music and words by Vienna Teng
we’re here where the daylight begins
The fog on the streetlight slowly thins
water on water’s the way
the safety of shoreline fading away
sail your sea
meet your storm
all I want is to be your harbor
the light in me
will guide you home
all I want is to be your harbor
fear is the brightest of signs
the shape of the boundary you leave behind
so sing all your questions to sleep
the answers are out there in the drowning deep
you’ve got a journey to make
there’s your horizon to chase
so go far beyond where we stand
no matter the distance
I’m holding your hand
—
…that’s just one of the amazing songs that Vienna Teng played/sang tonight at the Union. And I am saying, it was one of the most amazing concerts I’ve been to. From the first time I heard her songs (two days ago) I was amazed at what they had to say–and almost for the first time, in person, she didn’t disappoint.
Songs that meant something to me found even deeper depth from how she created them. Every song had some sort of story behind it–some real, some fictional; but all of them were genuine in emotion. She wrote them at the oddest times (probably what I empathize wiht more though): procrastinating an English paper away, being annoyed at her roommate, and her boyfriend… and wrote songs, in their point of view. That’s somehting amazing for me, something I find really rare in the pop music world–and so each song has its story. Bah, whatever, I’m not writing a review, I’m talking about how amazing the concert was.
One amazing thing about her, besides her is how… normal she looked. She commented that one day, she was being egotistical, and Googled herself; found a site about 20 hits down, where she found a guy who truly loved her music, but also said (paraphrased) “dude, if vienna teng was hot, i would totally stalk her”—lol–whereupon she concluded that she’d take it as a good sign, finding the best of both worlds: good enough to be liked musically, but not hot enough to be stalked.
Teng happy after pulling off some song
Pretty cool how the internet can affect people so far away. Sometimes it seems so private up here… in Xangaworld–yet ANYONE can access what I”m saying… cool in a way?
Haha anyway–her music was AWESOME, and I found her writing process as amazing as the stories themselves. She also sang a song in Mandarin (“excuse my American accent–I’m a 5th grade Chinese school dropout”) which (I believe) was originally a Taiwanese folk song… respectable. THe immigrant story, from so many 1st-2nd generation families are destroyed in the inter-generational conflicts; mine almost was. So many Asian-Americans that venture out of the “traditional” asian specialties (math/sci/eng/med) also strip away their cultural-selves, yet knowing that she at the very least tried, (and probably did well, it was a nice song) to hold on to the stories of her past gives me some hope. I wished I knew the song’s title so I could find it… (more on that later) and looK!:
Autographed CD!
I actually bought her CD (first CD purchase in nearly a year)–I’m just glad to support her, not because she’s Asian-American (and we could definitely use some more Asian artists in this counrty) but I truly appreciated her… songs/stories/humor/attitude… it was good, and the least I could do was to buy the CD (IT WAS A FREE CONCERT!). And for her sake, I shall do all the marketting that I can–OH, she’s coming to CHICAGO later this month too!
Besides, this made it all worth it!
Uh huh–that’s right–whos the man??? I forgot to ask her what her REAL name was… oh well. The dudes flanking her are the Lams, hilarious tite twins that make the Huangs look like arch-enemies–
I also found a hidden track on my CD–playing it, it was the mandarin song she had sung! And my life was complete, and I am gonna sleep now…
lol–oh yea, in response to a question she said one of her favorite programming languages was Java… maybe java aint so bad–:-|
Check her site out (yay marketting!) Free MP3’s! No guilt!
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