“It’s great to be back in Bangkok. We love the weather, the colours, the food and we love the people,” lead singer Jascha Richter says and the crowd cheers.
Close to 2000 people have showed up at Impact Exhibition Center, where the Danish Band Michael Learns To Rock is playing this Thursday November 26.
Even though the band has opened the show with their hit single “Sleeping Child” the audience is still very quiet. However with a career that contains one pop hit after the other the band soon creates an atmosphere of holding hands and singing along.
MLTR’s new album “Eternity” has only been out for a day in Thailand, even so the audience seems to know the songs, and when the band plays the classic “My love will still remain” followed by the new song “When Tomorrow Comes”, the audience is beginning to loosen up.
Romantic band
That the band is a bit romantic isn’t a big surprise, since they’re especially famous for their many pop ballads. It turns out that the audience is pretty romantic as well.
“This is a great song for holding hands,” Jaschar Richter says introducing “Romantic Balcony”.
And so people do.
The lead singer has a good grasp in the audience, and when the rest of the band leaves the stage, he plays three songs by himself on the piano, including “Naked like the sun”, which is the band’s only song that isn’t about love.
“How do you think of my new solo career,” Richter jokingly asks before his fellow band members Kåre Wanscher (drums) and Mikkel Lentz (guitar) join him on stage again. On stage with the band is also Danish Ida Kirstine Nielsen playing bass.
Flight cancelled
Even though the entire concert has been one hit after the other, the band plays a trump card at the end of the concert with “The Actor”, “25 Minutes” and “Someday”. At this time Jascha Richter is walking around the audience singing while giving hugs to his fans.
The band is supposed to leave for the airport immediately after the concert to fly back to Denmark. However this is not possible because of the demonstrations.
“We cannot get out of Bangkok tonight,” Jascha Richter says before the encore. The audience however is not too sad about this pronouncement, but make even more noise at the thought of their favourite band being stuck in Bangkok.
In fact the audience leaves their seats to get closer to the band for the last couple of songs. The crowd in front of the stage is raising their hands, singing and cheering as the band closes the night with “Paint My Love”, “Wild Women” and “That’s Why (You Go Away)”.
Michael has never really learned to rock, but he sure knows a good pop tune. It is 14 years since MLTR played in Thailand for the first time and this night the band proved that they still have a good connection with their Thai fans. And that they still know how to deliver a good show even though they’re celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.
Read the interview: “Michael Learns To Rock in Bangkok” here.
Set list:
1. Sleeping Child
2. Salvation
3. You Want More
4. How Many Hours
5. Complicated Heart
6. When Tomorrow Comes
7. Take Me To Your Heart
8. The War Is Not Over
9. Romantic Balcony
10. Final Destination
11. Naked Like The Moon
12. You Took My Heart Away
13. Out Of The Blue
14. Angel Eyes
15. Love Will Never Lie
16. Sweetest Surprise
17. I Still Carry On
18. Strange Foreign Beauty
19. Something You Should Know
20. Breaking My Heart
21. The Actor
22. 25 Minutes
23. Someday
Encore:
24. Paint My Love
25. Wild Women
26. That’s Why (You Go Away)
