Yoga Lin “Fugue” Concert Tour
The Star Theatre, The Star Performing Arts Centre
Last Saturday

With just four albums, Taiwan’s Yoga Lin has built a rich body of work with both depth of feeling and breadth of genre. And with the 25-year-old in great form vocally, it was simply a delight to listen to the songs live.
There were no dazzling effects or outrageous costumes but none of that mattered when the songs and the singing were of such a calibre.
He was first seen on stage in a cone of light as he strummed the guitar to the strains of I Always Practise Alone. With an immaculate coif and dressed in a blazer over a white and pink shirt with glittery pants, Lin oozed preppy glamour.
From a quiet ballad about urban loneliness, he jumped to the brash and jazzy You Are What You Eat, demonstrating his versatility in one quick leap.
On rock tracks such as Runaway Mama and Wake Up, he turned up the energy level effortlessly. So what if there was no slick choreography? He simply moved as the music moved him.
One thread that runs through some of his faster-paced songs is an optimistic celebration of life.
The Wonderful Life enthuses: “Such a perfect life/How can you bear not to live it well/How can you bear not to be happy.” Si Fan (Captain S.V) takes an unusual point of view of aliens visiting earth and Lin declares: “I must quickly find out the charms of this backward planet.”
At the same time, he is the master of the devastating love song. Heartbreak is about foolish, glorious young love and it is a song that gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. Other prime examples include Fool, Unrequited and Fairy Tale, all exquisitely delivered in his evocative and emotive voice.
For his rendition of Please Speak, a simple prop of a single swinging light bulb was used to great effect as light bulbs exploded on the screen.
His last concert here was in 2009 and Lin was definitely happy to be back with a large-scale show. He ran off the stage and into the audience several times and even jokingly contemplated scaling the wall to reach those on the upper tiers.
When the fans seated in circle two cheered at one point, it was clear that the venue had pretty good acoustics. The sound mix for the show, though, had a tad too much reverb and the music was also a little too loud at times vis-a-vis the vocals.
But it was nothing that really threatened to mar the enjoyment of the 5,000 fans over the three-hour-long gig; certainly not by the time everyone was loudly chorusing “wo oh oh oh oh oh” for A Souvenir.
For his encore, Lin went back to some of his earliest material. The One I Love, You Are My Eyes and That Very Song were recorded for compilation albums for the singing competition show One Million Star. He was the winner of the inaugural season in 2007.
The final song of the night was Bo Le (Admirer) but first, Lin had a little surprise up his sleeve. In order to create a special memory for the Singapore stop of his tour, he changed into a simple period scholar get-up. It was an adorable look which had Lin bursting into laughter when he saw himself up on the screen.
He remarked at one point that he seldom comes to Singapore and so faced the quandary of whether he had enough friends to invite to the home that was his concert. He added: “I will work hard to be friends with you.”
As long as he continues putting out ambitious and stellar records, there will be no lack of friends, and fans, at a Yoga Lin concert.
(ST)