Rachael Yamagata Live in Concert at The Esplanade

was having a tummyache & a splitting headache from midweek beer...
The set list.:-)

Elephant
Be Be Your Love
What If I Leave
Little Life
Faster
Worn Me Down
Letter Read
Elephant (instrumental)
Even So
Meet Me By The Water
The Only Fault
Over And Over
Sidedish Friend
Accident
Sunday Afternoon
Duet
Reason Why

Ok. Proper review later.

*proper-ish review here:

First thing : I am not going to say anything about Jack & Rai except that their last track reminded me of Jeff Buckley's cover of Van Morrison's The Way Young Lovers Do. Thumbs up.


Comparing the setlist from the last time RY was here, the amazing thing was the coincidence in her choice of her last song in the encore numbers.
And that she is having a cold.
No point giving you a blow by blow account. There are probably scores of bloggers in the crowd last evening.
Just remember that Bill Pullman is the "secret crush" and that the haunting intro to Over And Over was the result of her channeling the trumpet ghost.

Setlist from Mosaic in 2007.
Letter Read
Collide
Be Be Your Love
What If I Leave (previewed in 2007 and in latest album)
Paper Doll
Under My Skin
Meet Me By The Water
Known For Years
Would You Please
Worn Me Down
Sunday Afternoon (previewed in 2007 and in latest album)
Reason Why

So here's the reason why (from reading too much about her in online interviews, not that it's official, please):
It's easy to read the lyrics of the particular song she had chosen for her encore. As the lead singer of a Chicago band content with staying in the club circuit, she was no longer satisfied with the constraints that being in a band had on her. She was no longer happy being the way the band had wanted her to be. The clever play of words - "to cover the tracks that I have left" , referring to the band's future need to get a replacement singer to sing the songs that used to be sung by her. I am guessing it is related to what she wanted to tell her former band. Rather than to any particular guy she used to be with. This is a break up song. But not between a boy and a girl.

Mosaic Music Festival Presents Kraftwerk

I cannot remember how many Mosaic Music Festival concerts I have gone to. 5, according to this blog. But I didn't blog about The Bird And The Bee. Not much coverage on Sondre Lerche as well. So there were actually more.

But last night was like watching Peter Hook spin in Zouk.

ray summarised it as, "paying homage to the grandfathers".

It wasn't completely full. I think it was opened up to Circle 3. We were stuck to the back row of Circle 2. There were the usual "too cool for school" people who were dressed like like they were going ReadySetGlo!!!, lots of angmos, homos, hobos and lobos. ok.

And if anyone from the Esplanade staff is reading this, please tell us what is wrong with taking pictures in a Mosaic show? It's not like anybody will mind. Unless the artists specifically stated "No recording of any kind", otherwise, relax and let the people take the pictures. The usher assigned to Circle 2 rows JJ area, she's a real workaholic. But took away some of the enjoyment. I understand she is doing her job. So the change should come from the management.

The Set List - could be wrong....I tried to remember bits of the track to fill in those I didn't know previously.


Kling Klang - I think this was played before the lights came on and some vocoded voice was talking. Kling Klang Records, the label which Kraftwerk release their albums through. Not to be mistaken with Chemical Brothers' If You Kling To Me, I'll Klong To You.
Man Machine Machine Machine Machine Machine Machine Machine MACHINE
Tour de France
Vitamin
Planet of Visions
Numbers - 12345678
Computer World
Home Computer
Pocket Calculator (the animation was from the website and this track together with the previous 3 tracks formed a mini set of their own)

Autobahn - oh classick from their 1974 eponymous album and the visuals started with the totally retro looking album cover. You'd never guess that with a cover like that, it'll actually develop a cult following.

Computer Love
The Model - oh my gawd.....the visuals.....I was telling auntie this sounded very 七月歌台.
Neon Licht
Showroom Dummies
Radioactivity - I had guessed that the bleeps were Morse code but it was always too fast for me. I used to go up to 4 wpm.
Trans Europe Express
The Robots - was sharing with the rest that any one of the robots they used for this track while "we're charging our batteries" made more movements than the four of them combined throughout their show.
Elektro Kardiogramm - spectacular!
Aero Dynamik - finally! a dancefloor friendly/ready number
Boing! Boom! Tschak!
Music Non Stop - fantastic closing number!

