Tuesday night was a big dose of nostalgia as Irish boy band Westlife concluded The Wild Dreams Tour with a memorable performance at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani, after 56 shows in Europe and Asia.
"The Wild Dreams", their fourteenth tour, is aptly subtitled "All The Hits!" as Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and Nicky Byrne impressed fans with hits from the early years of their careers in Tuesday night's setlist which consisted of 15 songs and one medley.
About 30 minutes later than the scheduled time, fans screamed from the top of their lungs as a touching intro video was played on four huge screens, showing people of different races and walks of life before countless dots of light slowly formed human figures representing the four members of Westlife before the boys, or I should say men, finally showed up on the stage.
The quartet kicked the night off in an uplifting mood with Starlight, the lead single from their latest and twelfth studio album Wild Dreams. It was a visual spectacle indeed as the four screens behind them continued to display accompanying visuals to the song while two more screens on the left and right of the stage switched between the four of them with a filter to create the effect of raining golden dots as they performed. Not to mention, fireworks and confetti.
Mark Feehily, Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan and Shane Filan.
They wasted no time and continued with Uptown Girl, a song originally written and sung by American musician Billy Joel. Their cover was released as a single back in 2001 and the crowd got up from their seats to move along to the pop doo-wop song and sang along. The mood shifted as angry guitar riffs preceded a literally fiery rendition of When You're Looking Like That which was fired up with flame jets.
Filan greeted the crowd and said how much the band appreciated them for their support in the past 23 years while the other three left the stage. They then regrouped to perform one of their biggest ballads, Fool Again, and Feehily impressed fans with his improvisation and belting out during the song's climax.
The ballad train continued with If I Let You Go, which was performed with a bit of an upbeat swing twist, instead of the original pure pop bliss. They continued to take fans on a nostalgia trip with My Love before they went back to the very beginning with their first single Swear It Again.
They left the stage before it turned psychedelically rainbow with a mesmerising transition video (I thought I was at an EDM fest for a moment) as they readied to pay tribute to Abba with a medley. They returned sporting silver vests to perform Mamma Mia, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Money Money Money, Take A Chance On Me, I Have A Dream, Dancing Queen, Waterloo and Thank You For The Music non-stop, sending fans into a screaming frenzy every time they gyrated their hips.
Another mesmerising transition video themed around waves and rain was played to usher in a mellow mood before they returned with What About Now during which Feehily showcased his best vocal moments of the night. Up next they performed Mandy and Filan, besides showing his vocal prowess, replaced the word Mandy with Thailand towards the end of the song to show his appreciation and said kob khun mak krub.
Bryne claimed it was the first time Filan did this for any country. They took a poster of their early group shot from a lucky fan. It was folded in a way to omit their former fifth member and they recreated the pose they did in the poster. Bryne then joked about how no one had greeted them at the airport or the hotel when they arrived the day before the concert. The chitchat session ended with them taking a selfie with an arena full of fans in the background.
They served three more hits namely I Lay My Love on You, Seasons In The Sun and World Of Our Own, the last of which contained an intro of Beyonce's Crazy In Love that they bust a move to. The biggest highlight of the night came with a goosebump-inducing performance of Flying Without Wings and, once again, Feehily put his pipe into good use. They took a bow and left the stage but didn't keep fans waiting for long before they returned for an encore with Hello My Love and You Raise Me Up, sending the audience off in a heart-warming mood.
A special mention has to be made for Feehily who, despite his recent recovery from pneumonia, delivered many memorable vocal moments.
"Westlife The Wild Dreams Tour in Bangkok" was their fourth show in Thailand which took place almost 23 years after their first gig in Thailand back in 2000 when the ticket price was B500 and there were five of them. The more you know.
* All photos courtesy of Live Nation Tero.
