Eason Chan Singapore Concert 2012
Event Plaza at Marina Bay Sands
Last Saturday

When an event is labelled as rain or shine, you better be prepared for the eventuality that it does rain.
And rain it did on Saturday evening, starting with a torrential downpour which eased into a steady drizzle for much of the night.
Ponchos were provided but they were placed at the seats. Fans had to stand in the rain for over an hour just to get into the open-air venue.
The messy situation was not helped by the lack of signage for the different entrances in the mall area next to the event plaza and announcements were so muffled, one could barely make out what was being said.
Most unforgivable of all, the show started at 9.05pm with 200 people still waiting to get in. The fans deserved better. And so did top Hong Kong singer Eason Chan.
As it was, people were still streaming in and trying to get to their seats for quite a few songs.
The rain also seemed to dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm and Chan wondered at one point if people were feeling hemmed in by the yellow ponchos.
Still, the professional singer gave it a good go over the two-hour show.
It is not for nothing that he is dubbed God of Songs. With his rich and resonant voice, Chan can pretty much sing about anything convincingly, be it ruminating on the essence of time on Tourbillon to professing lust and desire on Servant Under The Dress.
The gig was part two to his 2010 Duo concert series and the costumes reflected the theme of duality. He first appeared in a white-in-front yellow- behind outfit with his hair sculpted to look like game character Sonic the Hedgehog’s (left). For the most part though, this felt like a scaled-down version of his previous show and some dancers’ costumes were definitely recycled.
At least there were differences in the song line-up. With 36 studio albums under his belt, there was plenty of material to choose from and Chan dug deep into his catalogue.
There was Love Is Suspicion, Why Not This Way and The Whole World Can’t Sleep from his breakthrough Mandarin album It’s Me (2001) all the way to dance numbers Heavy Flavour and Swipe Card from his latest Cantonese album ...3mm (2012).
When fans clamoured for Ten Years, he said that he disagreed with the view that his old songs were better. He added that his newer songs needed time to mature before launching into the wisely observant See Through, a highlight from his last Mandarin album ? (2011). He did eventually get round to Ten Years though.
Quite a few of his songs appear in two versions and, unfortunately, he tended to go for the less satisfying Mandarin take over the Cantonese one on Saturday. Hence, concertgoers got the merely moving Long Time No See instead of the devastating Might As Well Not Meet. At least we got both versions when he alternated between the thrillingly gorgeous Cantonese ballad Under Mount Fuji and the Mandarin knock-off Love Shifts.
The set ended with Chan bending his knees and pretending he was being lowered below the stage. Then he stood up, announced “Let’s not waste time” and launched into the encore of Heavy Flavour and a reworked version of his hit ballad Backpack.
It was not the most ideal circumstances to watch Chan perform. But it was still worthwhile just to hear him sing live.
(ST)