I'm quite excited to attend Bliss Out which is happening on Sat, 12 Dec! It's going to be Singapore's first mega event combining yoga and music at the wonderful venue of The Meadow, Gardens by The Bay!

I love listening to live performances and if you've been following me you know how yoga has impacted my life in a positive sense so although I'm not as crazy as some of my friends are, I really do enjoy yoga a lot! So...when I heard about Bliss Out and how it has both yoga and a mega concert...my reaction was "where do I sign up?".

The evening will kick off with 2 yoga sessions by renowned festival instructor Sianna Sherman and Official Yoga Studio-Space & Light Yoga. After the yoga sessions will be the PARTY!

It'll be interesting to watch this indie Kiwi electronic band, The Naked And Famous, perform live and of course, I'll be there to support local artiste INCH Chua!

I do know that the tickets seem rather pricey at first:
Yoga + Concert  S$110
Concert only  S$90

But here's the good news. You, my dear faithful readers, can get 10% discount by using my promo code BLISSOUTBLMELISSA! 

To register, visit www.blissout.com.sg and again, don't forget to use my promo code before 12 Dec to get your discount!

Tada...Mr Jay Chou is looking hotter than ever! He started the concert by teasing all of us with a view of his buff bod and six pecs!! *Wolf whistle*

Jay started the theatrics with a full media onslaught and finally coming onto stage in that flight capsule.

Despite his futuristic outfits, Jay is best singing his old songs - ballads.  Below is him on the super elaborately decorated baby grand piano.

After that wonderful serenade, Jay just HAS to promote his new movie in which he self-directed and stars in.  The songs are also in his latest album, Opus. 

Dancing Chinese vamps

The crowd enjoyed his singing but you could tell that the reception to these new songs were relatively lukewarm.  It didn't help that the filler before this set was a trailer of Jay's new movie which was very surprising...in the bad way.  The movie trailer reminded me of Grease meets Baz Lurhman's Romeo+Juliet.  It could be really funny as a comedy or go seriously pear-shape.

As you know, with most Chinese entertainers, there are a lot of costume changes and to facilitate this, a few fillers are required.

Above is one such 'filler' but he is THE most amazing beatboxer I've ever come across so far.  Simply AMAZING as to how he managed to make the variations of volume changes and he even beat boxed with the mike pressed against his throat to mimic being outside a club and hearing the beats.  I would've loved to just have him and Jay perform alone.

This transitioned to the acapella version of one of his new songs which can be loosely translated as 'Stupid Ole Clock'.  This version was much much much much better than the album version.  Loved how the beat boxing added that R&B/Hip hop edge to it too. Jay - please sing more songs acapella!

The next best way to enjoy Jay's performance is really just him and a musical instrument.  Above would be him and a guitar.  Simple but yet so soulful.  Don't mind the garish hot pink shirt which matches his hot pink mike.  I want his mike though. 

The performance that I really enjoyed in terms of theatrical effect was when the lights were all turned off and the audience was also asked to switch off all of our light sticks.  It then proceeded with him and his dancers performing the song 'Hey Girl' behind a light screen where it dispelled 'reality' for moments and there were multiple Jays together with the real Jay on stage.  Shooting stars completed the romantic R&B song and mood.  It was really quite a beautiful show.

As usual, Jay ended the concert on a high note with a fast-paced Hawaiian-themed song.

Huge 'beach' balls with the letter 'J' were thrown into the audience and this was bounced around throughout the whole song.

Luau anyone?

It was such a shame that I went to his opening concert so there was only 2 encores, which were already planned.  He didn't come out for another encore and the audience was already happily leaving the stadium when the lights came up.  Alas, practical us had work the next day.

I caved in that day and bought the limited edition Opus which came with 12 poster cards (cue drool for hardcore Jay Chou fans), a DVD with 3 MVs, a pair of chopsticks and a special Jay chopsticks bag.  All for the grand price of $40.  Of course it includes the actual album...so I must say that I am quite pleased with the purchase although the chopsticks were a bit "hmmm...."

