One of my Taiwanese friends, Ricky, works for Willin Music, the record label for the phenomenally popular indie band Sodagreen (see previous entry)...

Together, they were in town last weekend, for the Singapore leg of their "Sing With Me Tour". It was held at Max Pavilion last Saturday, to a crowd of around 3000...

And in return for my volunteering to play local tour guide to Ricky and his friend Fanfan (aka Fantie) during their short trip, Ricky got me a 2nd-row central VIP seat for the above concert!

One of Sodagreen's requests before each of their concerts is to avoid all photography or video recordings. Ricky told me it was to let the audience members focus 100% on their performance and not get distracted by taking photos. Later on, Qingfeng (aka Greeny) the lead singer of Sodagreen quipped that actually they wanted to prevent the fans from posting random unprofessional (aka ugly) photos of them on their blogs... LMAO

Anyway, I didn't take any photos during the concert either, and indeed, by freeing my hands and eyes from the camera, I was able to enjoy the 3 hour concert to the fullest, and could have the whole experience imprinted fully inside...

Still, I did take some photos of Ricky, Fanfan and myself before and after the concert, and of the band when the show had reached its finale...

Here are the photos!



And the show towards the end...

So how was the concert?

It was ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!!

Each of these performers are immensely talented, and together, they produced aural magic song-after-song. Qingfeng was particularly impressive in his vocal range as well as the diversity in his song compositions. And he took on soothing ballads with much passion, while giving unreserved energy in his ultra-rock numbers. Some of the best moments included sensitive covers of Teresa Teng's "我只在乎你" (I Only Care For You), and The Carpenters' "Close To You" - both quiet tearjerkers...

And he was perfectly complemented by his bandmates. Ah Gong, for instance, not only played the keyboards, but also the viola, and on top of that, he danced solo in two numbers (and came away with scraped knees as a result of one dance). Ah Fu was always smiley and displayed a cheery personality, and worked the acoustic guitar even with one of the strings broken. Xiao Wei was the strong silent type pounding away at the drums, but often became the butt of Qingfeng's jokes because of his short and stout stature. Xinyi and Jiakai were the cool rock chick and rock dude respectively, the former having a reputation of having an ample bosom, and the latter a good physique. Not surprisingly, everyone kept asking them to strip (they didn't)... LOL

And there were several moments of queerness when Qingfeng brought up how Jiakai and a male violinist of the Strings Ensemble were described as having "brokeback" moments in their tabloids. And then suddenly everyone had relationships with everyone else. It was messy, confusing and it was, of course, all in jest. LOL

Here is their concert songlist, including some crazy banter and encore pieces (chosen from the fans' requests).

0. 城市（前奏）
1. 无与伦比的美丽（入门的琴声随着水滴泛起涟漪，看不到草原，也有自由的感觉）
2. Believe In Music
3. 小宇宙
4. 暂时失控（阿龚跳舞跳到膝盖流血啦！）
5. 四季狂想（家凯变成了猫，一直跳过吉他线转圈圈，不知道在干啥。还差点晕到跌倒）
6. 左边（K歌！）
7. 我只在乎你（青峰好像可以控制他要破音的地方耶！这么可能？）
8. 游乐（超high的！因为要配合青峰的梗）
9. I Don’t Care
10. 相对论IV
11. 小情歌（纯钢琴伴奏，好听！）
12. 空气中的视听与幻觉 （这是苏打绿发行的第一张EP）
13. 是我的海（轮到青峰弹钢琴，阿龚拉中提琴）
14. 爱人动物
15. Oh Oh Oh Oh...（英语版）
16. 白日出没的月球（超爱这歌的！如果背得起歌词就好了）
17. Close To You（第一次听到苏打绿唱这歌喔！）
18. 呢喃（讲了一大推废话，终于唱歌了，当然开心啦！）
19. 频率（青峰绕场一圈。但凤儿一直在看着坐在台上拉中提琴的阿龚。最后青峰的高音又更上一层楼啦！凤儿毛都站起来了）
20. 相信
21. 这天（Encore之后，大家一拥而上靠在围栏上形成了站立摇滚区。也顺便把"有心事的观众"挡住了。副歌真的很有感染力，大家都做出了握手的动作）
22. 红鞋女孩（点歌行动后的第一首歌。好奇怪的曲目哦）
23. 藍眼睛（原本是要唱整首的。但苏打绿的默契溃不成军，只唱了一段）
24. 迟到千年（补偿曲。家凯小威都累了，选了首可以懒惰的曲让青峰自生自灭。哈哈！）
25. 漂浮（没有介绍团员，却唱回了原来的版本）
26. 纪念（据说是青峰第一次歌唱比赛得奖的歌曲）
27. 陪我歌唱（应付观众点歌这么久，就是为了唱这新歌。很感性。很温馨）

Disclaimer: I copied the above songlist (captions and all) from another fan's blog...

Check out another blog review here too...

Official reviews, videos and photos of the concert can be found at the following site: http://www.omy.sg/showbiz/enews/200808/20080804_5969.html...

Most of the above songs and memories of the live performances are still fresh in my head, playing on random shuffle mode the whole day. But honestly, I can't wait for their next live concert already!

Good news is that Sodagreen's previous live concert "That Moment"'s limited edition 4 DVDs (performed at Taipei Arena - aka 台北小巨蛋), and including a 100-page souvenir photo book, will be released on 11th August, 2008!

Meantime, I'll be posting the rest of the photos I took during my "tour guide" moments with Ricky and Fanfan in the next few entries...

:-)