‘First live concert in Korea, dream come true’: American alt-pop trio almost monday

American indie pop trio almost monday, who visited Korea for the first time to present a laid-back yet exciting moment to the local music fans, said that its dream has come true.

The San Diego-based alt-pop band, comprised of vocalist Dawson Daugherty, bass guitarist Luke Fabry and guitarist Cole Clisby, held a press conference on Tuesday at Universal Music Korea’s headquarters in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul.

The trio held its first live concert in Korea at Watcha Hall in Mapo-gu, in western Seoul on Friday. Fabry recalled the moment and said, “It’s crazy to think of people from another side of the world come and sing all the words to our songs. It was one of my favorite shows of all time.”

Daugherty said that the band has been dreaming of coming to Korea as it has only been able to meet with Korean fans online. He felt thrilled to see them in-person at the Seoul concert, which was a “super dream come true,” the vocalist said.

The band made its debut in 2019 with the single “broken people,” and has become known for its bright and hopeful songs that bring an image of sunny California to mind, including “sunburn,” “sun keeps on shining,” “til the end of time,” and “come on, come on.”

The trio has shown its love for Korea by providing Korean subtitles for all of their music videos. After some 400 concertgoers sang along to the band’s songs explosively during the 90-minute music event, Daugherty replied “Thank you” in Korean. He also wrapped a Taegeukgi, the national flag of Korea, around his body in the middle of the show.

“One of the beautiful things about music is that it connects people even we don’t speak the same language. Making that connection feels really powerful and strong. … I hope the fans (in Korea) get a message that we love Korea. We want to come back. It’s a privilege to be here,” Daugherty said.

After the band performed 16 songs, the fans wanted more and called for an encore. Surprisingly, it was the first time the trio has received an encore request, according to the bass guitarist. “It was an interesting experience. I didn’t think they would want an encore. Since we played all the songs we have, we played ‘broken people’ once again,” Fabry added.

The trio is also into K-pop music. During the pandemic, Clisby contacted DK of boy group Seventeen after seeing his social media post showing almost monday’s song on his playlist. Since then DK and the American band have kept in touch. Daugherty was also impressed to receive a big package of Seventeen’s album and various fan merchandise from the well-known K-pop act, he said.

When asked if there is a message behind the band's uniquely bright songs, the vocalist said that the trio tries to be true to themselves and give a positive message to listeners by connecting with them in different situations through music. Calling it the "greatest honor to touch anybody's life," the band hopes to heal the exhausted hearts of listeners.

Next month, almost monday is heading to Europe for the first time. It plans to perform for fans in Paris and London and continue its concerts in the US throughout the year. While its next visit to Korea has not been decided, the band hopes to come back to perform for fans here.

“We obviously want to keep coming back as much as possible. Hopefully, we can keep growing our shows in Korea to perform in an arena. That would be pretty cool,” Daugherty said. “There are many cool festivals in Korea. I hope we start something that we can keep doing for the years to come.”