This is the final instalment of my "Local Sights Through Foreign Eyes" series, which is more or less the pics I took when my Taiwanese friends, from the music company which the band Sodagreen belongs, were here for their concert in August...

Since it's been a while from the last post, here's a recap of the places we visited: http://merman13.livejournal.com/tag/sodagreen

On the 2nd August, after bringing Ricky and Fanfan through Chinatown, Little India, Thieves Market and Kampong Glam, we continued on to the Esplanade, where we encountered a major road block due to the National Day Parade rehearsals...

After a huge sidetrack, we finally made it to the Esplanade, explored the venue, bought some delicious cookies from The Cookie Museum there, and then proceeded to the crowded Marina Bay to see if we could spot some NDP action...

Well, although we couldn't catch the actual performance from our standpoint, the bay crowd was just as excited when the helicopters flew past with our Singapore flag...

After that, we walked over to the Padang and toward Capitol Building to grab some buns from Breadtalk, before taking a cab to Singapore Max Pavilion for the Sodagreen concert, which I'd already covered HERE...

Here are the photos...


The second part of this entry continues on the day after, when Ricky and I headed over to Sentosa's Palawan Beach for a bit of early morning sun. Fanfan decided to continue with her beauty sleep instead, so she bade an early farewell...


Spending those few days with Ricky and Fanfan allowed me to visit many parts of Singapore that I'd taken for granted over the years, and it was really interesting to see my own tiny island country from fresh perspectives...

Now, I can't wait to visit them in Taipei, hopefully next year!!!

After bringing Ricky and Fanfan to Chinatown and Little India, I took them to the Sungei Road's infamous "Thieves Market", one of the oldest flea market in Singapore that sells antiques and recycled or used wares...

Among many interesting finds were old models of cameras that some of us had actually owned, cassette tapes, walkman players, etc...

This was on the way to our next destination, which was Kampong Glam...

There, we walked through Haji Lane, and found ourselves relaxing for a well-deserved break and drinks at Bali Lane's Blu Jaz Cafe...

Thereafter, we explored some of the shops along Arab Street, Bussorah Street, Kandahar Street etc, and eventually, reached the Sultan Mosque...

Here are the photos...


And so, that concluded our brief but exhausting tour around the major ethnic and historic parts of Singapore...

From Sultan Mosque, we then moved on to the Esplanade, but that's another entry, coming up next...

On the second day of the Sodagreen folks' visit to Singapore a couple of weeks back, I took Ricky, Fanfan and Jiakai out for lunch at Amoy Street Food Centre...

After lunch, Jiakai had to return to the hotel to get ready for the evening concert, while the rest of us went on with our plans of exploring the ethnic parts of Singapore...

Our itinerary included visits to the ancient (by local standards) and recently refurbished Thian Hock Keng Temple, parts of Chinatown, Little India, Sungei Road's "Thieves Market", Arab Street, followed by Marina Mall, the Esplanade, through the Padang, and ended with Saint Andrew's Cathedral...

After that, we grabbed some buns from the nearby Breadtalk outlet and took a cab over to the Singapore Max Pavilion for the Sodagreen concert (see previous entry here)...

It was a long day indeed for the three of us, as we covered so many grounds and tried so many things that other tourists might not get the chance to try...

And I must say I was glad Ricky and Fanfan were able to catch up with my pace. After all, they only have that couple of days to explore our city, and wanted to make the most of it...

Anyway, I not only played "Tour Guide", but was also their unofficial "Photographer". So here are the photos...


I'll post up the rest of the photos from that afternoon soon, stay tuned!

Okay, here's the continuation of my adventures of playing tour guide to my Taiwanese friends a couple of Fridays ago...

If you missed the previous entry, here it is again: "Local Sights Through Foreign Eyes - Sentosa 1"...

After spending a short lazy afternoon at Sentosa, we made our way by cab over to another "pride" of Singapore:



Stay tuned for the next instalment of our local adventures in... Chinatown and Little India!

Last Friday, my Taiwanese friends, Ricky and Fanfan arrived in town, and although Ricky was here once before, it was Fanfan's first time in Singapore... 

Both of them had never really seen Singapore, so I thought I would bring them out for some sight-seeing. I'd wanted the opportunity to take some photos of local sights as well, as I had not visited some of these places for ages...

It's a pity they only had two full days, so I tried to cover the major attractions. I left out the nitty gritty parts of Singapore (got meh? got!) for their next visit someday...

And so firstly, we had lunch at Maxwell Food Centre, and Jiakai happened to be there with Fanfan, so he joined us too...

After lunch, Jiakai had to leave for rehearsals, so the rest of us walked through Chinatown and took the MRT to Harbourfront, had a peek at Vivo City, then proceeded on to take the Monorail to Sentosa...

Here are some 60 photos taken during this part of my series of pics, which I call...

After a taste of Sentosa, we headed over to the widely acclaimed Night Safari...

Watch out for more photos, coming up soon...

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...

:-)

Taiwan indie rock darling Sodagreen has undeniably risen to mainstream fame, winning fans far and wide with their mellow, beautifully arranged rock numbers and lead vocalist Qing Feng's distinctive vocals...

After breaking through with their huge popular hit "A Little Love Song" from the second album, the band went on to win the Best Band and Best Composer Awards at the 2007 Golden Melody Awards...

But perhaps the ultimate recognition came on November 3, 2007 when the band staged a concert at the Taipei Arena to a 10,000 strong audience, a remarkable feat for an indie act...

Most of their fans claim that they love Sodagreen's live more than their albums. Now the word had spread out to the world outside of Taiwan, promoters have invited Sodagreen to play in different cities. For the time being, there are 4 places confirmed to join this "Sing With Me" tour 2008, and there will be more to be announced later...

(info from: Official Website)


For those who have not heard of Sodagreen, you can watch some of their MVs on Youtube. Here's one of my favourites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKY5RjMQiUI

:-)

A friend of mine, Ricky, is the publicity manager for the popular Taiwanese band, Sodagreen, and just the night before, he informed me that they'll be performing at the Singapore Botanic Gardens' Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage today, as part of an event by 100.3FM!

Having enjoyed their rather unique sound and beautiful songs, I am quite a fan of Sodagreen. And I know some LJ-ers here love this group too, androgynous lead singer and all...

So I gathered a few of us together and had a pretty nice evening at the Gardens...

Okay, the last time I visited this park was some years ago, and now that renovations had completed, it has never looked better!

Anyway, when we arrived at the concert venue, a local band comprising the "881" movie soundtrack alumni, Eric Ng and Ngak etc, had already started playing to a wide field of picnicking audience...

We found a spot and settled down too...

And I shall let the pics do the talking...


I really enjoyed all the songs played throughout the concert, by both the local and the Taiwanese bands...

But most of all, I love soaking in the whole feel of the place - just sitting on the grass with red wine and food, and great music...

I thank Mother Nature for the wonderful weather too...

And I wanna do this again, soon...