An explosive night
South Korean boyband Big Bang returns with a futuristic show
Hot South Korean boy band Big Bang had kept their Thai fans waiting for almost four years but the return of G-Dragon, Taeyang, Seungri, Top and Daesung to Impact Arena last Friday was nothing short of triumphant.
As part of their “Alive Galaxy Tour 2012”, the five boys are being “sold” to their fans at the beginning of the shows through a on-screen presentation that shows them returning to Planet Earth after being frozen in space capsules for 85 million years, when the world needs their music.
Of course, it isn’t only Thai fans that need the music. Tickets for both of their Bangkok concerts were snapped up during the pre-sale stage. Hong Kong managed to keep them on sale for one hour while California and New Jersey kept fans at bay for two hours.
The arena was turned into a sea of yellow lights from light sticks shaped as crown torches – Big Bang’s trademark – as the five boys, clad in military-like outfits – left their space capsules for the stage platform – performing “Tonight” and “Hands Up” before greeting fans in Thai.
They then headed to the catwalk at the centre of the hall, singing the popular and danceable favourites “Fantastic Baby”, “How Gee”, and “Stupid Liar”.
G-Dragon and Seungri moved round the stage on segways while Taeyang rode a bicycle.
G-Dragon and Top, who have joined up for their own album, performed “Knock Out” and “High High” before handing over the stage to Seungri for “Strong Baby” and “What Can I Do”. In between songs, they showed off their beat-box and rapping skills.
The boys were full of energy throughout the two-and-a-half hours, never letting their fans sit still. They returned to the stage with another tight set of songs that included “Gara Gara Go”, “Number 1”, “Cafe”, “Bad Boy”, “Blue”, “Love Song”, “Monster” and “Feeling”.
Taeyang made the audience scream when he tore his T-shirt during his solo show that featured “Just Look At Me” and “Wedding Dress” while Daesung rose from the top of the stage on an elevated platform and ended his rendition of “Wings” wearing a huge pair of white wings.
Top’s right hand was wrapped in white cloth, suggested he was injured. That had no effect on his sexy low baritone rapping, however, which had the audience screaming for more.
All five returned to stage for an acoustic version of “Haru Haru” with the fans singing along and wrapped the show with hits “Lies” and “Last Farewell”.
And it wasn’t just the fans who were impressed with Big Bang’s comeback. The Korean lads seemed equally satisfied with the generous Thai welcome. Seungri took a picture of the audience raising their heart-shaped paper sign with a message, “Still Love Big Bang” and replied, “Still loving you too” before performing six songs as an encore.
