Concert Review Essay On 2nd of December 2012, Straight Groove, a local band made up of a group of passionate students from National University of Singapore (NUS), had their first concert held at The Arts House, Singapore. The self-proclaimed ”Indie Pop Blues Jazz” Rock band performed a total of nine songs during the ninety minutes concert.
“Round The Corner” “Rainy Day Tuesday”, and “Feet on the Ground” were three distinctively different pieces that allowed the audience to experience the various genres of music namely jazz, pop, and blues.Like all music, their music tells a story and this is my interpretation of “Round the Corner”, “Rainy Day Tuesday” and “Feet on the Ground”. The first song, “Round the Corner”, is written by Tan Ming Tuan, the band’s lead guitarist. In the introduction of the song, the individual pianist demonstrated such high level of proficiency that evening that left the crowd in awe. He was oozing with confidence, and that left the audiences extremely entertained.
The balance was astonishing.As the song came to its climax, there was a sudden pause, before the guitars started easing the music back to a lovely melody and it ended with the flute blending with the piano magically. The second song is “Rainy Day Tuesday” This mellifluous melody is composed by Tan Ming Tuan and lyrics is written by James Guk. This upbeat piece is inspired by another local band Amnesia Haze. In this song, an English style consonance set the upbeat mood at the beginning of this song.
A piano and guitar then alternated the melody of the song and built up the “lazy” mood, making audiences really feel as if they are lazing in bed in a rainy Tuesday afternoon. As the song heated up, the arrangement changed within the song as the saxophone took the melody and the guitar and other instruments within the band were in accompaniment. The rhythm, which was continuously steady throughout the song, seemed to get faster like a heartbeat of a runner by the climax of the song.It was also at this point that the dynamics of the song were increasingly getting louder until all instruments met at the top with a bang and then changed the dynamics again to a moderate level until the song concluded. By the end of the song, the crowd seemed like they were left in a state of trance as they were too absorbed into the music. The last song I would like to touch on is “Feet on the Ground”, written by Greg Sim.
The song started out with very dissonant tones within the harmony, before changing into a more consonant, slow beat song. The song employs a double backbeat pattern, which is pretty unique.For me, this was a song of romance and passion and I seem to be able to connect with this song. The classical guitar, piano, and saxophone took turns at the melody.
The flow of the song was smooth, and the dynamics were soft and then it gradually increased in the middle of the song, before a decrescendo to a softer level towards the end of the song. This song has a very catchy tune to it, and you could see the crowd singing along with the lead singer halfway through the song. This song reminded me of the classic standard song “Fly Me to the Moon” written by Bart Howard in 1954 in the sense that it was able to convey a story with the song.This song is definitely my favourite among the nine songs performed that night. The Straight Groove concert at The Arts House was definitely a lovely and memorable evening filled with great music.
However, one huge letdown was the venue of the concert. The sound system at The Arts House were definitely far from being state of the art quality. Due to this, the concert was not as impactful as it would have been. Nevertheless one thing I loved about this concert was the ability of the band to blend in so many different genres of music into their songs.The degree of diversification was astonishing. This explains why they call themselves an ”Indie Pop Blues Jazz Rock” band.
Personally, I feel that musicians have to diversify and be open minded about music. I am very amazed by how millions of songs can be composed by using only practically only 12 notes. If all musicians were to stick to the genre of music they like and are not willing to explore different genres of music, then the world of music would be so much less colourful. Word Count: 764 words Prepared by: A0072330W
