Stray Kids perform at Oracle Park in San Francisco on May 28, 2025. PhotoS by Chris Tuite/COURTESY.

SAN FRANCISCO — It was impressive enough that K-pop superstars Stray Kids could sell out Oakland Arena a few years ago, but on their current dominATE World Tour, the octet is selling out stadiums, including Oracle Park on Wednesday and two gigs at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles later this week.

In San Francisco, at the second concert on the tour’s U.S. leg, the rap-centric cast of Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix, Seungmin and I.N. showed why they just might be the biggest active K-pop group in 2025. The nearly three-hour show had Stray Kids not only demonstrating their versatility in blending hard rock with heavy bars, but also putting in more focus than at their last Bay Area stop on their melodic balladry via a slew of poppier tunes.

The group’s set also leaned heavily on newer material, including 2024 EP ATE and follow-up mixtape dominATE. The group has another record on the way in June but San Francisco fans didn’t get any sneak peaks there. The first part of the set was heavy on the rapping with grinding cuts like “MOUNTAINS,” “Thunderous” and “District 9.” The former opened the show with a procession of more than 20 dancers, several of whom pretended to strike large drums projected onto a giant screen behind the performers.

While intense choreo was not a significant part of the show, the eight members had their moments, picking up speed and precision on “District 9” and several other songs. It was a cold and windy evening at the ballpark, and Stray Kids noticed, encouraging the crowd to move and stay warm.

Stray Kids perform at Oracle Park in San Francisco on May 28, 2025. Photo by Chris Tuite.

A good chunk of the older material, including some pretty big hits for the band (“Hellevator,” “Venom,” etc.) wasn’t included in a live performance but got squished together into a pre-recorded medley to which the dance troupe did its thing during one break.

“DOMINO” and “God’s Menu” were the first songs of the evening to work in melodic pop, switching off between that and rap, yet it was Felix’s memorable menacing bar that stole the show on the latter song. Toward the end of the show, Stray Kids went full-on pop with acoustic-guitar-led ballad “Lonely St.” and the multipart harmonies of “Cover Me.” Both songs started massive singalongs.

One of the highlights of that previous Bay Area performance, in 2022 at Oakland Arena, was when the group’s supporting band was revealed to the side of the stage. A similar reveal occurred at Oracle Park—the band had been playing behind the massive video screen—but it was more difficult to watch these talented musicians (a drawback of larger stadium shows in general).

As might be expected, the band’s impact was felt strongest on the poppier songs, as well as when Stray Kids combined their rap skills with jagged hard rock instrumentation. The hybrid centerpieces included “GIANT,” “Social Path” and “LALALALA.”

“They are playing live. They’re right there,” Bang Chan impressed.

Of course, the show included a set of four duets, the best of which included Lee Know and Seungmin coming together on pure ballad “CINEMA” as multicolored streamers fired during the climax and seemed to float in the air for an extended time, like jellyfish in water. The show was full of streamers, lasers, fireworks and flames. Another interesting duet was Changbin and I.N. on “Burnin’ Tires,” an industrial-rock-tinged tune during which dancers formed the rough shape of a race car with their bodies, holding one of the two aloft as he pretended to drive. Also of note was when the unassuming Changbin, now in a sleeveless shirt, flexed some impressively large biceps and triceps.

Stray Kids concluded their main set with the rambunctious trio of “TOPLINE,” “MEGAVERSE” and “MANIAC,” before kicking off a multi-song encore with “SUPER BOARD” and “I Like It” while being paraded around the stadium on vehicles. It felt a bit like a conquering hero’s welcome to the Bay, and many in the audience likely felt as much about the group.

Contact editor Roman Gokhman at Bluesky.