Mosaic Music Festival Presents Broken Social Scene

and I hope the rumors will break your fall
guess it's gonna be love for the fucked up kid

No Feist. But we live.

Finally got the chance to see them live after enjoying so many of their tracks. Not the biggest of fan but it was enjoyable nonetheless. got auntie to go with me since mong had to make it for her daddy's birthday dinner.

I am really glad that finally the concert-goers start getting off their butts and enjoy themselves. The ushers had difficulty trying to get people to keep their cameras and I think nobody got stopped once the concert started.

Their take on Lover's Spit (which alot of people were screaming for) held everybody in rapture. The whole concert hall just fell into a quiet hush.

It was surreal.

No encores, no need for that. Because they played their hearts out for more than 2 hours. Still have The Bird & The Bee and Sondre Lerche to look forward to this coming week. Woots! Totally like Mosaic Music Festival.

Skipped the autograph session, ate dinner at lousy Gluttons' Square. Met Saiful (Great Spy Experiment) but missed his gig which was at the entrance foyer at 9pm.

Past mosaic attendances. KoC. J. Gonzales. and R. Yamagata.

ah shit, guess I'm in love with the fucked up kid

Mosaic Music Festival Presents Rachael Yamagata

*I re-posted this because I added the setlist....which was really tough...and added the lyrics to Would You Please because it's so darn tragically beautiful.

I have never heard of a single track by Rachael Yamagata. Damn, I have a feeling that if not because of The O.C. soundtrack, she may not have gotten a chance to be at Mosaic Music Festival. Same for The Album Leaf. Okay, I'm kicking myself for not getting ticks The Album Leaf....

Like I said, I've never heard of a single track by Rachael Yamagata. Not consciously.

As she began to sing with her 4 piece band, I was starting to pigeon-hole her. Hmm...vocals like Joss Stone + Fiona Apple (no Norah Jones). Maybe a US version of Canadian Feist. An American Beth Orton. And when she sang Be Be Your Love, I thought hmm...maybe a female Ryan Adams.

It's a bad habit that I have, trying to pigeon-hole stuff.

She was so candid with her casual banter about her songs, trying to garner dates for her band members, dragging her drummer to her autograph session (an effort to find him a date, maybe).....

If there is a favourite throughout her concert, it would be "What If I Leave". Now to search for that EP.....

And after listening to her CD album that I bought at Esplanade, and did the queueing thing for over an hour to get her autograph, I must say the songs carry more personality when sung live. It was fantastic that she signed for all, cause I was like within the last 5 guys in the queue. And I had plenty of time as I was waiting for friends.

"Fantastic performance." I tried my best not to mumble. She looked up as she was signing, flashed a big smile and said "Thanks!".

I'm such a fan boy.

Letter Read
Collide
Be Be Your Love
What If I Leave (forthcoming album)
Paper Doll
Under My Skin
Meet Me By The Water
Known For Years
Would You Please (I MUST find the EP with this track!)
Worn Me Down
Sunday Afternoon (forthcoming album)
Reason Why

The above was really difficult because basically I knew I can't recognise a single track (never heard her before). So I just keyed in the bits of lyrics I heard in my phone. And with alot of help from songmeanings.net, I did it!

would you please
let me slide a few words
under your door

the first three say "I love you,"
the last five "but I can't no more,"
I don't believe in miracles
no, not like I did before

and would you please
let me slide a few words
under your door
and would you please
yeah, try to understand

there's a paragraph or two
devoted to the memories that we shared
in the dramatized songs about
how there'll be no more memories
no more memories

and if you'll notice in the corner
there's a tiny little heart I've enclosed
like a little surprise (oh yes, I did)
and if you'll please ignore
the smeared, smudged writing
it came from the tears in my eyes

you're probably gonna get it
after a long day
you may not even believe it's true
I know you know, you know
you know my crazy ways

yeah, but sleeping beauty is going to bed
she put a little tiny hole in her own head
gotta find her own way home
before she's dead

before she's dead...

