Epik High - [e] PARADE 2009 (in Seoul)

On September 19th, Epik High held a concert at Seoul Olympic Park Hall, which also introduced their new album, [e]. The lights went out for a second after the end of opening act, and with a great laser show and loud screams from the audience, Epik High appeared on stage and did a little catwalk to the first seconds of Love Love Love. Right from the start, the atmosphere was great, the fans shouted and jumped along to the music and Epik High seemed as energetic as ever.

After a few songs, the boys introduced themselves and MYK, Philtre and DH-Style who also were part of the team that night. The stage was big and had enough space for Tablo, Mithra and some backup dancers who did a very good job. Every now and then Epik High talked with the audience and fooled around to give themselves and the dancers a short break to catch their breaths.

In one of those talks, Tablo revealed that the band can’t relate to some of their older songs anymore, so they probably won’t perform them ever again. The statement was met with mixed feelings by the audience, but after an awkward moment, Flow and some other songs were performed for the last time and the crowd was happy again.

One of the highlights was definitely Heaven, although they had some problems with this song. First the fog machine produced so much smoke that no one could see the stage anymore and then the sound was compromised, so we could only imagine how the song should sound. Tablo seemed very disappointed and assured everyone that MYK can really play the guitar, and even though no one doubted his word, the song was performed a second time. And this time it was just awesome. The blue lights, Tablo's low voice and MYK's calm and soft guitar created an indescribable atmosphere.

After several other songs like Map the soul and Wannabe, Epik High left the stage. But before the fans could get confused, Drunken Tiger appeared on stage and the audience couldn’t stop their cheering and screaming. The boys did a powerful and impressive performance, but left after only two songs.

After a short intro from Planet Shiver, Epik High appeared on stage again and even Tukutz, who had remained at his turntable the whole time, came to the front stage and performed alongside his fellow members, who did the famous Abracadabra-Dance.

With no sign of fatigue they jumped and danced to Wannabe, Fan and One. Wannabe in particular had a very nice laser show and created a club-like feeling.

But the concert ended soon after, and the band said their good-byes and left the stage. It took the audience a while to coordinate their shouts for an encore, but finally Epik High appeared again and gave a powerful encore, and once again did their own version of the Abracadabra-dance.

It wasn’t a sold out concert; some seats remained empty during the whole concert, probably because of the several other concerts that took place on that evening like Global Gathering and Asia One. But the bottom line is the concert was great, and it’s a shame that we'll have to wait a long time to see Epik High live again.