Fans are considered very lucky to be able to catch the Stone Roses reunion gigs here in Singapore and other parts of Asia. They sold out wherever they played in Europe recently, including their three-night hometown stand in Manchester for over a hundred thousand people. Here it's different. They're pretty much unheard of around these parts. Tonight, the Indoor Stadium (unfortunately the only mid/large sized arena here, and with lousy acoustics) was less than half filled. The gig itself wasn't too bad, though I still can't fully appreciate their music. Obviously the only songs they played were from their only two albums. I actually enjoyed the instrumentals more than I did the singing -- Ian Brown is a terrible vocalist live. But he does make the effort to engage the crowd, unlike another singer from Manchester who dons the exact same hairstyle as Brown. The rhythm section of guitarist John Squire, bassist Gary Mounfield and drummer Alan Wren were just killing it the entire show. There were plenty of long jams throughout and what a treat it was to watch them play off each other. There was no encore, but at the end, it was nice to see the band hug one another, big smiles all around. Let's hope they're in this for the long haul.
Next up is the legendary Beach Boys exactly a month from now!
