Concert review: OneRepublic’s rainy set, Voice Of Baceprot’s metal meltdown at F1

Formula One Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2024

Marina Bay Street Circuit
Sept 20

What do OneRepublic, Robbie Williams and The Kid Laroi have in common? They all had the distinction of playing a soaking wet set at the largest concert stage in different editions of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Accompanied by strong wind, the rain started pouring at 11.20pm, a little over an hour after American pop-rock band OneRepublic started their headlining set at the Padang stage on Sept 20.

British pop star Williams and Australian rapper-singer The Kid Laroi powered through stormy weather in 2014 and 2022 respectively.

OneRepublic frontman and vocalist Ryan Tedder said on stage: “We still have more music. Let it rain... We’re all getting wet together.”

While some in the 50,000-strong audience started running for the exits, most chose to stay on.

One could say OneRepublic were a safe choice to close the first night of the F1. This was, after all, a band with a broad appeal and no dearth of mainstream hits from the last two decades.

Tedder, 45, was the undisputed draw, the only member engaging directly with the audience with banter while the rest of the band were content to focus on their instruments.

Right after an instrumental intro, OneRepublic kicked off their set with their most recent hit, I Ain’t Worried, first released in 2022 for the soundtrack of Tom Cruise’s blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick (2022).

The rest of the 85-minute show boasted other massive tunes, including Counting Stars, the 2013 song that has a whopping four billion views on YouTube and more than two billion streams on Spotify.

Before launching into Runaway (2023), Tedder reminded the fans that part of the music video for the song was filmed in Singapore.

The band also slipped in the instrumental interlude titled Singapore from their latest album Artificial Paradise (2024).

Tedder was not about to let anyone in the crowd forget that he does not just write the band’s hits, but he is also the man behind many familiar songs from a long list of pop music’s biggest stars.

Occasionally sipping from a can of isotonic drink Pocari Sweat (“I’m not sponsored by Pocari Sweat, by the way, that was free advertisement”), he devoted the middle part of the show to showcase some of the hit compositions he did for others.

Calling it “a concert within a concert”, he led the crowd in a sing-along of tunes ranging from Beyonce’s Halo (2008) to Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love (2007).

The night saw other international acts performing across the Marina Bay Street Circuit, including British alt-pop duo Honne in an earlier set at the Padang, and American alt-rock band Thirty Seconds To Mars, fronted by Hollywood star Jared Leto, at the Wharf Stage.

One of the more curious names on the Sept 20 line-up was Indonesian band Voice Of Baceprot, a hijab-wearing all-female trio playing heavy, pulse-pounding metal music.

The black-clad group played their first show in Singapore to a 3,000-strong audience after 9pm at the smaller Downtown stage, a stone’s throw from the Padang.

Diminutive by nature but gargantuan in sound, the 20-somethings played a cacophonous mix of alternative metal, rap, funk and thrash.

Their musicianship was tight, and bassist Widi Rahmawati was impressively adroit, her left hand flying all over the fretboard while her right hand switched between speedy thumb slaps and finger flicks.

Frontwoman Firda Marsya Kurnia’s chameleonic voice ranged from melodic croons to rapid raps to guttural growls, simultaneously executing chugging riffs and searing solos on the guitar.

Drummer Euis Siti Aisyah held the groove down with thunderous, polyrhythmic beats, and briefly stole the spotlight with a drum solo.

Their 45-minute set featured all their singles, from 2018 debut School Revolution to signature tune God, Allow Me (Please) To Play Music (2021), as well as cuts from their debut album Retas (2023). PMS (2022), which celebrates women breaking stereotypes, effectively blended pop melodies, bluesy solos and a slap bass breakdown.

Singer Marsya preceded The Enemy Of Earth Is You (2023), a protest song about climate change, with a mini speech against “mountains of rubbish” and high plastic consumption, and made a call to “stop the genocide out there” before launching into anti-war song What’s The Holy (Nobel) Today? (2023).

The big stages at the F1 Singapore Grand Prix might boast established names and Top 40 material, but it was also refreshing to witness such raw, unfiltered energy being unleashed by non-mainstream acts such as Voice Of Baceprot once in a while.