Wednesday, October 24, 2012

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:


 

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