It’s May 12 in Atlanta and it’s an unexpectedly cool spring evening. As I walk the two-blocks from the MARTA station to the Fox Theatre, I find myself trudging amongst a mass of young adults dressed in black hoodies, fishnets and silver jewelry. I’ve seen crowds like this before. I have, after all, covered my fair share of goth and metal concerts. But to my surprise, our steps align, and I come to the realization that they are headed where I am headed: the xikers concert.
Xikers, the 10-member, genre-bending K-pop boy group, are in the midst of their 2025 World Tour “Road to XY: Enter the Gate” to promote their latest EP, House of Tricky: Spur. With its eerie beats and aggressive rap delivery, it’s no surprise that their fandom, known as roady, have seemed to embrace the darker and edgier side of xikers.
Soon, the Fox Theatre comes to view with its glowing lights and old-world charm. It is a throwback to the theatres of yesteryear with its Renaissance-era decadence and heavy use of dark woods and brass accents. There are gilded archways, painted ceilings and velvet-draped walls. It’s dramatic and theatrical and for xikers and their fans, the perfect backdrop for a night of aggro-rap, heavy beats and intense choreography.
Inside the Fox, showtime is approaching and the tension is thick. For a packed theater, it is disturbingly quiet. Suddenly, the lights drop. A thick stream of smoke begins to blanket the stage. Deep bass thunders through the speakers. The members of xikers appear, one by one, black hoods up and ominously lit in red. The fans’ screams engulf the venue.
The first song, “Xikey,” kicks off the show and the members rile up the crowd, freely bouncing up and down and demanding the same from the crowd. “Red Sun” follows and the members organize into a tight formation. Their loose bounces morph into precise choreography and their movements synchronize to perfection. The third song, “Oh My Gosh”, mixes symphony strings and marching band brass to a chantable chorus, which whips the crowd into a frenzy.
The stage presence of xikers truly needs to be seen to be believed. Their energy is boundless, their charm magnetic. For songs like “BACK OFF,” the members use a baseball bat as a clever dance prop. For another song, they utilize classroom desks to perform moves reserved for stuntmen. And in a move reminiscent of the scene from “Singing In The Rain,” the members use an umbrella in a modern nod to a classic prop.
In the end, xikers’ performance was nothing short of remarkable. Their ability to weave between the light-hearted and the darker tracks was seamless. It was a show that shone and smoldered all at once – a balancing act between light and dark, aggression and passivity. To close out the show, the members of xikers filmed a dance challenge to their song, “Bittersweet”. Originally recorded as a nine-piece due to Junghoon’s hiatus last year, it was a touching way to end the show and to finally perform the song as OT10.
