Stories From Genting

Before the concert.

Back safely in S’pore after an arduous bus ride, eagerly trying to switch back to get ready for UD’s arrival tomorrow. Here are some musings about the past day I wrote on the bus while it was stationary. Sorry I can’t post live recordings (I would make a cute mei mei who handle this very upset) so I guess just wait a few days and search youtube for it.

Is there really so little in common between a Jonathan Lee show and another artist? I mean, does audience always expect pyrotechnics and dances even when the show blatantly says “演唱会” or literally translated: singing performance event?

This morning, Jenny brought her kids over to our table during breakfast to say hi, and told us how she finally got her family (husband, son and daughter) to attend a show that’s in Mandarin (plus a bit of Cantonese) because they never understood what she has been doing together with Mac in the past decade with 大哥. I learnt that the son was never sent for Chinese classes while the daughter manage to understand a bit with some background. But all in all they told mum never to bring them to a Chinese concert again 🙂 I wanted to blurt out something stupid like “but don’t you think the music is good?” but instead I blurted something even stupider, like “when you grow up and chase after a Chinese girl, suddenly you’ll understand all Jonathan’s lyrics”. Wow, luckily the kid is still young and probably not attached yet… haha.

Here’s another interesting anecdote: after some 5 songs into the concert, 大哥 suddenly asked the audience whether they know all the songs are written by him. Although there’s a resounding yes, I think it must have transpired to him at some time in his life where his music is being held in such high regard without acknowledgement to himself, but to the singer who sang it. Perhaps it was meant to be a joke, or perhaps he was just finding fillers between pieces to rest his voice, but I can imagine audiences who would go like “wah, even this piece ah..”

There were many other comments (add yours here!), just to go give a few: no climatic point in concert, violinist is very cute (yes he’s a virgin who intends to celebrate the end of it together with 2008 Olympics ssshhh), many in the audience moved into better seats during the concert because there was a quite a number of no-show, concert felt short even at 2.5 hours without break (maybe due to insufficient guest artists), the sound equipments in the Arena of Stars was so terrible that during the concert one keeps hearing a fluctuation of loud then soft then loud sound from the house (I had a very old monitor…).

For the musicians, it was very much a rewarding experience, especially for the locals who finally manage to get their loved ones to see what they were doing in this gig. I was happy myself to see both Si Hui, Jyh Juan, Teng Hwang and others stopping by, while others manage to get their parents and family members to come. It was unfortunate the this concert clashed with my sister’s graduation ceremony, and thus my parents were absent, but it’s OK.

Nevermind the plethora of badly pronounced notes and the numerous wrong enterance from the singers (oops, sorry no money back). The most important thing is that the audience got more excited as the pieces that we play became more familiar, and the singing starts being audible on stage. And they left with a happy heart back to the casinos or bed.

大哥 is 49 this year (1958). But he is in no hurry to complete his tour, which might for all your know spell the last. When you write music that lives in people’s hearts, it will live there for as long as you live. To me, that matters. That is worth the extra preparation effort before the music goes on stage to the audience.

I’ll be home again for 清明 (you know, sweep grave season) – which coincides with mum’s birthday. As for now, it’s time for more rest in anticipation of yet another painful week of juggling both a full time job and a demanding performance schedule. Last one in the stretch. I think I’m going have a hard time getting those old love songs out of my head.