Fantastic five

July 18, 2006
e C e n t r a l
Music > News & Features

Fantastic five

It was a night of Korean songs and pretty faces as TVfXQ wowed the crowd at its recent concert, writes LI EE KEE.

IT WAS history in the making – the first Korean pop act to stage a concert in Malaysia. Considering that the hallyu craze has been sweeping into most parts of Asia since 2002, it was long overdue. TVfXQ is the band and despite its tongue twister of a name, it will be long remembered.

Malaysia was the first stop on the group’s Rising Sun 1st Asia Tour. For those of you unfamiliar with the boys, they are a dance quintet formed in 2004 after a nationwide audition.

TVfXQ or their Korean name Dong Bang Shin Ki, which literally translates to Gods Rising from the East, comprises Hero, 20 (real name Kim Jae-joong), U-Know, 20 (Jung Yun-ho), Micky, 20 (Park Yoo-chun), Xiah, 19 (Kim Jun-su) and Max, 18 (Shim Chang Min).

TVfXQ did not lack for screaming fans when they held their Rising Sun 1st Asia Tour concert at Putra Indoor Stadium in Bukit Jalil last Friday night.

Thanks to their good looks and talent – the boys not only write their own songs but also choreograph their dance routine – TVfXQ has become one of Asia’s most popular bands in just two years.

And now we had the chance to see if their fame is well deserved.

Having attended quite a few concerts although none of the Korean variety, I found myself beside with anticipation. They sounded good on their Rising Sun CD but will it translate well live? What are their fans like?

The majority of fans, mainly female, arrived at the Putra Indoor Stadium Bukit Jalil early. They wasted no time having their pictures taken with the large concert banners emblazoned with the pretty mugs of TVfXQ members.

Inside, the stadium reverberated with shrieks of “Dong Bang Shin Ki”. And to think that one of the concerns of Korean artistes in coming to our shores was the lack of passionate fans.

TVfXQ and their dancers giving their body a good workout during the concert.

There was a sea of red at the front of the stage, presumably fan club members who came uniformly dressed in red shirts and sporting red bandanas.

The much touted RM500,000 state-of-the-art stage, which extended into a runway all the way to the centre of the stadium, was quite a sight what with its elaborate set design, props and a host of static and moving lights.

It was close to 9pm when the show got underway.

The 13-member Super Juniors were the night’s special guests.

It was a dramatic opening. The clock chimed ominously counting down to the guys’ arrival – on elevators.

The boys were nicely decked out in an all-white feathery ensemble. They got started with the romantic Tonight followed by Hug, somewhat unusual considering that singers, more often than not, prefer to open with a rousing bang. But it didn’t really matter as fans were already more than worked up.

The group performed 23 songs during the two-hour show and they were mainly slow ballads.

While it did well to disprove critics that they were more than just pretty faces and there is no denying that all five members can sing, it resulted in the concert veering dangerously close to monotonous territory.

It was also disappointing that there were not too many display of the boys’ dance prowess, something I was looking forward to seeing.

Even so, fans would have little to complain about. For many of these dreamy-eyed girls, it was a dream come true seeing the boys in person, what more hearing them serenade for two hours.

As for me, all in, it wasn’t too bad a show.

At the very least, I could hardly complain about the lack of eye candy from the boys of TVfXQ to their special guest, the 13-member bubbly cuties Super Juniors.

The concert is presented by LG Mobile and jointly organised by Kpop Kingdom, Absolute Entertainment and CMG Worldwide Sdn Bhd.