It was a hot June night; 2nd June, to be precise. A capacity crowd of around 800 excited fans gathered in the Blue Sky Theatre for a farewell concert hosted by the French students. It was a fabulous night of great music, friendship and enjoyment. The crowd was introduced to the delights of the mosh pit and crowd surfing.
The audience was treated to opening performances by two rock bands of Chinese students. The first band thrilled all of us with their brilliant guitar work and with the creativity and variety of their music.
The second act changed the mood from a growling heavy metal to the sweet sounds of their female vocalists. All of the musicians in both bands are extremely talented, not only musically but in their stage performances as well.
The highlight of the night was the performance by the French band; students who came together at the beginning of the semester. They organized the concert to say "merci beaucoup" and "au revoir" to all their friends and hosts at SAU. This is one very talented band; perhaps there is more money to be made as rock stars than as aircraft engineers.
Their repertoire was truly cross-cultural covering numbers sung both in French and English as well as a truly moving version - in their best Putonghua - of the Chinese song "The Moon Represents My Heart" dedicated to their Chinese teacher Ms. Ma Chunyuan (Dolphin) to express their thanks for her help during the year.
