Post-Concert Review: Marié Digby live @ Singapore's Esplanade concert hall, 18 Oct 2012

American singer-songwriter Marié Digby played her very first Esplanade show last Thursday night. I had really digged her music during her Unfold (her debut album, where she has quite the killer sensitive singer-songwriter gems on there, just sayin’) days, and was even able to get tickets to her private showcase here in Singapore in 2008.  From the cramped crowds in the club back then to our posh Esplanade venue last week, I was thrilled to note that the (stripped) set-up was still pretty much the same- acoustic guitars and percussions- just the way I like it, and the venue was, per-fectly appropriate.

Marié (pronounced ma-ree-eh) was as, if not more, as amiable as I remembered. And this time, I got to really enjoy her very polished and distinguishably girly vocals comfortably, seated where I was at the balcony area on the second level J The concert venue was half-filled that night, say about 500-ish people were in the house but, that sure didn’t spoil the fun for us who were there!

The ‘opening’ act, if one could call it that (*roll eyes*), was local performer Natalie Hiong who performed a grand total of ONE song, called Go Fly A Kite. I was actually quite stoked when I knew beforehand that she was opening, because I’d listened and actually even reviewed her Little Heart EP before. So when she was performing that first (and turned out the only) song on stage and playing the guitar with just one other guitarist, I really liked that she had the same singer-songwriter-girly-pipes vibe as Marié going on. You can picture me being quite baffled and hence let down that she ended her ‘set’ so abruptly.

However, the actual performer that everyone came to watch more than made up for it, I must say! 15 minutes later, though Marié walked on the stage looking all glam in her glittery, swishy, show dress, and as she announced later on, ‘my what? Must be, what, 5-inch heels…?’, she was welcomely warm and interactive before starting on her first song- by sharing with the audience that she was really glad to be playing for the first time at the esplanade and at such a nice venue, and that she’ll be playing a bunch of the older tunes. She first opened with an unreleased song, My Great Mistake and halfway through, a group of fans in the front rows started clapping in a synchronised manner which got her to exclaim excitedly in the middle of the song, ‘Alright! I see we’ve got some Digbyholics (members of her Philippines street team) in the house!’

For most of her songs she played that night, Marié intimately shared the background stories to them. Almost all of which always involved a boy who either made her sheepishly giddy (Stupid For You), reflective and appreciative of the simple things (unreleased song Sleeping Next To You) and even all fangirl-ish over an unnamed actual rockstar (Voice On The Radio)- all of which she channelled into her signature earnest ballads and ditties. Before playing her second piano song of the night, the song Beauty In Walking Away, she apologised to the audience that she simply had to take off her five-inch open-toed boots as she couldn’t step on the grand piano’s pedal properly. After delicately propping her black boot (she only needed her right foot to be free) decoratively beside her seat, on the floor facing the audience, and with everyone’s dignity still sound, Marié admirably proceeded to tinkle the keys in a fancy way as befitting the chi-chi venue (Beauty In Walking Away does have some pretty notes on there, me thinks).

What would a Digby gig be without a cover or two thrown in? Of course, one of which HAS got to be the Umbrella song, where Marié invited a shy fanboy from the front row, to join her up onstage to back her up. Beyoncé’s Sweet Dreams, where before starting, Marié drew an audibly exaggerated breath and wiggled her fingers over her upper body and ordered herself to, ‘channel-ing…Beyoncé!’  All she needed to do was swivel a fierce hair whip to complete her improvised impersonation. Anyway, Sweet Dreams was arranged in a refreshingly different and off-the-hook (but still dreamy) and hence, legitimately cool way. What wasn’t cool was that for some reason, the Esplanade staff were SUPER STRICT that night about their ‘no video, no photography’ policy. Come on, Esplanade/concert promoter EOY/ Marié Digby’s management, (whoever’s responsible), what’s the harm in fans wanting to record some concert memories? If anything, whoever were not there would be able to catch up on Youtube or blogs and may be attracted to show up the next time right? Right. You restrict, you lose. I know for a fact that Greenhorn Productions is cool in this department J