Mosaic Music Festival Presents José González

I don't have time for a review yet. I'll just leave the set list behind....

Deadweight On Velveteen
4 Storm
Hints
All You Deliver
Stay In The Shade
Slow Moves
Broken Arrows
Remain
Lovestain
Down The Line (new song)
Hand On Your Heart (Kylie Minogue cover)
Teardrop (Massive Attack cover)
Crosses
Heartbeats (The Knife cover aka that Sony Bravia song)
Send Someone Away (Embee featuring José González)
Small Town Boy (Bronski Beat cover)

stay tuned for updates.....

Amongst the highlights:
First ever 11th Hour concert
Met Lena (or Lina?) with her friend (boyfriend?) Ben
Serendipitiously seated next to me
José comments on Singapore's Death Penalty
José stumbles on Heartbeats

Mosaic Music Festival Presents Kings Of Convenience

Begin
So I sat down in seat EE8 which I didn't think was so bad. Began surveying the concert hall. Nice and cosy. And some ambient track of discordant beats and blips. Sounds like an Intelligent (as oppose to "unintelligent"?) Dance Music track.

A while later, saw alot of familiar faces, people who frequented Zouk like xx's friend, pin's friend and mong's friend. Yeah, all of them are other people's friend. not mine.

This was the first sold out concert for the Mosaic Music Festival and it wasn't so unexpected because I bought the ticket on the second day it was released and the concert hall was already half-filled.

There were screens on the sides of the hall showing random visuals. Not entirely random either since it was actually coordinated by the opening act, this Singaporean guy who does IDM (Intelligent Dance Music). When he finished, a number of us clapped as he began shutting down his powerbook.

Couple on the Right
The couple seated on my right was adamant in not clapping. Instead they were wondering why should that clap for someone who was doing something useless. The lady was complaining to the husband(?) that she don't knnow what to make of the noise. And if only it ended earlier. As the stagehands were removing the equipment offstage, the husband pointed out that the useless performance further wasted time because the equipment had to be removed. These are "artsy" people okay. They attended Budak Pantai show before one okay? That was couple on the right.

Couple on the Left
Couple on left, the guy was trying to impress his girlfriend with music knowledge. Think the girl was the fan and not the guy. He commented that the crowd looks young and asked, "Are they sixteen? They look like they can't get into a club. Why would they be interested in Simon and Garfunkel songs?" This couple has tickets to jason mraz as well. But in the middle of the concert, the guy was looking so bored (as opposed to the people who can't enter clubs yet who were enjoying themselves thoroughly). Bigoted, with ego as fat as his waist. Pity the girlfriend.

Ladies and gentlemen......Kings of Convenience
Erlend and Eirik walked to the middle of the stage and pretty soon started the concert with the same song they always start with: Until You Understand (see below for full tracklisting).
They really looked relax and Erlend was soon engaging the crowd with some banter about how there are empty seats although the festival folks told them that theirs was a sold out show. Erlend thought the seats reserved for the sponsors were empty and encouraged people to take them and amidst the talking, they broke out into their second song: Love Is No Big Truth.
The empty seats were filled before the 4th song started.
The two were talking about how they found it really amazing to be playing before 1600 people in Singapore. They chatted about Bergen, Sweden and were teasing about each others' mums. Only the most optimistic of people will believe that two guys with two guitars can play halfway around the world in a sell-out concert after only two albums. Apparently Eirik isn't one of them. He was saying, "I don't consider myself as one of those optimists." and you can actually hear a number of female voices sighing like they would really want to mother him or something. In the same breath he introduced the next song: Winning The Battle, Losing The War.
Then it was a new track! Offbeat. Eirik was on the piano. Catchy refrain.
I was blogging sometime ago in january that Feist, the canadian singer they collaborated with on Riot On An Empty Street wasn't going to be around but they did Know How anyways with us singing along. Fun Fun FUN!

