As usual, SBS’s year-end festival falls on Christmas day. Because of this, the themes have been getting more and more holiday-focused with each passing year. Everyone and their mother performed a “Christmas version” of their songs tonight, but you don’t get to call something a “Christmas version” just because you throw sleigh bells on the track for five seconds during the intro! I’m definitely looking for a bigger reinterpretation than that, meaning arrangements that took bigger risks rank higher on my list – even if those risks didn’t quite pay off. And to be honest, not many did. Shoehorning Christmas into songs that have nothing to do with the holiday is often grating and grows very tiresome for three hours straight.

To assuage this fear of repetition, SBS themed tonight “Merry & Freaky Christmas.” I still can’t believe this is what they decided to go with. It’s a strange phrase, to be sure, and something I’d be happy to never hear again. I’ll also be good without sleigh bells for awhile. Maybe after this year SBS shouldn’t lean so far into Christmas. It’s too limiting and results in weird conceptual mash-ups or cut-and-paste sleigh bell nonsense.

As far as staging is concerned, I also found things quite weird this year. Many of the stages didn’t take advantage of the massive venue, positioning groups in front of LED screens that made the performances feel quite small. This was frustrating and robbed the stages of their sense of spectacle. Conversely, there often seemed to be a disconnect between the performers and audience, making things feel strangely impersonal. For these shows, you really need to go one of two ways: huge or intimate. With some exceptions, I don’t feel like SBS hit the mark in either direction.

Despite a killer line-up, tonight’s show paled in comparison to KBS’s festival last week. It was a downgrade in every way. SBS rarely puts on my favorite of the three gayos, so I guess that’s to be expected. At least we had the return of some big-name acts to liven up the finales of parts two and three.

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Thoughts on notable stages that didn’t make my ranking:

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aespa – Pink Hoodie + Supernova

Songs like Pink Hoodie are the reason I’m rarely able to get into aespa’s albums beyond the title tracks. They’re just not for me. Also, I wish SM would find a way to totally reinterpret Supernova for one of these year-end shows.

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BABYMONSTER – Drip

Yet more evidence that this group’s stage presence far outstrips their material. I find Drip quite dull as a song, but they performed the hell out of it. Let’s get them some better songs, YG.

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“Fairy Tale Of Shoes” Special Stage

This whole thing felt incredibly awkward. I don’t really know what they were going for, but it was a weird mix of ideas that didn’t come together, and “Fairy Tale Of Shoes” is an unintentionally funny title, translated or not. Were they trying to capitalize on the success of Wicked? Heesung’s dance was the definite bright spot, so that’s the one I’m linking in the title.

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NewJeans – Ditto + Cookie + Hype Boy

I don’t think I’ll ever like Ditto the way others do, but it was nice to hear it stripped back to a more acoustic version. Meanwhile, I don’t get the appeal of Cookie at all. It was a strange choice to perform a bunch of 2022 songs on the 2024 Gayo Daejun.

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TWS – Plot Twist (Christmas version)

I’m honestly still reeling from their incredible KBS performance, but this was a huge letdown in comparison. Kudos for mixing up the instrumental, but this version robbed Plot Twist of all its indelible energy. My least favorite remix of the song by far.

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10. ZEROBASEONE – Road Movie + Good So Bad

Justice for Road Movie! They get bonus points just performing that song. Shame about the underwhelming mix of Good So Bad, though.

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9. Stray Kids – Walkin On Water + Mountains

I don’t care much for either of these songs, but they put on a good show and utilized the stage well unlike most acts tonight. The haircut seems to be the biggest talking point of this performance, though!

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8. ENHYPEN – XO + Brought The Heat Back

Very solid. I like that they’re promoting Brought The Heat Back at these festivals. The slight change in the mix worked well and the dancing was on point as always.

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7. RIIZE – Love 119

What a brilliant move to open this performance with a bit of Emergency Room, which forms the backdrop for Love 119. I wish this intro would have lasted longer, as it was nice to hear the guys’ vocals without a bunch of production behind them. The rest of the performance was quite standard apart from a cool breakdown that didn’t really fit the song. Overall, this was a weird one.

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6. TYD – Love Me Right

I was looking forward to this stage because I’m a sucker for these “youngest members get together to show you how it’s done” performances. It was fun seeing them together, but I needed more of Kyungmin’s voice because that boy is a singer and he’d kill this genre.

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5. G-Dragon – Power + Crooked

You know, I’d love to place this higher on my list. It gets ranked solely because Crooked is one of the best K-pop songs ever and G-Dragon is a total legend, but I find the live performances of Power to be incredibly awkward and the vocal on Crooked was rough… to say the least. I know that’s intentional and singing isn’t the skill GD’s most known for (though at his best he has one of my favorite tones), but this was really just screeching and got by on the incredible energy of the song and his natural charisma. Given the circumstances, this should have been an easy number one.

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4. BOYNEXTDOOR – It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas + Nice Guy

The dance with Santa was probably the freakiest thing in this “Merry and Freaky Christmas” night. It was legitimately funny and Nice Guy actually works pretty well with sleigh bells. This stage wasn’t particularly ambitious, but it was very charming.

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3. LE SSERAFIM – Crazy

I absolutely loved the dance intro to this. From the styling (were those creepy Santa masks?) to the descent from the ceiling to the extended formations, this was so entertaining. The energy continued into an even clubbier mix of Crazy. This was great.

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2. Key – Pleasure Shop

Why the hell was this stage mix not the main production for Pleasure Shop instead of the dull H&M-lite version we got saddled with? Seriously, the song is one hundred times more interesting this way, even if the underlying melodies are still forgettable. He needs to lean hard into this more dynamic dance sound.

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1. 2NE1 – Fire + I Don’t Care + Ugly + I Am The Best

These old songs just hit different, and it’s not only my nostalgia talking. 2NE1 are charisma with a capital “C” and they roared back with that same energy. Two hours into the show, I think they were the first act to genuinely engage the audience. The hits sounded great, the ladies looked amazing and the staging was dynamic. I already knew I’d love this comeback, but they exceeded expectations.