Music Man Concert, Taipei Sep 2008

I went to Taipei for the concert!! That was one hell of crazy things I did as a fan. I had this business trip to HK on the same week of the concert in Taipei. So I flew from HK, leaving my media boarding back to Jakarta alone, without their PR minder. I told them, this was a chance of a life time. I didn't wanna miss it.

It was my 2nd trip to Taipei, but for the same reason: hunting Taiwaness Artist. First was Jerry Yan, now it's Leehom. Dont blame me... both are handsome and tall. My type! haha.

With a piece of paper written by a hotel staff, I went to the TAIPEI ARENA the morning before the concert in the evening. Hoping to get a sneak peak of Leehom doing rehearsal, I got kicked-off by an officer instead, right in front of the main entrance. "no picture. no picture" He wouldn't even let me take picture of Leehom's billboard above the entrance door. But I am a Taurean. My star said, even a dead will wake under a Taurean's persuasion. The officer even helped to take my picture under the billboard! xie xie ni....

From there I went to some CD stores, looking for old albums of Leehom. None. How come, none?! I dont get it. It's Taiwan. A place where all Leehom related should be found. At first, I just went straight to CDs. I found many Leehom's CD albums.. but I already have them. I was looking for old CD albums to complete my collection. It's not easy to make the store staff understand what I was looking for. Lucky me. I have just got a brand new Sony Erricson W9800, and Leehom's albums were stored there with pictures, even with the original language. So, I just showed them and made them busy searching their data, even calling their storage staff. I think they can see it clearly from my face that I was coming from far away and had to go back with Leehom's album no matter what. After 3 useless stores, I landed on a small CD store near Taipei University.

The girl at the store knew little english and to my surprise she's a fan of Leehom too. She told me that she has bought the ticket for day 2 concert. I showed her my ticket and she got really jealous, coz mine was VIP, 11th row from the stage. Hers was a tribune. I showed them my Leehoms song collection at my W9800. Again she was jealous, coz some of songs... she didn't have. So we exchange emails, I promise her to send the MP3 of the songs she didn't have. Then, she gave me Leehoms' new single CD "What's Wrong With Me" along with the pretty yellow notebook with 3D pictures of Leehom attached to it... for free! I dont know how she did it, but the single CD was supposed to be a gimmick for anyone who pre-order the coming-soon album at the store. I got mine for free. Thank you to you nice girl... *sorry forgot the name*.. thank you Leehom :)

Got back to hotel and the single CD made Susi really jealous...

Taipei Arena was already crowded the time Susi and I arrived. Inside, I was amazed to that huge place with huge stage. I saw "Bahamut" was ready up above. I thought Leehom would be flying around with it .. well he's MusicMan, rite? He should be be able to fly like any other heroes. All hero must be able to fly.. even Gatotkaca can.

I couldn't believe that I was one of thousands people filling the Arena. Everyone came ready with attributes. Glow sticks, Leehom's shirt, Leehoms' signages, Leehom's hat.... and even their own country's flags... Japan, Korea, Philipines wow! like a world conference to stop global warming. Leehom fans were mixed almost equally between male and female, but mostly young people.

My heartbeat went faster when the light started to dim. I will see Leehom perform live with my own eyes again in such a closer distant. Got my digital camera ready and there ... Leehom was making entrance riding his sort of "a space ship" from above. I didn't quite awed with that. I thought the opening of Heroes of Earth concert was a lot grand than this. But he jammed, started to rock the Arena down.. and in an instant I forgot anything else. I felt like a teenage, jumping from my seat, clapping so hard and smiling so big that I felt so silly about myself.

I tried to write each title of the songs when he started singing it.. but I got stuck after a few list. Hey, who the hell cares with the list, I put down the notes and starring at the stage... no idea whether I blinked or not during those times.

Lighting was great, stage was good, sound system was a bit too treble though.. but Leehom's voice was very powerful as always. I could hear him very well, even I didn't understand the meaning of the songs, or understand what he was talking about between the songs. I can hear him very well even the crowd was also so loud... So I thought about a very popular band from Indonesia and a male singer from Taiwan whose voice got barried under the music background everytime they performed live. Leehom's live performance is something to be proud of.

Leehom sang most of his hit songs and some of his new songs. Songs that I used to hear everyday.. Leehom sang them differently in the concert. That is one of so many things I like about Leehom. His adlibs ability is amazing. I have downloaded hundreds of Leehom's live performance from the internet and he has sang Wei Yi in more than 8 different style, at least! And that night, he changed Hua Tian Cuo into rock!

Giant screens at the stage was brilliant. Not only it helped fans who sat far from the stage, but also it gave special effect to the show. Leehom's cartoon was very cute, I can help myself from taking picture from the screen when the cartoon shown. Funny how everybody scream their lungs out when the screen showed Kuang Yu Min's pictures.

Costumes were beautiful. It matches the theme very well. I'm glad that Leehom worked with smart people behind the concert production. I love every outfits Leehom wore during the show, but the one I love the most was the silver pants and the white sleveless shirt with a tiny black tie. I love that silver pants with detail on below, he looked damn good in that one, specially when he did the solo dance. ok. ok. I admit, Leehom is not a great dancer.. well he's a musician for God sake, musician was not suppose to dance ... I think Leehoms started wearing special outfits for concert on his Heroes of Eart concert. Before that, he was just wearing t-shirt and jeans, one t-shirt for the whole show. Wonder how he can stand the wet .. :) If anyone wants a bad sample of concert outfits.. well, take a look at F4's few years ago. No offense to F4 fans, coz I was a fan too back then.

The only thing that bothered me were the dancers. I didn't know what happened, but I dont think dancing went well with rock music. Dancing were very good for his Heroes of Earth Concert, but not for Music Man concert. Those sexy dancers with bra were really not necessary. Good thing those were not included in the DVD. But later, after watching the DVD concert, the dancers and the dancing part were not as bad as before. But still, it's not my favorite.

One little story that I must add was the part when he sang "Foreve Love". I think, Leehom made this song as a personal song for his fans. He went down from the stage and let the lucky fans shake hands and touch him. Those hysterical fans were all running to the front seat trying to get closer enough to touch him... and among those was me! I swear I was trying so hard to cover my face everytime a camera came near me.. I was so worry that my face was captured.. but when I watched the DVD.. oh no!! shame, shame, shame.....

Concert ended in almost 3 hours. What did Leehom drink to stay fit to do everything on the stage, I wonder. He's singing, dancing, playing many music instruments, playing magician tricks, running, jumping and shouting ....

We didn't leave the Arena until almost just a few people left inside. Susi told me, it's Wang Mama and Wang Popo. It's Leehom's mother and grandmother. Her mother was really pretty, dont know if Leehom looked like his Mom or his Dad, but I do know that his nose similar to Dad's. I was being careful, not wanting to be called as a 'crazy' stalker .. when Wang Mama passed me by .. Wang Popo was really close to me. So I took the liberate to ask her for a photograph. She was smiling and let me stand beside her. Susi helped me taking the picture.

Me with Wang Popo, one of some very important person at Leehom's life. And the Indonesia fans too.

On the way out, we passed a parade of flowers from fans and friends to congratulate Leehom on his concert. I tried to take some pictures but some security staffs said no. This time, my star didnt shine... but I have other star in my heart that will forever shine.

If you are really a fan of Leehom, you should go and see at least one of his live performance. You should.

:: emajanti, 2009