Ok, back to the concert review. Also, for some reason, Marié voice shone through way more when she was on the keys than on the (guitar) strings that night. I thought she looked real fetching though with one of her reddish-coloured guitar, which complemented her drapey open-back maroon dress she had changed into during the intermission break. Songs unplugged on the piano sounded outstanding and were such a pleasure to hear 'live' like I Do, Bring Me Love- where Marié okay-ed first with the audience that it wasn’t too early to play a (original) Christmas song and went on to share that she had ironically written it during a late summer period (‘the best songs always are’, she concurred), and her encore never-fails-to-impress song Spell- where ironically, she lamented beforehand that it was written about yet another boy whom she tried for a long time to impress but he didn’t get her intention and only seemed ‘spell-bounded’ when she was performing her songs at gigs.

 

All I can say is, we were fully enchanté that night, Marié. It must have been fun for Marié too I’m sure, as she seemed to be in an appreciative mood, and even had her parents supporting her out front- whom she gave a shout out to her ‘mama and papa, the only really white guy you see in the audience’

And, I can attest that she does look somewhat adorably like a fairytale princess character in person. I said hi and met her up close at the autograph signing session after the concert, and can report that she genuinely has such fair skin, a petite face, and huge, dark manga eyes (she was probably wearing contacts, but still). :D Lookie, compare the two pics below of a manga snow white and a photoshoot Digby, freakilicious or whut:

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PS: I did still capture some concert pics for meself though, as seen in this blog post. I'll post up better pics that the 'profs' were visibly allowed to snap away that night, when they turn up on the internet. However, it's close to a week, and I still haven't seen them anywhere yet -_-. So much for the profs.

Setlist (as far as I can remember to jot down the songs, should be pretty accurate):
1) My Great Mistake
2) Breathing Underwater
3) Stupid For You
4) Beauty In Walking Away
5) Sleeping Next To You
6) Sweet Dreams (Beyoncé cover)
7) Umbrella (Rihanna cover)
8) Swoon
9) Voice On The Radio
10) I Do
11) Bring Me Love
12) Unfold
13) Say It Again
14) Spell (Encore)

Sounding even more precious live (of course, duh) but still, quite darn perfectly recorded:

 

Post-Concert Review: James Morrison live @ Singapore's Esplanade concert hall, 2 Oct 2012

 

My October’s definitely got off with English swag, in the form of one of the UK’s darling lads, singer-songwriter Mr James Morrison. I was completely sold when I watched him ‘live’ for the very first time at the recording of MTV Sessions in April (and when I didn’t care much about his songs before that).

Therefore, I nary batted an eyelid at the slightly outrageous ticket price for his first official gig here in Singapore, that which costs close to $200 for front-row seats.  Mind you, it is the most expensive concert ticket for me for a single artiste yet. But hey, y'all know that saying, 'You can't (really) put a price on art...'

Gig run-downs:

-          Following a quick minute’s long of instrumental introduction by his touring band,  James Morrison walked onstage with a brief wave and took his position at the mic stand in the center. He then flashed a nervous grin and was like, ‘Alright people, let’s do this!’ .

-          He started off his set to a determinedly cheery showing with Beautiful Life, a song off his latest The Awakening album.  I didn’t think it strange then (probably because I’d expected it, having looked through online the setlist for his previous show in Indonesia) but looking back, it seems a tad odd to choose it as an opener. Normally, artistes would choose an oft-played single for their first song of the night (or at least, an insanely catchy  earworm from their latest album), to get the crowd pumped and all.

        Well, Mr Morrison got the crowd amped a tiny notch. The fact that he launched into This Boy (still not a single, and this time, a song taken from his debut album from ages ago) did not help to up the crowd’s anticipation level, and whose reaction at that point was – to politely make teeny head-nodding movements.

-          Me? Don’t mind me, but I’m simply a JM girl and was in a goopy place, where I was literally just lying back in my cushy chair, and being all ‘in the zone’. Haha.

