THIS? IS MY BRAIN EXPLODING INTO MY HEART.
♥. BEST. FUCKING. CONCERT. IN THE UNIVERSE. Yesterday night (I haven't slept yet and it's 6.12 in the morning), my love, my heart, my MAN - EMIL CHAU - came to town as part of his world tour. I have stalked worshipped this guy and his voice for FIFTEEN YEARS, guys. FIFTEEN YEARS OF FANDOM AND FLAIL. I've seen him probably about ten times live, if not more, and HE KILLS ME EVERY TIME. But today, today: he got onstage, and barely got off for FOUR GLORIOUS HOURS. Literally it was him, singing, bantering, rocking OUT and being generally AMAZING for a full three hours and fifty-five minutes. CAN WE SAY STAMINA? ASLDHKASLDHALSHDASDLASDA.
♥ ♥ ♥
Imagine the rest of this in CAPSLOCK. AND BOLD. AND BRIGHT FLAMING RED. Because that's how it reads in my brain, which honestly still cannot get over what it just experienced. WHO sings for four hours straight? Seriously?! I mean, I know to expect this of him - he's the only singer who's ever come to Singapore, realised that concert crowds spend half an hour straggling in (so 8pm shows always start at 8.30, if at all), and so set his concert start time at 7.30pm. JUST SO HE CAN SING MORE. Which means the show started at 8pm on the dot, and broke off JUST a few minutes before midnight... so that he wouldn't get fined for, like, going overtime in the Stadium.
LOL I HAVE BEEN TRACKING THIS AUDIO FOR OVER TWO HOURS AND I'M NOT DONE YET. ♥
Anyways. It was - ASTOUNDING. 11 MILLION KINDS OF ASTOUNDING. I was twelve rows from front of stage, with SC - noldoparma was seated about seven rows back, because she decided a couple of weeks after we had already bought tickets that she wanted to see the show too. GOOD SEATS. We were pretty much dead centre, and he was... a hundred metres away, maybe? To the point that I could easily afford to stare at HIM, rather than the huge screens set up for the sad sacks in the nosebleed seats, and be able to see his facial expressions while singing. THIS IS ESSENTIAL, GUYS. Emil is a DORK from way back, and being able to see his face when he's bantering is the BEST thing.
Witness his immense dorkitude:
ETA: OMG I just read his t-shirt. *weeps*
So yeah, we were close, and FUCKITY WAS HE EVER ON TOP FORM TODAY. When he came to Singapore last for a full concert in 2006, I could tell he was sick - yes, I am that much of a fangirl to know when he's not hitting the high notes he could otherwise hit IN HIS SLEEP and that he was holding back at points because his voice couldn't take the strain. BUT BUT BUT. TONIGHT HE WAS JUST... HIS VOICE. Even at random little moments when he was joking about and singing nonsense lines, he sounded AMAZING. And since the concert was so long, he got BETTER as it went on (you'd imagine most people would get tired and their voice would fail them, BUT NOT EMIL) - he was only warming up in the first hour. *weeps*
I'm throwing in random photos from his official website. Because this man is IN HIS ELEMENT when he's onstage. Plus ILHIM.
