The Click Five: Modern Minds and Great Times Asia Tour
By Cheryl Leong
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Singapore
The Click Five could not have picked a better time to hold their sell-out concert last night (June 1) at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. School holidays meant that teenyboppers contributed 80% of the crowd, bristling with excited (girlish) chatter. The free-standing area looked like a huge sea of well, kids. I pretty much expected that, but still, it did nothing to improve my impression of The Click Five as a teenybopper pop band.
Until Kyle Patrick opened the show with his deep, powerful vocals, that is. With steady, strong tones, the show kicked off with "Flipside," one of many catchy ditties in The Click Five's repertoire. Although, what showed off Kyle's impressive vocals were the slower tempo songs. With a slight vibrato to his rich vocals that would make any choir teacher proud, "Empty" sounded like a pitch-perfect studio rendition, except live.
Most pleasantly unexpected was the band's capacity for handling different genres of music. With the change in lead singer (from Eric Dill to Kyle Patrick), the musical direction twisted a little as well. Kyle's vocals possesses an edgier, rock-ish quality which gives the music a different touch, carrying it above the previous pop-punk sounds of The Click Five. As such, there was a delightful fare of genre-blending tracks which included "Addicted to Me," a synth-techno sensation, or "Headlight Disco," a '70s blues-rock dream.
Exuding playful, irrepressible energy, Kyle pretty much had all the screaming girls eating out of his hand (it helps that he's such a gorgeous pretty boy as well). Hysteria was pretty much the order of the day, as two girls were even carried out on stretchers. Quite a rare sight for tame Singapore.
What was particularly enjoyable was the segment where Kyle introduced each member of The Click Five. Each got to show off their mad skills at the various instruments they play. Affectionately termed the "Mad Scientist" of The Click Five, Ben Romans, with wild hair and flailing arms, tumbling all over and tinkling on his upside-down keyboard, was truly a hoot. The man who makes you "feel it in your bones," Ethan Mentzer, lives up to his name, playing soulful bass like there's no tomorrow. Joe Guese thrilled with his nimble fingers running expertly along his guitar, while Joey Zehr's lightning-fast drum beats resounded amidst flashing stage lights.
Who could forget their first pop-punk anthem, "Catch Your Wave" which brought the house down? But it was the infectious carrier single from their sophomore album, "Jenny," which made one and all, young and old take to their feet.
If you were looking for fanciful stage antics, witty conversation or even costume changes, you'd be disappointed. Instead, audiences were treated to sincere, earnest proclamations of how much the band loved every moment on the Singapore stage, and a good, old-fashioned hour and a half of scream-your-lungs-out instrumentals and vocals.
The concert started off on firm ground, but later lifted into a state of frenzied guitar-twanging, head-banging, jumping bodies, thumping drum beats, controlled screaming and deep basses. It did not remotely sound like The Click Five I thought I knew. Try as I might to maintain a dignified composure, I couldn't help but be swayed by their energy and stage presence. My feet started tapping of their own accord, and I joined in the mass karaoke session with what little I knew of "Jenny."
I let The Click Five take me through a whole plethora of teenybopper, emo-punk rock and synth, and I'm not ashamed to say that I enjoyed every single minute of it. The Click Five are certainly so much more than mere 'pop princes.'
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