Yes, Asia 61 is a marathon. I don't mind the work, and 4 1/2 hours of "backing over a cat" music is not all that bad. I've had a couple of songs stuck in my head for the last couple of days. But since I don't speak Vietnamese, I can sing it. But the tunes were catchy.
So here's the gist of it... As I said before, the theme of the show is the Vietnam War, with all these different people singing love songs in front of a set that looks like bombed out Saigon.
This photo was taken during rehearsals, I have to apologize for the camera position in front of me. But I couldn't walk away from the console to get a better angle.
Here's a shot from the show with the camera operator in my way. On stage is one of those wonderful ballads, from the inside of a bombed out church (hence the candles).
During the rehearsals, they played videos with tags (you can see in the center screen in the above picture) at the beginning so we could program looks to match the colour of the video. So the sound guy would push play on the DVD, the images would come up and he'd be piping the music and vocals through the house sound system. The singers and actors would come out on stage and lip sync along with the vocal track and the director would give them blocking notes. I didn't think too much of this, I assumed that either the singers were just "stand ins" for the real singers who would come for the actual show, or they were just lip syncing to save their voices for the performances. After all, two 4 1/2 hour shows in one day is a lot of singing.On show day, the crowd piled in for the first show (1PM in the afternoon), I sat at my console ready to run lighting cues and make adjustments, as this was the first time we were really going to see it on camera. The house lights dimmed, the curtain went up, the opening voice over boomed in the hall. Then the music started and the first singer stepped out on stage and the crowd applauded wildly, I brought up the first look of the show, the singer stepped center stage and the vocals came out. But her lips didn't move.
It was only a brief second, but I had a monitor with a close up shot, and her lips didn't move. When they finally did move, it was obvious, she was lip syncing.
Fakers!!! This entire 4 1/2 hour show, twice, was going to be lip synced. Not a single one of the people in the 21 songs they performed sang a single note! And the crowded didn't seem to care. They applauded each number heartily and waited for patiently for the next number to start. Were all 60 previous Asia shows lip synced? Is this just a cultural thing that I don't understand?
I'll never know, nor will I understand, but here's a quick video clip I shot of one of the big dance numbers. Nothing like the male "fake" vocalist in camouflage and all the dancers dancing with M-16 assault rifles. Hot. Careful of the sound, it's a little loud...
The lighting is very cheeseball. Not arty in any way, shape, or form. Just "flash and trash", but the people love it.
So when Asia 62 rolls around, I'll have another story to tell I hope.
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