[MALAYSIA] THE ROSE BLOOMS IN KUALA LUMPUR ‘DAWN TO DUSK’ TOUR 2024

One magical evening is all it took for The Rose to sweep the 3,000 attendees in Mega Star Arena on January 31, 2024 off their feet. If one had come to the concert as a casual listener, you would have left at the end of it as a die-hard fan. Want to know the reasons why? Follow along as we recall the experiences of that fateful Wednesday night.

The Rose Returns to Kuala Lumpur

Alas, five sun rotations later we find The Rose back in Malaysian Black Roses’ embrace, the agony from waiting had been painful but it all washed away as soon as the four of them stepped on the stage. 

Vocalist and guitarist Kim Woo-sung, keyboardist and vocalist Park Do-joon, drummer Lee Ha-joon, and bassist Lee Jaehyeong never slacked even for a minute since the show began, giving the Malaysian audience a performance that would be remembered for years to follow. 

A lot has happened since their last 2019 tour in Malaysia. The band shifted companies and the members entered in and out of their mandatory services, but hey – they made it here, all four intact for the Dawn to Dusk Asia Tour in Kuala Lumpur!

Majority of the songs in their setlist came from their most recent studio album called Dual, which still retains their unique “The Rose sound”, but with a different level of maturity. Additionally, the band began their US/Canada Dawn to Dusk Tour in October 2023, subsequently embarking on an Asia tour that kicked off in Indonesia in January 2024.

A Mellow, but Hopeful Beginning

The quartet began their show at 8:30 PM local time with Eclipse, and boy – what a way to start a concert! The mellow beats of the music in the beginning foreshadows a sad ending, but mid-way towards the end, the music turned bright and hopeful, with these lyrics uplifting every single being in that venue:

“And the shadows I’ll face it
Take me to the dawn”

Beautifully and cohesively as the lyrics ended, the audiences were then welcomed with an instrumental called Dawn, setting the mood inside the arena in accordance to the first part of their tour’s name – Dawn to Dusk. 

Our ears were then blessed with You’re Beautiful, Shift, and Lifeline before we were welcomed to stand. Woo-sung made sure to ask permission from the organisers, and made the fans promise that they would not hurt themselves while they enjoyed the concert standing. 

While The Rose worked on their instruments to play to the next rhythm, Malaysian Black Roses turned the lightstick’s colour to red, bouncing along the passionate song that is Red. 

Nauseous followed after, the playful lyrics got a lot of the fans singing along, as well as Back To Me. The grounds of the arena shook as the people inside jumped to the beat, the song being ever so relatable to everyone who has lost a loved one out there due to a breakup. 

The head-banging song was then followed by a more gentler one, called Yes, the fans still finding themselves singing along saying ‘Yes’ when the song demanded them to. 

At this point of the show, Woo-sung requested that we all rest and take our seats. We happily complied, and the next song, I.L.Y took us all by surprise because instead of hearing the usual, that is Woo-sung and Do-joon singing, we had Jaehyeong and Ha-joon’s voices blessing our ears. 

It was a pleasant surprise to us all, because it is not everyday that we can hear the bassist and the drummer of a band singing. Following this, Woo-sung and Do-joon reclaimed their singing positions with Time and Beauty and the Beast.

The air around the fans and The Rose was a chill and laid-back one, Woo-sung even went as far to tease us by saying that the other cities in their Asia stops were singing and cheering louder than the Malaysian fans. 

Malaysians being Malaysians – we could never lose to our Asian counterparts – so a screaming match went on as we sang their song, and the band accepted it gleefully, not caring how broken our voices sounded. 

Second-Half of the Show

The mood switch from the “Dawn” to “Dusk” element of the tour came in the form of the instrumental, Dusk. A beautiful form of graphic played on screen behind the stage, encapsulating the audiences to pay more attention to the front. 

The Rose then continued to serenade the fans in the venue with Angel, Definition of ugly is, Take Me Down and Alive.

Before moving forward with the next set, Woo-sung recalls The Rose’s humble beginnings as a busking band in Hongdae. Their first real gig was at a venue that could fit less than 200 people, and even then the seats were not even completely filled-up. This was back in 2017, and fast forward 7 years later, The Rose is now capable of garnering an astounding 3,000 people in one night for their own solo concert. 

In fact, the venue was so huge that they could not hear our voices when we cheered … 
Watching Woo-sung up on the screen, anyone could have noticed his eyes glistening –  a sign that he was close to tears. With that, he introduces the crowd to the song that made the band mainstream, and the song that has founded The Rose’s “sound” for all of the music that they make, up till this day – here comes Sorry.

Cure and She’s In The Rain followed soon after, everybody singing their lungs out at the latter. Even if the song was half in English and half in Korean, none of us missed a single beat as we sang to it. Oftentime, this was the song that people would play to have their “main character moment”, especially when it’s gloomy or raining outside. 

The audience find themselves standing once more, enjoying the song Sour and jumping to Cosmo. Honestly, this song is also another perfect song for your “main character” moment because the lyrics are just so … phenomenal. The beat of the synths echoed throughout the hall and everybody began dancing. 

We were rooted back to the show when the band performed their final act, Wonder, a song that was perfect enough to close a spectacular concert. Before ending the concert, all four members came back out as Wonder (instrumental version) played in the background, while they threw real roses to the fans in the arena!

The End of the Concert but Only the Beginning for Them

Everyone who had witnessed The Rose that night would agree – 120 minutes was simply not enough. We need the songs injected into our system and drilled into our minds – that was just how good the live vocals and music was. 

The Rose has left Malaysian Black Roses yearning for more.

As of now, it clearly was the end of the Dawn to Dusk tour in Kuala Lumpur, but for The Rose, this is only the beginning to an amazing journey that they will embark on. We here at The Seoul Story wish nothing but the very best to the quartet, and keep on slaying especially for the upcoming Coachella festival that will attract at least 125,000 people. 

The Seoul Story team would like to extend our gratitude to Lo-Fi Entertainment for the media invite.

Written by: Kartini Jasmin
Photos by: Lo-Fi Entertainment

The Seoul Story – Connecting K-Pop Fans Since 2011 
WEBSITE | TWITTER | LIKE US | WATCH US