Tuesday, January 25, 2011

3:44 AM

15th January 2011, Singapore: Day 1

It was a tiring day. I had to wake up after only having four hours of sleep. By now, I have forgotten what time we took off and arrived in Singapore. It was around noon I think. I can only remember my Kuching flights now. But anyway, I brought along my Pentax camera in my Crumpler bag for the first time. I also brought my "To Hebe" CD. I knew only the Singapore versions were allowed during the autograph session, but I brought mine anyway. Just in case!

The flight was alright, but I didn't like what the air pressure was doing to my ears. Listening to my iPod and swallowing hard helped though. I only listened to one album throughout my journey in Singapore. It's Happiness by HURTS. It is that good. After landing, we went to Swissôtel The Stamford to check-in. The next thing I wanted to do was to go collect my concert ticket. I did my homework at home and knew that there is a Sistic counter right below our hotel, where the Raffles City Shopping Centre is. Remember I said the whole ticket collection thing would be troublesome? Well, I found out before leaving that I have to collect the ticket at least a day before the show, which means the 14th of January. I emailed their customer service, telling them about my situation. They replied, telling me that I can only go to Festive Grand (show venue) to collect my ticket when I reach Singapore. The problem is, Festive Grand is in Sentosa, I don't wanna travel so far just to collect my ticket. Plus you need to pay when you enter the island. But don't worry, everything turned out great. When we went to Raffles City, we asked the lady at what looked like an information counter for directions to the Sistic counter. The lady laughed and told us, "This is the counter." It was funny, and I showed her my booking confirmation. Before I could say anything, she had already done the typing on the computer and printed out my ticket. She handed it to me and smiled. I took it and blinked at mum and dad. "Well, that was easy!" What a relief.


After that I went to That CD Shop to look for Hebe's DVD. If I don't find it, I won't be able to get her autograph the next day. They only allowed the Singapore versions of the CD and DVD. I didn't see it anywhere and the salesgirl told me they don't have it. How disappointing. I did buy three CDs though: John Mayer's Battle Studies, The Script's Science & Faith and The Pretty Reckless's Light Me Up. I reckoned it's about time to buy their CDs and show some support since I love them so much. Then we went to Din Tai Fung to have lunch! They have the best fried rice and 小笼包! So delicious. Next we walked to Funan Digital Lifestyle Mall where I grabbed a new USB cable for my hard drive. We also bought a new luggage bag.

Around 5 PM, we went back to our hotel. I changed without showering because the bathtub knob was jammed and I didn't want to wait for the people to come fix it. We left for Sentosa and the taxi driver dropped us off at Festive Hotel in Resorts World. We went to find Festive Grand, the theatre where Hebe would be performing in a few hours. There were Singapore copies of the CDs and DVDs for sale just outside the theatre! Thank God! I bought one of the DVDs immediately. Then we walked around and visited Candylicious, the super huge candy store. There were so many different candies and chocolates! I bought huge packets of peanut butter M&M's. At 6.30 PM, we went to have dinner at Chili's. I chose that place because I tried their food once at KLCC and it was really good. I ordered the cheesesteak and boy, it was nice.




At 7.30 PM, I went back to Festive Grand alone while mum and dad continued eating at Chili's. There were so many people already and they were lining up to enter the theatre. At the counter they not only looked at my ticket, but also into my backpack with a torchlight. I don't know what they're looking for, but I don't think it's a camera since I saw a lot of people with DSLRs in the theatre. Throughout the show, the staff stopped people from using "professional cameras". They didn't care when I used my mobile phone. Anyway they gave me the green light so I went in. One of the staff showed me the way to my seat. The theatre was huge. I expected it to be small since it can only hold 1600 people, but man, 1600 is not a small number. But compared to a stadium, the setting of the concert was more intimate. The audience got to be closer to the stage. I was early. Almost 70% of the seats were still empty. I walked down quite a long flight of stairs because guess what... surprise surprise - I bought a first row seat! Just too bad it wasn't at the centre though. I should have bought a second row or third row seat because then I would be at the same level as the stage. But a first row seat is closer! It wasn't easy to get a nice seat anyway since the online system randomly chooses the "best seat" for you. I suppose I was about an hour late in booking the ticket. The sale started at 9 AM (15th December 2010) and I only bought it at 10+ AM. It's all about speed, people. Jacky Cheung will be performing in Singapore in August, and mum and dad have already asked me to do the booking for them. Tsk, and there they were teasing me for being such a fangirl...

