hongdou
01-13-2003, 02:34 AM
JAN 13, 2003
Now that's entertainment
Manga-inspired Jay Chou wrung himself dry at his sold-out show, making him the everyman's consummate entertainer
By Cheong Suk Wai
CONCERT
THE ONE
Jay Chou
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Last Saturday
ALL hail Jay Chou, the Michael Jackson of the East.
From his Thriller-like dance sequences to scuffed leather jackets and lavishly-sequinned robes, the man was entertainment exemplified at his sold-out shows here over the weekend.
Even his plaintive, mellifluous voice recalled Jackson at his finest in his Off The Wall days.
Saturday's show lifted off with Chou emerging from the depths of the stadium - in a sharkskin-like chair - to fireworks, lasers and smoke.
Clad in an Ultraman-meets-Batman suit, he rapped out Shuang Jie Gun (Nanchaku) while wielding the stick-and-chain weapon.
The 9,000-plus capacity crowd took that as acue to turn the stadium into a sea of cyalume waves. At least one girl punched the air with her cyalume stick to the beat of his songs for two hours straight.
Still, it took the shy rapper three fast numbers to warm up, not that his fans noticed. The audience resembled a Sun Myung Moon revival, with its creepy, incessant chants of Chou's Mandarin name, Zhou Jielun, and words to every one of his 24-song repertoire for the night.
No one fainted, but more than half of the audience were on their feet from the word go, transfixed by their idol.
At first, it seemed that he was not even pretending to make the effort, causing his laconic raps to be drowned out by gung-ho back-up singers.
Luckily for fans, he revved up about 20 minutes into the show, and - for the most part - displayed nifty footwork with his phalanx of energetic dancers. He is notorious for mumbling his lyrics, even on recordings.
Chou's appeal lies chiefly in his almost dogged insistence on just being himself and doing as he pleases onstage - and that included singing with a mike in one hand and bouncing a basketball with the other.
He kept the banter down to mumbled thank yous and scurried off stage without so much as a by-your-leave for each of his eight costume changes.
He played the misunderstood everyman to the hilt, while living out his fans' myriad fantasies on stage in a series of eclectic tableaux.
These included Chou the swordfighter slaying a bumbling green monster, gangsta Chou and freedom fighter Chou.
There was even a slam-dunk moment, when the manga-mad singer sparred with his best friend, Liu Keng-hung, onstage, within a makeshift basketball cage lowered from the ceiling.
He even found time to belt out the Leslie Cheung ballad, Zhui (Chase), in Cantonese.
What brought the house down were a sepia-tinted video clip of Chou at age seven - plinking on the ivories and pulling funny faces atop his piano stool - and his gut-wrenching cover of the Faye Wong torch song, Wo Yuan Yi (I Will).
The screams just would not die down, so he obliged with two encores, crooning his hit ballads Hui Dao Guo Qu (Returning To The Past), Xing Qing (Starry) and Kai Bu Liao Kou (Speechless).
It's not often that a man of many talents milks himself for every cent that fans pay to ogle him. Thanks, Jay, for a joyful start to 2003.
Now that's entertainment
Manga-inspired Jay Chou wrung himself dry at his sold-out show, making him the everyman's consummate entertainer
By Cheong Suk Wai
CONCERT
THE ONE
Jay Chou
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Last Saturday
ALL hail Jay Chou, the Michael Jackson of the East.
From his Thriller-like dance sequences to scuffed leather jackets and lavishly-sequinned robes, the man was entertainment exemplified at his sold-out shows here over the weekend.
Even his plaintive, mellifluous voice recalled Jackson at his finest in his Off The Wall days.
Saturday's show lifted off with Chou emerging from the depths of the stadium - in a sharkskin-like chair - to fireworks, lasers and smoke.
Clad in an Ultraman-meets-Batman suit, he rapped out Shuang Jie Gun (Nanchaku) while wielding the stick-and-chain weapon.
The 9,000-plus capacity crowd took that as acue to turn the stadium into a sea of cyalume waves. At least one girl punched the air with her cyalume stick to the beat of his songs for two hours straight.
Still, it took the shy rapper three fast numbers to warm up, not that his fans noticed. The audience resembled a Sun Myung Moon revival, with its creepy, incessant chants of Chou's Mandarin name, Zhou Jielun, and words to every one of his 24-song repertoire for the night.
No one fainted, but more than half of the audience were on their feet from the word go, transfixed by their idol.
At first, it seemed that he was not even pretending to make the effort, causing his laconic raps to be drowned out by gung-ho back-up singers.
Luckily for fans, he revved up about 20 minutes into the show, and - for the most part - displayed nifty footwork with his phalanx of energetic dancers. He is notorious for mumbling his lyrics, even on recordings.
Chou's appeal lies chiefly in his almost dogged insistence on just being himself and doing as he pleases onstage - and that included singing with a mike in one hand and bouncing a basketball with the other.
He kept the banter down to mumbled thank yous and scurried off stage without so much as a by-your-leave for each of his eight costume changes.
He played the misunderstood everyman to the hilt, while living out his fans' myriad fantasies on stage in a series of eclectic tableaux.
These included Chou the swordfighter slaying a bumbling green monster, gangsta Chou and freedom fighter Chou.
There was even a slam-dunk moment, when the manga-mad singer sparred with his best friend, Liu Keng-hung, onstage, within a makeshift basketball cage lowered from the ceiling.
He even found time to belt out the Leslie Cheung ballad, Zhui (Chase), in Cantonese.
What brought the house down were a sepia-tinted video clip of Chou at age seven - plinking on the ivories and pulling funny faces atop his piano stool - and his gut-wrenching cover of the Faye Wong torch song, Wo Yuan Yi (I Will).
The screams just would not die down, so he obliged with two encores, crooning his hit ballads Hui Dao Guo Qu (Returning To The Past), Xing Qing (Starry) and Kai Bu Liao Kou (Speechless).
It's not often that a man of many talents milks himself for every cent that fans pay to ogle him. Thanks, Jay, for a joyful start to 2003.