It was yet another awesome night jamming with the boys from CNBLUE! Great fun, great songs, great live performance! That’s just what a live concert should be.
It’s been 7 years since their debut and it was the 5th time I watch them perform (1 showcase, 4 concert gigs). “Between Us” is their 4th Live concert in Singapore. They just never disappoint and are full of boundless, positive energy.
Their concert is worth every single cent of my ticket, every single time.
I’m pretty sure that many would be dead tired from the adrenaline rush, singing aloud, shouting, screaming, cheering, grooving and laughing out loud. However, that feeling of post concert withdrawal symptoms is just so “Shiok”.
Singapore is usually one of the last few stops in their Asia Tour, but this time round, we were the first stop for “Between Us” Asia Tour. They would also be setting their feet on Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Taipei in the next 2 months.
From the bashful, young lads to the confident musicians in their mid to late 20s now, these guys have come a long way. Time flies and it did not seem that it has been that many years since their debut.
It is never about the aesthetics when it comes to a CNBLUE concert. Young as they may be, they are musicians who set their priorities right from the very beginning. You can’t help but admire their perseverance. Compared to bling bling flamboyant costumes, we appreciated the sweat rolling down their faces with melted makeup more.
The line is clear that their focus is not on the costumes like most Korean artistes do. Their focus is on the fundamentals: simply their music, having fun performing their sincere works and engaging their fans with their compositions.
It is a down-to-basics concept.
There was no changing of costumes except to their concert tees during ENCORE, no other 串场 videos and it was a 一气合成 one-take concert gig. Well, we do applaud them for their effort and stamina certainly.
Once the music started playing for the first song “Radio” and the boys taking on their stage, every single beat engulfed me in a swarming sense of nerve-soothing and nerve-calming familiarity.
Yes, they are back and you knew you were in for another awesome treat of goodness that night.
Vibrant energy is always something that you will derive from their concerts. It makes you feel very relaxed, recharged and young at the same time. Their undying enthusiasm is super infectious as well.
Boys will be boys. They are still as playful and as crazy as ever. Yonghwa would go jumping, bouncing, running around the stage in a very freely and wildly manner, shrieking at the top of his lungs or even just lay on his back in the middle of the runway. The other guys would strum or hit their instruments effortlessly while interacting with their fans too.
The performers went wild, so did the audience.
It is when your performers go SIAO (crazy), then can everyone go SIAO together.
That should be the way to fully immense and enjoy themselves thoroughly.
I was pretty worried about the quality of the audio system at ZEPP. It was indeed a tad too much booming over the audio system initially which made it a little hard to hear YongHwa’s singing. Luckily, it became much better and the instruments and his never-fail-to-wow-you vocals were more than adequate.
It was the usual simple stage set-up and 3 LED lighted runway extensions. Oh yes, I absolutely love that Electric Blue Microphone that Yong Hwa was using (till he dropped it unfortunately).
While there were no fan projects like the previous rounds, such as the “rainbow sea” or the pretty pink white balloon sea, the support from the local Boices did not waver.
Whether you are a fan, young or old, male or female, you will still enjoy their concerts. The guys belted out a series of songs that were not so frequently sung at their earlier gigs. Your worry would be groundless if you thought that these songs may not be so well-received by the audience.
The guys cleverly chose songs that they seldom perform but would still cater to the tastes of the general audience. Songs such as “Sweet Holiday”, “Lie”, “Blind Love”, did bring back memories.
You would also love their refreshing remixes of some of their old songs. I particularly love the remixed arrangement for “In My Head”. That version has been playing repeatedly inside my head literally since the concert.
They performed some new songs such as “It’s You”, “When I was Young”, “Domino” and classics like “I’m Sorry” & “Can’t Stop”. Yonghwa was busy switching to keyboard at times during “Can’t Stop” or strumming on his acoustic or electric guitar for other songs like “Wake Up”.
“Domino” is a personal favourite and I was thrilled to hear new songs like “Royal Rumble”, which are in similar genre (electronic music), where they would use a lot of the keyboard and synthesizer.
The guys, especially Yong Hwa, loved to tease the fans during “You’re so Fine” & “Face to Face”. He would often send out flying hearts, winks or stares to the fans at the mosh pit. That obviously sent the fans hearts’ fluttering and loud screams from the audience could be heard.
