Wang Lee Hom Music Man Tour concert review

Let's put our hands together and welcome the ad-hoc reviewer of this blog: Mr Derrick Lim!! *applause* He has done a number of reviews to date, including the two of the most recent ones of Amei and Wang Lee Hom (below) and received numerous very positive feedback regarding his reviews. Regretted that you missed the concerts? Or have you watched the concert and are looking for other opinions besides yourself's? Check out the review below and be blown away!



sorry to interrupt, but this guitar is unbelievably cool. *whistles*




















Music Man Tour
Wang Lee Hom
1st November 2008, 8 pm
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Written by Derrick Lim

Along with Wang Lee Hom’s self-professed love for the superheroes in comic strips, the Music Man tour is based on the notion of a superhero – Music Man, who is Wang Lee Hom’s alter ego and aims to “save the world of music.” The concert was the 4th stop on the tour, which had already been brought to Taipei as well as Shanghai.

The idea of a Music Man seems interesting at first, but the full potential of such a theme did not run through the entire show, with the Music Man concept being relegated to cartoon images of Wang Lee Hom being displayed on the screen during the musical interludes or costume changes. However, the audience, made up mostly of teenage girls who thronged the stadium, did not seem to mind as hit after hit was belted out with outstanding musical precision, such as on 爱错 ，你不在 , as well as on his career hit, 唯一，which had the entire audience cheering as Wang Lee Hom first few notes of the song’s introduction led into the first verse of the song.

The Music Man tour is one that signifies a new trend in the Chinese pop music industry – that of an artist holding a concert to promote the new songs off an album even before the album itself is released. The new songs, other than his current single, 摇滚怎么了？， did not seem to garner much response from the audience despite them being hard rock numbers which were designed to fit in with the rock-influenced concept of Wang Lee Hom’s upcoming album.

Wang Lee Hom is known in the Chinese music industry to be able to play multiple instruments, and while that did come into play, especially on his violin solo of When You Wish Upon A Star from Disney’s Pinocchio and on 落叶归根，this talent seemed to be, at times, overshadowed by the theatrics, including appearing among the audience after a disappearing act as well as three body doubles of Wang Lee Hom during the performance of the song 改变自己, to bring about the illusion that he was playing all instruments on the song with the help of a pre-recorded video clip. The custom-made dragon-shaped Bahamut guitar that Wang Lee Hom played on some of the songs was a highlight of the show, costing NTD$1 million (SGD$45,0000).

While Wang Lee Hom proved to be a crowd pleaser, coming offstage to interact with the crowd barely half an hour into the concert, it was clear that the music was the major driving force behind the 2 and a half hour set. His karaoke friendly ballads such as Kiss Goodbye and Forever Love were the obvious crowd favourites, even though he did try hard to please on the up-tempo numbers, albeit sounding a little strained on songs such as 爱你等于爱自己 as well as 放开你的心.