Fossils like me who, in spite of our advanced geriatric Alzheimer’s, can still vaguely recall Billboard chart toppers of the late (19)80s and early 90s; as well as hipster millenials cultivating an ironic appreciation for medieval popular music are instructed to drop everything this Wednesday night and stampede over to the KL Convention Centre. Right there waiting for us will be one of the male artiste-head honchos of the aforementioned era – the genre-fluid, multi-instrument-intimate, velvety-voiced Richard Marx (if he were still a major force on the scene today, his die-hard fans would be blasphemously dubbed, of course, ‘Marxists’).
Materializing in town as part of his Richard Marx in Asia 2016 – The Solo Tour, the rocker-balladeer, producer, songwriter and musician (he kills at the piano, and slays with the guitar) will reduce us to mounds of jiggling goo with his canyon-wide repertoire of fatally-nostalgic hits – including supernova singles like “Should’ve Known Better”, “Endless Summer Nights”, “Right Here Waiting”, “Angelia”, “Hold On to the Nights”, “Satisfied”, “Now and Forever”, “Keep Coming Back” and “Hazard” (I rattled this off from the top of my head – that’s right, people), as well tracks from his latest album, “Beautiful Goodbye” (he’s still at it!).
But even if Marx were to squander his entire one-night-only show randomly tickling the ivories and mooing or yodeling, it’d be worth it just to be in the presence of a 30 million album-selling, dexterous performer virtually buried in Grammies, and who holds the record as the only male artist in history to have had his first seven singles reach the top of the Billboard chart. Of course, he won’t, and I’ll be as close to him as security will allow me, braying along to every familiar song like a major dork, and holding on to the night. Marx my words!
For sing-along practice:
Richard Marx in Asia 2016 – The Solo Tour
Where: Plenary Hall, KL Convention Centre
When: 8.30pm, 9th March, Wednesday
Tickets: www.ticketpro.com.my or call 03 7880 7999
For more info: www.richardmarx.com