fan fan

we got tickets to sit in the media section, so from the moment i sat down i was thinking...."being a critic seems like such a great job. if you're a food critic, you eat everything everywhere and write a bout it....or if you're a music critic, you get to see all different types of band and all you got to do is write about it. but what if your job entails eating bad food? and there's a ton of bad food out there....and what if u're forced to listen to crap music? and there's a ton of crappy bands out there...being forced to do anything sucks doesn't it?"

sitting through fan fan's, 范瑋琪, concert had all sorts of ADD thoughts whirling through my head. anything to stray away from watching intently, listening too carefully or gulping down my bottle of haterade. it's just too easy to bash on the frail, timid, awkwardly lanky fan fan. 小S couldn't control herself to bash on fan fan. ASOS came out for a song with fan fan, there was some corny dialogue then some bad vocals by the HSU sisters, then 小S said "what's wrong fan fan, the song is over...oh that's right, u're just dancing"

concerts are as much driven by the fans as by the artists...but in asia, u're not going to get the lollapalooza vibe nor even the tony bennett concert 'crazy woman woman in the first row who's had too much wine and is swaying even when there's no music' vibe. so watching western artists out here, especially with the language barrier, u'd have to just make due with what you got. asians may not have 'soul, but that doesn't mean they got no artist allegiance, the real amped up crowds are the local concerts. jay chou, lee hom, david tao, fan fan! teens scream, hold up banners and smell like dirty hs uniform body odor. that was fan fan's show.

it took her 10 years to have her own concert and it seemed like a success. a packed house, a live band cutsey background videos (a slue of 黑人 video clips 'love you this love you that'), guest cameo's and barring the shy and her skeletal awkwardness and crappy songs (which i don't think she wrote any of them) she's got a decent voice. other than ASOS, the kids from 模范棒棒堂 did some break dancing and singing with her and little girls started screaming. u might think nsync was up there at one point. fan fan sang her repertoire of ballads and it was a smidgen of sarah mclachlan in an oversized arena. i looked around and even the chaperones seemed to be singing along.

AMEI came out. that made the 200NT cab ride to NTU arena worth it. i haven't seen amei live since i was 15 @ foxwoods? or was it atlantic city. i think that was the badboy tour. (that was when i didn't even know who she was....djdoc was in my cd player) she was awesome then and she was awesome with fan fan. sporting shorter hair, amei's a bit older now, the older sister-ish and still sings with the vigor, confidence and the panache of a star. amei, a veteran from the CD era of music, gave nothing but supporting words for fan fan....and well...i think it made a difference.

sorry for the shitty camera phone pics....

skeletal fan fan


cereal box backdrop


packed house