And he just riffed. HE JUST FUCKING RIFFED. Man oh man, tracking my audio is taking forever, but I DON'T CARE. There's a whole hour more to go. *weeps... from joy*
Seriously, however. Before the show, I mentioned to J that I was wondering if he'd sing anything I hadn't seen him sing before. Can we say WISH FULFILLED?!? He sang FLY ME TO THE MOON, guys. FLY ME TO THE FUCKING MOON. I remember reading that he was singing this song - FANDOM COLLISION AS I AM ALSO A SINATRA FANGIRL - in a series of concerts he gave in the US a few years back, and I so so SO desperately wanted to see that live. But couldn't, of course. And then I recently found audio of him singing a snippet of it - except, FAIL, he screwed up the lyrics (as he is wont to do), and instead of singing 'Baby, kiss me', he sang 'Baby, kiss YOU' *cries*. BUT NOW I HAVE A PERFECTLY AWESOME AUDIO OF HIM SINGING IT, WITH THE RIGHT LYRICS AND EVERYTHING. I ALSO SAW HIM SINGING IT. ASDLKHASLHLDHLASDA. His English diction is fairly good times for a Taiwanese pop star, so I'd LOVE IT if he would sing me more English songs, plz. ♥
Then he also sang other awesome songs like Home (家), which I have been fangirling over since I discovered it in an audio of a 2008 Shanghai concert last year. I mean, I know and love the song from his 1993 album, but I never thought he'd sing it live - it was one of those gems buried in an album with bigger hits that only the TRUE fangirl would know of. But he's included it in his set list for this world tour, and and and it was BEAUTIFUL. Plus also he sang Olive Tree (橄欖樹), guys. FUCKING 橄欖樹, which is so perfect for his voice and such a LYRICAL, lovely song to begin with. Oh, and 新天地 from his new latest album, AND AND AND.
BORN. TO. SING. ♥
I've been a fandork of this guy for 15 years, and in these 15 years, he has of course accumulated enough MASSIVE POP HITS that he HAS to include them in his set list no matter what - or else casual concert-goers would be upset, you know? And some of these songs really don't do anything/much for me anymore, because I've heard them SO OFTEN. But he did gorgeous versions of some of these old chestnuts - he went with the sweet, strummy, guitar-led version of Flower Heart (花心), rather than the stadium-stomping cut, and I swear I almost stopped breathing when he sang just SUCH a gorgeous rendition of Storyteller (有故事的人) (violin-drenched, OMG!). And when he went head-to-head with his UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME saxophonist on Lonely Eyes (寂寞的眼)?!?! HOLY HELL ALMIGHTY RIFF OF AWESOME. Leave us not forget STUNNING versions of old old songs too - his high notes on The Ferryman's Song (擺渡人的歌) ALWAYS get me, without FAIL, and OH MY GOD Legend of Widow Village (寡婦村傳奇), FUCK FUCK FUCKITY. It's one of my favourite of his lesser-known songs EVER, and he sang it SO beautifully I can't even deal.
HIS GUEST STAR. I was soooo skeptical about it at first, because it was this local dude that Emil had seen performing in a pub last year when he was here for the Lee Guitars concert of awesome. I... just wanted Emil to sing by HIMSELF, but I more or less reconciled myself to it figuring I could trust him and his taste in music. BOY COULD I EVER. Wynn is a fantastic piano player and has SUCH a voice - he and Emil dueted (AND HARMONISED, KTHX) on The Moon Represents My Heart (月亮代表我的心) and I Don't Like To Sleep Alone, and I THINK MY BRAIN LEAKED OUT OF MY EARS AT THAT POINT. Then they were kidding around and Emil tried to translate the lyrics of I Don't Like To Sleep Alone into Chinese (or Cantonese or god knows what) and it was HILARIOUS. I LOVE THIS MAN AND HIS DORKY BANTER/HUMOUR. BOYFRIEND FOREVER.
EMIL = DORK
The part of the concert that pretty much broke me in half, though? Came right at the end, when he sang Cui Can (璀璨) as his closing song. It's one of the loveliest songs he's ever written, all about the sadness and loneliness and desolation that comes over him when the curtain falls and he leaves the stage - and it never fails to make him cry. Of course, his fan club - armed with glow sticks and all in the same t-shirt - requested it, and he sang it. AND I WANTED TO DIE. I've NEVER seen him sing it live, beyond a couple lines, and I have a live version, I think, but it wasn't long. Well, he sang it this time, and he managed to keep it together at first, but I couldn't. I legit broke down into tears at that moment, though I wasn't hugely weepy, just teary. And then HE started crying and he couldn't sing all the lyrics and I was DONE.
