Annabelle Fernandez
People started streaming in from 7:50 pm to get their places right in front of the stage, forming a worthy moshpit before the night of wondrous music began. The early birds of the concert swayed and grooved to pop-y beats before the double bill show started at 8:20 pm.
New York-based indie rock band WAS walked onto the stage with charming smirks on their faces, as ardent fans started screaming and cheering. The trio took the stage with the ‘Impatience’ from their 3rd studio album, Brain Thrust Mastery.
Other numbers that they played included ‘Rules Don’t Stop’, ‘Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt’, and ‘The Great Escape’.
Throughout the entire set, Keith Murray, the vocalist and guitarist for this 3-man band, pranced around the stage, soaking in the energy from the crowd. Even when he was doing his solos, he was living in the moment of music mayhem.
From time to time, there was banter between both guitarists (Murray and Chris Cain), which gave an extra comedic edge to the concert. One of the many on stage conversations included an owl, which they supposedly spotted on a tree behind the audience at the start of the show and which Chris believed fell off halfway their performance.
Fan Afiqah Hamid 19, student from NAFA said, “When they have their cute but odd conversations between themselves, they involve the audience too. Although they maintain their dorky-ness, they are really sexy! And that is what I love about them.”
With music inspired by Velvet Underground, The Rapture and David Bowie, We Are Scientist ended stunningly with their hit ‘After Hours’ that sent the crowd screaming and jumping into a moshpit full of chaos.
After all the warming up that We Are Scientist achieved, the crowd fell into murmurs as they waited impatiently for the main act – Neon Trees performing for the very first time in Singapore. With the front lights of the stage off, and minimal coloured spotlights dancing around, suddenly came a very carnival-ish opening number with quiet chants – “Singapore”. One of the audience members tried to shazam the song but to no avail.
When that song ended, the group entered and were greeted by a 1,500 strong crowd. The unknown-carnival song set the scene for Neon Trees to be somewhat theatrical. And that was what the crowd got.
They opened their concert with ‘Your Surrender’, the song that appeared in Disney’s movie Prom. And from that moment on, there wasn’t a decline in energy, partly due to front man, Tyler Glenn’s dance moves which involved him strutting all over the stage with his sexy and provocative hip movements.
The quartet turned the tamed audience into a rowdy one, performing ‘Helpless’, ‘Love and Affection’, ‘Farther Down’, ‘In the Next Room’. They alsooffered their rendition of Hall and Oates’ 80s song – ‘Maneater’.
The theatrical theme was complete with a little story-telling by Glenn before introducing the songs that they were about to play. One of these was the story of how he was born.
“In 1983, I was in my mama’s womb. I was born in November 28 1983! And I heard someone saying my name, Tyler! Tyler! Tyler! And when I came out of my mama I told her I would bring her to church!” which signalled the start of their second hit ‘1983’, that got the crowd moshing.
The energy from the house drove Tyler wild, and he was spotted crawling all over the stage, prancing all over with his wicked dance moves so that everybody from each part of the mosh could catch a glimpse of him and at the same time, soak in the energy that he was emitting.
Halfway through the show, the band asked the audience to give it up for their newfound friends – We Are Scientist. Tyler revealed his admiration for them for doing what they’re doing for such a long time. He added, “We’re so young and we’re able to come to this beautiful place and perform. Thank You!”
With his trademark hair – a triangular-sleek Mohawk, Tyler did more than just entertained Feng Qi, 21, a freelance photographer who has been a fan of Neon Trees even before they became popular shared, “Tyler was amazing. The whole band was amazing! They really connected with the audience with their energy and their music. I don’t regret coming for this concert, I hope that they would come to Singapore again”.
For all that build up, they ended abruptly with after a jam-packed finale. Which featured ‘Alarm’ from their extended play – ‘Start A Fire’, Our War, their hit – ‘Animal’, which won Top Alternative Song in the 2011 Billboard Music Awards and with the final song – ‘Love and Affection’. All that hype ended with nothing more than a good night with the band leaving the stage.
But the audience weren’t going to let the band from Utah go so easily, chanting “We want more! We want more!” And they were more than happy to come out for an encore ending on a high note with ‘Sins of My Youth’.
Photo courtesy of Aloysius Lim / LAMC Productions