While I Was Gone

I know, I know. I've been away for a very very long as I've been busy with school and Dinoseoul (I'm writing there). So I'm gonna try updating on some significant events that I actually remember.

30th September: Keane Strangeland Concert
I've never been a super big fan of Keane or anything but I got free tickets so why not right? And am I glad that I went! The atmosphere wasn't quite like any other concert I have been to... it was pretty chill. I was especially awed by Tom Chaplin's amazing vocals - he sounds exactly the same as he does on the record! And I did take a slight liking to pianist Tim Rice-Oxley. Hehe.

11th October: Brian Joo Up-Close and Personal Concert
Again, I got free tickets for this - all thanks to Rachy! I think in K-pop now, solo artistes are often overshadowed by idol groups and Brian Joo is one of them. He is an awesome vocalist, he can dance, he speaks fluent and American-accented English (oh yes me gusta) and he is genuine. The concert literally brought fans 'closer' to Brian as the setting in Butter Factory was a really intimate one. Although I wasn't familiar with most of his songs, I still enjoyed it a lot - I really love 'Domino' and 'Let It Die'.

Oh and because of Rachy, again, I got to go up and snap a picture with the man himself! It was funny though, when I had to tell him that my name was Rachel so he'd write her name on the poster. Haha!

27th October: Recording
The Poly bunch met up for audio and video recording of 'Starships'. The video recording was a failure though and we ended up, uhm, camwhoring. What's new? That said, I'm sure we will be more productive the next time we meet for filming.. I think.

Don't ask me what I was doing.

31st October: Halloween/Skyfall Preview
So Chapman students had the privilege of catching Skyfall more it premiered in Singapore! I'm not going to spoil it for anyone but it actually might be the best Bond movie to date! Love it when the antagonist is batshit crazy.
And because it was also Halloween, I dressed up as Bond!

No I'm not that light.

2nd November: 2NE1 Fan Gathering
So my favourite K-pop girl group had a guerrilla showcase in Singapore, which was a big big thing since things like that are rarely held in Singapore, what more a K-pop group? The squeezing from the audience was horrible and there was this inconsiderate girl in the second row standing on a freaking stool but other than that it was fun and amazing... partly because it was free. Haha! Nevertheless, I still managed to take awesome photos!

My personal favourite :)

Check out the rest of the photos here and Rachy's write-up here.

3rd November: Melodi's Birthday Celebration
And then our dear Mel turned 20! Her parents, the Poly bunch and Cally held a surprise for her and I didn't know if she cried because she was shocked by my face or if she was touched. But either way, I'm glad the surprise was a success! Thank you Mel's parents for having us (and to Mel's mum for cooking extra rice for me). I had a blast! Love you Mel!

No prizes if you guess where this is from.

Happy birthday girl! ^^

I'll try to re-visit this space as often as I can! I promise... I really do...

MTV Sessions Featuring Kyle Patrick

When I received an e-mail from MTV stating that I had won tickets, I was really excited - I was gonna get to watch the lead singer of a band that I have been listening to forever, and also it was gonna be my first studio recording experience!

Rachel and I reached the venue just 1.5 hours before the doors opened and we were pleasantly surprised that we were second in queue.

That's me being annoying LOL.

And here's a decent photo for your sanity, or not.

Snazzy looking tickets that they didn't let us take home :(

The studio was pretty neat and the stage looked awesome. We stood right at the front and we were literally brought closer to the star of the show. I was kinda resting my knees against the stage while waiting for the man to come out. Hahaha. A little too close for comfort me thinks.

My iTouch on the stage LOL how annoying are we really.

Anyway, fast-forwarding to the recording, VJs Holly Grabarek and Richard Herrera hyped up the crowd and did an introduction whilst standing among the audience. I'm pretty sure I was captured on camera since I was standing next to Holly, and it was so awkward even though I'm a broadcast student and I've had plenty of experiences in front of the camera. Sigh, I just hope I look normal when they screen it, lol.

Handing the baton over to the band, Billy Justineau (keyboard), Kevin Rice (drums) and Jared Scharff (guitar, also guitarist of Saturday Night Live) and Kyle kicked it off with Follow Your Heartbeat. Seriously, the song was perfect as an opener. It's fun, upbeat and has such relevant lyrics ("I'm ready now, ready now, ready now" - that's the most apt it gets). He danced all around the stage and infected all of us with his energy. What a crazy ball of fun he was!

Keeping the momentum going, he continued with Wild Ways where he really impressed me with his falsettos in the chorus, and he did not falter one bit. Watching him perform is always a pleasure, because he is one of the most sincere and consistent performers ever.

He then took it slow with his rendition of Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine, which he quipped as one of his favourite songs. He slightly mispitched one of the higher notes but other than that he absolutely nailed the song, especially my favourite part (the never-ending 'I know I know I know...').