Literally, the concert ended and I was just... so emotionally shattered and uplifted and IN LOVE, and when J came running over - looking equally drained AND high at the same time - I grabbed her and hugged her and we both squeed like crazy people. Even though the crazy emotional heights of the show and my attempts to stifle my coughing to salvage my audio (which is fucking ten thousand kinds of fabulous, btw) have basically broken me and made me even more ILL. But who cares, this was WORTH IT IN EVERY WAY.
I'm ALMOST done tracking. Oh god, he sang, like, 45 songs. LITERALLY. *cries* I LOVE THIS MAN AND HIS STAMINA OF AWESOME. How is it that he's 49 this year?!? Old enough to be my dad!! O_O
2. Oh god. I'm SO GLAD J and I get to see him again in exactly just under a month, in Taiwan this time, playing alongside a bunch of other incredibly talented people. I'm not sure anything could top this experience for sheer vocal awesomeness and amazing. But YAY for seeing him live again. How could I NOT see him every chance I can get? And how did I survive without seeing him live for the three years I was in university? WHO NEEDS A COLLEGE DEGREE ANYWAY. (Oh wait, I do...)
3. Man I am WIPED. Such an emotional day - other than Concert Of Epic Win, I also watched The Reader. Which I KNOW wasn't really much as a film: the script wasn't brilliant, the directing not especially outstanding... but I was pretty shattered by it nonetheless. I was weeping big-time at the end (why am I such a wimp?) - I think because Kate Winslet freakin' ROCKED her role and I just identify with people who like reading. Or something. *cries* I have learnt two things from this movie though: Kate = AWESOME; and there is NO UNIVERSE in which her role is a supporting one.
4. FOOD. Met SC and J for a quick dinner before concert, which was rushed through because literally we hit every traffic light on the way over. I had... a yummy French onion soup laden down with bread and cheese, and a vegetable casserole (I really DON'T like baked beans, fyi). Oh, and then because concert drained us and we were hungry and thirsty, J and I stopped for Taiwanese porridge on the way home. ♥
5. Oh goodness I just turned around and looked out and the SUN IS UP. It's 8.07am. I've been typing and tracking for very close to four hours now. *weeps* I'm going to finish up and set the 24,563MB audio to upload while I sleep.
6. BEST. CONCERT. EVER. JUST HAD TO SAY THAT AGAIN. ASDKLHALHDLAHDLASHDLHLFHLASDHLASDAS.
♥ ♥ ♥
Imagine the rest of this in CAPSLOCK. AND BOLD. AND BRIGHT FLAMING RED. Because that's how it reads in my brain, which honestly still cannot get over what it just experienced. WHO sings for four hours straight? Seriously?! I mean, I know to expect this of him - he's the only singer who's ever come to Singapore, realised that concert crowds spend half an hour straggling in (so 8pm shows always start at 8.30, if at all), and so set his concert start time at 7.30pm. JUST SO HE CAN SING MORE. Which means the show started at 8pm on the dot, and broke off JUST a few minutes before midnight... so that he wouldn't get fined for, like, going overtime in the Stadium.
LOL I HAVE BEEN TRACKING THIS AUDIO FOR OVER TWO HOURS AND I'M NOT DONE YET. ♥
Anyways. It was - ASTOUNDING. 11 MILLION KINDS OF ASTOUNDING. I was twelve rows from front of stage, with SC - noldoparma was seated about seven rows back, because she decided a couple of weeks after we had already bought tickets that she wanted to see the show too. GOOD SEATS. We were pretty much dead centre, and he was... a hundred metres away, maybe? To the point that I could easily afford to stare at HIM, rather than the huge screens set up for the sad sacks in the nosebleed seats, and be able to see his facial expressions while singing. THIS IS ESSENTIAL, GUYS. Emil is a DORK from way back, and being able to see his face when he's bantering is the BEST thing.
