lower temperature

The fever has abated. I've finally loaded a handful of non-Jay songs onto my phone's mp3 player.

Because of that, I have nothing much to say. So let's warm up some leftovers to rehash the highs from his previous gigs.

This was what I wrote after his first concert in 2002, when I grudgingly covered the show at the expense of a precious Saturday night off:

MUMBLING is a talent.

Sure, anyone can mumble, but no one can do it as pleasurably as the multi-talented Jay Chou.

Half of his lyrics were barely intelligible at his first concert here on Sunday, but of course none in the appreciative audience minded.

Because that is precisely the appeal of this wunderkind of Mandarin R&B, who composes and produces almost all his songs - in addition to mumbling through them.

Nursing a slight flu and a dry cough, the 24-year-old Taiwanese singing sensation displayed his musical talents on the piano and the cello, with songs such as Quiet and Pa, I'm Back from his recent second album, Fantasy.

The theatrically-produced concert - which started with a haunted-house sequence complete with eight masked and hooded dancers - also showcased talents of the non-musical variety.

While performing the Japanese-inspired numbers Nanchaku and Ninja, he displayed his boyish hero worship of Bruce Lee and wielded a mean nunchaku, a weapon made up of two sticks joined with a chain.

Probably not that different from boys his age in his love for shooting hoops, he wove a nifty basketball sequence into Bull Fight, which climaxed with him lobbing autographed balls into the eager audience.

Packed to the roof and up on their feet by the third song, the 9,000-strong audience - which included his divorcee mother - was almost entirely made up of teenagers and 20somethings, with some of the male fans even dressing like their idol, with red baseball caps and B-boy street style.

While the guys dug his rapid raps and chants, the girls swooned over ballads such as Tornado, Adorable Woman, Simple Love and Can't Say It, all delivered with strained sincerity in the R&B style which shot him to fame two years ago.

Mid-way through the short two-hour concert, his mentor, Jacky Wu, made an unscheduled guest appearance.

A household name in Taiwan for being host of a number of top-rated variety shows, Wu is also the managing director of Alfa Music, which discovered Chou.

The glib host more than made up for the bashful Chou's lack of words, prattling on and on about how much he loved Singapore, that the applause was always the loudest here and he hoped to hold a concert here, too.

The main act of the night might not be a smooth talker like his mentor, but he showed his appreciation to the audience in his own earnest way, such as when he muddled and mumbled his way through an impromptu Song For Singapore during his encore.

Who needs to hear the words when sincerity can speak volumes?


This was what I blogged after my second encounter with him in concert in 2004:

Just got back from what must be the best concert of my life -- Jay Chou! Shuai dai le!

I would gladly have paid three times the $128 I spent on tickets -- and this is a lot coming from someone who is so spoilt and used to getting free tickets.

But that is part of the joy of the concert, that it has absolutely nothing to do with work. No need to take note of crowd behaviour, celebrities in the audience, number of empty seats, run-down of songs, encore or not, etc etc...

Instead, it was pure unadulterated idol worship. Heck, even Sly was in the audience! But he was but a mere blip on the radar compared to the meteor that hit when Jay took over the stage.

[Full-blown teenage groupie mode ON]

Swoon. Scream. Melt. Swoon again. Especially when he played the piano. And the flute. And the drums. [Not all at the same time of course!] But he looked so good no matter what he was singing or doing. Or as TPL put it: "Even the way he walks!"

At intermittent intervals, we'd be turning to each other and sighing: "Shuai dai le", "He's soooo coooool!", "He's so talented!" and "I lurve this song!"

Trying to think which is my favourite part is very tough... I would have to say the whole three hours! We wailed when it was over... I think we melted and left a puddle on the floor too.

Am now listening to the Jay Chou for Dummies compilation I made for the girls as a primer for the concert... still swooning away...


And finally, I started a Facebook support group after this year's long-awaited concert:

- Are you unable to eat and sleep?
- When you close your eyes, do you see Jay playing the piano, possibly a transparent one?
- Are you no longer functioning as a responsible part of the work force and instead just look at concert photos and make squealing sounds at your desk?
- Are you thrilled to find out that he ate steamed fish and veggie for his birthday supper at 3am?
- Do you have curious urges to rewatch Initial D (the driving with elbow propped on the window scene) and Secret (the piano battle scene)?
- Have you swooned over the music video of 我不配 and imagined you are his secret lover?
- Do you have all his songs on repeat mode and think they are fantastic, even 阳光宅男?
- Are you frantically trawling YouTube for snippets of interviews with him?
- Have you attended a Jay Chou concert recently?

If you have answered "yes" to all of the above, you have a bad case of Post Jay Concert Disorder. It is not unlike Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, except much more pleasurable.

Fortunately, there is no cure. I speak from personal experience of attending three such concerts. You can only alleviate the symptoms by indulging in more music, more photos, more videos, more movies.


Footnote: The support group for Post Jay Concert Disorder sufferers has stagnated at 79 members.