He then brought out his Gibson SJ-200 Custom Honey and treated the audience to acoustic versions to a few songs from The Click Five. While setting up, he conversed with the fans in whatever Singlish he learnt on his last trip here in 2011. He used chiobu and chope in a couple of sentences before saying that Singapore is like his second home, which earned him lots of 'awwws'. Aww indeed!

The crowd of mostly teenagers were obviously Click Five fans and sang along to Jenny, Happy Birthday, Empty and Don't Let Me Go. He looked visibly pleased with himself until he stopped abruptly in the middle of Empty before lamenting that even though he has played the song for hundreds of times, he still forgets the lyrics sometimes. How cute, haha! I'm guessing MTV will cut that part out though.

Spot me! (Photo credits to Aloysius Lim and MTV Asia)

The band then came back on stage and Kyle started crooning out the very emotional Baby Don't Board That Plane. The song sounds brilliant on the record, but listening to it live was another thing altogether - he put so much emotion into it and it was just... for lack of a better word, amazing!

He finished off his set with the lead single from his EP, Go For Gold! He said that the song was written when he was preparing for a marathon, and added that joining the marathon was one of the worst decisions ever. Hahaha. Anyway, Go For Gold was definitely the highlight of the whole showcase and Kyle even jumped off the stage into the crowd at one point. He also sung to me at the second chorus, and my natural reaction was to sing back. He gets bonus points for crowd interaction. Heh.

Photo credits to Aloysius Lim and MTV Asia.

He came back on stage for a surprise encore (it turned out that the production team needed him to re-do two songs) and sang Follow Your Heartbeat and Baby Don't Board That Plane again. I'm not complaining though!

My first ever studio recording session experience definitely ended on a good note (literally) and I had a blast! Kyle and his band could do no wrong. There was an improvement in his vocals compared to when I last saw him in 2010. He also looked much, much better without those long ugly sideburns he previously had. Thank goodness.

Rach and I ended our day with a meal at Aston's and camwhoring at some cave thingum nearby. Lol we never even knew it existed.

All these derp has to stop hahahaha

It was a great day! Thank you MTV Asia for bringing Kyle in! And also to Rach for the awesome company! Couldn't have asked for more. :)

For those who missed it, MTV Sessions: Kyle Patrick will premiere on MTV SEA Saturday 8 September at 11am (WIB), 12pm (SG/HK/PH) and 1pm (MAL).
Also, check out my review of Kyle's self-titled EP here!

STAR (Straits Times Appreciates Readers) Concert

I am not a fan of going to concerts which feature various artistes because I usually find them a waste of money. However, when I knew that Boys Like Girls was coming to town, I immediately gave in. The tickets to USS and Singapore Flyer were really an added bonus. And boy was I glad that I bought the tickets - it was definitely worth the money (and my currently aching legs).

Before the concert officially started, young Singaporean talents took the stage and I was really impressed by them! They included 18 year old Amni Musfirah and 13 year old Sophia Joe. I felt that both of them did a great job with the older performer having more control over her voice. One thing I realise though, is that many young female singers in Singapore have the same voice quality - a strong, soulful voice which most bar singers have. I'm not saying that having a voice like that is bad..it is just getting a little boring because everyone is just starting to sound the same. But anyway, I'm just glad that young singers like these are getting much more exposure than before.

Rit Xu, a classically trained jazz flutist, was the final performer before the actual concert kicked off. Being a concert band member, I was naturally looking forward to his performance and it did not disappoint - although it got slightly boring as it dragged on. Don't get me wrong, it is just that jazz instrumentals just did not seem to match the ambience of the venue. One thing is for sure though - I will never look at the flute the same way again. But then again I don't even know why I am so surprised even though I watched this video of this amazing guy who can beatbox and play the flute at the same time a few years back. (Click).

Now on to the first act of the concert, Boys Like Girls! It was sort of an emotional rollercoaster for me throughout their ten song set. Aptly starting their performance with their very first hit singles The Great Escape and Hero/Heroine, they immediately set the bar for the craziness which was to come. BLG fans were treated to performances of three new songs (Be Your Everything, Life of the Party, The First Time) all from their Crazy World EP.

No biasness intended here, but they sounded amazing - it was as if I was listening to the original audio of the song. Transitions of the songs were smooth, and Martin hit every single note perfectly, maybe except for the insanely high falsetto-based choruses of Life of the Party. Paul and Morgan did not disappoint and did a decent job at backing vocals as well!

Of course, a Boys Like Girls set is never complete without their ballads. They played a short snippet of Go before transiting into Two Is Better Than One. When my all-time favourite song, Thunder, was being performed (acoustic for almost all the way), it felt like I was being transported back to two years ago in their first ever concert in Singapore. I felt exactly the same - and by that I mean that I was greatly touched. *cues crying me*
Pop punk bands like to end their sets with a bang, and that was they did. Ending their performance with their lead single from their second album, Love Drunk, it definitely sent me wanting more. I really could not get enough! Before they left the stage, they threw all their guitar picks, drumsticks and literally everything there was to be thrown into the audience (Martin threw a piece of tissue paper. Hahaha!). I did not have any luck with those though. Uh well!

