LIVE REVIEWS
In the coronavirus age, livestream concerts have been split between staying grounded in a regular gig experience and boundary-pushing technology extravaganzas. Particularly in the K-pop world, it’s the latter that has ruled. Over the last 11 months, we’ve seen TWICE being transported around the globe by a VR taxi, SuperM nailing their choreography while digital tigers leap across the stage and BTS be suspended in space.
Ever ones to march to the beat of their own drum, though, BLACKPINK’s first foray into the virtual concert sphere eschews flashy extras for a more traditional live show. Performing from a studio in Seoul, the girl group are joined by their usual live band The Band Six and, while they’re clearly missing an audience full of Blinks, having this organic accompaniment beefs out both the sound and the atmosphere. If you forget the fact there’s no crowd noise, you could almost be watching footage of an in-person gig posted after the stage lights have gone down.
Despite getting an energetic boost from their backing band, not every moment of The Show hits as hard as you would expect in a bouncing arena. Unfortunately, it’s largely the songs from last year’s ‘The Album’ that suffer – the fierce bombast of ‘How You Like That’ feels lacklustre here, while ‘Crazy Over You’ doesn’t make much of an impression. Even the infectious ‘Lovesick Girls’ falls a little short of what you would expect to be an anthemic highlight of the concert. Perhaps this is, in part, due to the fact that most of The Show isn’t actually live at all. Instead, there are several pre-recorded tracks, presumably done to help keep things slick while allowing for outfit changes and set swaps, but potentially also sacrificing some potency along the way.
Largely, though, BLACKPINK put on a concert that’s a joy to watch. The stage sets often stray into eye candy territory, like the glittering coves of a cave from where the group start ‘Don’t Know What To Do’ or the hall of mirrors decorated with fairy lights and neon bars that BLACKPINK vogue in front of for their Lady Gaga collaboration ‘Sour Candy’ (the pop superstar doesn’t make a virtual appearance). ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ is backlit by plumes of fire, while the quartet dance on water with a troupe of dancers, adding even more attitude to its scorching energy.
Each member of the band gets the chance to show off their skills in their own solo stage too. In the case of singer Jisoo and rapper Lisa, these involve covers of other artists’ songs with a fresh twist. Jisoo is up first, performing a version of Tove Lo’s ‘Habits (Stay High)’ that opens with a verse in Korean that BLACKPINK’s eldest member reportedly wrote herself. It’s a savvy song choice for her, one that lets her voice does what she does best – bring an intoxicating mix of drama and elegance to the track, accentuated even further by the couple dancing to the side of her set.
Lisa’s solo is more upbeat, an impressively choreographed take on Doja Cat’s ‘Say So’ that causes her bandmates to dub her “Liyoncé” later. It’s high praise that’s totally deserved – the rapper makes the track own, even before she gets to the verse she’s adapted herself.
For the remaining members of the group, their solos are all about originals. Rapper Jennie performs an updated version of her fittingly titled 2018 single ‘SOLO’. As well as a brand-new dance break, she also shares a refreshed verse that sees her coolly boast: “W, no Ls, covered W and Elle and there’s none left on the shelves / Get in trouble by myself, solo, oh well.”
Singer Rosé follows it with one of the most anticipated moments of The Show – a preview of her upcoming solo debut. After half of ‘Gone’, the B-side of the upcoming release, plays through a stylish music video, the camera cuts to the Australian member sitting on a white swing, an empty perch on one side of her and guitarist Justin Lyons on the other. It’s a simple but addictive piece of guitar pop and one that showcases Rosé’s direct, raw vocals. “Why’d you have to hit and run me? / Now I’m all alone crying ugly,” she sings in the emotional performance. “You broke my heart just for fun / Took my heart and just left me numb / Now it’s eight in the morning, hate in the morning.”
As well as poignant moments like this and a VCR set to ‘Stay’ that reflects on BLACKPINK’s past in-person concerts, it’s the points where the band get to loosen up and have fun that work best. Case in point is final song ‘Forever Young’, which opens with Lisa and Jisoo resting their heads adoringly on Jennie’s shoulders as she sings and ends with them giddily goofing around the stage.
Even when they’re in serious performance mode, it’s easy to see what The Show means to the group. When they were making ‘The Album’ and gearing up for its long-awaited release, they were probably expecting to be able to celebrate it with at least a concert, if not a full tour. The pandemic had other plans, though, and nearly scuppered this event too – it was originally meant to take place in December, but was postponed due to a spike in cases in Korea. “I hope everybody felt our presence because, in our minds, we’re there with everyone,” Rosé says towards the end of the show. The Show might not be flawless but, with it, BLACKPINK step into Blinks’ areas worldwide and leave an indelible mark.
