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.
4 comments:
hi..would like to thank for your song list...track number 18 is indeed Piensa en mí...the song was covered by chavela vargas in "splendor in the grass"
Shejian: Ah so it was. Thanks for confirming!
No. 9 is a non-album track called "Flying Squirrel" :)
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