Did I attend? You bet! I LOVE S.H.E. Ella is so awesome! Here is my experience of one of the best Taiwanese pop concerts ever. The Melbourne concert took place on Friday, May 1st at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, which sits right on the Yarra River in the heart of the city. So I knew that the concert hall would be reasonably big and pretty. I got there at 6:30pm, got my ticket scanned and then went inside. The concert was being supported by many Chinese brands, so they were all giving out vouchers and freebies and stuff...I got my free light wand (to use in the concert) and entered the hall early to find my seat.
The ticket said 7:30pm, but the concert didn't start till about 8:00pm....The lights went out and all of a sudden the screens were showing a montage of Aaron photos. As Aaron was the support act for S.H.E's tour, he was the first to perform. I was charmed by his presence and his humble, engaging style of talking and joking around. I've never been an Aaron fangirl because the timing was always amiss - I was a pretty big Wu Zhun and Jiro fangirl, then after that I watched dramas and listened to Asian music only very, very sporadically for several years, and then returned more frequently just when Pleasantly Surprised was airing...so I missed out on much of Aaron's rise to fame and his series, Just You....But this might change everything...
Aaron came out singing one of his songs, but after it was finished, he started talking to the crowd, with a "Hello Melbourne!" greeting. He talked about how it was his first time visiting Melbourne and how much he liked the place including the weather, though he'd been told that he was visiting on one of our good days...to which the crowd agreed wholeheartedly. This is a good start because Melbournians just love talking about the weather, given how unpredictable it is! He talked about asking the chauffeur that picked him up from the airport about whether there were kangeroos everywhere here and learning that it was a myth. He also talked about having dinner the night before and catching up with a good friend of his, who lived here, and how he had walked home to enjoy the city...and you could just hear every Melbourne fangirl thinking, "Where did have dinner?! Who is his friend?! and Why did I not go out for a walk last night?!" He had such a pleasant way of talking, mixing both his Chinese and English (he laughed about whether or not he'd need to repeat everything in English for us Australians...though he knew a majority of the audience were mandarin speakers.) Aaron, himself, studied English, so it wasn't taxing for him to switch back and forth casually.
Aside from his own songs, he did some fun covers, including Bruno Mar's "When I was your Man" and Bob Dylan's "Make you feel my love." Boy, did the audience want his love! During one of Aaron's talking intervals, probably the second or third one, Aaron was telling a story when one fangirl shouted out: "炎亞綸, 我愛你. 來我家!" Which translates to "I love you Aaron, come to my house!" It was so quiet that everyone in the audience heard it loud and clear and burst out laughing.
He sung really well live, hitting all his notes with his dreamy voice. But my favourite was his live version of his song "Taipei Dreamin'". He led into the song by asking the audience if they'd been to Taipei before and urging his fans to visit if they hadn't been already. He then talking about how much he loved the city having grown up, and lived there, for all his life. I liked that he was doing a bit of promoting for the country - Taiwan is one of the best, but most underrated tourist destinations. I have a long-lasting love affair with the city, so I think that song touched me the most. It also has a lovely melody, so it was stuck in my head long after the concert that night!
Another funny moment when Aaron was talking was when he somehow mentioned something about not showing himself working out on stage. This suggestion was met with the cheering of female fans...But Aaron laughed and joked that he didn't think he should be working out topless on stage because he said that there were probably many girls who had come with their boyfriends that night (makes sense as there were many male S.H.E fans in the crowd) and he didn't want the boyfriends to feel bored and annoyed. But he joked that he would consider it if he had his own tour, the next time he came out to Australia.
Aaron sung a few more songs and then drew towards the close of his performance. The last story I remembered him telling was one about how he'd once had a close friend who had had a falling out with. That friend liked to visit Melbourne a lot and it seemed they moved here eventually and stopped their contact with Aaron. They didn't speak for almost a decade or so...but when Aaron found out he was coming to Melbourne he picked up the phone and called this friend...and he found that they were the same as they'd always been. So he told the audience not to hold onto to anger, to forgive and to be happy always. It was pretty good advice, and nice of him to incorporate it into his show.
Aaron mentioned then that it was his last song...and he was, but after singing said that he had made a mistake and he would be singing two more. I think it was actually because the girls were still getting ready? But after that Aaron bid Melbourne goodbye and disappeared behind the curtains. It's weird to say that I was sorry to see him go...Perhaps I will be watching more Aaron dramas now after all...
While Aaron really warmed up the crowds, S.H.E came out rocking. They were met with huge cheers and screams when they walked out singing their well-known hit, "Superstar." The girls were awesome. So much spunk! And definitely the right song choice to prep up the fans. Not only did they come in singing, they went directly from Superstar into their next song.
After that the girls talked to the audience, which was fantastic. Ella burst out with a "Hello Melbourne!" in English which was funny, because Ella just has so much charm and charisma...even though she's not English-speaking naturally, she was happy to be dropping English phrases here and there for laughs. The girls asked if they needed to be speaking English since they were in Australia, to which the resounding answer was No! as almost everyone there was with Mandarin-speaking-or-listening abilities. The girls talked about how they loved Australia, especially Melbourne since they'd all visited before. But they had not come together before, so this was their first time as S.H.E in Melbourne. Selina talked about visiting just recently and doing all the tourist attractions including The Great Ocean Road, The 12 Apostles and going to Phillip Island to see...The Penguins! It was funny because Selina said penguins in Chinese (Qi Er) in such a cute little, squealing voice. And Ella said in English, "Do you know what the Qi Er is? Penguins!" Hebe talked about coming on tour just the year before (with Yoga Lin). She liked it in Australia because it was close to nature, which she really appreciated. Ella talked about visiting four years ago...and in true, loveable Ella style, she asked "You know why I came? For the Australian Open." But she mentioned that her husband had come here with her parents not that long ago for a holiday. She said at that time he was her friend/boyfriend and still pursuing her, so he was thick-skinned and happy to chip in at any opportunity to please her...so he accompanied her parents here, even though she didn't come along. But she laughed and ended the tale by saying, "And that is how he got me to say yes to marrying him..." Awww, I'm happy that she's happy!
S.H.E sung the bulk of the concert and did a mixture of their old and new songs.
To be continued...
