The sun has set on Los Angeles’ State Historic Park by the time Christian Srigley and Leighton James prepare to take the stage at Lost in Dreams. Known collectively as Adventure Club, the DJ duo set out to perform a K-pop set during the EDM festival’s Electrik Seoul takeover—and they wanted to make it a monumental performance.

The group’s origins stray far from K-pop—they began as a pop punk duo before finding success in the EDM scene. It’s almost impossible to tell with the way they spin some of the genre’s classics, from Big Bang’s “Bang Bang Bang” to 4Minute’s “Hate,” it’s clear the two know their way around the circuit. After all, it’s these artists that helped introduce Adventure Club to the genre, just a bit over a decade ago.

“We had already started Adventure Club, and I think I heard a G-Dragon song and then a 4Minute song, and that immediately hooked me into the world of K-pop,” James shared. “Since then, I’ve wanted to incorporate more K-pop into Adventure Club, and now is the perfect time to do that.”

For those who have never attended a rave, the energy alone is exhilarating, and it’s a lot to take in: the chill of LA’s summer nights, the assortment of decorated totems towering above the crowd, and an endless stream of familiar faces throughout the night that keeps the crowd on its toes.

The group’s intro included a video cameo from content creator Sean Solo, the internet’s one and only Hongdae Guy. Their visuals were later interspersed by a second video cameo by none other than K-pop industry veterans KARD, and a cheesy K-Drama scene the group acted out themselves (complete with a Subway ad and “Stay” by punchnello and Chanyeol serenading viewers).

The crowd later gets to share moments with Tokyo Sims’ Kole and rapper Lil Cherry, who were both happy to come out and show their support for the two. From the second Adventure Club stepped on stage, the evening was full of surprises that kept the crowd energized from beginning to end. Their enthusiasm was infectious and, at some point, the line between performer and crowd was blurred—the crowd sang songs like “Money” by LISA, “Takedown” from K-Pop Demon Hunters, and “TT” by TWICE word for word, morphing into part of the performance themselves.

They even follow along for songs like Taeyeon’s “I” and Rosé’s “Toxic Till the End,” both unorthodox picks for a rave, but the group incorporates them without a single misstep. Notably, only about three boy group songs make an appearance throughout the evening—congratulations to SEVENTEEN, Big Bang, and ATEEZ—but, this is all by design.

Though there’s an aspect of self indulgence with the EDM duo’s K-pop endeavors, it seems to quite honestly be a match made in heaven. “As Adventure Club, we can mix all our instrumentals with a lot of K-pop vocals and they work seamlessly,” James said. And it’s true—woven throughout the night’s setlist is a handful of EDM staples flawlessly brought into the mix.

Unequivocally, it helps that EDM in all its forms has been a staple of K-pop since its inception. Though at the time it was rough around the edges, the genre’s early days were home to elements of dubstep, techno, and house music. Its evolution as a mainstay of the K-pop sound makes it the ideal sonic crossover, but culturally the EDM world sits completely opposite the Hallyu wave—though the two worlds may not be as different as most people think.

Even blocks away from the venue, passersby would have witnessed gaggles of festival goers, dressed head to toe in elaborate costuming and accompanied by an assortment of homemade totems (designed to help festivalgoers find their groupmates in the dense crowds). Donned in branded baseball jerseys and custom headpieces, the scenery painted isn’t unlike that of a K-pop concert, and with BLACKPINK just down the road at So-fi Stadium that same evening, the two crowds are nearly indistinguishable. While these crowds haven’t often mixed socially, the bridging of these two cultures in real time proves to be promising—and Adventure Club is all for helping to bridge the gap.

When they first began planning for this performance, each and every second of their performance was taken into consideration. “This was our first festival K-pop set, so we wanted to make it something super special, super memorable,” said James. But there was more to the set than just entertaining the crowd—the group came together with their team to work towards a deeper seeded goal.

They shared that their team wanted to work towards something greater than just a K-pop set. Over the years, Lost in Dreams has boasted a primarily Asian American audience, but with the second day of the festival focusing largely on K-pop, the knowledge that the audience may be skeptical of a K-pop focused set was taken into consideration. Then came the idea of a K-Drama themed performance—something tongue in cheek that might aid in drawing the diaspora back to the genre—and the two immediately went to the drawing board.

