It was my first Mando Pop concert experience and one I won’t be forgetting for some time to come. The LOUD Festival 2011 held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium featured Asia’s king of Mando Pop Jay Chou, award winning band Sodagreen, Landy Wen and newcomer Cindy Yen.
Armed with an improved command of the Chinese Language…LOL…and my Canon IXUS 220 HS, I decided I was gonna try some concert photography with my point and shoot. Mind you, I am a NOOB so do pardon me if the quality is not up to mark or that my creativity is off target.
Anyway on to the concert. Sodagreen started the night off with Qing Feng getting the crowd roaring in anticipation of a night of great music.
I realised that from where I was seated it was going to be hard to get a really clear shot of him so I went for the wide angled shots which mind you are a joy with this camera. In a way I got lucky because after a while they put close up video feed shots of the singers on the centre screen above the stage so I think the pictures worked out well.
Call me crazy but I love it when the lights come on this way. It looks like a total crashing of lights making it an absolute chaos for photography but at a certain angle I don’t know….I kinda think it’s pretty artistic.
Up next was the sultry Dancing Queen, Landy Wen who came on to a techno Shakira-like persona with laser light beams spreading all over the room. She was like this modern day Goddess!
Though I gotta say as much as she’s known for her Coco Lee-like style, I prefer her ballad days. She sings with so much emotion and her on stage presence just makes her songs a lot more relatable. Now as you can see, the wide shots on this camera are really a joy for a point and shoot.
Ngak and the Ang Mo Pai’s made an appearance doing Singapore proud for this LOUD Festival as they entertained a crowd all warmed up and ready for the star of the night.
However they had to wait just a while more as newcomer Cindy Yen took the reigns on stage and showed her versatility with a mix of dance tunes to some ballads and performed her version of “Love the way you lie” previously done by Rihanna.
This was the best shot of the night for me. The Canon IXUS with it’s ISO turned up to 3200 all working in a moment of perfect lighting, emotion and Cindy totally pouring her feelings into the song. Man, I spent a whole night trying my best to get some decent shots and don’t get me wrong I’m pretty happy but this one shot, this one moment…..I guess I now know how some photographers feel when all they are going for is that one perfect shot and they feel so proud of it.
Yeah, this Noob got his one moment! Woot!
Ok The King of Mando Pop came out and the crowd went wild! This guy is just crazy sick on the piano man! He did “Flight of the bumblebee” among other familiar tunes and came back out after with Landy for the encore. They sang “Wu Ding” and I had goose bumps…..I know this tune, it was a perfect way to end the night.
Jay even cheekily added “You and I will not give up regardless of rumours and speculations” in Mandarin. Of course he’s currently rumoured to be seeing some 18 year old girl (what’s new??) but I like this guy’s attitude.
I really had a good time at this concert and I enjoyed the rush of trying to get good and creative shots from where I was seated. Hey gotta give props to the pro photographers, it’s really not easy but it certainly can be a lot of fun.
E Danker
Editor of POPCulture Online
Follow Elliott on twitter @ElliottDanker
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