Imagine you are in Norway....
Then the whole concert hall was bathed in darkness as KoC lulled the crowd with Homesick, dreaming about Norwegian Christmases. We whistled along, providing the viola backing that usually accompanied Stay Out Of Trouble. I must point out at this juncture that both guys on my right were almost falling asleep (maybe they are!) and didn't participate in any of the humming, singing or whistling. Erlend tickled the ivories (lousy cliched phrased) and did an improv at the ending of a medley of Singing Softly To Me/The Girl From Back Then.

EIRIK, YOU'RE THE BEST!
Eirik was bantering with the crowd when a lady screamed out, "EIRIK, YOU'RE THE BEST!" and I think he might have been genuinely embarrassed but remained composed. He then asked if there was anybody amongst us who was celebrating their birthday since there is a probability of 4 in 1600 of us being borned on 16 Mar. KoC then sang a traditional Norwegian birthday song (with some help from the dozen Norwegians seated in the hall). The title of the Norwegian birthday song is Bursdagssangen which I found out from this site: click here Erlend said he knew there were 2000 Norwegians in Singapore and was expecting 1600 of them to be at their concert and was thankful that wasn't the case. He pointed out that the Norwegians were the blondes, in case we miss them. Right.

ERLEND, YOU'RE THE BEST!
We were humming along to Misread and when it ended, some guy shouted, "ERLEND! YOU'RE THE BEST!" and Eirik replied, "He knew that."
Things really got into the swing when they played I'd Rather Dance With You but they said it was their last song. Someone amongst us shouted, "LIAR!" haha. They soon got people to dance on the stage, only after much haggling with the security and pleading from Erlend. So about 8 ladies or so (no guys) went on stage and started some "round the mulberry bush" or "maypole" thingy. Erlend was showing some of his moves that really got us going. Finally he asked, "Hey, aren't you tired of sitting?" and it was all the catalyst needed to get EVERYBODY up. Yes, even the two guys next to me, after about a minute of refusals and denials. So there was dancing by just about everyone, on stage, off stage. When they finished, the ladies gave them hugs (the girl who thought Eirik is the best was on stage, naturally).

ENCORE!
All of us were so bullish in getting them out refusing to stop clapping and begging them to come out. They finally obliged with two songs, Little Kids and Manhattan Skyline (A-Ha cover). By this time, everyone who had a camera was whipping them out and was trigger happy and it was really funny seeing security scurrying around, haplessly trying to stop them. Damn! No camera.
And when it was finally over, Eirik and Erlend took turns to take pictures of us from the stage. Erlend body surfed into the crowd and Eirik snapped a few more shots. I wonder how many of such shots do they have? And then it was all all over. Missed the autograph session. Drats!


Full Tracklist
1. Until You Understand (Track from UK Promo Playing Live In A Living Room)
2. Love Is No Big Truth
3. Cayman Islands
4. I Don't Know What I Can Save You From
5. Winning The Battle Losing The War
6. The Boat Behind (New song! Can't find it in any lyric search engine on the internet! I thought I heard Erlend say the title was Offbeat*)
7. Know How
8. Homesick
9. Stay Out Of Trouble
10. Singing Softly To Me/The Girl From Back Then
11. Toxic Girl
12. Gold In The Air Of Summer
13. Bursdagssangen (Traditional Norwegian Birthday Song)
14. Misread
15. I'd Rather Dance With You
16. Little Kids
17. Manhattan Skyline (A-Ha cover, from 1986 Scoundrel Days)

And for those who were there, we all sounded really fantastic when we were humming along to Misread, singing along to Know How. I am listening to it over and over. ;0) Thank god for iPod and iTalk.
*Just read Yeow Kai Chai's review of the performance. Apparently he heard it as Offbeat as well. But the KoC giglist puts it as The Boat Behind. You can hear the mp3 of the song online by clicking the song which was played even in June 2005. But he could be wrong as well, Mr Yeow, because, and I am being anal here, thought Homesick was the opening track for Riot In An Empty Street. I believe the album was Riot On An Empty Street and the opening track for the album, unless you have got the Mars release limited edition pack, is Winning The Battle, Losing The War.