The Fader – “Live: 2NE1”

A single-file line snaked back and forth just inside Prudential Center in New Jersey, jamming the will call room with predominately Asian but hard-to-typecast fans, some in their twenties coming straight from the office, some in bedazzled surgical masks and holding cardboard cutouts. Behind me in line, a teenager asked his impatient mother if she remembered to buy kitty litter. When the doors to the venue opened 90 minutes late, a security guard inundated with nervous questions told everyone, “This is on 2NE1. We have concerts here all the time and it’s never this late… Never! Ever! We’re just like you: mystified.”

For the overwhelming majority in attendance, this was their first time seeing 2NE1, the four-girl Korean pop group crowned last year by MTV Iggy “Best New Band in the World.” In New Jersey, their two-hour performance worked to both dull some of the shine of being internet stars from across the ocean, and to solidify their position—even without the digital mystique—as powerful, well-rounded artists. When the stage’s enormous scrim finally fell and 2NE1′s 50-million YouTube hitter “I Am the Best” blared, CL, Bom, Dara and Minzy sang and danced inexhaustibly atop individual platforms wheeled by pairs of buff men. CL, the group’s best English speaker, shouted an introduction: “Tonight I’m gonna make the show worth the wait, because I’m about to go craaazaayyy!” Hundreds of feet above the stage, championship banners for the New Jersey Devils hockey team fluttered in time.

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