F1 Rocks Concert was held in conjunction with the F1 Grand Prix SIngapore 2009 at Fort Canning Park. Obviously, I went for the 1st night with the Mando-pop big shots Jacky Cheung, A-mei, sodagreen and Da Mouth. Their performances were fantastic, but sadly, the technical glitches galore marred the otherwise spectacular event. 
That was my first outdoor concert and the ambience at FOrt Canning Park was great. I like it that it was a slope, so that people behind won't be blocked. It was hot and humid, with ocassional breeze, but it was torturing for the feet.
About the technical faults. They were all clearly written in the newspapers. I thought that reflected rather badly on Singapore, or the organising committee. These things should not have happened at such a world-class event. 
When Da Mouth sang, the singer's voice couldn't really be heard. I don't know if it's cos of the singer. They finally reported that it was due to the mic, and not cos of Aisha's poor singing. When sodagreen came on, the mics were working fine. As usual, Qingfeng's voice was clear and loud and perfect. But when they were singing Kuangre halfway, just before the chorus, there was total silence on stage. The mics, guitar weren;t working at all. I thought it was on purpose, but a few minutes passed and Qingfeng and band looked amused, bewildered, and they were called off stage. Cldn't believe such a thing happened. The emcees only came onstage after a few minutes of the stage being left empty. Then finally read on Cruz Teng's blog that they were forbidden to go on stage. What! Lousy. They finally resumed after abt 10min with sodagreen performing Kuangre again. 
Next was Ah-Mei. Poor Ah-mei's first song, cld not hear her voice at all, only her back-up singers. But 2nd song onwards was ok. Powerful vocals and great stage presence. She admitted that she had to cut down on a few songs due to time constraints and only sang 1 English song, Keane's Somewhere ONly We KNow. It was a strong rendition. Then she left the stage rather abruptly. Probably being chased down due to lack of time.
Then this was the worst. The transition to Jacky Cheung's performance. We waited a good old 40min before the Ge SHen came on stage. He even apologised on behalf of the organisers! That was terrible! The organisers didn't come up to explain and in the end had to let him apologise. No wonder they were angry. 
But my friend was saying the singers are really really professional. Cos when they came on stage, there were absolutely no signs of anger or frustration. They put in their best effort to perform and had to endure the heat and lousy sound system.
Overall, it could have been more well-planned. More sound checks, and better transition between acts. They had a large crew on stage but the transition was still so slow. But it's great that I cld watch 3 of my favourites in 1 night.
Next was the F1 race itself. Went for the qualifying rounds on Saturday, cos of Travis! My first time watching Travis live. The F1 event was rather exciting as you can hear the cars zooming past and the race track was very brightly lit. It was however very loud (can't survive without the ear plugs) and the smell of burnt rubber was strong. The night landscape was quite pretty too. The merchandise was too costly. Not fan of F1, so didn't buy anything. The cars were nice, especially the red Ferrari, but other than that I don't know who's who haha...The atmosphere was good and all in all it was a good experience.
Our main purpose was actually to watch Travis live @ Padang which started at 11pm. So we wandered around and then went to Padang at 10pm to 'chope' space. There were not a lot of pple and I was so happy that we were so near to the stage! 
So we waited for the show to start and ironically watched the race on the big screen haha.. Then when I came back from the toilet, Fran Healy, the vocalist came out and took photos with fans! Went to the toilet at the wrong time ha..
They finally came on stage after the qualifying race ended, performing Writing to Reach You first. It was good feeling watching them perform live so up close and personal. Fran's voice is good, and the band's very tight. Fran even used a 12-string guitar. And the banjo was used too, by the lead guitarist. Szesy said the bassist, Dougie, has a cheeky grin. haha...He was quite funny, and he swayed along when playing Why Does It Always Rain On Me ( last song). The busking version of Flowers in the Window was great. Halfway through the song Fran lifted up his songs and the Dougie strummed while Andy held the chords. Quite cool haha...Btw I didn't know they also had a keyboardist ha..
Great concert, but i kept perspiring profusely, it was terrible! The band too.. cld see sweat dripping when they jumped hha...But Fran's so nice, he kept asking the security guards in front to pass the bottled water to us, the front row pple! So sweet............. Oh.. he actually fell a little.. tripped over the monitor speaker.. poorthing.. Fran even jumped down the stage and mingled with the crowd, having one guy hoisting him up on his shoulders. the poor guy haha...
I hope they come again for their own solo concert.
No comments:
Post a Comment