Thursday, May 01, 2008
Mayday Mayday!
It’s not often that one gets to attend a concert (unless it’s of the free kind and, even then, the last one that I attended involved me on stage with over a hundred other people belting songs in languages we haven’t the slightest inkling of, not as an audience member), much less one by a hugely popular Asian Mandopop band, for which tickets start from a hefty S$100.
So, when a friend approached me with free tickets to the recently-passed Mayday “Down To Earth 2008” concert, I uttered a brief “are you kidding?” and grabbed at the chance. While I wasn’t a huge, manic Mayday fan (although I do listen to a fair bit of their songs), I’ve heard heaps of praise for their live performances and concerts and, having had a boring last few months, this seemed the perfect chance to pep up my doldrum-ed life.
Heading into the concert hall, though, I wasn’t sure what to expect. While, like I mentioned, I do quite a few of their classic hits, I haven’t had much chance to listen to their recent few albums (in preparation for the concert, I actually purchased their latest album, “Born To Love”, and attempted to ingest all the songs in a single day, an endeavour which, needless to say, failed miserably) and I didn’t know what to expect and whether I would be able to enjoy myself.
I needn’t have worried.
Starting with an impressive war-time video featuring the band members (complete with actual stunt artists lowering themselves from the very high ceiling with ropes) that segued into the band’s appearance, the concert got off to a banging and energetic start, with an energy that only increased as time passed.
For the first half of the concert, the band performed several of their newest songs, starting off the energetic and rock-ish numbers before moving into the ballads that they’re known for, the most notable being the title track off their latest album, a rousing declaration of passion and love which got the audience singing along raptly.
About halfway through the concert, the band (minus lead singer Ashin, who had disappeared backstage to change) suddenly started to perform Sun Wu Kong, one of their most well-known (and of my favourites) hits, which signaled the start of the second part of the concert. Having covered most of their newer songs, the focus would now shift to their golden hits.
If the energy during the first part of the concert had been high and infectious, it now became positively explosive. Tossing out hit after hit like “Lian Ai ING” and “Jue Jiang”, the band got the audience on their feet, dancing and singing along with aplomb, digging into every word of every song (something which, for most of the fans weaned on a diet of Mayday songs for most of their formative years, is an easy feat) and getting so high the hall actually become pretty warm.
Ending with a rousing encore that lasted several songs, the concert finally came to a close after almost four hours non-stop reveling and music, the fans lingering off with satisfied smiles on their faces.
Much kudos for the fantastic experience has to be given to the amazing band members, who seem to possess an infinitesimal amount of energy, powering their way through the entire three hour plus concert with nary even a hint of tiredness or lethargy.
True to hearsay, too, their live performance skills are top par. While lead singer Ashin sometimes throws the pitch with reckless abandon, he nonetheless has a much more powerful and emotive voice than the studio recordings reveal and, together with the rest of the band members (all of whom have their own solo moments of glory during the show), produced the sound that is unreplicated in their albums. It’s really true what they say, the band HAS to be heard live to be fully appreciated. Plus, they’re all seasoned entertainers too, effortlessly rousing the crowd and infecting everyone with bounds of energy and drawing screams and cheers with almost every word they speak and note they sing.
While I don’t claim to be an expert at gauging how great a concert is (having attended none myself in recent years), I have no doubt that what I had attended was something I would have gladly have paid money for if needed. Mayday HAVE to be watched live.