DNA [創造]演唱會 台北站 24-27 Sept 2009

This review is way overdue. It's been well over a week since D.N.A Taipei and Mayday are now in Nanjing preparing for their next D.N.A concert on 6 October.

Taipei Arena on D.N.A day 1 on a hot sunny afternoon

Stay Real merchandise booth being set up

D.N.A merchandise booth is open for business

crowd gathering at Stay Real backstage shop for the VIP deal

I've attended previous D.N.A but the Taipei D.N.A was by far the best and most special (homeground gig baby!) From the 4-D opening (we got splashed with water! and there were all these cops on bikes on the runway with rifles) to the closing, everything was top notch. There was even a set with a grand orchestra which ended with Ashin singing 起來. Top tune. Ashin was literally engulfed in smoke when singing 如煙 and each of the member got to sing solo. Even that little John Lennon kid made an appearance onstage :)

view of the crowd in Taipei Arena from row 1 just before the lights went out

D.N.A #1 24/9 was the shortest set of the 4 nights, maybe the guys were conserving energy for the remaining 3 shows. haha. The girls who sat by the runway on the second night told me that Ashin was panting and gasping for breath when he was walking back to the main stage from the runway. LMAO!! The L-O-V-E part of 戀愛ing was left out completely but it was good to hear them sing 心中無別人 which was only sung on the first night.

When Monster stepped into the spotlight with his guitar & Stone in the background and started to strum the guitar, it went all silent. There was a split second pause. I was half expecting Ashin to turn up somewhere and start singing. But Monster opened his golden mouth and started to sing 九號球 - such a beautiful rendition!!

D.N.A #2 25/9 was fun! I especially liked the bit in between I Love You 無望 when Ashin sang a few lines of "Loving You" (loving you is easy cause you're beautiful...) ahhh *swoons* Hope they put that in the DVD. Guan You sang 超人 solo for his little Rose.. aww it was so sweet. Ashin's parents and grandpa turned up on the second night. Apparently he hadn't seen his folks in months..

D.N.A #3 26/9 was rather long winded cos they ended up talking for a bit far too long. Were they trying to stretch time so they need not sing so many songs..?! Ashin kept going on about how he was afraid he'd lose his voice before the final D.N.A Taipei, about his fear after this past New Year's concert (hmm that incident has really haunted him for far too long!), Kaohsiung concert promotion, blah blah. The rest escapes my mind now.. my memory is kinda sketchy.. I do remember the bit when he sang Teresa Teng's 甜蜜蜜. That was cute.

Ashin explained that Taipei Arena's lights would go out by midnight, and it did! What a gimmick.. they sang till all the lights went off, then came back onstage with flashlights for a farewell bow.

view from row 1 - see the cannon there? That's where the confetti comes out

D.N.A #4 27/9 was a bittersweet affair for me. On one hand I thought I had OD'ed on D.N.A. after hearing the same songs over and over again night after night. By then I can remember the setlist by hard but the final show is always a special one. The dude from 四分衛 who originally sang 起來 made a special appearance onstage on the final night and there was a in-joke between him and Ashin bout singing to lyrics on the TV screen. You see, there were several TV screens lined up in front of the stage with lyrics so Ashin wouldn't mess up/forget his lines. At times Ashin would look down to read the lyrics while trying to look like he's concentrating hard on singing LOL!

The most memorable part of the final D.N.A Taipei was towards the very end when Ashin said he was gonna sing a 奇怪 song, had us pondering for a bit.. then he sang 後青春期的詩.....!! Omigosh, that's my favourite song of the album and he finally sang it live!! ♥

Sadly, security were very strict about the no camera policy so I couldn't take any vids or pics. Each time I whipped out my camera, the secuity would come running over! Janice managed to snap some really great pics from our first row seats before she was caught by security. Credit goes to Janice for all the concert photos in this post.