Jay Chou World Tour Live in Singapore 2010
Singapore Indoor Stadium
When it comes to a concert by king of Mandopop Jay Chou, his fans are perfectly happy to shell it out. Aside from watching their idol perform live, they are also assured of a top-notch production with no expense spared.
The 31-year-old singer wowed audiences here with a glossy and entertaining show two years ago and he did the same again last Friday, the first of three sold-out nights at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
He first appeared teasingly as a hologram, seeming to float in space, dressed like a mummy with its bandages unravelling. Then a globular screen on stage opened up to reveal Chou inside. He was outfitted in a glittery silver concoction with crazy protrusions on his shoulders, like Elvis in his Vegas best – on steroids.
All this was just for the opening number Dragon Rider – the hologram tent and the globular screen were not seen again for the rest of the night.
Every single element for each song was carefully thought out, from the background visuals to the dancers’ costumes to the special effects which included lasers, jets of fire and platforms which rose and fell.
But was the show over-produced?
No doubt the production was top-notch, but it also felt a little frenzied, too busy moving from point to point to stop and breathe. There was no momentum to speak of in the first few songs as Chou kept disappearing for costume tweaks and changes after each number.
Also, his voice would sometimes disappear into the music and was barely discernible in the mix, particularly when he had to hit the high notes or sing falsetto. His songs are known for their rapid-fire rhythms and tongue-twisting lyrics and they proved to be challenging in a live setting.
The fans did not seem too bothered, though, and were happy to scream and sing along, even when it was just a video clip charting his decade-long career’s milestones in music and on celluloid.
To mark that journey, he covered songs from across his back catalogue, including some of his early hits such as Lovely Woman from his debut record Jay (2000) and Love Before The Century from Fantasy (2001).
Still, the focus was clearly on The Era, his most recent release. He performed eight of the album’s 11 tracks, such as the elegiac ballad Fireworks Cool Easily and the wry track Superman Can’t Fly, in which he lays out the frustrations and regrets he has had in the business. Oddly, he chose to skip album highlight Long Time No See.
A little after the mid-way mark, a nifty black-box contraption appeared on the stage. Different parts of it were visible depending on how it was lit. At the same stage, it took on different looks depending on the images projected upon it. At one point, it even seemed like Chou was exploring the interior of a house.
Very cool, but also distancing in effect since he was essentially singing songs such as the breezy Diary: Fly For Love in a small cubicle behind a panel of glass.
The highlights, for me, were when Chou actually forged a connection with the crowd on Can’t Tell Her, which ended the set, and in the glorious encore finale, Nunchucks.
For all the technical wizardry, the audience broke into the loudest screams when Chou mingled with the lucky fans in the front rows during Simple Love.
The 21/2-hour gig was already nearing its end before the entire audience finally rose to its feet. It did not take some new marvel or glitzy gizmo to do that. Instead, it was something simpler and more powerful – all Chou had to do was ask.
(ST)