The Hollywood Palladium’s marquee blazed out the name Xdinary Heroes, illuminating the sold out crowd waiting to see the up and coming Korean rock group. The band’s Beautiful Mind World Tour touched down in Los Angeles last week, shattering expectations and delivering a fiery show for their eager fans, affectionately known as Villains.
The six members took the stage sporting huge grins as they observed the thousands of fans cheering them on and immediately started rocking the room with “Beautiful Life” and “Xymphony”. Gunil on drums, Jungsu on keys, Gaon and Jun Han on guitars, O.de on synths, and Jooyeon on bass all shared vocal duties as well and their voices perfectly complemented each other and the various unique tracks in their already impressive catalogue.
The guys showed off their goofy personalities as they traded off on vocal runs, with Jooyeon pulling faces at the audience and meandering around the stage, all while not missing a note as he held down the rhythm section alongside Gunil’s stellar drum solos. Jun Han kept to himself towards the back of the stage, preferring to let his guitar do the talking as he shredded through “Fight Me” and “George the Lobster”. While their energy was fast and loose, their musicianship was airtight- the whole band never missed a beat or a note as the night continued.
Sixteen songs later, it seemed like Xdinary Heroes could play all night- and the crowd was certainly willing to let them. “Moneyball” packed a punch right into “Break the Brake” with the fans chanting along at the choruses before the main portion of the set ended with “FiRE (My Sweet Misery)”. Villains’ ears were ringing but they simply had to demand more and the band re-emerged to deliver a lengthy encore as a celebration of their first major North American journey.
The group also spoke directly to their audience several times throughout the night, endearing the crowd with their silly antics and sincere gratitude for the tour’s run of sold out shows. Each member made an effort to genuinely connect with the audience in the room and made sure to add on fan favorites at the end like “Strawberry Cake”, “Freakin’ Bad” (with its addictively catchy chorus) and the 80s rock tinged “Money on My Mind”. Xdinary Heroes’ setlist ended with a whopping 26 tracks and the members stood in a row with the energy of a band that could rock and roll all night- here’s hoping they won’t keep their Villains waiting too long before they bring the rock show stateside once again.
Photos courtesy of JYP Entertainment
