Kylie X 2008 Concert - 25 November

I was fortunate to have someone take me to Kylie X 2008 concert in Singapore about two Tuesdays ago. Such a short period of time and yet so much things happened since. It was almost full house. We were only let in at 8pm, the time the concert was to start. Obviously it would not be starting on time. This was taken around 810pm. There were not that many people yet as probably they were stuck outside trying to get in. I was at the East Entrance (apparently a few friends were also at the concert and at the East Entrance with 1 over at the North Entrance) Terrace block.

At 840pm, it was getting filled up now. There were more empty seats in the Arena block which was where the most expensive tickets were ($550 a piece!). While waiting for the concert to start, music was played to pump up the audience. The line for the ladies was unbelievably long! People were just milling around, waiting.

Cheers resounded when the camera panned onto three men in drag - Ivan Heng & company. Dressed like showgirls, I didn't really know who they were. Lol. But the two men in skirts next to me sure did. It drove home the fact that Kylie's music was like the anthem in gay clubs.

It finally started around 9pm. Making use of a big screen to complement the actions and dance on stage and two smaller screens to show what was happening on stage.

There she was. Alas, my camera did not have long range zoom. This was the best I could take.

I found the screens to be quite tiny to show the action on stage. Maybe it was also because I was seated higher up midway through the block. Or I need a new camera with better zoom as I saw another concert goer taking pictures with the zoom function and captured Kylie perfectly, as if she was standing right in front of her.

I enjoyed the concert - it was really a show production with the five costumes change (cheerleader with footballers, nautical theme, coachmen and society in the 19th Century...). After attending the last few concerts where music or the band was the focus, with hardly any costume change or drama, Kylie was refreshing for me :p

It was hard to believe she has been performing for 20 years. That was a whole lot of material she had to work with. She started off with the songs from the 2000 era, including "Can't Get You Outta My Head" delighting the crowd. This was the song which enabled her to break into the American market. Thus I forgot that AM hardly knew the other songs (being a Canadian et al) and basically spent the night observing the crowd which was whooping it up.

I kinda stopped following Kylie's music for a while (basically when I was living in Canada) and only started again after 2000 but I only know the songs which were played over the radio. So half the time I had no idea what songs she was singing. Lol. She interacted with the audience a lot, which was a nice touch.

It ended at 1015pm or so which was so soon. Guess I was used to the long concert by The Cure who played for 3 hours (and we left after 2 hours plus :p) and Manic Street Preachers. After a pretty long applause for an encore, Kylie obliged and sang another set of 2-3 songs. Asked for more encore and again she came back on stage. The 2nd encore was less prepared but it was nevertheless good. She finally ended with "I Should Be So Lucky" at around 1050pm.

Wonderful show. So different from the very first concert I attended which was Jason Donovan back in 1990. More glitz and drama.

Manic Street Preachers - 24 November

D asked me to go to Manic Street Preachers concert at Fort Canning Park as P could not make it. I didn't know much of Manic Street Preachers songs at all. Hahahahaha. I guess I am pretty much a pop music person or at least a Top 40 music listener. The days of me being passionate about all the bands, singers and songs and knowing every single details of them were long gone.

I only knew 2 songs. I didn't know the title for one song but the other was a cover of Rihanna's umbrella. And a few people actually opened their brollies and bopped along to the music. Sweet!

Not too bad, eh? The zoom to get a pic of the stage made it seemed like I was near. But we actually sat on the steps of the Sun-Rice building. There was a beer tent and Botak Jones stall selling mini burgers and cajun hot dog. The mini burger which was a decent regular size was awesome! Juicy beef patty with buttered toasted buns. Yummy! The hot dog which I shared with D was good but not as good as the burger.

I can't wait for the town Botak Jones to open so I can try the food from its outlet. Those in the suburbs are too inconvenient for me to get to.