Lee Guitars concert

When I heard about it from a tall, long-legged friend, my jaw dropped. All these artistes, on the stage, together, at the same event? She had to be kidding me, right? Because here’s who she mentioned, not in order, because I lost track when I had to look away for a while to pick up my jaw: Jonathan Lee 李宗盛 (one of the most prolific, popular and evocative lyricists of the past couple of decades); Emil Chau 周华健 (singer of many singalong hits, mostly in the 1990s, and a supremely charismatic onstage presence); Mayday 五月天 (by my reckoning the most popular Chinese band in the world, and by all appearances a bunch of amazingly down-to-earth, airless blokes); Cheer Chen 陈绮贞 (stunningly talented Taiwanese singer-songwriter, with a magnetic voice); Tanya Chua 蔡健雅 (criminally under-appreciated Singapore singer – she has to have a solo concert here soon!); A-Yue 张震岳 (I don’t quite care for him :p).

And later, looking for it on Sistic, I found out that the concert was billed as the Lee Guitars All-Star Concert Singapore, and owed its name to 李宗盛, who after many years of composing, producing, singing and writing lyrics for music decided to craft instruments of music – guitars, to be specific – and set up a guitar-crafting business called Lee Guitars. The concert was meant to be a celebration of the relationship between these artistes and their guitars, and the stories of how the guitars gave them their voice, to share with the rest of the world.

So I did the only thing I could and bought a ticket and went to watch the concert this past Saturday night. Some observations:

• The first thing I noticed was that the audience was diverse, age-wise. Itty bitty teenyboppers were there, and folks just slightly younger than my parents, and those in-between. It was interesting to see Mayday go mad on stage, and the teenyboppers bop bop bop in the crowd, and among them, the older folks in their seats, relaxed, a little puzzled at the attraction of the noise, then smiling at the remembrance.
• During the recorded voice-over introduction to the concert, the artistes were announced one by one, and the chap who did the list must have had some sort of applause modulator, because the audience’s reactions to the names, in order, were like this: 李宗盛 (cheers); 周华健 (cheers, loud); 张震岳 (louder); Tanya (loudeR); 陈绮贞 (very loud, high-pitched); 五月天 (high-pitched, ear-piercing, prolonged mangling of vocal chords).
• But the loudest, most sustained applause of the entire night (three-plus solid hours; worth it!), by far, was for a guitar solo by an accompanying guitarist. He was phenomenal! I forgot his name – shame! – and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what he was playing! So many seemed to know, but I didn’t. Darned. But he was electrifying – so psyched up, so in the flow, and then, after he finished, so pumped that he did it perfectly, that we were pumped for him too.
• All the singers were better ‘live’ than on the CD, 李宗盛 and 周华健 because of their stage presence, the former earnest and likeable, the latter charming and witty; 五月天 because of their energy and chemistry with one another and the audience; 张震岳 because he is really a shy git unless he’s onstage, where he becomes a sly and mouthy mix of brash hip-hop and sensitive R&B; 陈绮贞 because of her talent and her incredible intensity – she gets so lost in her performances; Tanya because she was just absolutely born to sing on a small stage, with acoustic instruments and a small, attentive audience.  It was not that sort of venue, and we were not that sort of audience, but there was this point when Tanya appeared on stage, at the back, and the lights came on a bit early so we caught the last few seconds of the elevator lifting the platform she was on, and she chuckled, nervously, and then started a rendition of 记念, and – you know how sometimes at concerts you get disappointed by renditions of your favourite songs because the artiste insists on singing it in a creative i.e. different way, with a creative i.e. stupid rendition of your favourite part? Tanya sang 记念 differently too, but it was an intoxicating and bracing sort of difference – a bit of jazz improvisation. You had to hear it. You think what you hear on the radio, from her CDs, on YouTube is amazing? Wait till you hear her ‘live’. Just wait. Which is why she needs to have a solo concert, or several, on the double chop chop.
• 五月天 are amazingly popular, and they seem like such fundamentally decent people that you don’t grudge them that at all. When lead singer 阿信 went into the chorus of 温柔, he sang a bit, and, sensing that many many of the teenyboppers present (and some older folks, ahem) were champing at the bit to show that they of course knew the lyrics by heart, happily obliged and played the part of acoustic guitarist. What a simple but effective way of engaging the audience.
• The best way to get a cab after a full-house concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium is to walk across the bridge over to Tanjong Rhu Road, where there are many blocks of condominiums, and, at that time, many people returning to their blocks of condominiums in cabs, one of which you can then grab :)

李香兰

The last time I saw 张学友 sing ‘live’, I was with the girl I liked. It was a disaster: Some time into the concert, my seat actually snapped off its moorings. You know how an L-shaped piece of plastic can be joined to a stadium step by its horizontal part and it then becomes a chair? Well, this one must have been poorly joined, because it broke right off. (I’m fat, but not that fat.) And then, she had to leave early, before the encore. As we walked out of the stadium, I could hear 张学友 singing one of my favourite songs – I’ve totally forgotten which now.

Exactly ten days ago, I saw 张学友 sing ‘live’ again. This was much more enjoyable. The man’s 46, and his local fans must have realised that they probably would not have a chance to see him perform ‘live’ again, and so the concert sold out like mad. Or rather, it went like this: First, he was to sing only one night. Then the tickets for that must have sold out or vanished into thin air, and so it was decided he would sing for two nights. Then tickets for the second night ran out too, and so a rare third night (on a Sunday, which led to him joking with the audience that they had to work tomorrow and he’d better end early) was added.

Then they had to add 500 seats for each night. (!!)