Min Hyuk was mostly behind the drums, but you could see he enjoyed himself very much as well while hitting out every single beat.
The guys kept to their 纯朴 & 纯熟的一面。 纯朴 when it comes to maintaining their low profile lifestyles and also pertaining to their concert outfits. They like simplicity and are not those who love to flaunt.
It is 纯熟 when they showcased their growth in music making as more seasoned musicians now.
Since their debut, I always feel they are like refreshing spring water.
It is tough to persist in your ideals in an ever-changing world but these guys have shown to us that they can still do it while being who they are.
Venues like Expo, Suntec Convention Hall and Zepp may not be my preferred ones, but it did not affect the guys’ mood at all to perform in a warehouse-like space.
Never mind about the smaller venue. It got the boys and their fans closer, not just in terms of proximity, but also at hearts. There was absolutely no distance when it comes to their music sharing. The guys did not even attempt to hold back.
They unleashed it all.
Be it shrieking at the top of their lungs, playing their instruments so hard, running and jumping around, acting aegyo or flaunting Singlish, they just put in their very best.
Still love how Yong Hwa and Jong Hyun’s vocals complement each other. It’s like burning fire mixed with cool ice. They are polar clashing opposites, yet they blend so well together. Though as usual, Jong Hyun’s soothing, slightly nasal vocal, may be a little soft at times. He probably needs to train his diaphragm a little more, to complement better with Yong Hwa’s powerhouse-like vocal.
Nonetheless, no one’s complaining. He’s a guitarist, not a main vocalist anyway. It’s already pretty good. Did I mention, he’s actually my main bias.
While everyone shines in their respective solo works, they still gel on well together on stage. The boys would be at the back playing their instruments diligently, while their hyung, leader and lead vocalist Yonghwa, continued to take centre stage. No one was vying to get attention. There wasn’t a need to. They shine in their own ways.
Maknae Jungshin played his part to hype up the atmosphere by chipping in some Singlish phrases, such as “Ya, Ya, Ya”, “Do You Miss us Lah?”.
“WAH LAO, Why your voice so soft LEH!!” – That was my favourite phrase of the night. =)
Yonghwa was asking Jungshin if he was happy and maknae responded with a “No” initially but Yonghwa playfully took the mic away from him several times. Later on, they expressed that they were really happy to be here and started singing to “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.
There were some funny moments when they showcased their “Bromance” by having some skinship while playing instruments. Tsk.
Jong Hyun did not speak much as usual but he was busy giving fan service whenever he walked to the side stages. He could pose for the fans to take photos or sit nearer the aisle so they could have a closer glimpse of him. Well, we do like his bashful smiles and also how he enjoyed himself on stage.
The guys never needed any translator during their concerts here. They might have some difficulty in explaining in details regarding why and how they wrote certain songs (in previous concerts), but it definitely is of no issue for normal conversational English and Singlish. They are probably one of the few Korean artistes who can catch the gist of Singlish and use it in such a versatile and apt manner.
This is what we call, effort.
The quick-witted quartet would suddenly add in “I love you Singapore”, etc into part of their songs.
They absolutely know the way to the audience’s hearts.
Yong Hwa went on with his old jokes about “Everybody, CRAB CRAB CRAB” when it came to singing “LOVE”. Yes, we know they love chilli crabs. Hopefully they had their crab feast during their whirlwind trip here.
The guys had fun goofing around with the fans when they played “Wake Up” for more than 12 minutes. YongHwa was shrieking the words “Wake Up” in varying pitches and had the audience play along with him. The audience was more willing than ever to comply with his requests.
What fun would it be if there was no 2-way interaction?
I had a hella time laughing as well.
These boys were just too comical and entertaining. They will definitely make your day, especially if you had a bad one.
There was this part when Yonghwa, Jong Hyun and Jungshin towed behind one another like a toot toot train. It was pretty “cartoon”.
There was also this episode whereby Yonghwa dropped his Blue mic and there was no sound that came out from it after that. He had to rush in to change his gold mic while Jong Hyun was laughing away. Yonghwa took Jong Hyun’s mic initially and it caused much interference in his ear mic that he was jumping around in pain. Haha.
