,000 people attended, and I personally met fans who came from all over Italy and all over Europe for what was advertised as Stray Kids’ only European show of 2024. Of course, there was also their headlining performance at London’s British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park two days later, but I guess we are no longer considering the UK part of Europe for advertising purposes.

With two festival performances planned in the same weekend, it is no surprise Stray Kids prepared the same setlist for both festivals. Their allotted time in London was 1.5 hours, and they performed 19 songs. Their timing was complicated in Milan by a torrential rain storm that began as openers NMIXX finished their act and lasted for about 30 minutes, delaying the preparation of the stage for Stray Kids and resulting in them going on 10 minutes late. As a result, I would guess that they cut the last two songs from the end of their set, meaning Milan fans missed out on Megaverse and Haven. They did perform one quick encore, but ended their set by 10:20, meaning they were onstage for about 70 minutes total.

Now this is a SHORT performance, especially by Kpop standards, and there are a lot of possible explanations, many of which are out of Stray Kids’ control - the weather, curfews, and the structure of a festival performance compared to a regular performance. But I heard a lot of frustration following the show from fans, many of whom had travelled significant distances to see their favorite KPop group, and frustration isn’t something I am used to hearing or feeling after a KPop concert! But I want to focus on the positive aspects of the concert first.

First of all - NMIXX were wonderful! You might remember I reviewed their album earlier this year and really felt that they were coming into their sound. Unfortunately they didn’t perform anything from that album except the lead single, focusing instead on performing their biggest hits.

They performed TANK, O.O, Young Dumb Stupid, DICE, and DASH before performing three covers: I’m Good (Blue) (A sure crowd pleaser in Europe), Cruel Summer (Taylor Swift was also in Milan this weekend), and Beggin’ (A huge hit with the Italian crowd!). They ended with a new song (Moving On) and then finally their biggest hit to date - Love Me Like This. They are a really vocally talented group with some very catchy songs, and their performance was very professional.

Then came the rain, but by 9:10, Stray Kids were taking the stage!

They jumped right in, opening with S-Class and diving straight into a few other popular songs. Let me just dive right in and say it - these men are so beautiful! Hyunjin, who is the Versace prince and therefore Milan royalty, was doing his job as the fan magnet! Obviously they played their hits (like 2021’s Thunderous) but they also played some great B-sides (like one of my personal favorites from 5-STAR, ITEM).

We did have what felt like a little Disney Channel interlude (I do think JYP artists can easily veer into Disney Channel territory!) with Lonely St. and Social Path, but we soon got back on track. The energy of the crowd reached a fever pitch with a sequence of some of Stray Kids’ biggest hits - Back Door, MANIAC, and God’s Menu, followed by latest single LALALALA - and the concert reached peak Kpop euphoria!

Now, I might be crazy but I could have sworn at this point Bang Chan was still saying there was a lot to come in the concert, so it was a surprise to me when after Victory Song, Stray Kids ended with MIROH. I wonder if they thought they would have time to do two more songs (which they did in London) but were told that they needed to wrap it up. There was an amazing fireworks show as they ended, and then they came quickly back on stage to perform an encore, for which they repeated TOPLINE, then promised to come back to Milan soon and then off they went!

So it was a very short concert but energy levels were high throughout. The guys looked absolutely fantastic, and while I couldn’t see most of the dancing, I’m sure it was on point as usual. From what I could see, it looked great! I was particularly impressed by the rapping, as one might expect with Stray Kids, and in particular I thought Han really stood out as an electric performer.

As you may have guessed, I do have some complaints. First, throughout the concert, leader Bang Chan was the only member who spoke (not including quick interjections or shouts from other members). The members did not even introduce themselves to the crowd. I know many members of Stray Kids are very introverted, but this feels super unusual for a Kpop group - even openers NMIXX took the time to introduce themselves individually and have each member say something to the crowd. There was also no mention or acknowledgement of the storm that fans had just endured before Stray Kids came out on stage. Kpop groups are usually masters of this type of fanservice, and so it felt especially strange that they didn’t mention it!

Finally, there is the question of the setlist. I absolutely understand if Stray Kids felt pressure to meet a demand for a short performance in a festival setting. But in both Milan and London, it seemed they ended earlier than they had to, as if they had been too conservative in the preparation of their setlist. They didn’t perform a single song from my personal favorite album (Maxident)! And in both Milan and London, when they did come back on stage to perform an encore, they repeated songs instead of singing new songs - this is super strange for a Kpop group.

A silver lining is that given the upcoming Stray Kids comeback (July 19), I wouldn’t be surprised if a world tour was announced before the end of the year. Since fellow JYP group Twice included European dates in their world tour, JYP doesn’t seem to be following HYBE’s lead in boycotting European cities for world tours (they use a dynamic pricing model that is frowned upon in Europe and is part of the reason Taylor Swift tickets were so much cheaper in Europe). I hope this is the case, because as long as European Kpop fans have to rely on festivals in order to view their favorite groups (ahem, Seventeen at Glastonbury), then they are going to be getting the short end of the stick.