The seats we got weren’t very good – they were perpendicular to the stage, and given the tight spacing, one had to turn almost the full 90 degrees to get an unobstructed view – and the sound system favoured the percussion instruments and bass, but his performance made up for all that. Some highlights:

• He sang songs he composed or wrote the lyrics for: 给朋友 (in memory of three good friends who died the year before); 摇瑶 (which he composed for his daughter) and 讲你知 (which, he joked, he knew he had to write for his wife after he wrote something for his daughter). I love 讲你知’s lyrics:

看你背面我身体欠自然
看你正面两手失控在颤
看你笑脸我开心数夜数天
与你说话我哑口会无言
与你碰面我体温会乱变
与你贴面一世的经典
若你肯再拥抱紧一点
我愿意用我十年
去换我共你十天
要讲你知你的意义
每当我的心肝跳一次
没法子难制止
你是血液渗于我每一处
要讲你知我的故事
这一秒即使心再不跳
在记忆潜意识
爱是已在心中永世不变

光阴可以瞬间转数十年
生死起跌也知不会幸免
当中只有爱的感觉未曾变

• He sang others’ songs: 周华健’s 明天我要嫁给你; 孙燕姿’s 天黑黑 and 张信哲’s 爱如潮水 – which used to be my favourite song, maybe 15 years ago – the memory of my singing this song to myself and marvelling at how catchy it was just flashed through my brain, vividly vividly; I am outside the science labs, in the dark corridor, behind the pale yellow double doors. When did I outgrow it? (Funny word, “outgrow” – makes it sound as if the song grew with me, and I grew with it, and eventually, I just grew faster and left it behind…)

• He sang songs he called his 经典 – his classics, one for each dialect: among his Cantonese songs, he sang 每天爱你多一些 (completely completely disagree that, among all his Cantonese songs, this one should be rated as the classic – can think of at least five others more suitable, one of which (只想一生跟你走) he had sung earlier in the concert *beam*, and one he sang during the 13-song encore *double beam*); among his Mandarin songs, he sang 吻别 (no real argument there – his career was okay before this, but this song essentially launched it into orbit)

• The biggest surprise of the night came when he said that he hadn’t sung this next song the previous two nights, and then sang 她来听我的演唱会. I mean, you are seriously telling me that he did not sing this song the previous two nights, and that the fans actually went home without hearing it? He has to sing that song in every single one of his concerts, without exception. Just ridique that he did not. I don’t believe it. (The song title can be translated as “She Came to My Concert”, and talks about the way his singing intersects with the lives of his fans.)

• Think my third favourite part of the night was when he sang 离开以后. Reminded me of a CD I gave her, which she said was her favourite 张学友 CD.

• Think my second favourite part of the night was when he sang 只想一生跟你走. This was one of my favourite songs when I was 17 or 18. Always happy to hear this song.

• My favourite part of the night came late, when he sang this one song. The person I was with and I both feel this is probably his best song, and that our night would be complete only if he sang it. The thing is, this song is actually not as super-famous as some; in other words, given the fact that he has over 20 years of hits, it was conceivable that he would not sing this song. In fact, it was all too conceivable, so conceivable that we were on edge from the moment we entered the concert venue and throughout the concert, waiting. The concert actually started off with an instrumental riff that sounded like the beginning of that song, and when it morphed into a fast number and he came onstage, we actually felt a little disappointed. Our hopes dimmed more when he mentioned he would sing a classic, and sang 每天爱你多一些. Then came the encore. Having found out from a review of Friday’s concert that the encore had lasted 12 songs, I started counting down. The first song came, and then the first three went, then half of the 12. Nothing doing. He was now in “warm down” mode, thanking the audience and making us all feel special. He was now so hungry he started munching on an apple while he sang. I vaguely thought about chanting the title of the song, and wondered who else would chant with me. He finished his apple, and continued holding the core. He took a swig of water from a mineral bottle. And he turned around and sang 李香兰. He sang it without any warning, he knew we were waiting for it and would recognise its distinctive lead-in, he knew we were unsure whether to expect it or not so near the end, he knew it, and he deliberately strung us out and led us on, and because he sang it, and he sang it with his trademark effort and intensity and stunning virtuosity, we all cheered like mad bonkers :)

Almost over you by… 林忆莲??

So Sheena Easton’s “Almost over you” is one of my favourite songs. I am just terrifically fond of that song.

A couple of Saturdays back, as the final bit in her bravura concert that left fans clapping and stomping for a second encore long after the band instruments had been dismantled, 林忆莲 sang an English medley, starting with All-4-One’s “I swear” and ending with a faithful rendition of that same “Almost over you”.

And that really was the cherry on the icing on the cake for me.

I really, really enjoyed the concert. Put aside the costumes (which were alternately uninspired and interesting) and the multi-guised dancers (mere gimmicks). Put aside even the band and backup singers (who were brilliant and stars of the show in their own right; during a break for one of Sandy’s many costume changes, the music director even got the crowd to entertain itself – he played the first few strains of the 林忆莲-李宗盛 duet 当爱已成往事 and encouraged the audience to sing along with enthusiastic swings of his arms, and the audience did zestily sing along, even if we were a little unsure of the lyrics; at the end of the song, the audience seemed satisfied at our own performance and there was a smattering of applause). Put aside the fact that 林忆莲 put up a great show, showcasing her versatility and proving to be equally adept at rock tunes and ballads. (I always thought of her as a balladeer primarily, but her rendition of 爱上一个不回家的人 – reworked as a near-rock anthem – was nothing short of stunning.) All that was well and good.

The reason I enjoyed the concert so much was that, before her encore, I knew for certain she was coming back out. You see, she hadn’t sung my favourite song of hers^ yet.

I’m really glad I went to that concert *beam*

^That would be 听说爱情回来过 :)