Review on Kewei & Friends Showcase @ Esplanade Waterfront! (Updated)

Quality Photos Section (Updated on 20 July 2009 1041hrs):

I don't want to ill-treat my blog readers who have been following my blog all these while so even in the middle of the night, I was sourcing for quality photos of the above-mentioned event from those elite photographers present at the venue and two of them generously offered their photographs for display. Thank you so much to Jean and Ivan from Facebook! ^__^ Here we go!

(Photo Credits to Jean Qingwen Loo / http://logue.sg ) Looks who's enjoying herself with the guitar. Hahaha.

(Photo Credits to Jean Qingwen Loo / http://logue.sg ) Ein Ein was one brave soul last night. She was feeling unwell and specifically requested extra backup vocals but she did everything she could in her condition and delivered her own song pretty well. Keyboardists can sing well too.

(Photo Credits to Jean Qingwen Loo / http://logue.sg ) This is the cool looking guitarist with a fantastic backdrop of the Singapore skyline. He did not speak a single word but he was very steady in providing the music accompaniment for the whole night.

(Photo Credits to Jean Qingwen Loo / http://logue.sg ) "Take-away" and "Take-a-sing" (aka Tay Kewei and Tay Kexin). Their voices blend in surprisingly well even though their vocal ranges were different. Loved their duets.

(Photo Credits to Jean Qingwen Loo / http://logue.sg ) Kewei and her friend enjoying themselves onstage, captivating the audience. The praises were still pouring in on Kewei's facebook account right now.

(Photo Credits to Jean Qingwen Loo / http://logue.sg ) Dawn who was one of the few guest performers who made a proper introduction of who she was. She has that star quality and presence.

(Photo Credits to Jean Qingwen Loo / http://logue.sg ) Kewei and Leon performing in the cool evening breeze at the Esplande Outdoor Theater. It was a perfect evening to be watching such a beautiful showcase.

(Photo Credits to Jean Qingwen Loo / http://logue.sg ) The talented percussionist at the back area of the stage. He seemed to possess tireless energy with his hands for the entire evening.

(Photo credits to Lim Yaohui) Kewei beaming in the glowing stage lights. I kept hearing some of the girls saying "She is so pretty! She is so pretty!" Need I say more? Haha.
(Photo credits to Ivan Ivanified) Kewei and Alfred in a Mandarin duet. Alfred has a very lush and manly voice, which is very rare amongst the singers these days and the audience loved his style of singing.
(Photo Credits to Jean Qingwen Loo / http://logue.sg ) If anyone was totally enthralled by last night's showcase, this young little boy was thoroughly mesmerized by it.


Blog section:

I admit my camera is probably the worst lens present there. Initially, I did not want to even upload the photos but I decided to continue until I can grab some better shots from some pro photographers who were using those night-vision camera lens. For now, bear with me with all these sub-standard shots (I minimized them to avoid all those horrible colour warps)
I arrived at the Esplanade Outdoor Theater at around 5.30pm and saw Kewei speaking to the sound and lighting crew. Seeing that she was busy, I did not want to approach to say hi (even though she did sang the song Closer To Me later on..haha) so I perched myself at one of the seats and blend myself in with the twenty people already seated there.
The showcase started promptly at 7.30pm and Kewei featured quite a number of her friends in between her solo performances. This one shows Leon Lim. Kewei herself sang as many as ten songs on her own.
This one is Kewei singing with backup vocals from her friend. I think her name is Ginny Lim.This one is called Dawn Wong who has a handful of supporters and fans present and they cheered her on.
This is Ein Ein, the keyboardist who had at least 3 song compositions sung by the other performers and she herself sang one of her own work as well.
This is Kexin Tay, Kewei's younger sister and both of them sang two duets onstage.
This is Kitty, a FM 93.3 radio deejay, who was also a guest performer. She chatted alot onstage and claimed it was due to her frayed nerves onstage - her maiden performance at a live setting.
This is Alfred Sim, who was also a top 20 contestant for the One Million Star Season 5 Singapore PK Challenge competition. He also sang two songs - one solo and one duet with Kewei.

