It couldn’t have been a more perfect setting at the Wavehouse—great weather (just the right tinge of balmy), free flow of food and drinks (oh wait—that was just us, thanks to Blackberry), coconut trees swaying in the breeze, a clear night sky… and all Asian-American hip hop outfit Far East Movement about to perform for the first time in Singapore.
In true pop star fashion, the event began two hours after the official schedule printed by the organizers but no one made a peep. We’re willing to bet that’s only because half the fans crowding the stage were not even eighteen and were too grateful to have had their curfew extended on a school night to make a gripe about it. In fact, they made an occasion out of it with hosts Shan and Ross from 987FM, who oversaw drinking, dance and catwalk contests to keep up the hype.
The boys Kev Nish, Prohgress and J-Splif, despite not having made a mistake with the timing (organizers had requested they come in at 9pm), were profusely sorry and tweeted fans before their appearance. So sorry were they that they gave us a show that was, to be honest, beyond expectation. Who’d have thought a hip hop outfit would have so much adrenaline coursing through their veins? Gone are the rigid hand and shoulder movements—these guys were like horses and the stage was their paddock. Gone also are the bicycle chains, XXL tees, New Era caps and jeans so huge you could breed chickens in them—the boys maintained a slick, preppy style and polished it off with their signature look, the black wayfarers.
Definitely the highest points of the night (performance wise) were spinoffs of “Like a G6” and “Rocketeer”, which the group co-wrote with Bruno Mars and performed with Ryan Tedder. But the crowd also went crazy at “Go Ape Shit”, a catchy dance-worthy number, which they performed on the encore stage.
Personally, we enjoyed the not-exactly-hip hop bits of the show, namely when their DJ Vir suddenly ducked behind his turntable only to appear in shorts so he could surf the FlowBarrel behind the stage, and when Prohgress surfed the crowd. How apt.