Witness his immense dorkitude:
ETA: OMG I just read his t-shirt. *weeps*
So yeah, we were close, and FUCKITY WAS HE EVER ON TOP FORM TODAY. When he came to Singapore last for a full concert in 2006, I could tell he was sick - yes, I am that much of a fangirl to know when he's not hitting the high notes he could otherwise hit IN HIS SLEEP and that he was holding back at points because his voice couldn't take the strain. BUT BUT BUT. TONIGHT HE WAS JUST... HIS VOICE. Even at random little moments when he was joking about and singing nonsense lines, he sounded AMAZING. And since the concert was so long, he got BETTER as it went on (you'd imagine most people would get tired and their voice would fail them, BUT NOT EMIL) - he was only warming up in the first hour. *weeps*
I'm throwing in random photos from his official website. Because this man is IN HIS ELEMENT when he's onstage. Plus ILHIM.
And he just riffed. HE JUST FUCKING RIFFED. Man oh man, tracking my audio is taking forever, but I DON'T CARE. There's a whole hour more to go. *weeps... from joy*
Seriously, however. Before the show, I mentioned to J that I was wondering if he'd sing anything I hadn't seen him sing before. Can we say WISH FULFILLED?!? He sang FLY ME TO THE MOON, guys. FLY ME TO THE FUCKING MOON. I remember reading that he was singing this song - FANDOM COLLISION AS I AM ALSO A SINATRA FANGIRL - in a series of concerts he gave in the US a few years back, and I so so SO desperately wanted to see that live. But couldn't, of course. And then I recently found audio of him singing a snippet of it - except, FAIL, he screwed up the lyrics (as he is wont to do), and instead of singing 'Baby, kiss me', he sang 'Baby, kiss YOU' *cries*. BUT NOW I HAVE A PERFECTLY AWESOME AUDIO OF HIM SINGING IT, WITH THE RIGHT LYRICS AND EVERYTHING. I ALSO SAW HIM SINGING IT. ASDLKHASLHLDHLASDA. His English diction is fairly good times for a Taiwanese pop star, so I'd LOVE IT if he would sing me more English songs, plz. ♥
Then he also sang other awesome songs like Home (家), which I have been fangirling over since I discovered it in an audio of a 2008 Shanghai concert last year. I mean, I know and love the song from his 1993 album, but I never thought he'd sing it live - it was one of those gems buried in an album with bigger hits that only the TRUE fangirl would know of. But he's included it in his set list for this world tour, and and and it was BEAUTIFUL. Plus also he sang Olive Tree (橄欖樹), guys. FUCKING 橄欖樹, which is so perfect for his voice and such a LYRICAL, lovely song to begin with. Oh, and 新天地 from his new latest album, AND AND AND.
BORN. TO. SING. ♥
I've been a fandork of this guy for 15 years, and in these 15 years, he has of course accumulated enough MASSIVE POP HITS that he HAS to include them in his set list no matter what - or else casual concert-goers would be upset, you know? And some of these songs really don't do anything/much for me anymore, because I've heard them SO OFTEN. But he did gorgeous versions of some of these old chestnuts - he went with the sweet, strummy, guitar-led version of Flower Heart (花心), rather than the stadium-stomping cut, and I swear I almost stopped breathing when he sang just SUCH a gorgeous rendition of Storyteller (有故事的人) (violin-drenched, OMG!). And when he went head-to-head with his UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME saxophonist on Lonely Eyes (寂寞的眼)?!?! HOLY HELL ALMIGHTY RIFF OF AWESOME. Leave us not forget STUNNING versions of old old songs too - his high notes on The Ferryman's Song (擺渡人的歌) ALWAYS get me, without FAIL, and OH MY GOD Legend of Widow Village (寡婦村傳奇), FUCK FUCK FUCKITY. It's one of my favourite of his lesser-known songs EVER, and he sang it SO beautifully I can't even deal.
