MFBTY and Junoflo concert review: Sydney goes to K-indie with veteran hip-hop crew
MFBTY with Junoflo
Big Top Sydney, Luna Park
October 21
Most K-pop gigs I have attended in Sydney reflect Sydney's varied Asian demographic. K-pop has become as popular as Western pop throughout Asia - why should Sydney audiences be any different?
Ironic then, that the concert with the biggest Korean audience I've seen so far, should be presented by MFBTY and Junoflo - four performers who were born or grew up outside of Korea and are fluent in English.
It was also noticeably an older crowd than turns up for the usual idol concerts, like the band themselves, who are in their late 30s (as opposed to idol groups, who are generally under 30, and often about 20 and sometimes younger).
Those weren't the only differences: many K-pop gigs are highly structured and rehearsed, this show seemed relaxed from the beginning. It lacked some of the fireworks of idol gigs (figurative and literal): there weren't any dazzling dance displays but there was plenty of energy and warmth from the performers, especially Tiger JK, who chatted constantly with the crowd, to their delight.
The show began with a set by their DJ and a guy on electronic drum pads, playing mixes of typical warm-up stuff - Jump Around, Hot in Herre - then Bizzy arrived on stage, dapper in all black with slicked hair and a collared shirt. His brief solo set did not include his sweet collab with Bumzu from a couple of years back, which is one of my favourite K-indie tracks, but I won't hold it against him. It was a good taster of what was to come, with Yoon Mirae soon introduced.
She was dressed casually, in a cropped T-shirt, fitted jeans and with a jumper tied around her waist, yet she looked even more beautiful in the flesh than in the MVs. Her long corn rows (chill, she's half African-American) were pulled back from her face exposing high cheekbones and a lovely wide smile; she seemed relaxed and as though she was genuinely enjoying herself.
Her gorgeous slow jam You and Me, from her 2018 album, was the cue for Junoflo to make an entrance: he's the collaborator and their stages on the music shows were a lot of fun. After Yoon Mirae - or Tasha, as she was called throughout the night (it's her birth name) - had enchanted the crowd with her charisma, tongue twisting rapping, soulful vocals and a pretty meaningless cover of Lauryn Hill's Doo Wop/That Thing (they have a ton of their own stuff - why do a cover?), Junoflo took over for a brief set of his own songs.
He's a rising star but the crowd were just as keen to see him as the veterans. He's already pretty skilled at working the crowd and he's very talented - as shown by his collab with BoA, one of the best on her sadly underrated EP - but the gig lost a little light for me when Yoon Mirae left the stage.
Still the pacing of the show was pretty good and it wasn't long before she returned with Bizzy and Tiger, dressed in some random headwear and some kind of punk version of a doctor's coat. He immediately commandeered communications with the audience, keeping up a patter that never flagged, with commentary that included a bitch about the show being under-promoted and being pleased at scoring a copy of the Time magazine with BTS on the cover while he was walking around Sydney.
As well as the DJ and electronic drum pads, there was a female keyboard player on synths and together with MFBTY and Junoflo they kept the crowd engaged with a combination of physical energy, chatter and a tasty mix of dark hip-hop, slow jams and EDM. There was no doubt that we were watching professionals at work but it never felt laboured: it felt natural, spontaneous, fun, inclusive.
The trio had great chemistry on stage. Not surprising given they reinforced their independence by starting their own label, Feelghood, and Yoon Mirae and Tiger have an extra bond: they have been married for more than 10 years and have a child together.
The big songs were saved for later in the show of course: the middle-Eastern influenced Bang Diggy Bang Bang and the EDM banger Sweet Dream.
Just as they were winding up, Tiger decided to drop an impromptu preview of his new solo album on the audience; from Yoon Mirae's wide-eyed look of shock - and resignation - this seemed genuinely unrehearsed.
The crowd - smaller than it should have been for artists of this calibre playing the kind of music that's embraced by Australians, performed by artists who speak the same language (even if they don't always sing in it) - loved every minute of it.
I hope the band did too.
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