The whole showcase ended at 9.30pm sharp and I made my way home as I was already quite tired.

Review Section:

I'll go through the smaller not-so-nice things before the larger nice ones and I'll cut to the chase.

Not-so-nice thing 1 - The arrangement of the songs were a little dull. I know Kewei had already mentioned that it was a showcase of new song compositions but as far as I could see, there were at least 10 different groups of people in the audience and not all of them seem to want to absorb new songs readily so there could have been an alternate arrangement between new and familiar songs to keep the atmosphere of the outdoor theater up and more cheery.

Not-so-nice thing 2 - The accompanying friends of Kewei were not given proper introductions as to who exactly they were, what they do and why they were onstage to sing. For almost all of them, the audience only managed to catch their names. Although singing is a major draw for the showcase, having actual personalities (rather than just names) will actually help people to remember the songs better.

Not-so-nice thing 3 - The music accompaniment sometimes compete with the vocal singing instead of complementing the singing portions - 歌声与伴奏争辉则光华不续. Live settings usually face this problem but the presence of a good sound coordinator would have solved this problem but adjusting the various instruments sound output accordingly based on the song so that maximum enjoyment is secured.

Not-so-nice thing 4 - Kewei wanted to advertise for her upcoming album next year but she did not fully grasp the opportunity to commandeer the finale song properly. Maybe she was tired or too excited but her 如果 song sounded rushed and a bit garbled and did not leave the kind of indelible impression she had wanted. For her duet with Alfred, her singing drowned out Alfred's at certain portions when it should have had a smoother blend instead.

Not-so-nice thing 5 - Some of Kewei's friends, for example, Leon and Dawn, did not sound clear enunciating their lyrics and at certain parts seemed to be rushing their performances. I believe the songs would have been more enjoyable if they had taken their time with it. Perhaps there was a serious time limit to the concert, if so, then less is more could have been applicable.

Not-so-nice thing 6 - I noticed that whenever the guest performers were waiting for their turns or had finished their performance turns, they were literally standing at the side of the stage or even sitting at the side stairway to the stage itself. Although it's just a showcase, I thought it was the organizers' fault for not arranging at least some chairs for them to sit on. Some thoughtfulness would have been nice.

Alright. Now for the Nice things of the Showcase.

Nice thing 1 - I like how Kewei refrained from being pushy like some of the upstart bands which performed at such outdoor settings. The latter always seemed to try to rouse the audience into all sorts of cheering and actions but they forget their place (those upstarts, though hardworking, ain't famous enough to command the audience yet). Kewei was intelligent enough to know the difference and use such rousings sparingly to avoid alienating the crowd too much.

Nice thing 2 - The guest performers were of a reasonable standard in singing skills and presentation (except the radio deejay who was spared because she was not trained in singing unlike the others). It gives a certain measure of credibility to the showcase though I would have loved to see some of the guest performers smile a little bit more.

Nice thing 3 - The showcase did highlight quite a number of local song compositions, which give very good exposure to the audience present about what the local songwriters are capable of. Although some of the songs' notes were a little hard to grasp, the lyrics were meaningful and the songs sounded good in general.

Nice thing 4 - The entire feel of the showcase was that of sincerity, which is very good because humility coupled with the courage to publicise the local works will go a long way. Singapore is still quite unweaned from foreign song compositions but given the recent years' trend of local compositions being given increasingly spotlight, such showcases are definitely encouraged and should be repeated at opportunate timings and settings again.

Nice thing 5 - I enjoyed myself there (even though I am quite a hard person to please in such areas) and I am really looking forward to see more of such performances. With practice and experience, I really hope to see each subsequent showcase better than its predecessor.

End of review and end of blog post. ^__^