HIS GUEST STAR. I was soooo skeptical about it at first, because it was this local dude that Emil had seen performing in a pub last year when he was here for the Lee Guitars concert of awesome. I... just wanted Emil to sing by HIMSELF, but I more or less reconciled myself to it figuring I could trust him and his taste in music. BOY COULD I EVER. Wynn is a fantastic piano player and has SUCH a voice - he and Emil dueted (AND HARMONISED, KTHX) on The Moon Represents My Heart (月亮代表我的心) and I Don't Like To Sleep Alone, and I THINK MY BRAIN LEAKED OUT OF MY EARS AT THAT POINT. Then they were kidding around and Emil tried to translate the lyrics of I Don't Like To Sleep Alone into Chinese (or Cantonese or god knows what) and it was HILARIOUS. I LOVE THIS MAN AND HIS DORKY BANTER/HUMOUR. BOYFRIEND FOREVER.
EMIL = DORK
The part of the concert that pretty much broke me in half, though? Came right at the end, when he sang Cui Can (璀璨) as his closing song. It's one of the loveliest songs he's ever written, all about the sadness and loneliness and desolation that comes over him when the curtain falls and he leaves the stage - and it never fails to make him cry. Of course, his fan club - armed with glow sticks and all in the same t-shirt - requested it, and he sang it. AND I WANTED TO DIE. I've NEVER seen him sing it live, beyond a couple lines, and I have a live version, I think, but it wasn't long. Well, he sang it this time, and he managed to keep it together at first, but I couldn't. I legit broke down into tears at that moment, though I wasn't hugely weepy, just teary. And then HE started crying and he couldn't sing all the lyrics and I was DONE.
Literally, the concert ended and I was just... so emotionally shattered and uplifted and IN LOVE, and when J came running over - looking equally drained AND high at the same time - I grabbed her and hugged her and we both squeed like crazy people. Even though the crazy emotional heights of the show and my attempts to stifle my coughing to salvage my audio (which is fucking ten thousand kinds of fabulous, btw) have basically broken me and made me even more ILL. But who cares, this was WORTH IT IN EVERY WAY.
I'm ALMOST done tracking. Oh god, he sang, like, 45 songs. LITERALLY. *cries* I LOVE THIS MAN AND HIS STAMINA OF AWESOME. How is it that he's 49 this year?!? Old enough to be my dad!! O_O
2. Oh god. I'm SO GLAD J and I get to see him again in exactly just under a month, in Taiwan this time, playing alongside a bunch of other incredibly talented people. I'm not sure anything could top this experience for sheer vocal awesomeness and amazing. But YAY for seeing him live again. How could I NOT see him every chance I can get? And how did I survive without seeing him live for the three years I was in university? WHO NEEDS A COLLEGE DEGREE ANYWAY. (Oh wait, I do...)
3. Man I am WIPED. Such an emotional day - other than Concert Of Epic Win, I also watched The Reader. Which I KNOW wasn't really much as a film: the script wasn't brilliant, the directing not especially outstanding... but I was pretty shattered by it nonetheless. I was weeping big-time at the end (why am I such a wimp?) - I think because Kate Winslet freakin' ROCKED her role and I just identify with people who like reading. Or something. *cries* I have learnt two things from this movie though: Kate = AWESOME; and there is NO UNIVERSE in which her role is a supporting one.
4. FOOD. Met SC and J for a quick dinner before concert, which was rushed through because literally we hit every traffic light on the way over. I had... a yummy French onion soup laden down with bread and cheese, and a vegetable casserole (I really DON'T like baked beans, fyi). Oh, and then because concert drained us and we were hungry and thirsty, J and I stopped for Taiwanese porridge on the way home. ♥
5. Oh goodness I just turned around and looked out and the SUN IS UP. It's 8.07am. I've been typing and tracking for very close to four hours now. *weeps* I'm going to finish up and set the 24,563MB audio to upload while I sleep.
6. BEST. CONCERT. EVER. JUST HAD TO SAY THAT AGAIN. ASDKLHALHDLAHDLASHDLHLFHLASDHLASDAS.