ukfan
ok – you are not going to get an objective review of David’s (superb!!!!) performance from me, but I thought I would give details of the Hope of Love concert.
I enjoyed it more than I expected – I was interested to see the other acts (especially David’s good friend Lee Hom), and I enjoyed those more than I thought. It was great that each act had some big groups of die hard fans out in force, so that they all got a good reception – and it was good, for each act, to see the fans for that act really enjoying themselves. Of course, being in this forum though, I will concentrate on David. I can’t help on the spoken bits, but I can help on the music. I may get the order slightly wrong, but I think I can remember everything David performed.
Anyway, the weather was wonderful in Taipei – it had been a sunny day, and although at one stage, it seemed as though it would be a bit breezy, it turned out fine.
After messages of peace (I presume) from a nun on video, Lee Hom came on stage, and started singing “How Deep is your love” – then some fireworks, and Eason (I think) came on next – more fireworks, then Elva – more fireworks, and then …. DAVID! They sang “How Deep is your love” together, then Elva left the stage to get ready for her set, whilst the guys chatted on stage for a while. Musicians? The full Soul Power band , less Joanne and there was one change of backing singer – but all the guys, plus the lovely Mei, were there.
Elva was first, then Eason, then Lee Hom. I haven’t seen him live before - he is incredible. Not only can he play everything and has a great voice, but he is a master at everything he does. The crowd was incredibly high when he left the stage at what everyone thought was the end of his set. At this stage, many started shouting for David, and this turned into a chant, and this is exactly what greeted …… Lee Hom, when he returned for an encore! Possibly had got away with it, but he had heard - he laughed and said "one more from me then you will see David" – no offence seemed to be taken, but he probably got teased about it.
The sound of thunder and rain came over the pa, and a guy with an umbrella (it was raining over the stage) and bowler hat carried an oversized suitcase onto the stage – the suitcase was opened, and there was David, strumming his guitar and singing Rain. Although his set was of course shorter than Soul Power, it was longer than I was expecting – and by this stage, the audience was high and hyper, so he didn’t need to work the crowd. He seemed incredibly casual and confident, and Rain had a much more laid back feel as he cruised through it at a more grooving pace than the climax of his earlier concerts. After Rain, he launched into Small Town Girl, and then took the stool with Jamie for Regular Friends.
Lee Hom joined David for a rendition of “More than words” – it is clear how much these two guys love each other – they unashamedly stared into each others eyes and sang “I love you” but with big grins – quite funny.
Then followed (can’t remember exact order) Shanghaied, Black Tangerine (with fire blasting up from the edges of the stage – gave it a more “hellish” feel), Close to You, Bastard and Airport 10:30. It seemed strange hearing the Soul Power stuff, but almost in reverse order – and it worked. The arrangements were the same I think, but David had changed the phrasing of the songs quite a bit and seemed to be singing them a bit differently.
He finished his set with “I love you” and was rejoined by his chums, who helped him to finish the song. Then came “Hand in Hand” which was the perfect end to a great evening- and was super high – and David and Lee Hom gave the honour of their last two lines over to Eason and Elva.
*****
tzwlh
oh no, Charlene didn't translate for you? hmm, i shall speak to her (joking)
the only thing i heard from the opening speech was: the nun thanked the audience for supporting this charity event. other than that, most of the crowd was just amused (?) to see her on screen as they were expecting the stars to come out instead.
following that, they showed a pre-recorded video of the 4 stars' advice on how to woo the person you like.. i don't remember the details. night was getting late and is anyone going to get this show started after we half-sprinted for ?? minutes from the MRT station to the stadium?! hahaha.... anyway, the last clip of the video was from Eason who said if all fails, just "leave it to fate" (sui yuan)
the concert band, was mostly from Soul Power tour, except two of the backup singers (and if i am not wrong, there were only 4 backup "angels" on VDay). The 2 i recognized were David Tan (from SG) and Andrew Chu (a hot favourite of HK fans). The other 2 are possibly fr TW (meaning the missing angels were Josh, Ric and Jiaming). and i think we should call the 2nd keyboard player "Mei Mei" ah.. that's what Dave always calls her..
as for Joanne, with all due respect to her, i have explained to you separately that Mr Wang LH is a ready replacement in this particular concert for the missing but wonderful&charming SPTour violinist. Everyone else were there, including Kheng Long & Jim Lee.
Halfway during Elva's act, she started chatting with the crowd and introduced her grandmother (in the limelight) and mum (hiding) who were there to support her. Elva then said if anyone knows a gd man who is aged 35 years old and above etc etc, you can introduce to her mum.
THEN! our gd friend from HK, Charlene, shouted "DAVID!" AND ELVA HEARD IT!!!!!! and Elva began laughing and remarked "is Dave already 35?" We all had a gd laugh- if there is a dvd/vcd of this concert (AND I REALLY HOPE SO!!!!), i hope this part is included in it! (Charlene: pls don't kill me ah)
i had watched the other 3 singers live in concert before but it was my first for Eason and he didn't disappoint (less the controversial design of his black-yellow shirt). His fans also managed to use the sparklers during one of his slow songs without being told off by the crowd-controllers (some of Elva's fans sitting behind us were less fortunate).
as for Lihong, he surprised me with SO MANY dance tracks, which included HIM dancing. wow! i was also surprised that Lihong would appear on stage again to sing a last song before Dave appeared when everyone was expecting Dave instead. i thought for a moment i was the only one in the 30-40K crowd who heard people chanting "David, David, David" and not "Encore, Encore...". so i did not have a bad hearing problem... ha..
After singing a few songs (i don't have a single clue what was the rundown for the concert- too high to remember song names), Dave started talking abt the other 3 artistes' performance (something like who danced, who played musical instruments etc) and that he also has something special lined up. then he began saying his special guest is someone who has very nice long legs etc and EVERYONE began thinking: Melody?!???
but nope,Leehong appeared instead and after they showed the audience their legs (hahaha), they did Extreme's More Than Words (unplugged).
i agree that the pyrotechnics of this show was just breath-taking. very nice effects and always appearing at unexpected times [Charles: if you are reading this some time later, you could ask Jack how many times i was "shocked" by the pyrotechnics. hahahaha]
in all, it was a show worthy of my 9-hour flight to & fro Taiwan-Singapore. phew & hooray!
*以上留言來自 http://www.davidtao.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=652