-          The songs which followed for the first half of his set were his career-defining, impassioned ballads like (in setlist playing order) I Won’t Let You Go- I presently heart this song more than ever, what with Jason Mraz’s spring hit I Won’t Give Up seeping into our consciousness this year, Up- where James did duet this time (which he mistakenly chose not to at the MTV gig) with his worthy diva-licious of a backup vocalist, and Broken Strings- where he did not drastically change keys (like he did for the MTV Sessions) during the Nelly Furtado parts and which he performed very divinely unplugged at our acoustic-friendly Esplanade that night. Once James got those ‘impress-the-hearts-out of my mostly virgin audience in this posh venue’ segment out of the way, he was ready to PAR-TAY.

 

  ^As you can see from the video above, it seemed like James couldn’t wait to put the moves on us after he finished his Most Sensitive Song of The Night, by declaring, ‘ok, no more of this laziness, I want you people to get (yo heavy bums) off your seats.’ *cue folks squealing and springing to their feet* :D

-          Morrison then shook off his hindering acoustic guitar for songs like Slave To The Music- I do reckon a jolly fun ‘live’ song to hear and sing back along to, and which James was thrusting his pelvis to while belting into his mic (can he help it, with the MJ-like ‘Whoo Hoos’ in there?), I’m A Man- where the music vibe of the gig suddenly got into a weird place oweing to the loudness and gaudy macho feel of this Spencer Davis Group cover. But all in good fun though. This was when James kept running all over the stage and sliding on his knees and acting all rock-starish. I love James, don’t get me wrong, but I found it just that bit bizarre, because, James had on  long cottony snuggly sleeves, and casual skater kicks that night (unlike at his MTV gig where he was decked out in heavy, stylish denim)- attire more suited for, i dont't know, a chilled night out playing pool?? 

-          This was also when, major grouse here, the sound kept getting worse and worse. I couldn’t hear the instruments properly on the speakers anymore and the drums became really ‘bare’ and stinkingly overpowering (like the raw-ness of when a band is jamming in the studios). Needless to say, James' voice was kinda drowned out by the band and this continued till the end of the night. It felt like I was suddenly transported to a pub or something. This unfortunate sound problem may actually be due to my location of being front-row because when I watched videos of people who were on the floors on top, the sound seemed to sound like how it should- resounding and musically proper. However, I’ve also been told that when too many instruments come on, the sounds do get distorted at the esplanade. This sound phenomenon explanation probably rings true because when I was at the Ingrid Michaelson unplugged gig at this same Esplanade venue 3 weeks ago, the music and vocals were in a word, heavenly.

       This fugly sound effect reminds me of when I was at the Kris Allen gig too, a couple of years ago (and which I will upload vids on my Youtube channel again when I have the time), where the sound was pretty darn bad-ffling as well, but the audience then rationalised because he was merely playing at a night club (Zirca).

Concert verdict:

Wellll, I guess you can’t fault a performer who’s such a crowd pleaser. And one thing I commend about performers like James Morrison, he genuinely looked like he was ardently having the time of his life the entire time. Heck, he even did the classic ‘soccer victory match’ gesture while exiting off the stage after his encore, by, lifting his shirt and pulling it over his face, while doing the rocker pose like so:

 

The concert length was ok, running slightly more than an hour and a half. However, it felt like James was trying really hard to affect the audience (probably because the seats are situated so near the stage and it was a packed house), and in the process, he didn’t (or could have forgotten?) to banter with the audience, which numbered roughly 1,500 in total that Tuesday night.

It would have been nice, if the setlist had included more of his older songs. I know this is called The Awakening Tour in support of his latest album, but, it’s his first official show in this part of our shores, and, it’s probably safe to say that many in the audience are fans, you know? Also, half the songs on his setlist were the same as his MTV Sessions recording, so can you blame this girl if she expected more variance?

All in all, a very well-oiled and put together band (many of whom have played for James Morrison for years). Till the next tour, mates!


PS: Thinking of covering one of James' hits this week. Check back soon for update, if any. ;)