Clara C, In Clarity

On the 29th of November 2011, I found myself attending a gig I was not likely to attend by myself. Which is still accurate, since I did not attend it by myself. Here’s Charles Jedidiah Tan, from Singapore, who decided to further his musical career in Melbourne. However, he was the opening act for…

Clara C., who rose to fame on YouTube – and that would be why I be unlikely to know of her, since I don’t listen to singer-songwriters and those who tend to cover songs on YouTube (primarily because I am still on Streamyx, and that means it often breaks to buffer music.)

Well mostly I don’t listen to their covers, since I can’t say I enjoy most covers, especially when they are typically acoustic, stripped down, Asian-ized, and lose a great amount of soul the original song had. Like Sabrina of The Philippines, who makes every rock song she covers, suck badly, with no dynamics, no grit, and no suffering. I’ve heard her album played in some restaurants in town, and remember revolting by the third song.

But hey, Clara Chung is none of that! She’s got sass, and she made us stand up for the first few songs. And then she told us to sit down. And then stand up again. She was kooky, a little loony, and all the way entertaining, none of that timid sweet-girl singer persona. Plus she has a whole lot more technical musicality and it showed in her compositions.

I don’t remember exactly how but 4 lucky winners got up on stage and this guy was the luckiest of them all, getting to play a song for Clara. He also had the pleasure of her tuning her guitar for him, like a tandem guitar.

Impromptu performance. Must be a luck-bringing mole.

I’m not sure where I read that she was a music student, as Googling now reveals that she is not, but I’d believe that she was a music student. There was a good amount of interplay and dynamics.