Hello everyone, and welcome to another weekly live performance recap!

Considering the theme for this week’s Week In Review, fans were anticipating a lot of debuts and comebacks this week… but I ended up loving performances that I wasn’t expecting at all. Below are my top picks for this week:

Vixx‘s “On and On” on Mnet M! Countdown, Thursday the 17th of January, 2012.

I’ve made clear my lukewarm view of “Super Hero,” and “Rock Ur Body” wasn’t really to my taste, so another Vixx release was not something I was keen on checking out. And so, I bypassed the album and MV, going instead straight to their comeback stage on M! Countdown. And wow do I like what I see: the song is great, the zombie concept is well put-together, and the choreography is great — I have found my next new dance move in the form of the “zombie hips.” Even Ravi, whose rapping I don’t always like, was much more bearable.

SPEED feat. Kang Min-kyung of Davichi‘s “That’s My Fault” and “It’s Over” on Mnet M! Countdown, Thursday the 17th of January, 2012.

Being part of the same conglomerate, it’s only expected that Mnet would look after a CCM group, and SPEED got a two-song debut (comeback) stage on Thursday. SPEED really impressed with their choreography and music, and Min-kyung was great as always. The beginning of “It’s Over” threw me off due to the similarly dressed back-up dancers, but the effect was admittedly pretty cool. SPEED’s debut is thus far a success, which is a relief — here’s hoping that CCM can continue this good streak starting with The SEEYA‘s debut, and now SPEED’s.

2Yoon‘s “Why Not” and “24/7” on KBS Music Bank, Friday the 18th of January, 2013.

I think 2Yoon sounded good in all their performances this week, but their Music Bank comeback wins based on aesthetics. I loved the Katy Perry-inspired candyland theme for “24/7,” but my favoured song was “Why Not.” It’s a shame that only part of the song was performed, but it made for something different and showed that there was more to Harvest Moon than the title track suggests.

Dickpunks‘ “You Will Be Surprised If I Proposed” on Mnet M! Countdown, Thursday the 17th of January, 2012.

Dickpunks’ lively and jazz-infused performance here reminds me a bit of my all-time favourite band, The Cat Empire — all they’re missing is a trumpet. I hardly noticed the stage end because I was enjoying the song so much, as was the crowd. I loved it, and I hope to see more of Dickpunks on-stage in the future.

 

CN Blue‘s “Where You Are” and “I’m Sorry” on MBC Music Core, Saturday the 19th of January, 2013

In addition to hosting Music Core this week, CN Blue also performed the English version of “Where You Are,” which is included in their album, in addition to their title track “I’m Sorry.” And they were playing live, which meant this performance had to be included here. Granted it was a pre-recorded performance as Music Core prefer for its comeback stages, but I’m not complaining.

(Mnet, MBC, KBS, SBS)