Okay, think back in time a few weeks, and imagine you were among the thousands of dedicated sodafans who gathered to enjoy the band’s second appearance at the Taipei Arena. The band was as funny and clever as always, though in spite of all the laughs Qingfeng was still moved to tears at the end of the show. At one performance he read the special thanks name list at the end of the show, and stopped short over Will Lin’s name, recalling the important role the man has played in Qingfeng’s life. The singer also noted that the night before the first concert he was so nervous he couldn’t sleep, and so at 5:00 am he called Will, and the two chatted for two hours, the latter hour and a half of which Qingfeng cried through. (Suddenly, I have “It’s Alright to Cry” from Free to Be You and Me in my head. And I apologize if now you do as well.)
Now, proving once and for all that whatever the relative merits of their guitar skills, Jiakai is just no where near as badass as Monster, I present this photo:
Apparently the first night he cross-dressed as Marilyn Monroe; the second night he was a bumblebee. In a pre-concert video, Xiao Wei and A-fu appeared to go from being a Parisian girl and a country girl to becoming Yang Yuhuan and Snow White, leaving the crowd laughing so hard they were gasping for breath.
The concerts were in three parts: the key sections being “Daylight of Spring” and “Summer Fever,” with some fun thrown in between. There wasn’t much advance news on what it would be like so that fans could enjoy the surprises. This time they promised ahead of time not to go overtime (probably after paying all the fines last time), so they started the concert at 6:00 to be sure to get it all in, and didn’t go over.
The band went through extensive rehearsals in the lead-up to the concert; A-gong missed some of these, because he was off separately practicing his dances. (Hmm, last time, I thought his dances looked decidedly unpracticed, and were all the better for it.) Qingfeng was asked if he’d wear red underwear for the concert (okay, what am I missing here? Is this some sodafan joke I haven’t heard?), but Qingfeng said that he is not accustomed to wearing colored underwear, but Jiakai has a preference for matching socks and underwear, but not knowing in advance how he’d coordinate, fans would just have to holler for information and the rest of the band can endeavor to supply it. Seriously, I do not feel strongly that I need to know the color of *anyone* in the band’s underwear on concert day or any other day, but then, from the sound of it, I’m in the minority among the fandom.
The special guest for at least one show was Zee Avi, which is pretty cool. Other indie artists like Deserts Chang attended the performance. The band noted in pre-show press that they invited Mayday to the concert, but being busy with their own shows, it sounds like all Mayday managed to do was send flowers.
(Side note: this picture from the concert has me contemplating whether I can work up a decent “Qingfeng” costume for Halloween. I suspect it all depends on the ability to get a pink or green wig.)
Currently, the band is getting ready for the mainland leg of the tour, with a concert in Beijing on the 16th and Shanghai (yay!) on the 24th.
he he he I was wondering when you were going to blog about this =D. Now that I’ve finally seen a Mayday concert…a Soda concert is next on my list of concerts I can only dream of attending in Australia. TT
As for the red underwear, unless I’m missing a joke here as well…wearing red underwear is customary for good luck in Taiwan/China. I’m not positive but I think it came from the tradition of wearing red underwear during the years of your zodiac (for the WHOLE year) to keep yourself safe from misfortunes. I’ve always considered the whole thing bizarre because I could never understand why the year of your zodiac would bring misfortune. Surely it should be the opposite. But there you go…o_O
PS I love the pink wig! Oddly enough it looks REALLY good…even with antlers.
Ooh, Ashin did attend the second concert, actually… which sort of puts an end to the reports trying to pit the fans against each other by saying that Mayday turned down Sodagreen’s offer and how that shows that they don’t get along… or whatever.
By the way, this picture of Mayday endorsing Men’s Biore in China is really creeping me out O_O
http://img1.mpdaogou.com/2009/9/29/7d5fcff6-4adf-4068-b95a-e7eede71d07e.JPG
I’m sure Ashin loved endorsing men’s cosmetics, but I feel sorry for the rest of them.
That top hat and ruffled suit is the perfect Qingfeng outfit (red underwear or not).
A tired-looking Ashin did attend the 2nd night of the concert and was on the gigantic screens for quite some time as Qing Feng made his usual tour around the arena while sing ‘Frequency’.
I’m not sure whether it’s a deliberate move to have them in the same screen to dispute any news trying to separate sodafans & mayday-fans, but Qing Feng was clearly very touched & surprised to see Ashin sitting among the celebrities that he asked during the song interlude “I thought you said you were busy?”
It certainly created quite a stir in the audience since (I guess) a lot of sodafans love mayday as well.
Hi Merry!
Do you have the English translation of the lyrics to 他夏了夏天？
I’m using it for my wedding, and thought of flashing the lyrics together with its translation so that my guests are able to understand. =)
Hmm, I have *a* translation, but it probably needs some editing. I could post it up on the blog and see if we get any suggestions for improvements….
That’d be great! =) Could u please post it up? My husband translated it too, so we can exchange pointers. =)