The Intuit Dome in Inglewood hosted the L.A. debut of Pokémon Night Out on a recent Saturday night, bringing together electronic dance music with visuals from the popular video game and anime franchise. The sold-out event, one of only two locations globally to host the concert, celebrated the video game series' 30th anniversary with headliners Marshmello and Alison Wonderland.
Inside the arena, the atmosphere was a dynamic mix of a major EDM concert and a fan convention. Lasers crisscrossed the space, columns of fog and flames punctuated the stage edges, and confetti showered the crowd, all set to bone-rattling beats. A costumed Pikachu even made an appearance. Before the music started, the entryway felt like a blend of past L.A. conventions like E3 and Anime Expo, with attendees showing off their love for the long-running franchise. Fans arrived in Pokémon T-shirts and jerseys, or fully cosplaying as characters such as Ash, Misty, and members of Team Rocket. Lines formed for a photo opportunity with a statue of Mewtwo and Mew, and even longer queues for merchandise outside the arena. Many phones glowed with Pokémon Go, suggesting a common thread among attendees. Notably, the bar line remained empty.
Once the bass dropped, however, it became clear that this was primarily an EDM concert. The crowd, which swelled significantly for Marshmello's set, seemed to embrace the concert aspect, with many on the floor and in the aisles actively dancing—a welcome sight in an era of phone-focused concert-goers.
Headliner Marshmello delivered his usual setlist, accompanied by arena-sized animations of various Pokémon. Opener Alison Wonderland, however, leaned further into the theme. She incorporated remixes of the classic "Gotta Catch 'Em All" TV show intro and the game's somber Lavender Town theme. Throughout her performance, a continuous parade of character illustrations backed her, and she welcomed a costumed Pikachu, adorned with a light-up hat and glasses, onto the stage.
Marshmello’s segment featured large-scale visuals that drew enthusiastic reactions from the crowd. The titanic figures of Kyogre and Groudon appeared to battle on either side of his platform, the ghostly Gengar commanded fireballs, and a psychic Mewtwo levitated a digital version of the DJ above the stage. While these visuals were impressive, the Pokémon tie-ins in Marshmello's set were sporadic, with no musical homages to the franchise. The costumed Pikachu’s cameo was the only non-digital character appearance of the night, and Alison Wonderland’s two remixes were the sole significant musical nods to the franchise’s three decades of music.
For some, the integration between the Pokémon elements and the EDM show, while visually appealing, could have been more cohesive. While keeping the Pokémon aspects somewhat restrained likely contributed to a strong concert experience, an observer noted a desire for more "over-the-top novelty" in future iterations of the event, suggesting a kick line of Geodudes dancing to a dubstep remix of the "Pokérap" as a possibility. The Pokémon Night Out event is also scheduled to appear in London in November.
