Faye Wong – Shanghai, China 2016 – Faye’s Moments

Original Title: Faye’s Moments 幻乐一场

Setlist

  1. 尘埃 (Dust)
  2. 百年孤寂 (Century of Loneliness)
  3. 催眠 (Hypnosis)
  4. 你快乐所以我快乐 (You’re Happy, so I’m Happy) ft. Leah Dou
  5. 感情生活 (Emotional Life)
  6. 烟 (Smoke)
  7. 我爱你 (I Love You)
  8. 色诫 (Sex Commandments)
  9. 匆匆那年 (The Days Gone By) [MV]
  10. 流星 (Shooting Star)
  11. 微风细雨 (Gentle Breeze, Light Drizzle) [Teresa Teng cover]
  12. 君心我心 (His Heart, My Heart)
  13. 雾 (Fog) [Zhang Yadong cover]
  14. 美错 (Beautiful Mistake)
  15. 紅豆 (Red Bean)
  16. 守护天使 (Guardian Angel) [Cantonese]
  17. 小聪明 (A Little Cunning)
  18. 分裂 (Fracture)
  19. 白痴 (Idiot)
  20. 童殿 (Childhood) [The Way by Leah Dou cover] ft. Leah Dou
  21. 你喜欢不如我喜欢 (Your Likes Are Not as Important as Mine)
  22. With Tomorrow [Gene Clark cover]
  23. 愛不可及 (One Step Away)
  24. 矜持 (Reservedness)
  25. 只愿为你守著约 (I Only Want to Keep A Promise to You)
  26. 过眼云烟 (Passing Cloud)
  27. 天空 (Sky)
  28. 眷恋 (Devotion)
  29. 我愿意 (I’m Willing)
  30. 梦 (Dream)

Cinephile lore says that Shunji Iwai took Faye Wong as the inspiration of his mysterious and ethereal Lily Chou Chou for his disassociated disenchanted youth film All About Lily Chou Chou; in which a bunch of teenagers facing social problems in their daily real lives find solace in the company of strangers online, brought together for their love of a unique singer that takes them to a place they call “the ether.

Wong’s last concert was held six years ago in Beijing [1], but in reality, fans who couldn’t afford to (fly and) attend haven’t seen her in over a decade since the release of Faye Wong Live! in 2004, alongside her very last studio album, To Love (將愛), in 2003. The streaming of Faye’s Moments is an event on itself that was obviously marked by big prices and even bigger re-seller prices. For the rest of us, we had the stream~ and Faye did not disappoint.

With graphics by Grass Jelly Studio — and heavily sponsored by Lincoln luxury cars and Huawei — Wong descended upon her modern-lit stage surrounded by thousands of fan lights, as a goddess coming down from the heavens. Faye isn’t an entertainer, she’s never been one. She’s an entity. It’s said that she doesn’t like being on stage in front of people, and thus doesn’t interact with her audience; and she delivers that here— never uttering a word, but waving once. Only once, during the whole 2hrs. of concert. But fans need no more.

The concert begins with the appropriate Dust and Century of Loneliness, almost as if we were really reuniting with someone after a really long time. However, we really hit our first high in You’re Happy, so I’m Happy, which features Faye’s daughter, Leah Dou [1][2][3], in backing vocals; a soothing song that featured in Faye’s self-titled 1997 album right when Leah was born. I’m not an expert Fayenatic, but the concert continued with songs from Chang You (唱遊) like Emotional Life and Sex Commandments, and some of her lesser known songs like the miscellaneous I Love You; reaching it’s first change after the performance for The Days Gone By (aka. Fleet of Time), which is one of the most difficult songs she could’ve done. The verses are so long and quite fast, I did notice her running out of breath.

Wong continued with Shooting Star (from Di-Dar), amidst an ocean of light blue LED lights, in a scene you could see was prepped for the ones who were using the VR-360 extra [anyone care to comment on that?]. This was probably my favorite stage of the night, the most concert-like and a cinematic view. The use of this set of lights continues well into performing one of Faye’s most iconic songs— Red Bean, which closes the segment.

She returns to stage with Guardian Angel, from her Help Yourself EP (自便), the only song in Cantonese she sang during the whole night. By now, very well into half the show, Faye had already loosen up a bit because she started to swing and bounce on stage in her red blouse and trousers. The sound during A Little Cunning was amazing, especially during her DaLaLaLas. By the time we hit Idiot, Wong even cracks a smile and struts the stage! The song is an extract from Faye’s self-titled 2001 release, which probably is in-between my favorite era— this is it, guys. Her best era, her most comfortable and most amazing sound! The song sounds so modern, you can’t ever tell they’re from 15 years ago.

It’s followed up with her Chinese version of The Way, which is a song by her daughter Leah [Mojim], unleashing the -embarrassing- mom in Faye as she shamelessly sways on stage as her daughter accompanied on the chorus. They shared glances and Leah managed to crack a laugh from her! It was the most adorable moment in the show. The only thing missing was a glass of wine in Faye’s hands, though, she did crouch down to drink some water.

Her ‘red attire’ segment ends with Your Likes Are Not as Important as Mine and opens a more soothing one with the cover of With Tomorrow and the dramatic One Step Away. Approaching the end of the show, it does seem like she rushes through the rest of the songs— they’re more like a medley, because Reservedness intros with the cue for I’m Willing, which is the last one she sings before she concludes with Dream; leaving the stage without a word… almost like we’d just been in a dream. It was magical.

Rating: ★★★★¼ 

You can check out Faye’s Moments on Tencent QQ LiveMusic.

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

2 Responses

  1. Jason Todd Gonzalez says:

    Is there an official dvd release of this concert?

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