Tuesday 23 March 2010
A woman in sari
So this Indian student was asked how the India map looks like. And he said it's shaped "like an Indian woman holding out her sari". And he's right. What a lyrical way to describe the shape of the country.
Saturday 20 March 2010
Mosaic Festival: Kings of Convenience Concert, Esplanade Concert Hall, Thurs 18 Mar 2010
Erlend (or was it Eirik?) said they never have a set list, and instead talk to each other after each song to see what they felt like singing next (usually they have the same song in mind). So I guess you won't hear the exact same group of songs in the exact same order anywhere else but during Thursday's concert:1. (missed this one)
2. 24-25
3. Love Is No Big Truth
4. I Don't Know What I Can Save You From (my favouritest KoC song, instrumental guitar part makes me swoon)
5. Peacetime Resistance (brilliant saxophone skatting from Erlend here)
6. Second to Numb
7. Power of Not Knowing
8. Mrs Cold
9. The Girl from Back Then
10. Rule My World ("...this one's for the people in Singapore...")
11. Me in You
12. Gold in The Air Of Summer
13. Thirteen (sang in sort of tribute to Alex Chilton of Big Star who just died this Wednesday) (if my note-taking is accurate this was their 13th song - spooky if it's not planned like they say they don't plan songs)
14. Know-How
15. (missed this one too, but KoC got the audiences up on their feet from this song onwards)
16. Misread
17. I'd Rather Dance With You
Encore
18. Homesick
19. Toxic Girl
20. Cayman Islands (this one came with popular demand from the audience, people have been randonly calling out this title all night long)
When KoC first performed at the 2006 Mosaic Festival, I absolutely adored them. The music was a dream, Erlend (with his too-small green tee) and Eirik were so cute and funny, the crowd practically worshipped every note emanating from their guitars/piano, and they even invited a group of audience (who had to battle the security guards) up onstage to dance with them during the last song. I thought it was probably the closest thing to Woodstock I would ever be a part of.
Back to Thursday's concert. (Photos below courtesy of KoC's relaxed no-photography-during-first-30-mins-only policy, so people started snapping away from 8pm sharp)
I have to confess. I was kinda underwhelmed. Still liked the music, the guys are still cool with sense of humour intact, crowd was still screaming their heads off... for some reason, I just never really got into the whole thing. I recognised a few songs, sang along to a couple of lines, but the songs seemed to be getting blurrily similar to me - at one point when they were strumming the intro to a song, I remember thinking to myself, "Wait a minute, haven't they already played this one?". And during the encore bit when the whole booked out concert hall of 1500+ people were close to bringing the roof down with their "woooooh"s and "I love you Erlend/Eirik!"s, I was more like, "OK I'm jealous. What are you guys so high about?".Argh. I'm getting tired of this "it was great but I didn't get it" refrain. Has it really become impossible for me to properly enjoy a concert? Or is too much of a good thing, well, too much? Gonna spend money next few weeks on movies instead. SIFF coming soon anyway.
Wednesday 17 March 2010
Mosaic Festival: Pink Martini Concert, Esplanade Concert Hall, Wed 17 Mar 2010
Edit: Went back to Esplanade Thursday and snapped this photo from the poster:
and this one from the Mosaic snapshot board:
It was a good concert, great, even. The audience gave rousing applauses after each song and a standing ovation at the end. But it wasn't quite nearly an enjoyable concert for me. More on that later.
Song list.
1. Boléro. Interesting choice for an opening song. But in a way, it encompasses what every good piece of music, and musical performance, should be - quiet but intriguing at the beginning, with more instruments and layers coming in throughout the middle, and a grand smashing finale.
2. Let's Never Stop Falling in Love. Lead singer China Forbes sang the second half of this in Malay. Pretty decent diction. The audience went mad.
3. Anna. Apparently the theme song from a movie about a nightclub singer-turned-nun.
4. Sympathique. Probably their biggest hit, and the reason I bought their first album and tonight's concert ticket. They got a laugh from the audience when China translated the famous chorus into English, "I don't want to work, I don't want to lunch. I only want to forget. And then I smoke."
5. Lilly.
And this is where someone from the back row tapped me on the shoulder and said in a gruff voice, "Can you please turn that off? The light is very distracting." I was typing the song names on my handphone and the backlight had gotten too much attention. So I put away my phone, dug for pen and paper from my bag, and spent the remaining hour making notes in the semi-dark, trying to be as un-distracting as possible. I can't help it. I'm thin-skinned, I over-think, and comments like these get to me, especially when they're not entirely without a point. Nevertheless. Tried my damndest to concentrate on the performance.
6. Cante e Dance.
7. And Then You're Gone. About a angry woman who slams her door at her always-disappearing lover ...
8. But Now I'm Back. ... who shows up at her door explaining that he's just gone for a snack. A pair of songs from two opposite perspectives. I love this group's sense of humour. This article does a good job describing the inspiration behind the song pair.
9. instrumental piece, dunno which. Gave some members of their 11-piece band to have solo showcases. The drummer stands out in my memory. They also have a pianist, guitarist, bass guitarist, cellist, trombonist, trumpeteer and I think 2 or 3 other people who play the several different types of drums they had on stage.
10. Amada Mio
11. 我等着你回来. This got another huge response from the audience. Again, really good pronunciation; except for a few words, you wouldn't guess it was a non-Chinese singing it. And she's got the perfect voice to sing this sort of old, sultry songs.
