Words: Abigail Firth.

Until recently, aespa's career had primarily existed online. Partly due to their come-up occurring before live music made its return, and partly because the concept of this K-pop group centres around its members existing in a virtual realm alongside the real world.

When the girls made their debut in late 2020 as SM Entertainment's first girl group in seven years, their concept promised something completely new and unique, bringing together music and technology on an ambitious scale. Immediate buzz and speculation about how this would play out commenced.

In the few years since, aespa have climbed the pop ranks in record time, meaning that less than three years after their debut single 'Black Mamba' dropped, they're headlining London's O2 Arena. Landing with a bang, the four-piece kick off the night with a storming production of 2022 single 'Girls', managing to fit fierce rapping, impressive belting, a dance break and a guitar solo from WINTER all into the opening number.

This bad bitch energy remains for the first act, as they introduce themselves in 'aenergy' and rattle through 'I'll Make You Cry' and standout 'Savage'. Although the crowd here are noticeably less rabid than at other K-pop shows of late, aespa's performance doesn't suffer. After all, they're thoroughly warmed up, as this show arrives at the end of a lengthy first tour that initially started in South Korea back in February and has since taken them across Asia and North America before wrapping up with a trio of European shows.

The setlist pinballs around aespa's increasingly diverse discography, hitting slightly slower tempos after a costume change with the sultry 'Lucid Dream', performed at and on a table, and their cover of 90s girl group S.E.S's 'Dreams Come True', before another quick changes brings forth a ballad section, giving the girls chance to show off their gorgeous harmonies in English single 'Life's Too Short' and epic 'Welcome To MY World'.

Scattered throughout the show are solo performances by each of the members; KARINA, GISELLE and NINGNING all go for braggadocious electro-pop numbers, while WINTER opts for a delicate ballad, giving a taste of their individual flavours. Two additional unreleased tracks - 'Don't Blink' and 'YOLO' - featuring in the set suggests the group are poised to drop something new soon.

At 25 songs, it's a whopping setlist for a group who are yet to even release their debut full-length, but with that including the unreleased tracks, the show still rings with the same excitement they debuted with.

That being said, it's a shame that during closer-before-the-encore number 'Black Mamba' is the first and only time we get to see the virtual members (or aes, if you're a purist) 'perform' with the real aespa. The show's concept 'HYPER LINE' - explained by GISELLE as being able to see ae members, aespa and MY [the fans] all in one - and arguably the biggest factor separating aespa from the plethora of K-pop groups debuting in the past few years gets a bit lost in the live show.

Nevertheless, aespa's potential is undoubtable. Still a very young group in the grand scheme of things, being thrust onto huge stages like that of The O2 on your very first tour is no easy thing, and the girls nail every bit of it. As the second half of the show rolls on with big bangers like the recent Raye-penned 'Better Things', attitude-laden 'Spicy', and polarising mission statement 'Next Level', it's easy to see why aespa are filling such big rooms so early on.