TEARS FOR FEARS LIVE IN SINGAPORE 2010

Everybody still wants to rule the world.....

I’ve been to several music concerts in this 2010, but Tears For Fears was personal for me. From all live performances in 2010, TFF was the only one I’ve been following since their first The Hurting in 1983. Oh my God, it’s been more than 25 years! And this was the first time I watched TFF live!

Going to the concert was a 50-50 chance for me, since it was officially published. I moved to a new job this year, and as usually happened to most people, getting permission for a leave by your boss was one step to impossible. However, the ticket was already purchased and there was a risk I’d lose everything. I was very lucky having an understandable boss for giving me permission to went overseas, and of course there was a price: hard work and hitting the target.
Oh well, I can live with that =)

So there I was, standing in front of Sentosa Resorts World Convention Center, Singapore with my friends, who worked and lived in this Merlion country. As you’ve already guessed, the luxury of having friends overseas was to have to convenient (and free!) bed to sleep overnight. All I have to do was fly to this country, and bring some cash for meals and shopping. I was feeling a bit guilty, for not telling my eldest daughter about coming to a TFF show. She’s 13 and she loves TFF as well. Her fave songs are Sowing The Seeds of Love and Shout. If she knew in the first place, she would have asked to come and forget school. From my part, I didn’t have enough money to pay for two.

I was in a mess, actually, that evening. Still having my backpack and books/ CDs I bought earlier. I arrived that morning and been wandering around. Killing time and went to buy some comicbooks, CDs, and DVDs. In the afternoon I joined my friends, whose office were located very near the venue. I was relieved knowing that I could bring all those stuffs inside, except the mineral water. Otherwise I’d have trouble in finding a locker to keep my belongings.
After scanning the merchandise booth, we went straight to venue. For me the merchandises were not that interesting. Just a drum cover, Singapore tour poster, and two vinyl-sized of The Hurting and Songs From The Big Chair cover album. All with signature from Roland and Curt. I was hoping for t-shirts.

The venue inside was interesting. I was expecting a ballroom shape like this, and couldn’t imagine the sound quality. There were several huge loud speakers on both side of the stage, and several hanging. We’ll see about this later.

Audience were seated, with numbers. No festival floors. A rock show with seated audience? You gotta be kidding! My seat was located on the rear, visually straight to the stage. This location of mine was constructed from steel and wood, with not-permanent folded chairs, and much higher than the seated row below. It was nice and convenient, but later I found out that the wooden floor rocked whenever you walked. Don’t even mentioned when you’re dancing to the songs....you wouldn’t get a good picture while the ground was shaking.

And as predicted earlier, most of the audience was Western foreigners (who worked in the country), Indonesians and Malaysians. My best guess Singaporeans filled around 1/3 of the floor. We were treated by various recorded music, among which was Kate Bush’s Babooshka. OMG.... I couldn’t even remember when was the last time I hear this song in public.

The opening act was a 30-minute performance of Michael Wainright (I hope I write his name correctly). Playing only with an acoustic guitar, he played around 5 or 6 songs. Quite lovely, as he told us that the album was produced (or written, I forgot) by him and Roland Orzabal. His voice, in my ears, were similar with Curt’s. Higher and wider range, perhaps. While he was singing, people were still talking and chatting everywhere, especially on front row right in front of stage. From a distance it looked like a high school reunion, with a home band performing. You know, busy with everyone and not paying enough attention to the home band.

Then the lights were dimmed and recorded Mad World from the Night of the Proms version were played.....the sound was beautiful! The choir, the string, everything! When Curt entered the stage, everybody stood and applaused....and this standing ended after the whole set!. Everyone on the seated floor were standing and soon it became a festival. I wish I were there, you know, joining the people in front of stage. The security wasn’t that tight, and we could walked down to the front. But I was too late. Some tens of people crowded there and even if I could join, I wouldn’t get a good view. So I just joined on occasion to take pictures. You wouldn’t get a good picture using a pocket camera from a distance.

TFF opened the set with Everybody Wants To Rule The World, and everything I’ve been waiting for more than 25 years exploded! I joined thousands of people singing along to every single song Roland & Curt sung: Secret World, Closest Thing To Heaven, Sowing The Seeds of Love, Call Me Mellow, Mad World (original version), Memories Fade (wasn’t sure bout this), Quiet Ones.

Roland and Curt’s performance was absolutely amazing and ing reat shape. Yes, they looked old, but their voice was top notch. Wainright joined as their backing vocalist. A lovely moment when Curt asked the audience,”Is there anyone here came from Jakarta?”

Roland made an introduction before playing the next song,”This next song is not available in any of our albums or compilations. But it always received great response.” I knew instantly that he was talking my fave song! Floating Down The River! Oh thank you TFF for playing that song!

After Everybody Loves A Happy Ending and a solo work from Curt (was it Sacred Sunday or Seven Sundays?), Roland sang lead on Michael Jackson’s cover, Billie Jean. Although the song was a real treat that evening, in my opinion it could have been better. To my ears the arrangement was more as a blues song than a simply nice cover song. However the lead guitarist (what was his name?) wasn’t blues enough, and Roland wasn’t blues either. There were many parts here and there that could have been more interesting.

TFF ended the show (of course before encore) with Pale Shelter, Break It Down Again, and Head Over Heels where almost everyone went crazy with the latter. As for the encore, the audience got Women In Chains (a remarkable vocal part by Wainright playing Oleta Adams’ part) and Shout. I’ve been standing and shouting and singing along for almost the whole set. The only rest I took was during Curt’s solo.

One of wishes came true that night (the others were David Bowie, Cirque du Soleil, and Porcupine Tree), and I do hope next time TFF will actually visit Jakarta.