These YouTube sensations have been pals since middle school when they were barely teens, and both graduated from Yale, not in music but one with a major in Classical Greek, and the other in Mathematics. Their longstanding friendship meant an unseen but palpable chemistry onstage with each party knowing the other’s quirks and pet peeves. When asked by UrbanWire about a trait that they disliked about each other, neither could come up with an answer, with both parties giving a look of serious concentration.

Performing to a nearly sold out Kallang Theatre on Sep 12, musicians Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider brought to the 1,500 audience a 15-song repertoire as part of their Asian tour. This included both originals from Tsui’s latest album Make It Upin May as well as covers and medleys that have done well on both their channels.

Beginning the set to much anticipation from the crowd with an original and title track of his debut album, “Make It Up”. His performance of that song not only demonstrated Tsui’s vocal ability that gained the 25-year-old his 54 million (and counting) views on his YouTube channel, it proved his ability in starting a show with the highest possible amount of energy from the get-go with his more than energetic dance moves. Accompanying Tsui (who is of Hong Kong and American descent) on the keyboard was Schneider, who, despite his shy exterior, deserves considerable praise for his ability to dance despite the constraints of having to play an instrument.

Schneider, who was the producer of Make It Up, elaborated on the process of putting together an album during the press conference at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel on Sep 11. The Caucasian brunette cites keeping a balance during production as his greatest challenge. “There’s also sort of that balance between acoustic and keeping the integrity of the music and also giving it energy at the same time.”

Peppering their set with popular covers off their YouTube channels, the duo upped the energy with their summer pop medley, which included hits like Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend”, Gotye’s “Somebody I Used To Know” and Nicki Minaj’s “Starships” right after poignant tearjerker original, “Shadow”, which featured a thoroughly mellow Tsui crooning note after note.

“Shadow”, one of the few numbers off Make It Up that had a music video, drew its fair share of comments. One comment, however, stood out head and shoulders above the rest to Schneider. He related the story of reading a comment from a fan who admitted that the single saved his/her life. Looking slightly overwhelmed by the memory, he explained why at the press conference. “I don’t know what they were going through, but just knowing that anything that we can produce can have that effect on someone. It’s just really powerful to me. Reading comments like that, that means a lot.”

On the other end of the “meaningful” spectrum, Tsui mentioned a strange barrage of comments about his shoelace coming undone during the highly complicated, one-take music video of“Make It Up”.

Touching or weird, the fans mean a great deal to the grateful duo, who invited an extremely lucky 1 up on stage during a short cover of Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”. Surprising the audience by suddenly walking off stage and towards a fan, Tsui brought the exultant fan close to tears as she gazed at him in disbelief, even dancing with him when encouraged.

The 2 aren’t beyond having their own idols that they’d die to meet as well. Speaking to UrbanWire, Tsui said without hesitation that he’d love to meet flamboyant singer-songwriter Sir Elton John whereas Schneider admitted to wanting to meet songwriters Dr Luke and Max Martinafter finding out that they’re the brains behind his favorite songs growing up.

The audience were in for a double treat with both Schneider and Tsui serenading the crowd with their cover of “Cups (When I’m Gone)“, a song made popular by Anna Kendrick in the movie “Pitch Perfect“, complete with a table, actual cups and almost-perfect synchronisation (a feat considering the amount of concentration needed to pull the song off).

In spite of the efforts by the duo, the crowd remained seemingly passive, only standing up and dancing along towards the end of the show. This could have been because they were determined to enjoy the very presence of the duo. Alicia, 17, says it succinctly, “Standing up means blocking others and I don’t want to do that”.

Ending the set with the extremely upbeat “Wherever You Are”, Tsui and Schneider left the stage after thanking the audience profusely and a final wave, in preparation for meet-and-greet sessions with fans who managed to get their hands on the first tier tickets.

Concert photos courtesy of Launch Group 
Cover photo courtesy of Noel Sebastian Teo.