iKON ‘paints the stadium red’ with their “2018 Continue Tour in KL”

A sea of red greeted the seven members of iKON as the Korean boyband took the stage at Stadium Malawati last Saturday with their opening song, "Bling Bling".

Leader B.I, with members Bobby, Ju-ne, DK, Jay, Chan and Song each donned a red jacket as ‘bling bling’ as the song, performing energetically as the 7,000-strong fans screamed their welcome at the K-idols.

After performing “Sinosijak” and the rock version of “Rhythm Ta”, the band greeted their fans. Much to iKONICs’ delight, all the members spoke in (Korean-accented, for most of them) English and kept using the same language during the intermissions, reading off the prompter.

This eliminated the need for a translator (though US-raised Bobby’s around for that, if needed) and fans were able to react to them better – and louder. Jay spoke the most during the concert, not even reading the prompter most of the time, brightening up the atmosphere with his jokes.

“”Goodbye Road” isn’t good because B.I composed it,” he said during one of the intermissions, as they talked about their latest song which has been topping the charts since its release recently. “It’s because I…sang it and...made it…”

“Better?” Bobby asked, seeing that Jay was struggling with coming up with the right word.

“Perfect,” Jay finished with a satisfied grin while B.I stared at him in disbelief as fans roared with laughter at his cheekiness.

iKON strutting down from the main stage to the extended stage.

Before segueing into their third and fourth songs, the band said that since it was autumn in Korea right now, the hot Malaysian weather was reminding them of summer vacations. Hence the reason why the stage setup for their next performance was reminiscent of a summer beach vacation with its plastic chairs, umbrella, and stools at a bar, perfect accompaniment for “Cocktail” and “Only You”.

The rapper duo, Bobby and B.I, were then left on stage to entertain the fans while the vocal team disappeared backstage to get ready for their special stage. After the vocal team serenaded the fans with “Perfect”, the rappers each did a solo stage – “One and Only” for B.I and “Holup!” for Bobby – before partnering up again for “Anthem”.

Joined by the vocal team again, the band performed “B-Day”, “My Type”, “Rubber Band” and “Best Friend”.

During their performance of “Everything”, the crowd held up fanmade slogans and waved them in the air. When the song ended, Jay stared at the fans with a comically surprised face, “I thought this was a surprise, how did you know we were going to sing this song?”

The band had intended the song to be a special surprise for their fans but since social media is already flooded with info on the previous legs of their tour, keeping “Everything” a secret wasn’t exactly feasible at this point.

Fans holding up slogans, painted red by the bright Konbat lightsticks (iKON’s official lightstick).

Brushing it off with a laugh, the band continued with “Love Scenario”, “Goodbye Road”, “Killing Me” and “Freedom”. Before leaving the stage, they promised that they would appear for their encore stage if the fans shouted for them loud enough.

Shout they did, bringing the band back on stage for an encore. “Just For You”, they sang to their screaming fans, then hyping up the crowd even more with a second performance of “Love Scenario”, followed by the very energetic “Dumb & Dumber”.

iKON wrapped up their “iKON 2018 Continue Tour in Kuala Lumpur” with “Adore You”, the perfect parting song that would keep their fans thinking of them even after the concert ended.

iKON’s concert was just Day 1 of the back-to-back concerts organised by MacpiePro last weekend. As iKON flew back to Seoul on the same night, fellow labelmate WINNER was just arriving in Malaysia for their own “WINNER 2018 Everywhere Tour in Kuala Lumpur” concert the next day.

(Photo source: YG ENTERTAINMENT)