Music-Man II World Tour 2012
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Last Saturday
American-born, Taiwan- based Wang Lee Hom certainly knows how to make an entrance.
After an introductory video clip of him as Music Man taking on hordes of nameless opponents, a tank decked out in coloured lights rolled onto the stage to wild screams.
The singer-songwriter was perched atop the vehicle and dressed in an eye-catching all-red outfit with his hair teased into a gravity-defying pompadour. Appropriately, the opening montage included the electro-rock number Fire Power To The Max.
Dramatic fire power is all well and good, but too much of it can end up feeling like mere bombardment.
And, in fact, the concert became more enjoyable towards the end when the still-boyish-looking 36-year-old loosened up noticeably.
As it was, the early ballads such as The Only One and All The Things You Never Knew were pounded into submission and his face scrunched up with the effort.
It did not help that the sound level was too loud and whatever delicacy of feeling that existed in the songs was pretty much obliterated.
His self-described “chinked-out” style of music was also packed into the first half with tracks such as Descendants Of The Dragon 2012, The 18 Martial Arts and Heroes Of Earth in the line-up.
I have never been particularly swayed, however, by his fusion of pop and hip-hop with elements of folk and traditional Chinese music on albums such as Shangri-La (2004) and Heroes Of Earth (2005).
The starting point of ethnic pride is a laudable one but the results are often bombastic and border on the cringe-worthy. The melding can be successful though when it is done more subtly in songs such as Mistake Made In The Flower Field.
It was with Love Love Love, a third of the way into the 21/2- hour-long concert, that Wang seemed to relax and enjoy himself more.
Talking about the song, he asked who needs love and whether Zhang Ziyi needs love as the camera zoomed in on the Chinese actress who was in the audience. He later added that he had been spending the past few weeks in Singapore making a film with her.
For the most part, his banter stuck to a script as it served to segue into announcing the title of the next song. Not that it mattered to the full-house crowd of 10,000 who greeted his every mention of Singapore and “I love you” with loud cheers.
The talented musician also thrilled his fans by playing on, not one, but four instruments – the piano, the violin, the guitar and the erhu.
Even better was the a cappella segment in which he crooned a string of his best-known hits such as The One I Love Is You and Impossible To Miss You – accompanied by six other Lee Homs in a pre-recorded video. The timing was flawless as he “interacted” with and even quarrelled with his other selves.
By the time he took on Forever Love, the ballad sounded decidedly less strained than the earlier offerings.
During his encore, he recorded a video clip of the enthusiastic audience chorusing “I love you” to post on his Weibo microblog.
He also thanked his Singapore fans for their unwavering support from his first album, Love Rival Beethoven, back in 1995 before ending the evening with Kiss Goodbye.
Happily, it was a kiss that had just the right amount of fire power.
(ST)