Rounding off the last week of September, we bring to you another episode of Best of Weekly Music Shows! BTS won big, taking home five well-deserved wins on all the music shows that aired this week — SBS The Show, MBC Show Champion, Mnet M! Countdown, KBS Music Bank, and SBS Inkigayo. KBS Music Bank actually had two airings this week, one during their regular Friday slot, and another jam-packed show in Jakarta the next day on Saturday to recap some of the biggest hits so far this year. SBS Inkigayo also had a special episode owing to the upcoming Chuseok holiday, with performances from Inkigayo Super Concert in Daejeon.
Aside from featuring some exciting comeback stages this week, we also picked out recent performances that are blasts from the past!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46DRZRviimA
Exo’s “Tender Love”, KBS Music Bank in Jakarta, September 30, 2017
“Tender Love” dates back to arguably one of Exo’s best eras with Love Me Right, or the repackage of Exodus. The decision to perform this track in particular is a little surprising, seeing as it isn’t a title track and they haven’t actually performed it on a music show before. However, Exo still kills it — it’s all in all a brilliant, fun performance that has the audience cheering and grooving along. Best of all, there is no set choreography to accompany, it’s just the members doing what they love, and us appreciating their passion on the stage.
BTS’ “DNA”, SBS Inkigayo, October 1, 2017
BTS’ stages never, ever fail to impress, but I chose this outdoors performance of “DNA” in particular because it really shows their skyrocketing popularity. The fan chants are spine-tingling, and the abundance of ARMY bombs, or their official lightsticks, is just spectacular; it seems like a BTS concert more than anything. Of course, their stage is amazing as always; the track is still in the process of growing on me, but it’s always a delight watching their charismatic performances with great choreography.
B1A4’s “Rollin’”, Mnet M! Countdown, September 28, 2017
B1A4 is finally back with “Rollin’”, and other than Jinyoung falling ill, it’s pretty everything that BANAs could have asked for — great track with a killer chorus, strong choreography that will make you want to get up and dance along, and an overall cool stage. The styling and their trendy, dark outfits for this performance in particular really fits perfectly with the tropical house genre of this song!
NCT’s and GFriend’s “Jukebox: Lucifer, I Need U, Growl”, KBS Music Bank in Jakarta, September 30, 2017
This wasn’t so much as a collaboration like I had anticipated as it was just NCT and GFriend performing short covers of past hits, namely, SHINee’s “Lucifer”, BTS’ “I Need U”, and Exo’s “Growl”. Nevertheless, it’s always fun to see younger groups doing their own interpretation of the older groups. NCT did an amazing job with the intricate synchronised choreography in “Lucifer” which is no surprise considering that the two groups are labelmates; in GFriend’s case, they embodied the fierceness of both massive hits perfectly.
Loona Odd Eye Circle’s “Girl Front”, MBC Show Champion, September 27, 2017
I actually reviewed Loona Odd Eye’s Circle most recent album Mix and Match, but hadn’t watched their stage prior, so it was interesting to see how their title track translated into the performance. I was not disappointed to say the least — it’s definitely a strong and fun stage, and the members have charismatic stage presence that matches the boldness of “Girl Front”. Like I said previously, Loona is a girl group to look out for — once they finish debuting, that is!
