Since the release of his debut EP in 2010, Kyle Patrick, lead singer of The Click Five, has been working on carving out a solo career by going on an Asian tour. The idea of performing in our “beautiful Singapore” was interesting enough to tweet about, which ultimately led to the show being held at TAB on Dec 20.

The night began with standard introductions, getting acquainted over one or two friendly songs and thanking the fans. But what followed, none of us expected – a broken guitar string, candid conversations and questions, lessons in Singlish and one heck of a Christmas party. The cosy, intimate environment was more of a casual jamming session in the pop star’s living room rather than a show in front of the adoring fans, and one special member of the audience watching the show through FaceTime.

 

Going Solo

Singing tracks from his first solo creation that began back in 2008, Kyle serenaded the teenage girl majority in the audience as he belted out the heartfelt lines of each of his songs. Despite the candid informality of the night, ‘Who Can I Run To’ and snippets of ‘Light at the End of the Tunnel’ and ‘Just Like My Heart Falls’ were emotional performances that revealed how personal each are.

During the course of the night, a few song requests were taken in addition to the Christmas songs requested on Kyle’s Twitter. A popular request was a song Kyle wrote about a girl he had amazing chemistry with despite her being attached, leaving him wishing they’ll be together in “another life” (the title of the song). During the emotional climax of the chorus, the charming crooner broke a guitar string at the intensity of the moment. Not letting it get to him, he resumed the chorus with 4 strings and a set of strong vocals.

 

In the band

3 singles from The Click Five’s second album (Kyle’s first with the band), Modern Minds and Pastimes, were immediate crowd pleasers. With a birthday girl in the crowd, the bandleader performed ‘Happy Birthday’ and topped it off with the occasional rocker hair flick.

The avid fans in the crowd did an impressive job singing the harmonies and accompanying parts to the moving number ‘Empty’, but nothing beat the audience’s reaction to ‘Jenny’. Everyone got on their feet as they sang (or screamed) the lyrics of the hit single.

With a restrung guitar, Kyle performed their most recent work ‘Don’t Let Me Go’, in collaboration with MTV Exit to raise awareness about human trafficking.

 

It’s Christmas time

In line with the holiday season, popular Christmas songs such as Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas’ were performed with Kyle’s “Baby” – what he affectionately named his custom Gibson.

Besides being a master on the piano and guitar, the multi-instrumentalist worked his magic on the omnichord, performing ‘Jingle Bell Rock’. One line into the song, he paused and puzzled over what seemed like wrong lyrics that he got off the Internet. All that worked to his advantage when it became a fun joke.

Who knew that in addition to playing many instruments, the musician could include varied vocals. The pop singer didn’t fail to amuse the giggly crowd as he nailed Elvis’ deep, soothing vocals with his ‘The Christmas Song’ Elvis impersonation.

After a moving performance of his original ‘Second Life’, Kyle pointed at the back of the room and froze for what seemed like forever, before a loud “Ho ho ho… Merry Christmas!” blasted over the speakers. Within seconds, the man transformed into a gold Santa and gave out presents to the Christmas remix of LMFAO’s ‘Party Rock Anthem’. Everyone in the crowd went positively wild, dancing and flailing their arms in hopes of grabbing a present.

Photos courtesy of Noel Teo.

Towards the end of the show, the winners of the Golden Tickets from a 98.7FM game were announced, entitling them to a coffee or ice cream date with the star of the night. The shimmering gold outfits might have been the lucky charm for 3 of his fans as they were brought up on stage for the audience to vote on the best outfit. Rachel Ho, was decked out in a gold sequined hat, top and skirt, making her the winner of the fifth Golden Ticket.

The hour seemed to pass in an instant as the show drew to a close with the anthem-like ‘Go For Gold’. We can look forward to Kyle visiting us again soon, with the upcoming release of his latest EP and his love for all things Singaporean (chicken rice is a must-eat each time he visits).

It also seems like he has a knack for Singlish, repeating the fact that “there’s so many chio bu’s here tonight!”