Sodagreen performed at the Taipei Arena for two nights, the 3rd and the 4th of March. Three months before the concert, sodagreen began promoting the concert with its Youtube and facebook accounts. They have come a long way from their humble beginning.
At a promotional autograph signing/mini-concert for the new album back in December, Tsing-Fong announced to the press that the band would be playing at the Taipei Arena in March 2012. On 8 December, the news was broken officially on sodagreen's facebook and the concert's name was confirmed- As We Walk Together, named after Xiaowei's song in the latest album. It fits as this would be guitarist A-fu's first major concert with sodagreen after the end of his national service. This video was also released:
Sodagreen's facebook: All the time, the Taipei Arena concerts have been a biennial music carnival between sodagreen and sodafans. They have unreplaceable meanings. Each time at the Taipei Arena, everything, from the six people on stage interacting with the 10000 in the stands to the feeling of releasing music from the confines a small CD, playing it in person, makes everyone very happy!
These two years, A-gong and A-fu entered the army, but sodagreen still persevered, braving their absences. What we are most appreciative of is everyone's support!
"How much pain have you endured with me
How much joy have you enjoyed with me"
At last, sodagreen will, on the 3rd of March, 2012, stand on the stage of the Taipei Arena, performing there for the third time. We believe that all of you will come to see us!
On the 12th of December, Achun (sodagreen's videographer) posted a video on the band's Youtube channel which featured the band explaining how to order tickets online. Another video was posted the day before ticket sales online began on the noon of the 16th.
A more complete walkthrough of the ticket-buying process was then uploaded to the channel of the 29th, which featured a rather rad, synth-heavy remix of 'Control Freak'.
On the 4th, a video was released announcing a few more days to order tickets. Here, we see the band fooling around again, obviously having a lot of fun making the video. It starred Tsing-Fong as The King, Claire as The King's Woman, and the other band members as The Incompetent Servants. That was the first time I saw A-fu in ages. :D
There were some nice sodagreen-themed products released in conjunction with the concerts. Here's the video made to promote the merchandise.
Willlin Music's statement: During this entire process (of selling tickets), much instruction, explanation, coordination and cooperation was needed. All happy and unhappy experiences have caused us to learn a lot. We will appreciate all these experiences and they will help us to make the process of selling tickets smoother in the future.
We have a lot of people to thank. Besides Xinzhai (星宅), whom everyone knows and Hongqi (宏碁), there are two background workers who do not wish to reveal their identities. If we did not possess your strength, professionalism, gentleness and craziness (when it is impossible to hold your emotions in), this new experimental means of selling tickets would not have been possible. We thank the both of you from the bottom of our hearts!
Finally, we wish to say that we will not be extending this concert's run at the Taipei Arena. For our friends from the south, we have not forgotten you, and we definitely will be playing at Kaohsiung, so wait for us!
In the meantime, Jiakai cut his hair and the band engaged in their obligatory pre-concert cross-dressing stunt (involving Jiakai).
It all started sixteen days before the concerts, and everyday Jiakai would 'pay tribute' to a lady singer by dressing up as her. I'd imagine it was Tsing-Fong's idea again. Oh Tsing-Fong... What's with you and cross-dressing?
The concert began with the front of the stage crashing down to reveal Tsing-Fong standing on a six metre tall platform, singing 'Believe in Music'. The opening was completely flashy and spectacular which was different for sodagreen.
The concert was divided into a few segments. The first segment comprised regular staples such as 'Oh Oh Oh Oh', 'The Sound That Remains/Cicada Dreams' and 'Fever'. The second part involved songs Tsing-Fong wrote for other artistes, such as 'This Trouble' (Eason Chan), 'My Happiness is Just Right' (Na Ying) and 'Baroness' (Faith Yang). The third segment involved a touching rendition of a song Tsing-Fong wrote for his late father. Early Baidu Tieba reports simply called the song 'Demo For Tsing-Fong's Father', but later (official) press reports called it 'When I Was Young'. Tsing-Fong struggled to hold back his emotions as he performed the song, telling the audience, "It's painful holding back tears on stage." The band then played a cover of Coldplay's 'Yellow' (that was unexpected), which they combined with A-mei's 'My Dearest' in a medley. They followed this up with the techno versions of 'Daylight' and 'Flying Fish'.
The last segment saw the band sing through the entire tracklist of 'What is Troubling You'. At 'I Wrote of You in My Song', the introduced their special guest for the night (Ella on the 3rd and Desserts Chang on the 4th).
According to reports, Ella remained upbeat and confident throughout her performance, while Desserts was visibly nervous, stuttering throughout.
Desserts: I... I...
(Audience laughs and Tsing-Fong laughs with them and leads Desserts to the centre of the stage)
Desserts: I wanted to say that... I also wrote of you in my songs.
Later...
Desserts: (singing her new song) If you were to turn back to look at me/And I don't look back at you/Would you still want me?
Tsing-Fong: I would.
(Audience roars its approval)
Now wasn't all that sweet?
However...
(Later)
Desserts: (stuttering)
Tsing-Fong: Oh, you're funny. (In jest) And they call you a talented composer? More like a talented comedian. Go on, anything you say is funny.
