Concert / Award, Coverage

[COVERAGE] EXO’rDIUM: A Visual and Audio Feast for EXO-Ls

March 23rd, 2017 MyKpopHuntress

Over 15000 fans flocked to Stadium Merdeka last Saturday for EXO Planet #3 EXOrDIUM in Kuala Lumpur, all ready for tumultuous weather caused by natural conditions and also, we’re fairly certain, the hotness of the boys of EXO. While EXO-Ls missed Lay as he was absent due to other commitments, Xiumin, Suho, Baekhyun, Chen, Chanyeol, D.O, Kai and Sehun graced us mere mortals with their otherworldly presence, vocal prowess and spiffy choreography.

If someone were to ask us what our favourite debut song might possibly be, we might (possibly, with 200% biasness) proclaim it to be MAMA. So imagine our delight when EXO opened the concert with much excitement, grace and nostalgia with a remix version of careless, careless, shoot anonymous, anonymous. Fans who had been waiting hours, patiently containing their excitement, exploded, cried and screamed their lungs out through the first song. MAMA was then followed by Monster (a song that really showed EXO’s colour, in our opinion), and then Wolf (which, we must admit, have really grown on us since the time when EXO shocked the world with the leaked version of it).

The boys got the chance to rest during the ment segment where they greeted fans by unloading their entire knowledge of the Malay language in 10 minutes; fans welcomed all the Aku Cinta Kamu and Apa Khabar with screams of appreciation and encouragement. Chen commented that while it had rained earlier, EXO-Ls had made the weather warmer with their hot passion. (Although, what we think he probably meant was “It’s too humid here.”)

If anyone is to be blamed for bringing up the temperature in the Stadium, we think it has to be whoever came up with the Artificial Love choreography. After White Noise, Thunder and Playboy, EXO-Ls were treated to a (sinful) visual feast that is the performance of Artificial Love. Whoever gave these boys canes to work with in their performance… we hope you have been immensely compensated for your thoughtful consideration of fans’ happiness.

Things slowed down a little after that with more soulful performances designed to show off EXO’s powerful and sultry vocals. We loved that these were performed acoustic with Chanyeol on guitar, adding a very intimate atmosphere to the whole concert. EXO’s maknae line Kai and Sehun then showed off their deadly ability to cause heart palpitations and fainting spells with their dance performances. It was a pity we were not able to witness their usual performances on water, and while we were very disappointed, maybe there’s a blessing in disguise there guys – witnessing Kai and Sehun’s performance in a pit of water might have caused a very severe heatwave to hit Malaysia and seriously, nobody wants that. Right?

After the magic of Chen, Baekhyun, D.O and Suho’s performance on an elevated stage, EXO jumped right into their high mood again with Overdose, Transformer and Lightsaber. They took it one step further with Full Moon and Drop That, where fans stood up to dance and jam with the boys. If seeing Chanyeol with an acoustic guitar was enough to make your heart beat wildly with intense romantic feelings, witnessing him on an electric guitar brought the audience on their feet with the sheer hotness of the visuals.

The audience loved that EXO had chosen to close the concert on a high with Run. Not only is it the perfect song to get everyone on their feet, it also gave the boys the chance to play around the extended and floating stages and interact with fans. As encore, they performed Growl, Lucky One (yay for the chance to catch D.O’s iconic head bobs live) and Angel. The perfect end to a perfect night.

Three hours and 28 songs later, EXO-Ls walked out of the Stadium, clothes drenched but hearts full, with smiles on their faces and promises from EXO to return to Malaysia for the next tour. We hope EXO had as much fun as fans certainly did, and we hope it was a memorable early birthday celebration for Xiumin, who was surrounded by Malaysian EXO-Ls who love him.

Thank you to Star Planet for the invitation.

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