Raymond set the concert in motion with his killer hit “爱不疚”. This was followed by a string of fast paced songs. Honestly. for HK singers to have a T-shaped stage in Axiata is already a pleasant surprise but the high spirited Raymond gave the crowd another bonus by literally covering all 360 degrees of the whole venue. He not only circled the arena but also went to the area behind the VIP seats to serenade spectators at the tiered seating. All the VIP patrons had to turn around to watch Raymond belt out 4 classic love songs. In fact, there were many super close interactions between Raymond and the fans (zero distance !). Raymond is such a natural in playing the crowd. Raymond also expressed his excitement in performing at Axiata Arena for the first time and was full of compliments.
Raymond has already divulged the name of his guest artiste prior to the concert and Jessica Hsuan also confirmed via her social media that she will be making an appearance. So, no surprise there. This is actually a good move as many of Jessica’s devoted supporters actually flew to KL to support her, upon learning about her participation. They sang 爱在记忆中找你 and although Jessica doesn’t have very powerful voice, her performance is considered decent. They also took the opportunity to promote their upcoming much awaited flick, “A Step To The Past” movie and encouraged fans to watch it in the cinemas. I have a hunch that there is a high chance of Louis, Raymond and Jessica coming over to our shores again to promote this movie when it hits the cinemas during the end of this year. Just a few weeks ago, I was watching an old clip of Jessica emulating Faye Wong in a variety show. And here we have Jessica singing the same song 流非飞 on this very day !
While performing “忘记伤害”, images of Raymond’s past TV and movie role were broadcasted on the screen, eliciting screams from the audience. Raymond mentioned that he is entering his 26th year in the industry and hopes to be able to soldier on for another 20 years. Next comes the suspenseful moment when he brought out his props – the chairs. In my mind, I was like “will he proceed with the controversial act or not in this Muslim country ?”. So, when the intro of “Broken” started, he had my full attention ! Yes, he went ahead to “hump” the chair (for lack of a better term). I was kinda relieved that he had shorten the thrusting part coz personally, I find it awkward to include this act although he might have wanted to merely project it as another form of chair dancing. The concert concluded within 2 hours ( I had expected it to be 2.5 hour). Overall, I would still rate his concert an A+ as the setlist has a good mix of slow and up-tempo numbers, plus above all, he managed to maintain his vocal finesse and dance footwork is definitely still tip-top.
