Renald Loh
If The Script deliberately started the concert 45 minutes late in order to prove a titular point with their album No Sound Without Silence, that would be the greatest concert play-on-word gag ever.
Just kidding. The band from Dublin lit up the Singapore Indoor Stadium arena (quite literally) on Apr 21 by marching in with 20 over glowing green flags resembling Yoda’s lightsaber. Hitting the eager crowd with the anthemic album opener “Paint The Town Green”, followed by “Hail Rain or Sunshine”, hardcore fans could be heard singing along to Danny O’Donoghue’s every word – this despite us only ever experiencing hail once.
As the crowd settled down after favourites “Breakeven” and “Before The Worst”, guitarist Mark Sheehan took the chance to explain that they were held up because of a technical issue. “I’ll tell you what it is, it’s this f***ing big stupid screen that we’ve got behind us,” he accused with a strong Irish accent before issuing the crowd a task: “Everybody give this screen the finger!” The crowd roared and obliged, and you could sense the nervous parents in the crowd simultaneously cover their kids’ eyes.
It’s apparent that the trio loves to make each of their concerts special for their fans, and this one wasn’t different. The last time they were here in 2013, they donned sarongs and straw hats as they took a mass selfie with the crowd. This time, they garlanded themselves with orchids, Singapore’s national flower. And this was the least of the interesting things that the crowd were treated to.
After their chart-topper “Superheroes” and “Man On A Wire”, Mark revealed that the band received hate mail for discontinuing their signature gag which they always carried out at concerts – and so, lucky us, it was back on schedule. Since we’d never been to The Script’s gigs before, when Mark rallied for the audience to start calling their exes, the only thing we thought was, “No way…” Even more intriguingly, the girl beside us shouted, “They don’t deserve this!”
Danny grabbed the phone from a lady in the first row. “Hello Dan? This is Danny from The Script… Your ex-girlfriend wanted me to sing you a song so here goes.” Admittedly, it was a tad bit weird considering “Nothing” was sung from a man’s point of view, but it was still by far the most epic opening for a song we’ve experienced in a concert (although we hope you’re not the one on the receiving end the next time The Script comes to town).
And talk about fan engagement. At first, the audience was confused when The Script disappeared from stage for a while after a beer chugging contest between Danny and Mark. And then there was a unified realisation that another stage was set up on the opposite end of the arena. They had given a chance for the fans that couldn’t afford better tickets to be up close and personal! (Including us — we were pressed up against the barricade by fangirls at this point.)
“Never Seen Anything ‘Quite Like You’” and a special arrangement of “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” followed, before Danny took a selfie stick and strut around most sections of the stadium, rubbing shoulders with his adoring following. One fan we met on the train after the concert couldn’t stop bragging about how he (yes, it’s a he) managed to get a feel of Danny’s chest, twice. Not weird at all, bruh.
At this point, the “big stupid screen” started to work again, and those lucky enough to be near him managed to see themselves projected in front of everyone. Hits like “Six Degrees of Separation”, “For The First Time” and “The Energy Never Dies” featured stunning on-screen visuals and colourful stage lights, and they perfectly accompanied the entire arena waving their phone lights around to produce a wonderful sight. The set ended with “Hall of Fame” and bursts of confetti falling onto the star-struck and thoroughly satisfied assembly.
If you weren’t there that day, you don’t have to wait too long for them to be back on our sunny shores; Danny promised it’d be less than two years before The Script returns. So will we, to catch the next unsuspecting ex-boyfriend completely dumbfounded.
Tell us what you think of the concert in the ‘Comments’ section below!
Photos courtesy of: Midas Promotions, Dan Walsh and Renald Loh