Together, the pair just works. They riff off one another as we chat, and when asked how they manage to maintain this synergy on stage it’s clear it’s become intuition, the way they communicate. “It’s like a language that we speak,” Srigley explained. “There’s all kinds of nuanced cues that we give each other.”

In fact, they’ve narrowed it down to a science almost unintentionally, an elaborate system of nonverbal communication. “You don’t need to speak too much to communicate since we’ve been doing it for so long. We also communicate through our equipment with each other, because we both have individual setups, so we’re both influencing the same output but from two sides,” Srigley added. After all, they’re 14 years and a Grammy nomination into their career, it’s only natural they function like a well-oiled machine. While they’re the only performers of the night, it took a village, and the night is made possible with the help of a few friends who are more than happy to come out and cheer them on.

Tokyo Sims’ Kole was a familiar face to the crowd, and he also made a cameo in the K-Drama dupe the duo filmed, in which he was cast as the ill-fated second lead.

While viewers certainly would have loved to see him ultimately win over the female lead, he’s not too pressed about it. Ultimately, he’s happy to have come out and show his support for Adventure Club and “…loved the fusion of K-pop and EDM the two brought to their set.” It’s a weekend he would simply describe as “unforgettable.”

Lil Cherry later surprised everyone by coming on stage to party with Adventure Club, which was met with deafening cheers from the audience. Having initially propelled to mainstream fame in 2020 after her song “MUKKBANG!” captivated the internet, the Miami native was ecstatic to have come out and show her support by greeting the crowd.

“I’m here for the adventure,” she said, prompting both James and Srigley to agree with a laugh, offering her a fist bump. “I’m just super grateful that they hit me up,” she continued. “I just wanted to come here, share my vibes, and [it was] a new experience for me!” James added that having her come out was a special treat for fans. “I think the crowd erupted when Lil Cherry got on stage, it was super super cool.”

As an artist in the K-pop industry, Lil Cherry is just beginning to experiment with other genres, and she sees a bright future for the intersection of K-pop and EDM. “I actually just got into experimenting with electronic music and techno last year, so for me it was so exciting to be here today and to listen to [Adventure Club] live,” she shared.

It’s undeniable that each person played a vital part in the success in Adventure Club’s first-ever festival K-pop set, and the pair are only hoping things go up from here. “We were absolutely honored to get booked to play this festival, and I think we did a pretty great job at bridging those two worlds,” shared James. “You can tell when a crowd is knowledgeable and receptive,” Srigley added, further explaining that the crowd’s understanding of both genres—both sonically and culturally—is part of what makes their set so successful. “There is a lot of crossover there obviously, because people are coming and enjoying both sides of it, and being knowledgeable about both sides of it.”

When asked who they see themselves collaborating with in the future in the K-pop realm, both James and Srigley look physically pained at the prospect of having to name just one artist. It’s clear from their reactions alone that there’s a level of respect they hold for K-pop artists both old and new and, after taking a moment to think about it, they eventually decide on 2NE1’s CL, Girls Generation’s Taeyeon, and former LOONA member CHUU as their dream collaborations.

Ultimately, Adventure Club left no stone unturned with their Lost in Dreams appearance. All night, the two work in tandem to deliver timeless hits to the audience. Their abilities were a clear demonstration of an experienced ear—songs old and new blended seamlessly together, generations of K-pop artists and EDM’s finest enjoyed equally by the same crowd, a reminder of both genres’ past, and a conceptualization of their potential futures together.

James is eager to continue exploring the possibilities. “The crossover that’s happened over the past five years is enormous,” he explained. “I think that it’s only a matter of time until the general EDM world starts embracing it.”

Srigley aptly noted that EDM is an all encompassing umbrella, providing infinite possibilities for its cultural crossover with the Korean pop scene. “As long as there’s people who wanna create and people who wanna listen, it’s gonna happen,” he said, certain that Adventure Club is ready to pioneer this new and promising movement.