Thought I should write something about the fabulous evening of music in one of its simplest forms - unplugged. A skinny girl with just a guitar and her voice and nothing else (and there's the other very talented guitarist who accompanied her half way). One can sense that all she wanted to do is to sing, because she didn't talk much. Actually when she talked, it was more like ... an explanation. Not to entertain the audience, but just to introduce the song and sometimes to explain why/how it was written. It's also quite obvious that she's pretty happy with where she is now, i.e., her dream is her music. Now, how many people say that they're truly satisfied with what they're doing now, or they're doing something that they're passionate about?

It was a small auditorium, with a holding capacity of about 500, I heard. Full house. It's quite a known fact that those who follow her music are not a lot, but sizeable. Of course, those who'll pay to go to her performance generally tend to like her music quite a bit. I met a few of them last night. It was quite an interesting experience. It felt a little funny and awkward at times but once we started talking about her music, it was better.

Anyway, back to the performance. I've probably mentioned this a few times to friends around me, but there's just something about the child-like voice that touches the nerves of certain people. Granted music is a pretty subjective experience, different people would have different affinity towards different types of music. I wonder if all those who love Cheer's music have some similar traits.. I suppose it's also her passion and sincerity towards music that draws people.

Haven't been to such good live performance for a long time. Maybe I'm biased towards acoustic guitar. Oh well... Small auditorium has its benefits. You get a more upclose and personal experience. I must say though, the sound system was quite good. At least the sound man was doing his job. Very few glitches. Her voice quality is almost identical to that of CD. You know how some singers just can't sing live? She's NOT one of them. Must've trained herself pretty well with live singing all these years, travelling around with her guitar.

The next best thing to her voice was the arrangement of the music. Pretty refreshing to hear some songs in its "original" state, and to hear songs without the rest of the accompaniment. Quite difficult too, I guess, to make good arrangement with just 2 guitars, and to keep them interesting at the same time. I like. The audience were quite obedient, kept absolute quiet when she started singing for most of the part. Most seemed quite...intoxicated. Think everyone thought it was rather short, ending in less than 2 hours, just before 10p, but someone counted that she sang a total of 23 songs. Gee, that's quite a lot. I didn't realise it.

Oh, forgot to introduce her. She is Cheer Chen, 陳綺貞, a composer/musician/singer. It's a pity that she didn't sing my favourite song of the latest album. Don't know why but I just like the lyrics for some reason, and the arrangement.

華麗的冒險

長長的路的盡頭是一片滿是星星的夜空
這一躺華麗的冒險沒有真實的你陪我走
長長的時間的旅程充滿太多未知的誘惑
數不清對你承諾過的一切
還有多少沒有實現過

不願放開手
不願讓你走
瘋狂的夢沒有了你
還有什麼用

不願放開手
不願讓你走
不願眼睜睜的看你走出我的生活