You Won't Regret Catching Yaeji Live
by Boone Gehr on 7/16/23Just a great performer with great energy who brings the audience into the show. Really enjoyed the atmosphere of the show. Just a great vibe.
Venue
Showbox at the Market
Yaeji In Concert
One of the buzziest acts in electronic music, Yaeji truly broke through following her mid-2017 intimate Boiler Room set. Inside a New York warehouse, the Korean-American producer and vocalist with a fanny pack breezily strewn over her shoulder might have been the smallest person in the room. But as elated bodies moved rhythmically, all eyes and ears were squarely on her and the riveting mix of lo-fi house with hip-hop and pop undertones that she put down. The thumping bass settling in alongside Yaeji's breathy bilingual coo on songs like "drink i'm sippin on" and "raingurl" makes her music impossible not to dance to, whether comfortably swaying at a midsize club or joining thousands in a rave-whistle and laser light show–driven party at the Coachella Music & Arts Festival's Yuma Tent. In fact, lyrics in both English and Korean have become a hallmark for Yaeji's refreshing music, and fans singing along at her shows have happily gravitated to the phonetic cadences she seeks to create. "I actually really like how Korean sounds," she told Pitchfork. "It's a very angular, textured sound, which is why a lot of my vocals sound whispery."
Yaeji Background
Kathy Yaeji Lee (Yaeji) was born in Queens to Korean parents in 1993. A single child, she moved with her family to Atlanta then to South Korea when she was in third grade. Bouncing between schools in South Korea led Yaeji to become a true product of the Internet age as she made friends online and became exposed to music of all kinds. She eventually moved to Pittsburgh to study East Asian fine art and visual culture at Carnegie Mellon University, but also picked up Ableton production software, started DJing on her college radio station, and began uploading tracks to SoundCloud. This is where Godmode Records label head Nick Sylvester came across Yaeji's enthralling productions and helped raise her profile by releasing two EPs (‘EP2' and ‘Yaeji') featuring her remix of Drake's "Passionfruit" and her biggest hit to date, "raingurl." The latter has clocked in over 15 million streams on Spotify, and the two EPs were collectively named Album of the Year for 2017 by influential music blog Gorilla vs Bear.
Just a great performer with great energy who brings the audience into the show. Really enjoyed the atmosphere of the show. Just a great vibe.
Great concert and very intimate vibes! Loved Yaeji’s performance and setup. Only thing was we were near the front and it was a painfully loud, there were people trying to cover up their ears, and it made it concert less enjoyable. Not sure who at the crew or venue can fix this for future events!
Yaeji is so original and fresh, modern, electro, queer vibes I'll save in my memories until next time ;)
Yaeji was so energetic and seemed to have a blast on stage performing, which was just infectious! Vocally she sounds the same as her records and she expressed that she worked hard to transition from being a DJ/producer to more of a singer. It definitely shows! Really enjoyed the stage/light design and her backup dancers, and how they enhanced the mood and vibe of each song. You could definitely feel the bass in your ribcage, so make sure to wear earplugs to protect yourself from tinnitus! She played all of her songs and of course Raingurl, which was a complete banger. She was also just so gracious and appreciative of everyone coming to her show, and I loved how at the end she took the time to thank her team. She had two openers and they were fine, but had a much more niche vibe.
The music, aesthetics, and back up dancers were all coordinated so well! Merch was fairly cheap and I really love the crowd. Yaeji is a very kind and loving musician. Her great attitude really translates into her performance as a positive environment with lots of energy.
Dancing was so sexy, powerful, and fun. Enjoyed it a lot
Amazing show, great vanue, superb accoustics. Just dope dope dope, all around.
I’ve seen her live 3 times so far, could have been more, but unfortunately some shows got cancelled at the start of COVID. Just waiting for the day I can see her live again and again. All shows have been full of life.
The most fun I've had at a concert in a while. Incredible energy in the audience, you couldn't help but dance. So much love for Yaeji!