Six years ago, I made the trip from Florida to California to see Babymetal live at The Forum. Six years later, I made that trip again to see them at the Intuit Dome in LA. This time, however, I made a bit more of an adventure of it.
The day before the show, I met up with a few friends from the Babymetal community, Andrew, Marcus, and Zackamania. We started things off by making the trip to the pop up shop, which was about an hour north of the venue. It took us some time to find it, but it was worth the effort, and it was nice being able to get our merch prior to going to the venue. I typically only allow myself to get a single shirt at a given event, but this time my decision on which one to get was hard. I was tempted to get at least two, but I managed to stay strong, and I grabbed their shirt that resembled the Hollywood sign, as that would tie in with our exploring that was still soon to come.
Anyways, I signed the big wall, then next, it was off to the movies to catch the Halloween weekend screening of KPop Demon Hunters. Despite being a sing-along event, our audience didn't sing or even cheer throughout the movie, but it was still great getting an opportunity to see this film on the big screen, and a fitting movie that certainly set the stage for what was still to come for us.
The One invades KPop Demon Hunters.
After the movie, we picked up another friend from the airport, Brian, and then it was back to the hotel to enjoy our chips party before calling it a night.
Chips party!
The following day, we made a second trip to the pop up venue so that Brian could pick up his merch, and we met one of the Babybones while we were there. Our next stop then brought us to the Hollywood sign, and gave us an opportunity to represent the Babymetal fandom there.
Babymetal goes Hollywood!
With our sight-seeing out of the way, it was finally time to hit up the venue. It was cool meeting other people from online, as well as people who I had met previously at The Forum in 2019.
Once we made it inside the venue, our group split up, as we all had different seating arrangements. I was seated to the left of the stage (Momo's side), which turned out actually being in the center of the venue, and felt reminiscent to the set up from their Budokan shows. As we awaited for the show to begin, one of the songs they played over the loudspeakers was Golden from KPop Demon Hunters, and the crowd in attendance did a much better job singing along than we had experienced in the theater the previous night.
My view of the stage.
Before Babymetal would hit the stage though, Jason Richardson opened for them, who had previously opened their shows on the Babyklok tour back in 2023. I mentioned how his performance as a sole guitarist on stage felt awkward back then, but somehow I really didn't experience that awkward feeling watching him this time around. He had a thirty minute set, and ended with a metal rendition of the Harry Potter theme song, and was an all around solid act.
Up next was the reason that had brought us all the way across the country, as Babymetal marched to the stage for a ferocious performance of Babymetal Death. This was followed up by From Me To U, which works wonderfully as an early set hype song, though I couldn't see my favorite part of the choreography due to the smoke that would billow up around them throughout the song. Then came the first big surprise of the evening, as we saw the return of Distortion, and I had a grin from ear to ear.
I was once more an active participant during Pa Pa Ya, and I was able to put my newly purchased American flag towel to good use as I swung that sucker through the air all throughout. We were then treated to a slew of tracks off the new album Metal Forth, including my first opportunity to see Sunset Kiss and KxAxWxAxIxI in person.
I made sure to pull my phone out and record the next song as soon as My Queen cued up, and we were treated to our next big moment as Spiritbox's Courney LaPlante came on stage to perform the song with the band.
One of the Babybones came out next sporting a baseball jersey and hyping the crowd up for an electrifying performance of Ratatata. Then after they played Gimme Chocolate, they left the stage and left us all chanting for more. And more they would deliver, as they came back out for their encore with a return of The One. I've seen them play this song before, back when it was still regularly toured, but prior to arriving at the venue, I learned that nobody else in the group I was with had ever seen them play it live. So I was quick to hop on the group chat and hype them up for what they were in store for, and thrilled for my friends' opportunity to finally experience this song live for themselves. This was certainly an emotional high point of the show.
They followed this up with Headbanger. Apparently there was a moment where Momometal fell down during the performance, but I didn't even notice. What I did notice though was Moa and Momo pranking each other during the bowing portion of the song, and that sight brought another big smile to my face.
They closed the show proper with Road of Resistance, but even after the song ended, I wasn't fully convinced they were through yet, despite having played a fifteen song set already. Perhaps it was my own fault for hyping myself up at the prospect of maybe getting to see Ijime, Dame, Zettai, or even the debut of White Flame, but no, Road of Resistance was the final song, and then they sent us home.
This did leave me feeling a touch let down, which was the first time I had ever experienced that feeling at a Babymetal show, but that's not to say that it wasn't still an excellent show all around. We were treated to an hour and a half of great music on a unique stage set-up, with all the spectacle and effects that we've come to expect from these bigger shows. And we got to experience some truly great moments, such as the returning Distortion (my personal highlight of the evening) and the special performance of My Queen. And since The One has become a rarer song in more recent years, I've come to realize that that was our show's Ijime, Dame, Zettai, which the band had played at their previous special arena show at the 02 Arena.
To compare it to my experience with The Forum, I would personally say The Forum was a significantly better show all around, and I'd even toss in my most recent outing at Tampa as being a better all around show. But like I said, Babymetal always delivers, and they certainly did that at the Intuit Dome, even if the show perhaps didn't quite meet my admittedly high expectations of it. Was the trip still worth it? Absolutely! It was great meeting some of my friends from the fandom in person and going out on our little adventures leading up to the big show. And it's always a treat seeing Babymetal no matter at what cost, and I already look forward to the next one. See you!
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