Quite thankful to my friend LY for helping us to get the tickets because it was fully sold out months ago! The queues to get the tickets started on Day 1 at all the Sistic outlets for OCBC cardholders waaaay before the tickets went up for sale online!

There are quite a few concerts happening within a short span of each other...we've got Mayday, GDragon....who else?  Gah...thank goodness I'm not huge fans of some of these acts.  Otherwise, I'll be bankrupt.  Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to my next concert!!

Went to watch Music Matters Live 2013 at Clarke Quay mainly for Flumpool and Weaver (reached at 7.30pm and it was already crowded!) but managed to discover Dubfx who is an Aussie beat boxer who is really really good!!

He performed everything live by recording and looping beats.  I was blown away at how he can create a whole 'band' with only his voice box.  Simply amazing! Dubfx had a very short set of about 20 min.

After Dubfx, we had a rock band from Taiwan called 'The Chairman' and all of their songs were in Hokkien!

They had scary painted faces and it was quite interesting to hear the fusion of rock, traditional Chinese opera and Hokkein together.

After 'The Chairman' was the band that Siew Mai and I were waiting so long for....Flumpool!!! They were really entertaining and you could see how much they enjoy performing live. Siew Mai and I wanted to 'accidentally' hit the signs that some fans brought. I can completely understand why they brought them but as a standing-only concert, it really blocks one's view of the stage.  There was another woman whose fan kept getting in my way of getting a good shot of Flumpool's lead vocals, Ryuta. :(

After Flumpool was Sid but Siew Mai and I wanted to see Weaver and Flumpool's 'secret gig' at Beer Market so we left after Flumpool's set.  Thank goodness we did that because we had to queue for a very long time before we could get into Beer Market!!  Anyway, below are the videos that I took and you can find them on my YouTube Channel too.




I really enjoyed the gig at Beer Market because it was a lot more intimate and you could hear the vocals of both leads a lot better.  The downside was how long the set up for Weaver and Flumpool took! The gig was supposed to start at 11pm but it took the staff 40 min to set up for Weaver.  After Weaver's performance, it took the same staff an hour to set up for Flumpool!! To make things worse, the band went up on stage to do further sound checks!! Made you wonder...wouldn't it be faster if the band had done the initial sound checks instead of the staff?

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed myself (despite one evil look from a staff of Beer Market when she asked me whether we're going to order more drinks and I said 'No.') and I'd love to see all these great JRock bands perform live in Singapore again!! Kudos to the organisers of Music Matters Live.  I know that it must've been a logistical nightmare but I think that it was generally well put together! Enjoy the other photos that I took!!

This is the 2nd farewell of many farewell parties/lunches/dinners that I will be attending for the next few weeks.  Sigh...this time round, it's my manager who has left and yes, I'll be taking over so it is with bittersweet feelings that we part.

Her being the Singing Queen, I came up with the idea of a KTV farewell party instead of the usual dinner or lunch.

We went to Marina Square's KBox and went for their buffet dinner package which was a bit of a food overload.  For the first 15 minutes, we were so busy eating that we were not choosing any songs to sing! Hahaha!! Oh..it was mandatory for everyone to sing at least 1 song so it was really fun to finally hear 2 shy colleagues belt out tunes!  Jas even sang a Malay song by Peter Pan.

On her actual last day, she treated some of us to lunch and it was A LOT of food.  There was dim sum, cakes, other local desserts and 2 bottles of wine! She was also very sweet and made special cards and notes for each of us.  Cheeky her also wrote lyrics to a song on all of our cards in Italian and we had to guess what it meant.  Google translator wasn't very helpful but we managed to find out that it was the song "Time to Say Goodbye".  Awwww....

I'm going to miss having her around and to rant about certain things.  Not to mention, without her, all the stress and pressure is now mine.  Haha...with more 'power' comes more responsibilities.  Nice to know that she's always a message/ phone call away for a good rant session and the best part? She totally understands.

