"Oh my gosh, this is so crazy. Make some noise!" It's standard boyband stage patter, and it's having the usual effect: 12,000 young women cry and flutter tulip-shaped lightsticks. "Put your hands in the air! Hey, London, you ready to party?"
And it's off into another song that sounds like it was grown in an electro-urban petri dish. Anyone who has recently been to a boyband show will recognise what follows during Big Bang's first UK show: the lickety-split choreography, endless costume changes and lighting effects that drain the national grid. The difference is that the five glistening dreamboats at the centre of the action had never toured outside south-east Asia before this year – Big Bang are superstars of K-pop, South Korea's contribution to global youth culture.
Most notable tonight is how indistinguishable they are from One Direction and Justin Bieber. While Psy, of Gangnam Style infamy, is a blue-chip eccentric, Big Bang trade in a more international currency. The two-hour show is packed with songs that would slot neatly into the UK top 10 – Fantastic Baby, for instance, is pure Guetta-style Eurocheese – and cover versions such as Chris Brown's Don't Judge Me are display their adeptness at American R&B. But when baby-faced Seungri tells bandmate Taeyang, "I'm going to be Rihanna if you're Chris Brown", you wonder if they appreciate what they're saying.
This multicultural audience, anyway, is proof that pop music delivered by handsome boys who also (during How Gee) zip around on Segways recognises no boundaries. But there is one core difference, which makes the show a fabulous spectacle – whatever Bieber and company do, Big Bang do with fluorescent bells on. The edges are crisper, the sound louder, the dancing sharper. And when Taeyang gets a nosebleed, he simply jams a tissue into a nostril and sings on.
Source : guardian.co.uk, thelineofbestfit.com
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