K-pop girl group ARTMS returned to Chicago for the first U.S. stop of their 2025 World Tour: Lunar Theory. The five-member group, all previously members of the 12-piece act LOONA, brought a broad range of tracks to Chicago, including ARTMS songs, previous LOONA hits, soloist and sub-unit songs.
The Copernicus Center was filled with a diverse group of fans, many wearing a variety of angel and fairy-themed costumes, and carrying both ARTMS and LOONA lightsticks and merchandise. This very same venue was the final U.S. stop on ARTMS’s 2024 tour: <Moonshot>.
In another unconventional move, the show began with the solo acts, though this only made the appearance of the five members together on stage after the first seven songs all the better. HeeJin’s “ViViD” kicked things off with a bang, with lively vocals and dancing accompanied by the group’s backup dancers.
The crowd got louder and louder with every successive stage debut, and though the setlist was released by the artist during the tour announcement, those spoiled as to the set information were just as thrilled as those who hadn’t read the announcement.
After each debut, the same girls returned to the stage for sub-unit tracks, including “Sonatine” by LOONA ⅓’s HeeJin and HaSeul, and “Girl Front” by ODD EYE CIRCLE’s Kim Lip, JinSoul, and Choerry. The latter’s solo stage of “Love Cherry Motion” got the crowd comfortable with singing (or shouting) the lyrics along with her.
After the first seven songs, the five members finally got their first Ment to introduce themselves and hype up their return to Chicago. They spent little time on the interactions, and headed right into the main set, performing only LOONA tracks until the last third of the show. “Star” and “PTT (Paint The Town)” received massive ovations and cheers as the crowd sang along to some of the most popular tracks they had released previously.
If there were any fans of ARTMS who weren’t familiar with their past discography in LOONA, this might have been a bit confusing, but they finally got to experience “Sparkle” and the debut song “Virtual Angel” to round out the set at the end of the night.
Fans also got a sneak peek performance of the upcoming comeback track “BURN,” which had its release delayed due to an ongoing wildfire crisis in South Korea. The mandatory encore featured the group performing LOONA’s popular “Why Not?,” ending the night on a high note.
While the show paid more homage to the LOONA era of ARTMS, there’s no doubt that it was able to capture everything that the fans had wanted: the best new ARTMS tracks, solo and sub-unit stages for everyone to shine, and a greatest hits collection of LOONA songs that was sure to bring back plenty of memories.
