A mesmerising night out with Pink Martini

My first encounter with Pink Martini was when I heard their French song "Sympathique" over the radio. Frankly speaking, I didn't know what the lyrics were all about at that time but that song really hit the right note with me and since then, I've been quite keen in their music. I wouldn't call myself a hardcore fan though but I've been following their activities via their Facebook fan page. As such, when I first saw the news about them heading to Singapore for their Asia tour, it was a huge and pleasant surprise for me because their tours tend to be within the US and Europe.

Just a day after hearing about the news, I tried to book tickets online but the system kept giving me undesirable seats so I had to head down to a Sistic counter to get a better deal. I wasn't sure if it was because the first few rows were indeed snapped up by fans or the system had blocked these seats for whatever reason but for anyone who's buying any concert tickets through Sistic, you might just wish to try your luck at the counters instead of online to see if you can get better seats. I managed to get seats which were supposedly taken up as shown on their website.

Pink Martini hails from Portland, Oregon, and is a musical group formed by Thomas Lauderale in 1994 which produces a wide variety of music such as jazz, latin, classical and classic pop. As its members come from different backgrounds and know various languages, these factors have resulted in the wide range of their music. The lead vocalists are China Forbes and Storm Large but I've never heard Large in action thus far. For the Singapore edition of their concert, it was Forbes who was the vocalist.

Attending a concert at the Esplanade was a first for me. Although there were people who dressed finely as if this was a classical concert, most of the audience were dressed in smart casual wear which was in line with the relaxed mood of the concert. Compared to the Singapore Indoor Stadium, I think the sound effects were indeed much better due to the design of the concert hall. Being near to the stage also helped in elevating the audio experience. To be able to see Pink Martini live in action was simply fantastic as the audience sang along and danced with the band. Seeing is believing, you would have to see the band in action to understand why their music is so contagious and attractive. To top it off, hearing some of the background stories about how their compositions came about was a good way of letting the audience relate to the theme of the songs and appreciate them better. This was something which wasn't evident or conveyed fully in the albums or music videos because you had to hear it first hand from Pink Martini themselves.

One of the highlights of the evening was hearing Forbes and Timothy Nishimoto sing a Chinese New Year song. No doubt it was already way past Chinese New Year by the time the concert was held, the audience was still very receptive of their valiant efforts to sing in Chinese especially since their pronunciation was near perfect. It must have taken them a fair bit of time to achieve it and I applaud their efforts in that.

Besides the fact that the band can juggle songs in various languages e.g. English, Spanish, French, Japanese and Chinese, I think the energy they exude on stage is what makes them so engaging to watch and listen to. Although Forbes is the main vocalist for the band, other members take turns to sing with her and this creates an endless mix of unique combinations for different numbers. The synergy as a result of these collaborations between members and the camaraderie they display bring out the essence of the songs so well that I think it would not have been the same if it was just Forbes singing everything on her own. For example, when Nishimoto and Forbes were singing ¿Dónde Estás, Yolanda? together, I was really mesmerised at how good they sing together and interact on stage.

Coincidentally, I was sitting beside Forbes' sister's family that night and it happened to be her nephew's birthday as well. They were obviously full of pride of their family member's performance and rightfully so, I would say. In fact, Forbes' sister was one of the first to stand up to dance which sort of led the audience to do the same towards the end. Someone's got to take the lead before other Singaporeans would follow suit, I guess. ^__^

Despite the brilliant performance put up by the band, there were a few things which did not really go down well with me, albeit they were largely unrelated to do with the band.

First of all, I was very "lucky" to encounter a man who was such a big fan of the band that he had to go on and on to his friends about what he knows about Pink Martini and expressed his views about almost every song sung during the concert, be it in the midst of a song or in between numbers. What made it worse was that he was making all these loud wolf whistles right into my ears many times during the whole performance and I really thought that I might go deaf that evening with the shrill sounds piercing my ear drums at such close proximity. I can understand if people are excited and want to express their joy at seeing their favourite singers but wolf whistles at inappropriate junctures or the smart-aleck boasting are so annoying especially if you happen to be near "the centre of the action".

Secondly, having an intermission for a concert which lasts about 90 minutes seems rather odd. Perhaps it is just me especially since I don't claim to be an active concert or theatre patron but for most concerts or plays I've been to so far, only those lasting 2 hours or more tend to have intermissions. For a concert this short, the intermission seems to have broken the momentum built up during the first half but luckily, the audience heated up pretty quickly in the second half. Nonetheless, I would have still preferred no intermission for this concert especially when I had to keep standing up from my seat to allow those people sitting in the same row as me to move in and out.

Last but not least, I thought that this would have been a great opportunity to expand their reach and increase the awareness of their music through this concert. Unlike the concerts I've been to before, there wasn't any booth to sell the band's CDs and nor was there any promotional materials e.g. concert phamphlets or booklets or panel boards to tell the concert-goers about the band. I would have loved to buy the CDs which are currently missing in my collection especially not all CD stores in Singapore stock them. In fact, it's not so easy to find a CD store these days except for the major ones in town. It was a pity that there were no CDs to buy. The only so-called promotional item on display was the huge poster panel for people to take photos with Forbes and Lauderale. Perhaps it would be better to have a board showing the band's history and/or discography. I know that in this time and age, we can find anything on the Internet but I thought this was a golden opportunity for the band to boost its profile which sadly was not capitalised on .

In all, I must say that I did enjoy the concert despite some of the hiccups or flaws I highlighted. Like I said, they have nothing to do with the band but if they are to come to Singapore again, I would love to see some improvements to make it even better. I just hope that they won't make us wait another 5 years though.