Desserts: ...
Tsing-Fong: (laughs) Even when you don't say anything, you're still funny.
There was a minor media uproar about how Tsing-Fong mistakenly told the crowd that the ROC vice-president (Wu Den-Yih (?)) was present in the crowd when he was not. The person in question was actually the wife of the outgoing vice-president, Vincent Siew. Tsing-Fong later apologised to them and said that they could punish him by mistaking him as the lead singer of Mayday.
As usual, the band performed beyond the stipulated ending time, ending forty minutes late on the first night (11.40pm). The second night's concert 'ended relatively on time', according to a press report. However, the band had to pay a fine of NT600,000 to the Taipei Arena authorities. Tsing-Fong later jokingly complained that the 'Taipei Arena really loves money'.
At the after-party for the concerts, sodagreen was told that their latest album broke 'Baijin'. I think that means it went platinum. They told the press that they were tired but happy, and they felt that they did well. This was a sentiment shared by almost everyone involved in the concerts.
All in all, congratulations to sodagreen for their successful concerts. Claire told a reporter that they had dropped everything they were doing for the past few months to work on the concert, but they were now preparing to begin on the Autumn album in Beijing. If they plan to release it this year, this means that they would be spending most of their time on the Mainland, with their planned Mainland concert tour throughout the year, beginning with the Chengdu stop in April. Hopefully, Jiakai and Xiaowei would not be called up for their national service soon.
In the meantime, Jiakai cut his hair and the band engaged in their obligatory pre-concert cross-dressing stunt (involving Jiakai).
It all started sixteen days before the concerts, and everyday Jiakai would 'pay tribute' to a lady singer by dressing up as her. I'd imagine it was Tsing-Fong's idea again. Oh Tsing-Fong... What's with you and cross-dressing?
The concert began with the front of the stage crashing down to reveal Tsing-Fong standing on a six metre tall platform, singing 'Believe in Music'. The opening was completely flashy and spectacular which was different for sodagreen.
The concert was divided into a few segments. The first segment comprised regular staples such as 'Oh Oh Oh Oh', 'The Sound That Remains/Cicada Dreams' and 'Fever'. The second part involved songs Tsing-Fong wrote for other artistes, such as 'This Trouble' (Eason Chan), 'My Happiness is Just Right' (Na Ying) and 'Baroness' (Faith Yang). The third segment involved a touching rendition of a song Tsing-Fong wrote for his late father. Early Baidu Tieba reports simply called the song 'Demo For Tsing-Fong's Father', but later (official) press reports called it 'When I Was Young'. Tsing-Fong struggled to hold back his emotions as he performed the song, telling the audience, "It's painful holding back tears on stage." The band then played a cover of Coldplay's 'Yellow' (that was unexpected), which they combined with A-mei's 'My Dearest' in a medley. They followed this up with the techno versions of 'Daylight' and 'Flying Fish'.
The last segment saw the band sing through the entire tracklist of 'What is Troubling You'. At 'I Wrote of You in My Song', the introduced their special guest for the night (Ella on the 3rd and Desserts Chang on the 4th).
According to reports, Ella remained upbeat and confident throughout her performance, while Desserts was visibly nervous, stuttering throughout.
Desserts: I... I...
(Audience laughs and Tsing-Fong laughs with them and leads Desserts to the centre of the stage)
Desserts: I wanted to say that... I also wrote of you in my songs.
Later...
Desserts: (singing her new song) If you were to turn back to look at me/And I don't look back at you/Would you still want me?
Tsing-Fong: I would.
(Audience roars its approval)
Now wasn't all that sweet?
However...
(Later)
Desserts: (stuttering)
Tsing-Fong: Oh, you're funny. (In jest) And they call you a talented composer? More like a talented comedian. Go on, anything you say is funny.
Desserts: ...
Tsing-Fong: (laughs) Even when you don't say anything, you're still funny.
There was a minor media uproar about how Tsing-Fong mistakenly told the crowd that the ROC vice-president (Wu Den-Yih (?)) was present in the crowd when he was not. The person in question was actually the wife of the outgoing vice-president, Vincent Siew. Tsing-Fong later apologised to them and said that they could punish him by mistaking him as the lead singer of Mayday.
As usual, the band performed beyond the stipulated ending time, ending forty minutes late on the first night (11.40pm). The second night's concert 'ended relatively on time', according to a press report. However, the band had to pay a fine of NT600,000 to the Taipei Arena authorities. Tsing-Fong later jokingly complained that the 'Taipei Arena really loves money'.
At the after-party for the concerts, sodagreen was told that their latest album broke 'Baijin'. I think that means it went platinum. They told the press that they were tired but happy, and they felt that they did well. This was a sentiment shared by almost everyone involved in the concerts.
All in all, congratulations to sodagreen for their successful concerts. Claire told a reporter that they had dropped everything they were doing for the past few months to work on the concert, but they were now preparing to begin on the Autumn album in Beijing. If they plan to release it this year, this means that they would be spending most of their time on the Mainland, with their planned Mainland concert tour throughout the year, beginning with the Chengdu stop in April. Hopefully, Jiakai and Xiaowei would not be called up for their national service soon.
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