SINGAPORE — It seemed like the stars aligned for Singapore singer-songwriter Gentles Bones on Friday night (June 10). As the singer strode onstage to perform his sold-out show at the Esplanade Concert Hall, he was greeted by a crowd that, from all appearances, were truly in love with the man and his music.

We’re not talking about polite applause here. We’re talking about full-on, lusty screams. The kind that you only hear at concerts by stars such as Taylor Swift. Or boy bands in the 1990s. Or The Beatles or The Quests in the 1960s.

From the get-go, the audience was singing along to his songs, whether they were older tracks (Save Me, Elusive and Sixty Five), or new ones from his chart-topping Geniuses & Thieves EP — such as This Hurts, Shifting Over and Liar (with featured vocalist Linying joining him onstage). Mind you, the EP was just released just over a week ago.

(Gentle Bones has come a long way in a very short time. All photos: Aloysius Lim)

To be sure, he deserved every decibel of it. Gentle Bones’ music journey thus far may be relatively short in the grand scheme of things (his first break was in 2013), but he has come a long way.

The last time I saw Gentles Bones, whose real name is Joel Tan, perform was a year ago, about a month before his “Indonesia incident”. (He was detained by Indonesian authorities in September with YouTube star Kinna Grannis, because as Monty Python might have said, “they didn’t have the right form”. They were both eventually released in December, just before Christmas.)

But back to that gig. Then, he seemed a little shy, almost self-conscious, as he stood onstage with his acoustic guitar and sang for the crowd and sheepishly acknowledged the crowd’s support. The Gentle Bones who performed at the Esplanade show was a vastly different person. Backed by a five-piece band comprising some of Singapore’s hottest young musicians in the scene today, the singer was confident and performed the songs with aplomb.

(Gentle Bones and his band were spot-on.)

"You guys like the new music?” he asked at one point. “The old songs are quite different to the new ones … this will bid a farewell to some of the old songs and also an official welcome to all the new songs.”

You could say it was a coming-of-age gig for Gentle Bones. The gig that will ensure that he will have a place in the annals of Singapore’s pop music scene (if there is such a thing).

He took charge of things from the start, urging the fans to stand up and come to the front of the stage, which they eagerly did. He also asked them to sing along to the songs, which they eagerly did. He asked them to turn on the lights on their phones, turning the concert hall into a starscape, which they eagerly did.

(Gentle Bones faces a sell-out crowd at the Esplanade Concert Hall.)

Sure, there were moments when he seemed a little overwhelmed by the crowd’s adulation and reverted back to that soft-spoken boy of three years ago. Towards the end, he simply stood silently on stage for a good five minutes, and appeared a little weepy-eyed, as the crowd cheered him on to do an encore.

He obliged with a rousing rendition of Until We Die, which was, once again sung note-for-note by the audience, ending the concert with one big karaoke climax.

Everything was spot-on: The lighting, the sound mix and of course, Gentle Bones own performance. You could tell that he’d put much effort into the arrangement and getting everything just right.

(Electronica duo .gif were great as the supporting act.)

However, the gig on Friday wasn’t just about Gentle Bones. Shout-outs also have to be given to Gentle Bones’ opening act, .gif (pronounced “dot jif”), which performed a five-song set that included tracks such as Juvenile, Godspeed and the delightful Diatribe.

If you’ve not heard the electronic duo perform before, their music flows in lovely languid rhythms with a downtempo beat, with vocals by Weish Tan that feature near-snarls to an almost-childlike delivery. Think of them as the love-child of Bjork, Portishead, Lucy Swann and The Analog Girl — but comprising only the good bits. “I’ve been a fan (of theirs) for a long time,” said Gentles Bones during his set.

In between songs though, Weish was as giggly as a schoolgirl on a first date — a total contrast to the musical sorceress she was when performing the songs.

(Gentle Bones and Linying, who was featured on the song Liar on his new EP, Geniuses & Thieves.)

As far as concerts went, the one-two punch of .gif and Gentle Bones knocked everyone off their seats. Will it be easy to top that show? It’s hard to say, but Gentle Bones has set a new benchmark for all local acts to follow.  

If everyone else strives to hit that mark, we’re pretty it can only be all good for the scene here.