I could literally touch the stage and see all the equipment. The theatre was a bit foggy because of the theatrical smoke/fog. At 8.15 PM, people were still coming in and Hebe was still no where to be seen. After some time, the musicians came out and got into position. There's a pianist, a background singer, a bassist, a drummer, two guitarists, a hot violinist (woman), a lady managing the stage animations and a guy managing the sounds. At 8.20 PM, the lights dimmed... and the show started! Hebe appeared and belted out the rock version of her song "Love!". I don't know what I felt then. It was strange! It's the first time I saw her in person yet it felt like I've seen her a million times. I didn't feel anything special. So weird!


She was amazing live and I wasn't surprised at all. Her vocals were clean and beautiful. I am so grateful for being able to listen to her live! What surprised me was how much better everything sounded with the live band. A million times better. Even the songs recorded in the album couldn't top the live renditions. The guitar strums, the drum beats... and it was loud! I don't know how to describe it. It's like what Mr. N loves to say - every cell in your body starts dancing! It's overwhelming and incredible. It's not something you can feel by just watching the videos on YouTube or buying the most expensive high-end speakers in the world. It's something you have to experience in person! I've heard a live band before, but it's different when you have the recorded songs to compare with.

All of the song performances were great, but I particularly loved The Beatles' "Come Together", Ingrid Michaelson's "Die Alone", Corinne Bailey Rae's "Like a Star", Coldplay's "Trouble", "我想我不會愛你”, "寂寞寂寞就好" and 阿桑's "葉子”. I love the vibe of the song "Die Alone". The song suits her voice. "Trouble" was really amazing. It might be my most favourite one of all. I tried reliving the moment by watching the video someone uploaded on YouTube but it was nothing like it. Totally different. As for "我想我不會愛你”, I never really liked the album version because I think it lacks the wow factor that makes rock songs great. So I went on and assumed Hebe was no good for rock songs. But I was wrong! The live version was explosive! Her voice was loud and powerful. Every cell in my body was reverberating with the music! "我要去哪里“ proved me wrong even more. Whoever mixed the song "我想我不會愛你” didn't do it right! "寂寞寂寞就好" live was better than the one in the album too. Live is better! Provided you have a great singer!


What I admire about her is how she sang English songs so confidently in front of so many Singaporeans even when her pronunciation wasn't perfect. But she did make fun of our Chinese pronunciation though! Someone intended to scream "天生歌姬!" but it came out like "天生歌鸡!" so she said, "是海南鸡饭的鸡吗?" She also said, "Shu shui? Shu shui sho de?" instead of "是谁? 是谁说的?" So adorable! And when someone screamed for a 红包, she went, "红包? 还是拥抱? 两个都没有, 不过有飞吻! MMMWWAK!!!!" Oh my God, that made me smile like an idiot! I didn't dare to do anything silly like screaming and waving a glow stick though because I was surrounded by strangers. The guy on my left looked as uncomfortable as I was because he was also alone. The girl on my right had company but they weren't high at all. I think it would be better if we were standing instead of sitting. The guest she invited was Olivia Ong. I have her album but I've never listened to it. Listening to her live made me want to listen to her album. She was really good too!

Hebe had drinking breaks in between her songs. There was mineral water and a tumbler with a hot drink in it on a coffee table beside the sofa she sat while singing some of the songs. I could see the steam from the tumbler. When she left the stage to take a break (Olivia took over), she walked in front of me to backstage. I kept staring. I should have screamed "HEBE!!! AHHHHHH!!!" eh? Just imagining that makes me laugh so hard!

Another sweet part of the concert was her song dedication to Selina. She sang James Blunt's "You're Beautiful". I was afraid she might bring the concert to a low point and make it depressing, but it was the opposite. Her words were sweet, optimistic and hopeful, and she quickly moved on after finishing the song. Another memorable part was the encore. The words that flashed across the screen on stage made me smile:

"还要吗?"

"不够大声!"

"我要回家咯..."

In the end she appeared again and sang two more songs, one being "葉子”. It was heartbreaking and really pretty.

Ah... writing about my experience makes me want to relive the moment again. I would give anything to watch her live one more time! This was one of the best experiences in my life. And I have to thank my mummy and daddy for that.

Next up, meeting Hebe! For real! Wait for the next post!