Yeah, so much for that whole “Silent Night” thing.
So about a month a go, I noticed that Fish Leong would be holding a Christmas Eve concert in Nanjing. I’ve never seen her live before, though I feel like I’ve gotten to know Fish better than I have many other Mandopop songstresses because of the Masa/B’in Music connection. Still, I thought, that’s not very Christmasy. I mean, she might sing a Christmas song or something, but what an odd way to spend Christmas Eve. (I was working on Wednesday and Friday this week – and to be honest, all weekend – so given the fact that it takes three days to make the round-trip to see my family, I was not home for Christmas this year.) (*sob*) I put off making the decision, knowing that she was playing the biggest stadium in town and even the day of there were bound to be tickets available.
Then two weeks ago I got the news that another Mandopop artist was also coming to Nanjing on Christmas Eve for a concert: Chang Chen-yue. Okay, if Fish’s concert wasn’t going to be Christmasy enough, this one really wouldn’t be, but I jumped on it anyway and bought a ticket. Now on a side note, I’ve been to three concerts this fall already, and I *still* do not understand concert ticketing in China. If you buy through one of the big agencies, you might get a crappy seat no matter what you pay for it and no matter how many good seats are left completely unsold in the same price range, so you inevitably end up switching seats in the long run anyway; meanwhile, everyone around you bought their tickets from scalpers outside the day of the show and got a better seat for half the money. If you can get past your very American assumption that the scalpers will be charging more for the tickets, not less, and go for the same day system, you still have to contend with the increasing numbers of fake tickets that get sold same-day in front of concert venues. This makes the whole thing – whether you buy through a legitimate outlet or from a guy on the street – something of a crapshoot. In his case, I discovered when I got to the venue that my mid-range ticket left me sitting where I was close to the stage, but so close to parallel to it I could not actually see anything on stage, and therefore was left envying all the people in the cheap seats with the distant but unobstructed view, which would have been infuriating if the concert had sold out. Since it hadn’t, though, a couple of friendly guys sitting in front of me decided to change seats for a better view and brought me along with them. In the end, we actually had pretty good seats.
Now, A-yue. Live in concert. I’d seen him perform once before, when he was a bright, if somewhat off-key, spot in the otherwise mostly disastrous “Fusion” concert in Las Vegas. (Ooh, tricky. February 2007 Fusion Concert: not so hot. January 2008 discovery of Fusion Band: very good.) (Side note: whenever I link to that Fusion Concert post, I am reminded of two things: that I mortally offended a few fans of the acts I didn’t like, and that that was the closest thing I’ve ever had to a psychic moment, having noted that Shin by himself was the Shin Band and could fly off without them – he flew off and left the band weeks later.) Aaaaanyway, where were we? Ah yes: A-yue starts off a bit off-key. He did it in Vegas, and he did it in Nanjing. Seriously, I’m half convinced it’s just stage fright, which is pretty amusing for the badass rocker persona that he sometimes projects. The important thing was that by the third song, he was back on track and only hit the occasional bad note for the rest of the night, even through ballads like “Intersection (路口)” or “It’s Hard (很難).”
I can’t do a whole playlist because there were a few songs that I didn’t know (one of which he introduced as new, but also a few older songs I just never quite got. I assembled most of my early A-yue discography on the mainland, which means I have different versions of all the records than he released in Taiwan). From his latest album, OK, other than “Intersection” and “It’s Hard,” he played, “Yearning Is a Kind of Sickness (思念是一種病),” “OK,” “Goodbye (再見),” “It’s Hard (很難),” and “Little Universe (小宇).” Other songs I remember for sure that he played include, “Pretty Girl (乾妹妹),” “Admit Defeat (認輸),” “Let’s Break Up (分手吧),” “Change (改變)” (I think, anyway), “Marathon (馬拉桑),” “I want money (我要錢),” “Love’s first experiment (愛的初體驗),” “Love me don’t go (愛我別走)” and more, though I once again did not take notes and can’t resurrect the playlist from memory. What I did notice is that he obediently sang the clean versions of “Marathon” and “Intersection,” and he did NOT sing “I love Taiwanese Girls (我愛台妹),” in spite of the fact that pretty much the whole audience was yelling for it.
There was no special guest, though Free 9/Freenight guitarist Tony (?) took the microphone (and A-yue his guitar) for two songs early in the show; later on, after introducing the band, we got our one nod to the holiday when the keyboard player sang Eason Chan’s “Merry, Merry Christmas” (yeah, I didn’t know that one, but I at least could recognize the “Merry Christmas” in the chorus…). What was interesting, though, was that there were no costume changes at all – A-yue came out in his jeans and plaid (dare I guess flannel?) shirt and baseball cap right on time, and then he and his band just performed for two and a quarter hours straight – no pauses, no breaks, no gaps, and very limited talking. That was impressive, I must say. A-yue might not have talked that much, but he knew how to entertain a crowd, and he hammed it up a bit, like on “乾妹妹” which he sang very conversationally while wandering around the stage, scratching behind his years, and shrugging his shoulders, as if it was not a song so much as a confession. The only real disappointment, though, was that we didn’t get a chance to see A-yue all stripped down in his aboriginal garb (or hear him sing Totem Band’s “Over There I Sing”). Ah well, there’s always next time. (Why yes, I *do* have a massive crush on A-yue. Don’t you?)
In all, two thumbs up: it was a fun way to spend the evening, and a pretty rockin’ concert, even though A-yue dutifully admits that he’s never been anything but a pop star. This was clearly not the pull-out-all-the-stops shows that he’s brought to other locations on this tour, but I was glad to have an evening enjoying his music, with its simple but honest lyrics and its relaxed, informal atmosphere.
[Edited for a million dumb little mistakes; sometimes I let them go, this time I did not.]
It’s a wonder the concert business can sustain itself with all the confusion, uncertainty, and undercutting.
Maybe it was too cold to be dressed in anything less than jeans and shirt..