Surely, not wooden inside...
I would vote David Tao's concert one of the most solid concerts I've had attended so far. It earned my respect and affirmation for the artiste's professionalism and also to his devotion in his beliefs and visions.
The concert wasn't made up of frills and gimmicks; hence audiences didn't get to be serenaded by fireworks, confetti and alluring dance moves. On the contrary, DT's Singapore concert manifested pure music, talents and deliverance of the team's efforts and hard works. The spiritual side of the gig was it subtly sending the message of "Faith, Love, Respect & Peace" to its audiences...
Most of the audiences from the front couldn't wait to get on to their feet when David appeared in his maroon suit strumming the guitar along with the popular hit "我喜欢". Thereafter, "Runaway" set the tempo running high with audiences raising and swaying along with party light sticks.
David displayed his gratitude to his tour band teams with pride and integrity; and sharing his limelight with the mates. He specially gave acknowledgement to the pianist, the vocalists, the percussionist...who were from Singapore. At this moment, Singaporean started to feel engage with a sense of pride with lots of cheers and oohaas... David generously sang praises of how he likes Singapore and repeatedly proclaiming the country "Singapore" in a loud affirmative tone. Oh man, at that juncture, my friend and I were like "Wa lau! very National Day mood leh!"...hahaha... At one point, he took time to say "hi" to all this fans from various regions (HK, Jpn, CN, M'sia etc) by reading out the words of their sign boards, and when he asked “Singapore! where are you?" I could see at my side that a portion of us stood up and did the Kallang Roar...very National Day right?!...LOL!
I was deeply moved at one part when David introduced his long time pal cum pianist, Kheng Long (吴庆隆). He mentioned that they never (or seldom?) fight because they have God (pointing up to the sky) with them. (I went to the concert with a friend whom I had a little misunderstanding with recently and both of us have since been reacting lukewarm to each other) When I heard what David said, I felt the warmth in me and I had the sudden urge to hug my friend to say "Sorry, I might have had hurt you in some ways"...hence, this was the spiritual side I gained...
More spiritual rewards followed up when David sang "Dear God" with the MV playing on the screen. It showed the tragedy of the 9-11 incident, stirred up some heavy emotions of the audiences to ponder on...Yes, the best weapon to fight war and evil is LOVE.
I specially like the short video that showed all his crews individually by reciting the same words "I'm human" in different native languages such as English, Mandarin, Malay, Indie, Cantonese. Short and simple words, yet it could trigger some thoughts, and I got from the video is "Respect". I'm human (as like you, respect me)... "I'm human" may be a short sentence, but it's powerful.
Ok, enough said from the spiritual angle. What's so big deal of the concert?
Do not doubt this superstar (I prefer to name him an artiste), David can really sing! I was mesmerized by his rich vocals, almost flawless (Err...except he forgot some of the lyrics in some parts). His vocals are gifted, yet was trained and preserved. His voice was really great, and he could master different genres almost perfectly; especially strong in his forte R&B and rock.
Obviously, David wasn't impressed with complacent and superficial supporters. He challenged his audiences' ears by delivering several numbers in different music arrangements. Both my friend and I were listening hard to 1 number when he did it together with Kheng Long, and it was after a while that my friend and I shouted "Wa! So i'ts "月亮代表谁的心"!. Hmm...never thought that once a popular R&B number can be made into a Bossa Nova arrangement. Oh man! you got us!
David was mostly strumming the guitar with his songs the whole night. I was wondering how were his fingers feeling that time (must be hard and swollen by the end of the concert). No luck for me to shake his hand when he suddenly jumped down from the stage to "connect" with his fans.
Though he confessed that he made unimpressive dance moves, he presented a dance medley session (DT still didn't dance) when it turned the Singapore Indoor Stadium into a dance floor. It was high when the audiences boogied along with the Rock & Disco hits (the hits were a bit old though *oops*).
Any humours? Oh yes, there was a short "musical" when there was this Arabian percussionist playing the Arabian drums, while the dancers were swaying along with DT. It was kinda funny when DT and the vocalists were doing those actions, I couldn't help to imagine this: What about put 2 trees on stage, and they jump out from the trees to do the Bollywood dance? haha...funny...But! While DT was chanting the Arabian/Indie melody, his vocal was really GOOD!
Though no fireworks, we got to travel to space when the lasers strike out from the stage and covered the stadium with its magnificent presence. It reminded me of "Star War", and I was wondering was it because DT wanted to live up to his child hood dreams with this plot?
Enough said with a long post. We left the concert and had nice claypot frog legs porridge as supper and headed home at 3am.
Some snapshots to share (Oh, I have bad photography skills, even my hp played tricks on me. Or was it the lightings were too great that I couldn't capture any clear shots?)
the fans..the stage lights...
the lasers...
lasers from the back of the stadium...
Yo! DT in the house lo... DT posed for me when I rushed to the front...but hp camera played tricks on me (cldn't get clear pic..haiz...)
DT with his self-owned guit...
DT acted naughty with audiences' adoration...
The Rock session...
The Premier stamp on my hand...