12. Una Notte a Napoli
13. Over the Valley. I learnt that Portland, Oregon (where the band originated) lies in a valley. China invited us to visit the place, but quoted Thomas Lauderdale (Pink Martini pianist and founder) talking to the Californians, "You're welcome to come here, just don't stay!". Everybody laughed. I'm not really sure I got the joke on this one.
14. Tuca Tuca
15. Andalucia. I liked it in their first album, but never noticed how nice the piano music was till now. Gotta go find the sheet music for this one.
16. Hey Eugene
17. Yolanda. Another very catchy number from the first album.
18. spanish song with "quando sufras" in the lyrics. Google search threw out Piensa En Mi but I remember it to be a happy upbeat song.
19. Dosvedanya Mio Bombino. About a Russian-Italian guy (supposedly someone China met at a party), who can't decide between Russia and Italian. I love all these little stories behind their songs.
Encore (there just had to be one, the audience was clapping and cheering and stomping like crazy)
20. another un-googleable instrumental piece
21. Brazil. Perfect closing piece. 2nd final song on their first album, and it's just one of those songs that every so often, pops up in your brain, and makes you wish that you were in some place with nobody around, so you could belt it out to your heart's content. China belted it to everyone's heart's content. Half the concert hall got up to 'dance' (really, people were just bobbing standing up rather than bobbing sitting down) to the music.
Sigh. It was a good show. Wished I'd enjoyed it more. Wish I'd more time to soak in its afterglow. Wish I'd bought and listened to all their 4 albums. Am dead tired now. To bed.
and this one from the Mosaic snapshot board:
It was a good concert, great, even. The audience gave rousing applauses after each song and a standing ovation at the end. But it wasn't quite nearly an enjoyable concert for me. More on that later.
Song list.
1. Boléro. Interesting choice for an opening song. But in a way, it encompasses what every good piece of music, and musical performance, should be - quiet but intriguing at the beginning, with more instruments and layers coming in throughout the middle, and a grand smashing finale.
2. Let's Never Stop Falling in Love. Lead singer China Forbes sang the second half of this in Malay. Pretty decent diction. The audience went mad.
3. Anna. Apparently the theme song from a movie about a nightclub singer-turned-nun.
4. Sympathique. Probably their biggest hit, and the reason I bought their first album and tonight's concert ticket. They got a laugh from the audience when China translated the famous chorus into English, "I don't want to work, I don't want to lunch. I only want to forget. And then I smoke."
5. Lilly.
And this is where someone from the back row tapped me on the shoulder and said in a gruff voice, "Can you please turn that off? The light is very distracting." I was typing the song names on my handphone and the backlight had gotten too much attention. So I put away my phone, dug for pen and paper from my bag, and spent the remaining hour making notes in the semi-dark, trying to be as un-distracting as possible. I can't help it. I'm thin-skinned, I over-think, and comments like these get to me, especially when they're not entirely without a point. Nevertheless. Tried my damndest to concentrate on the performance.
6. Cante e Dance.
7. And Then You're Gone. About a angry woman who slams her door at her always-disappearing lover ...
8. But Now I'm Back. ... who shows up at her door explaining that he's just gone for a snack. A pair of songs from two opposite perspectives. I love this group's sense of humour. This article does a good job describing the inspiration behind the song pair.
9. instrumental piece, dunno which. Gave some members of their 11-piece band to have solo showcases. The drummer stands out in my memory. They also have a pianist, guitarist, bass guitarist, cellist, trombonist, trumpeteer and I think 2 or 3 other people who play the several different types of drums they had on stage.
10. Amada Mio
11. 我等着你回来. This got another huge response from the audience. Again, really good pronunciation; except for a few words, you wouldn't guess it was a non-Chinese singing it. And she's got the perfect voice to sing this sort of old, sultry songs.
12. Una Notte a Napoli
13. Over the Valley. I learnt that Portland, Oregon (where the band originated) lies in a valley. China invited us to visit the place, but quoted Thomas Lauderdale (Pink Martini pianist and founder) talking to the Californians, "You're welcome to come here, just don't stay!". Everybody laughed. I'm not really sure I got the joke on this one.
14. Tuca Tuca
15. Andalucia. I liked it in their first album, but never noticed how nice the piano music was till now. Gotta go find the sheet music for this one.
16. Hey Eugene
17. Yolanda. Another very catchy number from the first album.
18. spanish song with "quando sufras" in the lyrics. Google search threw out Piensa En Mi but I remember it to be a happy upbeat song.
19. Dosvedanya Mio Bombino. About a Russian-Italian guy (supposedly someone China met at a party), who can't decide between Russia and Italian. I love all these little stories behind their songs.
Encore (there just had to be one, the audience was clapping and cheering and stomping like crazy)
20. another un-googleable instrumental piece
21. Brazil. Perfect closing piece. 2nd final song on their first album, and it's just one of those songs that every so often, pops up in your brain, and makes you wish that you were in some place with nobody around, so you could belt it out to your heart's content. China belted it to everyone's heart's content. Half the concert hall got up to 'dance' (really, people were just bobbing standing up rather than bobbing sitting down) to the music.
Sigh. It was a good show. Wished I'd enjoyed it more. Wish I'd more time to soak in its afterglow. Wish I'd bought and listened to all their 4 albums. Am dead tired now. To bed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)