LIVE REVIEWS
Arriving at The O2 for the first night of Radiohead’s London residency, we walk in under Stanley Donwood artwork lining the walkway and the lines of the band’s bleak modern chant “Fitter Happier” printed on a huge banner hanging from the ceiling of the former Millennium Dome. The moment instantly brings back memories of walking into Oasis’ Live “25” tour earlier this summer. This is the other major rock return of the year and the atmosphere carries a different kind of excitement, yet the intensity feels just as real. Instead of bucket hats and throwing drinks into warm air, we have cold weather and a slow shuffle through the night to gather in the dark. Toniiiiiight, I’m a pig in a cage on antibiotics.
It almost feels unreal that nine full years have passed since Radiohead’s last album, the rich and sorrowful “A Moon Shaped Pool”, and that they have not toured since 2017. In between, we have seen several side-projects, including Ed O’Brien’s overlooked but inspired solo run as EOB and the way Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood nearly recreated Radiohead’s spirit under a different name through the sharp jazz-rock of The Smile, as well as a wave of controversy.
After performing in Tel Aviv in 2017, questions grew louder about the band’s connection to Israel as the horrors of the genocide in Gaza intensified. Attention landed on Greenwood’s collaboration with Dudu Tassa, an Israeli musician who has played for the IDF, and on Yorke’s later comments responding to criticism. The guitarist had joined anti-government protests in Israel, where his wife is from, and the band recently made their views clear again by speaking out against Netanyahu’s regime, insisting that music should be something that unites people from every culture. That idea guides the show tonight, where there is no sign of protest or boycott.
The audience surrounds the stage, which sits in the center to create a more personal and absorbing feeling than most massive arena shows ever manage. A flickering vocoder opens the room and builds tension before the band walk out and jump straight into old-school territory with the raw guitar gloom of “The Bends” opener “Planet Telex”. It is one of many choices designed to thrill the crowd from a group not always associated with this kind of approach, and the packed venue screams back “everything is broken. why can’t you forget?” as a shared release against everything falling apart in the world around us.
With a “busking approach” guiding the tour, the band rehearsed more than 70 songs and have performed around 43 so far, so this is not the predictable hit conveyor belt of Oasis’ shows. It feels refreshing to never know what is coming next. The setlist leans heavily on the treasures from “OK Computer” and “In Rainbows” and gives equal space to the once-dismissed but now appreciated “Hail To The Thief”. It creates a kind of Radiohead-style hit parade, without “Creep” of course, and includes the occasional glammed-up oddity to let the show breathe.
There is the roaring political fear of “2+2=5”, the huge and aching sweep of “Lucky”, the pulsing electronic rush of “15 Step” and the joyful sing-along of “No Surprises” anchoring the early part of the performance. This section also includes “Sit Down. Stand Up.” with a new soft happy hardcore ending, “Bloom” from the fragile “The King Of Limbs” that now carries a brighter neon energy, and “The Gloaming” flowing into “Kid A”, giving the night a moment to sink before everything intensifies again.
There is not a single chance for a toilet break from that moment onward. From the gentle pain of “Videotape”, to the wild three-part surge of “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” into “Idioteque” and “Everything In Its Right Place”, to the guitar-driven “In Rainbows” songs and the massive first-act finale of “There There”, every moment lands exactly how a Radiohead fan would hope. The visuals also look spectacular.
Then we reach the reward of a seven-song encore that reads like fantasy on paper, complete with the newly viral “Let Down”, a playful return to “a song we wrote on a freezing cold farm in 1994” with the indie powerhouse “Just”, and the huge final blow of “Karma Police”. This show becomes the cinematic and artistic contrast to Oasis’ carefree chaos, capturing that feeling of “standing on the edge” and letting everything wash over you. The entire night carries a fierce energy and a well-judged sense of scale, offered with warmth and intention, and Yorke leans fully into his rockstar presence as the band rotate around the stage to engage each part of the arena. For a group that once cringed at the idea of “arena rock”, no one performs it better. A new album and another night like this would be welcome as soon as possible.
‘Planet Telex’
‘2 + 2 = 5’
‘Sit Down. Stand Up.’
‘Lucky’
‘Bloom’
‘15 Step’
‘The Gloaming’
‘Kid A’
‘No Surprises’
‘Videotape’
‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’
‘Idioteque’
‘Everything In Its Right Place’
‘The National Anthem’
‘Daydreaming’
‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’
‘Bodysnatchers’
‘There There’
‘Fake Plastic Trees’
‘Let Down’
‘Paranoid Android’
‘You and Whose Army?’
‘A Wolf at the Door’
‘Just’
‘Karma Police’