In the Korean entertainment industry, it is pretty much about the aesthetics and Rock Bands are not that favoured. Yes, they are pretty commercialised so that they can appeal to the public but they have a style which you can identify with immediately.
Their music genre is an influence of British pop rock style, with rap and electronic music (电音). They probably exude more of JRock style but it doesn’t matter. You do not need to be playing heavy metal to be a Rock Band anyway.
These guys focus more on their music and interactions with the fans. No doubt there would be the usual confetti, LED screen and some nice visuals, these guys stuck to their usual 1 set of concert outfit throughout + concert tee during their Encore.
Makeup is also minimal for them, especially when the foundation all melted under the perspiration.
If I could recall, it was only during their 1st showcase “Listen to the CNBLUE 2010” when they were dressed more formally in white jackets and pants. It seemed they weren’t that comfortable but it was for their debut.
Now, they are so comfortable being themselves. As a fan who followed through their journey, you definitely can feel the difference. It’s like Noona watched them grow up. Even my friends who are not really into them, also felt they exude a different feel now.
Well, they have the confidence & charisma of a more seasoned rock band now, though they have yet to hit 30s. Give them a little more time to explore and I am sure they will bring us even more surprises when they advance to their 30s.
We do hope they can write more touching songs, other than the generic love ballads but all these will need to come with more life experiences.
I am already thinking of their 10th Anniversary.
The guys have made some effort to work out and this can be seen more apparently in Yong Hwa’s beefed up physique and very toned arms when he rolled up his sleeves during some of the songs.
It was time for some of the upbeat songs such as “Feeling”, “Coffee Shop”, “Cinderella” and finally, the concert theme song “Between Us”.
The fans were in a fervently high mode and were not ready to let the boys go, as yet.
The guys returned with the encore segment, clad in their concert tees with the upbeat “Catch Me”.
It was heart-warming to have the 4 guys do an acoustic segment together for “Manito”. Albeit we did not get solo songs and lost out on some songs in this segment compared to the Seoul concert, it was still a very enjoyable segment. The guys didn’t have to do a solo. It was more like a joint effort that warmed the hearts of many.
Fans could finally see Min Hyuk (who’s usually far behind the drums) up close and hear him sing a small part. He was gesturing the fans to put down their hand phones and cameras, so that he could see their eyes. Well, it isn’t often that he could get that near to the fans on stage, so he obviously would attempt to interact more.
Each member had a solo part to sing for “Manito” and the fans cheered them on as they sang their parts a little nervously. We could understand how they must have felt since their forte is in playing musical instruments.
Yonghwa was sending flying hearts in various forms and singing “Nomu Sayranghae” and getting the fans to echo that. It was probably one of the more heart-warming moments that night.
The last song was “Young Forever”. The lyrics were mainly about growing up too fast and wanting to stay young forever and reminiscing the times when they were younger.
Well, let Noona say something here, You guys are still so young! Just continue to enjoy being young!
I guess they are also tired after 7 years in an industry that gets you very weary easily.
Like they said, there’s no way going back to the past, but we will stay forever young, at heart.
Well, in reality, it is always about getting older faster than you could grow up.
You know, the physical versus the mental aspect.
In my opinion, they may enjoy more popularity now, but they still have a long way to go in their music career. It’s good that they did not forget their roots as musicians. Hope that you guys will continue to make music that you love and stay so ever energetic and humble.
It’s always never long enough for a 2.5-hour concert.
I had always hoped that we could get a 3-hour gig someday.
Can the boys grant us this wish in their next tour?
That said, it was JINJIA SHIOK watching their gig.
Noona will be there again when you guys return for the next tour!
Till then, continue drooling over the thought of your chilli crabs.
(Ok, I know they will be here for Music Bank in August, but if it’s a personal gig, we need to keep our necks long for waiting.)
Personal side note:
It was Park Yong Ha’s death anniversary the day before on 30th June. Whenever I watch their concerts, I would be reminded of him, though not so much this time round.
I guess they would still be grateful to him for showing support to a rookie band who had just debuted in Japan back then. Not many people knew who they were but he was nice enough to attend their showcase and also showed support as a senior.
This definitely meant a lot to them.
Yona, we are grateful to you for that.
Look how fine these guys have grown to be, as musicians and also remain the humble boys they are.
I’m sure you are smiling up there. =)
