The Steve McQueens: Just the Love is not enough

My silly little write-ups to support my gig photo blog come about in different ways. With some I struggle , sometimes I think of what I want to write only days, weeks later. Tonight I am really at a loss. I am sitting outside at the Crazy Elephant having a beer. This is how I started on my way home form the Esplanade where I just saw the, no doubt, most awesome two sets that July Jazz had to offer. 

I pulled the camera out of the bag to pre-edit the huge number if shots I took (funny how o and i are so close on the key board). Apart from some peoples o being other peoples i, I think some of the shots are really nice. 

Where I am having  a problem is that I am not too enthusiastic . I know that the average amateur is modest about what they produce, so why should I be any different? But the problem, in this case is not with me not having really awesome shots of Eugenia. 

In the 250 some I took of her tonight, pulling at the audience attention until it was hers for the full 100% and more. 

There should be at least one or 2 nice ones. The problem is with the story. Because of what I saw and listened to Monday night cannot be expressed in even a thousand pictures. Five musicians, some  generations apart,

 put up a show presenting their own compositions, which floored the audience! Super cool music, moving, sometimes heartbreaking lyrics 

and a presentation with a maturity that made my jaw drop.

The Steve McQueens, play an indefinable style of music, even a 35 year long music veteran and leader of a famous band does not know really in what box it belongs.   

It’s a raw identity that does not need polishing but nourishing. A great blend of genres performed by a band of 5 very different individuals that manage to play together very well:

Aaron James Lee generating the musical heartthrob

Fabian Lim providing the cool solos to warm us cold individuals 

Jase Sng pulling the only strings of the band 

Joshua Wan holding the keys to the band’s secrets 

Eugenia Yip, the bolt/d performer!

for one because they are very good musicians no doubt, but for a large part because the music just makes sense.

 

 It is not that I don’t like cover bands. If you look through this blog, you'll find a post about one of the best ones in town, but I thought it was super cool that there was not even a hint of a cover or standard and yet a highly appreciative audience got on their feet to ask for an encore. That is a feat only a few can enjoy in Singapore!

But for this band only Singapore’s  Love is not enough! Singapore is not enough! I believe The Steve McQueens are ready to spread their wings and go beyond, far beyond these narrow boarders. It’s time to fly Eugenia, 

fly The Steve McQueen,

Fly High

 

"Lass mich dein Pilot sein
let me be your pilot
In wolkenlosen Lüften
In cloudless skies
Voll Sehnsucht ruf ich deinen Namen
Full of desire I call out your name
Wir werfen alles Geld zusammen
and we pile up all the money"

                                                        Nena 

Alors on Danse

As I was watching and listening to Havana Social Club, there suddenly was a burst of dancers on stage. 

For a minute I thought people had breached the esplanade's maximum-security officers blockade. Mayhem, the world gone wild hairs at large

I was admittedly a bit disappointed to soon notice the security tags dangling from the dancers’ swaying hips. Otherwise, my initial thought was "cute" and I moved on by focusing myself and the camera on the music and musicians. That until I saw a guy, sleek and slender, moving with elegance, a body language that said CHARMING in all capital letters.

 The first time I noticed him he was leading his partner to the center of the stage where they started to follow the graceful moves of the various Latin dance styles.

 The woman looked lovely, fit, possibly because of her dance routine, but to me not the type that would take center stage in front of a well over 500 audience, easily. 

 As they danced along however, her demeanor changed, more relaxed more self-confident. The man was guiding her along in the dance steps that she was well familiar with, and he smoothly led her into the more emotional side of Latin dance. 

Slowly but surely as she became more comfortable, her eyes moved up to look into his, and there she lost herself, for that brief moment until the music stopped...,passion!

Then the man, a gentleman to the core, quickly throws her into a dip where they can laugh it all away

 I later found out the man was from Guadeloupe a "French" Island in the southern Caribbean. French/Caribbean, Charm/Passion, true/cliché? So..we dance!