mayday in concert.

1016hrs

Listening to: Mayday - Xiao Hu Shi


For three and a half hours last night, I was deafened by screaming teens in red T-shirts.

Mayday, my favourite Taiwanese rock band, held its third concert at the MAX Pavillion at the Singapore Expo. We arrived for dinner about an hour before the concert, and the place was already swarmed with red T-shirts! ('cos the band had said in an interview that they wanted all their fans to wear red)

The MAX Pavillion is quite a crap place to hold a concert though. It's really out of the way (as if Expo isn't ulu enough) and it's very hard to get a good view... as my pictures will show later. :$

Anyway, the concert began at 8.30pm and it was non-stop rocking all the way from there. The band started off with "孙悟空", complete with a guy in a Monkey God costume! Heheh. The first 20 minutes went by in a frantic pace.



However, it became clear after a while that lead singer Ashin was not in top form. He looked pale and uncomfortable, and had real trouble hitting the high notes. During the ballad "知足", his voice almost cracked and I saw him trying desperately to supress a cough. (w)



As for the set list, I must say that some of the choices were a little questionable, especially in the middle of the concert. There were quite a few songs I didn't know well, and I thought they could have played a few more Hokkien songs (maybe they think Singaporeans don't know Hokkien well, hahaha :P).



But thank goodness there were many more plus points to the concert lah. The five members have become much more polished since I last saw them in 2001 and 2003, and they tried to mix it up a bit by bringing in different instruments (guitarist Monster on a dobro, for example), a charismatic guitar #3 player (from another Taiwanese band) and special segments, including a Chinese drum performance and a very silly dance by all the members of the band. XD



Monster and Bassist Masa took on more vocal duties last night, probably due to Ashin's condition. In an extraordinary turn, they got the band roadies to take over all their instruments, and all five Mayday-ers got together for a big singalong in "垃圾车".



I was very surprised that the concert would last so long (it ended at midnight)! Who says there's too much of a good thing... ;) I just wish they'd held it a better venue, and Ashin had been in better health. Nevertheless, it was an extremely enjoyable night, and I can't wait to see them again.

Finally, a shoutout to all the friends I met last night after the concert. Long time no see, everyone :)