[Herald Review] ‘SHINee World IV’ enthralls exuberant fans

“SHINee’s back!” whispered Minho’s voice, and the Olympic Park Gymnastics Arena erupted with cheers of the 10,000-strong crowd on Sunday as SHINee took the stage on the last day of their three-day concert “SHINee World IV in Seoul.”

Clad in white military-style costumes, the five SHINee members moved through a remix medley of “Note,” “Clue,” and “Sherlock,” followed up by renditions of “SHINe,” “Stranger,” and “Picasso.”

“We have something to tell you about today’s concert,” said member Minho after the first section of the 27-song set. “It can only be complete with your help, so we need everyone to get up on their feet!”

Throughout the show, the members encouraged the audience to jump, clap, and sing along to their songs. 

Member Jonghyun said the concert was a new experiment and challenge for SHINee. “We’re revealing new songs, remixing old songs, and performing Korean versions of songs from our Japanese albums,” he said. “In this concert, we’ll show you everything we’ve learned, the things we wished we’d done better, the things we wanted to reinterpret over the past seven years.”

Indeed, the concert seemed more focused on SHINee’s musical abilities and range in genre than on giving flashy performances or simply pleasing the crowd. Past megahits like “Lucifer” and “Ring Ding Dong” were conspicuously absent while lesser-known songs were trotted out to fit the themes of each section.

The SHINee members were suave and relaxed in black suits singing “Your Name” and “Your Number,” sexy in white for “Excuse Me Miss,” preppy in pastels for “Colorful,” in big floppy hats for “One,” and in strong black and gold for “Everybody.”

The show also devoted a significant portion to SHINee’s ballads.

“We actually have a lot of great ballads on our albums, but we don’t get many opportunities to sing them for you on the air,” said Jonghyun.

Rather than having solo performances for each member, in this concert the SHINee members had their chance to shine in short parts within group songs. Onew showed off a tap dance for “Close the Door,” Taemin danced with lasers in “Alarm Clock,” and Jonghyun had a strong, shouting solo in “Excuse Me Miss.” Key gave a playful puppy performance during the new song “Woof Woof,” and Minho earned himself the biggest cheer of the night when he tore off his shirt and performed the end of “Dynamite” shirtless.

The three-hour concert doubled as a gigantic showcase for the five-member boy group’s fourth studio album “Odd,” released at midnight Monday. The album is the group’s first in a year and seven months, and is released just one week before their seven-year anniversary.

They performed five songs from the 11-track album: the title track “View,” as well as the songs “Love Sick,” “An Ode to You,” “Woof Woof,” and “An Encore.” Right after performing their new title track “View,” the show immediately played a video clip of SHINee’s first ever broadcast appearance seven years ago, showing just how much they had grown.

For the encore call, the fans prepared their own event for SHINee. The fans sang SHINee’s song “Honesty” in unison, while they held up pre-prepared signs saying “Let’s keep it up,” or “See you just like today for a long time.”

The event overwhelmed the SHINee members, and Key and Jonghyun broke down in tears during the encore performance of SHINee’s debut “Replay.” Jonghyun, in particular, choked up and was unable to speak for a while.

The concert ended upbeat, with the members getting up close and personal with the crowd, and tossing signed balls and discs to their fans.

SHINee will begin promoting their new album “Odd” right away with the title track “View,” with their first broadcast performance on the 21st on Mnet’s “M Countdown.”

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)