Charlie Lim & The Great Wave

Bought tickets to a show by Charlie Lim and a number of musicians from The Great Wave (a music collective). Ahhh... I've missed stepping into nice venues to watch shows. This was held at the Esplanade Concert Hall. Looking at the concert calendar, I'll probably be at Esplanade's various venues A LOT these two months. Hurhurhur. 

The night began with Charlie Lim's older pieces and new songs. He calls his all-star band 'The Mothership' — Adam Shah, Chok Kerong, Euntaek Kim, Evan Low, Jase Sng and Soh Wen Ming; he also had guest guitarist Mark John Hariman, who was in town for a quick bit. Then his first guest Dru Chen strolled in to perform 'Pedestal' (2011) with him. Then it was a parade of KEYANA, YEO, Kittypurrnaz, Umar Sirhan and Aisyah Aziz. 

I haven't heard Charlie Lim play live for what... almost a decade. While this genre of music is not quite my type of music (I dunno, call it modern pop, neo-soul, Prismizer vocal effect, R&B, whatever), I didn't mind a lovely evening listening to our Singapore musicians. They are very good. I didn't bother wearing a mask. And no, I still haven't tested C+ on the ART kits or a PCR test. 

I was kinda sleepy. Then my eyes widened when cellist Ng Pei-sian strolled in. I didn't know he was part of this. He and Charlie Lim played their collaborative song from 'UTOPIA Reimagined' (April 2022),  'Into Dreams'. 

Then the lights dimmed out. Pei-sian did a solo cello intro for Charlie Lim's 'Light Breaks In' (2017). It was beautiful. At this point, I swore almost the entire hall put down their phones to simply listen to him. That was utterly mesmerizing. This solo cello intro was specially written for him by Chok Kerong.

I've heard Pei-sian play, and I enjoy his playing. He's such a superb cellist with that magical touch. (His twin brother is an accomplished cellist too.) The two songs chosen were gorgeous on the cello. This cello segment of the concert, and well, this cellist totally made my night.