Brown Eyed Soul Concert Review

It was reminiscent of the 90’s RnB soul group BoyzIIMen and definitely matched them with a fantastic performance.  The fans left getting a personal sense of each of the group members as we were entertained by them for more than three hours.  Solos, comedy skits, videos and dance skits all entertained us throughout the performance.  The band consisted of instruments ranging from the acoustic guitar and drums to a trombone and trumpet, which gave a great array of musical styles and notes.

This last weekend Brown Eyed Soul had a concert in Daejeon, their last city aside from Seoul, on their domestic tour.  The RnB soul group received a warm welcome by thousands of fans at Chung Nam University’s performance hall.  If you are not familiar with the group the best way to sum them up I think is to call them the Korean version of BoyzIIMen.  They are not the most popular but are gaining in popularity as more listeners take a liking to their love ballad style singing.  This was my first time seeing them live and I was very impressed.  The vocals of Naul were amazing but every group member complemented the group as a whole.

The MV for their opening song, 비켜줄께

The group started out singing, 비켜줄께, which was followed by an introduction of each of the members.  It was easy to tell each of their personalities through the various audience interaction talks/periods.  Some of my favorite performances in the concert were “My Everything,” “If It’s Same,” (sounds very much BoyzIIMen)  “비켜줄께” and “My Story.”  The concert was split with the group singing together followed by individual solo pieces, with intermittent skits, videos and fan interaction. 

MV for their song “My Everything”

Seong-hun opened the solo performances on a piano and worked into a dance routine singing, “With Chocolate.”  Honestly he is not the best dancer but his effort deserves some credit.  The song had a great beat to dance to, integrates some English with Korean verses and was perfect for his unique singing voice.  Seong-hun’s vocals remind me very much of Kim Gun Mo, the style (even his glasses), piano playing and unique voice sound so similar that I have trouble telling the difference. The other members came out after the solo and joked around that they would always look away when ever Seong-hun would start dancing as they were all embarrassed.

Seong-hun’s performed song, “With Chocolate” (audio)

Each solo was intermittent between the songs sung by the whole group.  Young-jun, has quite a bubbly personality, he constantly jokes around about his weight and admitted that he is an IU fan.  Young-jun’s solo included one of his female backup singers as they performed a duet, singing “추억, 사랑만큼,” which was also well done.  Throughout the concert the group also did voice imitations of some of the most popular Korean dramas.  It definitely added a comical side to the performances and their impressions from the actors/actresses which I recognized seemed spot on.

Young-jun duet performance song “추억, 사랑만큼” (audio)

The leader of Brown Eyed Soul, Ahn Jung-yup, performed his solo, “Love You,” with a great vocal performance accompanied by the piano played by a band member.  Although his voice is not as powerful as Naul’s one could tell his voice has  a large range.  His performance and voice reminded me very much of Brain McKnight (“One Last Cry”) as he also has many songs accompanied by a piano as well.

Audio track of Jung-yup’s song “Love You”

To finish off the solo performances, was Naul, the best for last.  His vocals are by far better than the other members and the range is just amazing.  For his solo, he actually sang in English and did it well.  I got the impression that his English and pronunciation must be perfect.  A lot of their songs do incorporate some English words but none are English only.  He sang “He’s Real” a song religious in nature as the whole group takes from their Christian influence.  Naul was the most impressive in every song with the other three members complementing the musical vocals in complete harmony.  Unlike his strong vocals he was actually very quiet, shy type personality, the group constantly egged him on to talk and trying to highlight his shy style.

Song Naul performed (audio), “He’s Real”

Brown Eyed Soul has had many hit songs and has been featured on the Athena OST for “Put it Back.”  This was the last scheduled song but after the crowd screamed “encore” for a few minutes, the group came back out and sang their hit “My Story.”

MV for Athena OST “Put it Back

I was very impressed with the concert as a whole.  The three plus hour performance was full of comedy, personality and of course great music.  They even included a comical video portion introducing their likes/dislikes, hobbies and influences.  It was great to see and by the end of the concert you felt that they were very personable and as a fan knew them much better by the end.  Well you have a new fan in me and if you were ever a fan of BoyzIIMen or Brian McKnight I think you would enjoy Brown Eyed Soul too.      

MV for “If It’s Same” (똑같다면)