 

 

Above a photo of the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra that performed in Singapore as part of the Mosiac Music Festival.  I didn't know it but this is their 2nd year performing in Singapore!!

I'm not totally into Ska music but I've seen the YouTube videos of Tokyo Ska Paradise and they're good! These 40 year olds can really bring a lot of energy on stage and they're just very entertaining.  Everyone was given those thin lightsticks that could be bent to necklaces or bracelets and people started throwing them towards the stage.  I pity those sitting/standing in the front area because they were pelted with those lightsticks.  Tsk tsk. I think there will be no such freebies next year.

Funny thing happened towards the end of the performance: a Caucasian guy climbed up on stage and danced on stage.  The members were fooling around with him for a short bit but he was really in their way as the stage wasn't really huge.  Soon, he was followed by a Malay dude too.  Security let them get away with it for a short bit but when the Caucasian man refused to leave, he had to be dragged off stage and he missed the rest of the performance.

You can see one of their videos below:




I'm looking forward to seeing them perform again next year!

Got my concert tix to T.M.Revolution on Fri, 9 Nov and then 5 artistes on Sat, 10 Nov.  The 5 artistes for yesterday's concert were: BabyMetal, Fripside, m.o.v.e., LiSA and FLOW.  I was mainly there for LiSA and FLOW.

There were other artistes performing today (May'n, Sea.A and some others) but they were those whom I wasn't interested in.

Sorry folks but I didn't take any photos of the T.M.Revolution. I was being a good girl.   :)  Having said that, T.M.Revolution proved to us what a rock star he is with his outstanding and entertaining performance, which was backed by his equally great band! Below is post-T.M.R with Siew Mai pouting over the fact that it is over.

Onto Saturday's Festival and Stage area! They were giving out these fans at the entrance as well as at Amuse Inc's booth.  Rurouni Kenshin!! I'm so excited that the movie is coming out! I was reminiscing with a friend that we started watch the Kenshin anime when we were in JC.  It has been THAT long.

 The costumes worn were on display!! Weeee~~~

I saw the above costume and I was really tempted to get it but then...it's meant for males and I wouldn't have any chance to wear it except during the annual AFA.  The price wasn't very cheap either.

I really have to give it up to this Gundam cosplayer.  You can't really see from this photo but the whole costume was made of cardboard.  Amazing.  However, I couldn't help but think: how does he go to pee?

My stash from Odex booth! I know...a lot of Domo-kun stuff.  Siew Mai and I love Domo-kun so we shared the cost of the Fukubokuro and my T-shirt. $29 for T-shirt & Fukubokuro which contains 1 pen/pencil, 1 mobile phone holder, 1 mobile phone strap, 1 mug, 1 other mobile phone thingy, 3 L- folders and 1 mystery item.  Add $5 for a domo-kun cushion.  The T-shirt alone costs $12.  With these purchases, we received a free hologram poster of "Mobile Suit Gundam - Trailblazer", a free "Ryu Mabuya" poster and a choice between "Full Metal Alchemist" poster or some other poster.

I also splurged on these absolutely adorable Linkin Park Nendoroids! OMG...so cute....the price of $62 wasn't cute but it's Linkin Park!!!!

We went to the Stage area at 5pm only for me to realise that I had missed the 4.30pm Greeting Session by LiSA. Doh! LiSA is such a great live performer who is very energetic and entertaining.  I kinda regret not getting her CD last year as this year, the only LiSA merchandise being sold was a pair of earrings at $13.  (0_o)  Nutso.  I'm not going to buy a pair of rubber earrings for $13.

Nonetheless, it was the screening of the 1st half of 'Eureka Ao 7' after the greeting session and it seems rather interesting.  Plus point is that the opening theme song "Bravelue" is sung by FLOW who made a 'surprise' appearance.