I was really contented though - they played more songs than I expected and the best thing was that my friends enjoyed their set as well, even know they did not know some of the songs.

Next up, was the first ever Singapore Idol, Taufik Batisah and I have to say that he impressed me most out of all the acts! He started off with Addicted where he broke out into dance along with his crew members and I was like, "What? He dances? Wow!" I thoroughly enjoyed it - the decent choreography, him and his backup dancers moving in sync, and also his strong and stable voice.

Bringing all of us back to 2004, he crooned one of his trademark songs, Me and Mrs Jones. He definitely didn't disappoint with that and was really smooth. One of my favourites of the night!
He ended off his set with his newest single - Sky's The Limit! I'm really digging the song - kinda like a cross between Jason Derulo and Usher. Great job, Taufik!

The second Singapore Idol and Asian Idol, Hady Mirza, was the next to take the stage. His performances weren't as stellar as his predecessor and his songs did not leave much on an impression on me - except for You Give Me Wings, which is the only song I know from him.

Poor dancer dude on the ground.

Nevertheless, he still put up a decent performance which consisted of mostly slow numbers - it was just simply too bland for me.

Next up, was homegrown talent Tanya Chua! To be honest I was really looking forward to her performances, simply because she has a great voice - and she was one of the female C-Pop artistes I really looked up to back in my secondary school days (gahh I feel old).

She played the guitar for most of the songs that she performed and I was really impressed! Unfortunately, the songs she sang weren't familiar to me (I didn't even know she had English albums) except for 达尔文. The audience was obviously getting restless and fans from different fandoms were being kind of rude by making lots of unnecessary noises but I still felt that I had to give her the respect she deserved - after all, she is an established singer in the industry, having won many awards. The only reason why we have not been hearing much of her was because she was stationed overseas, like many of our C-Pop artistes (Stefanie Sun, JJ Lin, etc). Anyway, towards the end, she managed to lift the atmosphere by singing familiar tunes like Rihanna's Umbrella and Lady Gaga's Poker Face.
Commendable performance from her overall, albeit the slow pace. I could tell that she was really glad to be back in Singapore playing for people from her hometown.

Juz-B came on next with a two song set. You may remember them from 2006's Channel U's SuperBand as the a capella group which had a significant number of Malay members.

I remember that they caught my attention during the competition and I was really impressed by them and I never thought I'd get to see them perform live.
They initially got boo-ed at when they came on stage by the impatient fans who were awaiting the final act (4nias who did that, I hope you feel bad for that), but eventually got everyone grooving along to their covers of OneRepublic's Secrets and FUN's We Are Young, despite the shaky start. They adapted really quickly though, and their vocals and beatbox seemed to flow flawlessly! Really enjoyed their performance. Beatboxing always gets me. Haha.

Then came the last act - the one which most of the audience was waiting for - K-Pop girl group 4Minute!

They started off their segment with their newest single, Volume Up, and I was especially awed by Jiyoon and Gayoon as they hit the high notes flawlessly. Mirror Mirror, Muzik were performed subsequently. They stopped for a bit for a short interview and I'm glad that they listed more than Chilli Crab when asked which food they liked. Hahaha. They were also impressed with the fans saying a rehearsed 'saranghaeyo' to them.
Heart to Heart (my personal favourite from them) and Hot Issue were performed next. I am not a huge fan of 4Minute but they still got me singing to the choruses to their songs. They bade farewell after that only to come back on stage again to sing HuH. Apparently the sound crew was not prepared for that though, thus the girls had to fill up the time and they tried their best. From aegyo to Hyuna's Pikachu impersonation, it seemed like the fans did not mind the delay at all!

All in all, I enjoyed 4Minute's performances although I sensed some fatigue from them as their dances seemed a little sloppy at times. They are not the most vocally strong or the best dancers in the K-Pop industry but these girls sure have charisma!..as with many other K-Pop girl groups. Nevertheless, I do give it to them for trying their best despite their tight schedule, having come from Beijing just that morning.
What was the most important though, was that they made their fans really happy by providing tons of fanservice and trying to speak English as best as they could. Props to them for doing a good job, and for ending the concert on a good note.

So in conclusion, the whole concert was well-planned and the emcees did a pretty decent job in keeping the audiences' mood up (the whole Garden Wave thing is still quite dumb to me though). And of course, the artistes did their part in presenting their best to make a good show in all.

For those who can't get enough, or didn't make it for the concert, you can check out the performances over at http://www.youtube.com/user/SPHRazorTV/videos.

Photos credited to Rachel.