The Indie Dollar

I think concert promoters in Singapore have realized that the gig scene is vibrant and quoting a friend's musing on fb, the scene is not just about "Westlife, Engelbert Humperdinck and Air Supply performing year after year" anymore. The power of the indie dollar in our English music scene is a force to be reckoned with.

Indie promoters have been steadily bringing in indie acts. We've had Darren Hanlon, The Album Leaf, Jens Lekman, Broken Social Scene, Aimee Mann, Zee Avi, the metal bands, etc. We've had greater support from international acts. There is a significant increase in bands and musicians willing to place Singapore on their tour schedules. I'd say Deathcab for Cutie at The Esplanade Concert Hall last year seemed to be the one that woke the promoters. Their tickets sold out within hours.

The pace seems to have picked up. Take Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Tickets to their gig on 12 January 2010 went on sale yesterday. The gig is sold out by today. Few ticket sales to concerts in Singapore move at this lightning speed. Singapore is known for being late ticket buyers unless it's a supberly commercial headlining band or if it's the New York Philharmonic, or something. (Note that I'm not saying anything about Maksim).

2010 will see a whole slew of indie and mainstream bands take Singapore by storm. Cat Power, Green Day, Patrick Watson, Muse, etc. I bet you a bottle of Bowmore 15 y.o that Amanda Palmer's coming back for a full length gig.

I hope Singapore doesn't become labelled as a sucker. You know, akin to how the West viewed Japan back in the 80s and early 90s; bands charged an arm and a kidney for gig tickets in Japan. When Stars played early this year, they were amazed that there was a huge audience present and even more wowed by the sheer 'opulence' of Esplanade's Concert Hall. I cringed- Stars don't usually play at this sort of 'concert' venues.

We need an alternative music venue to Esplanade's Concert Hall. It's too rigid. But yes, the sound is wonderful with a capital W. Our current other venues are Fort Canning Park (eioowww Portaloos and humidity!), Indoor Stadium (too echo-y and too expensive to rig properly for sound) and goodness knows where- our tiny clubs which can provide better sound like Stereolab, Dragonfly, DXO and even Home Club.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs' tickets go for like £21.50 elsewhere. In Singapore, the cheapest ticket is S$68 and their most expensive- S$148. Fair enough. Moving on to late January 2010, the cheapest tickets to The Killers is pegged at S$128 (++). And hopefully we get them on 24 January 2009, not London.

Since we don't produce many bands of this calibre, Singapore would naturally have to pay these bands to fly in, settle the crew, accommodation, gear, sound guys and shite like that. But at what price? My grouse is, the cheapest ticket prices shouldn't be S$128 (++). That is not being fair to the audience. Being willing to pay doesn't mean concert promoters should milk us because at some point, we will say 'screw you'. Concert promoters can only bank on these bands the one time. Mogwai tickets didn't do so well the second time they played here.

Some day these bands will be like The Police who can command S$500 a ticket for the pleasure of sitting on a crappy plastic chair at the sound-challenged Indoor Stadium. But for now, they're NOT The Police.

(Although I'm fairly sure I'd pay a kidney, a liver and then some for a front row seat at a John Mayer gig in Singapore. If, it ever happens.)