Happy 10th Anniversary to FLOW! FLOW THE MAX!!! Gotta love the boys from FLOW.  Their album songs don't sound as good as when they're performing live.  LOVE LOVE LOVE their live performances.

After a quick dinner, we headed off to the Max Pavilion where the concert was held at.  The ticket stated that the concert would start at 7.30pm so I didn't really understand why the organisers only announced on their FB page that it would start at 7pm to ensure that people are able to catch the last train home.  Um...I love social media and all that but when we're at the Festival, it's not a habit of ours to check FB all the time.  Couldn't there be announcements made over the PA system?  In the end, the concert started at 8pm due to technical issues.  As a events organiser, I can't really blame them for the technical faults as shit always happens even after testing like a gazillion times.

The concert opened with BabyMetal who really annoyed me with their helium-induced-like voices and the jarring mix of rock, pop and goth. Square peg, round hole. You get it.  The otakus in the crowd loved them though.  That said, Siew Mai and I were among a large group of sitters.

After BabyMetal was m.o.v.e. who managed to rally the crowd into a rave despite the really really long wait in between.  That's possibly because their music is the trance/ euro-beat genre which I felt was more suited to a club.

m.o.v.e. was followed by fripSide where they had mic issues and the lead singer's voice couldn't be heard properly.  Didn't help that her voice is so high and weak while the music was so loud.  Perhaps they should've tuned down the music.  The poor girl had a frozen smile but I guess it didn't matter in the end as the crowd loved them.  Siew Mai and I were back on our chairs during their set.  Sorry...not our cups of tea.  I was very impressed and entertained by the side entertainment of some otaku boys who synchronised their dance during FripSide's set.  Below is the video clip that I managed to take.



Finally...after a super long wait due to equipment change and technical issues...LiSA!!!!

LiSA again wowed the crowd with her superb vocals and entertaining performance! She teased and interacted with the audience while we were also taught a hand gesture/dance along with her.  Her rendition of 「一番の宝物」is as great as ever and she nearly turned emo again but I guess the lack of time caused her to go to her next song really quickly and she didn't get the chance to cry.  I was so disappointed that she only sang 4-5 songs with NO encore!! WTH!! もう一曲聞きたいな〜〜〜

Again, with another long equipment change etc, FLOW came on with the Superman theme song as their entrance background song.  Cheeky boys.

I can't repeat enough times how great FLOW is during their live performances.  They only sang 4 songs!!! Again, NO ENCORE! The crowd was pumped up and continued singing along to 'Go!!' although it was played only as a background song.  You could tell that the band didn't want to leave as they were still on stage waving to the audience despite having all the house lights on.  They were also apologising to us fans via twitter on how it was too short and they promise to come back to Singapore again.  Yes please and don't make us wait a whole year! These guys ought to do a FULL concert on their own. Fark AFA.  I know I'll be happy :)

I can't fault the organisers for the technical issues but I think that they should've added in more buffer time for it.  Not to forget that it was streaming live on Nico too...which made me wonder whether the long in between waits was also due to advertisements on Nico?  I also think that having 5 artistes perform within 3 or 4 hours is overly ambitious.  That doesn't allow time for encores nor as I had mentioned earlier, buffer time.  One has to know your audience too...the older ones couldn't care less for Babymetal or fripSide...so perhaps an afternoon concert with these 2 could've been held?  After all, the Max Pavilion was already rented for the whole day...should maximise time and ticket sales.  The staff/ volunteers ought to be taught to be a bit more polite too.  Nobody should say to guests "The Hall is about to close. Please leave." PR skills sorely lacking.  The right thing to say ought to be, "Sorry but you'll have to leave soon as the Hall is closing."

After we left the hall, I couldn't help but feel super disappointed and it didn't end on a high for me.  It was like I was starving and someone gave me a starter, only to take it back after I had a bite.  Really upsetting.  :(  I really hope that this doesn't happen next year.  Seriously.