Indigo Girls Live at the Singapore Mosaic Music Festival, Esplanade Concert Hall

Me and C two minutes before the lights dimmed and the opening act came on.

You know how you always fantasise about the perfect concert by your favourite band? And you know that even though the perfect set list varies from time to time in your head - depending on your mood and factoring in the relative constraints of a two-hour concert - there are some touchstones that are always present in your fantasy?

Well, for years - 17 long years actually - I've had time to ruminate on my perfect Indigo Girls concert. And though the song choices changed (as IG put out new albums, some new songs invariably would make it to the list), the following factors were always there:

* Pure acoustic set, bonus points if mandolin was present
* More an Emily-vibe than Amy (i.e. more low-key, lyrical, soft, rather than angry, angsty and dissenting)
* Intimate setting
* Other fans present who would chant along to songs
* Fun banter, ala Emily's "moo" pre-Galileo in 12,00 Curfews
* To watch it with C, oldest friend, and fellow Indigoer who made me the BEST mixed tape of IG tunes to travel Europe with in 1998, and who has consistently bought every IG album there is! Even ordering Despite our differences from Amazon, cos it wasn't available in Singapore!

Well, last night's concert was fantasy come to life. Most truly and astoundingly so. Every bullet point above checked off. I'm still buzzing a whole 24 hours later.

So indulge me now as I take you through the magical mystery tour that was last evening's Indigo Girls concert.

SET LIST

1. Yield
From Become you, one of my favourite later albums, this started off the concert on a high-energy note. Kudos to the sound technicians and the acoustics of the Esplanade concert hall, every word sung was crisp, and boy were the harmonies tight!

2. Hammer and a nail
When Emily played the opening riff to this, my heart literally lurched and almost fell out of my mouth. From Nomads Indians Saints, this is possibly in my top three favourite IG songs of all time, and to hear it so early on in the night (when I afraid they mightn't even play it, was almost too much). Their rendition is so full of joy, so wonderfully sonorous, I don't know whether to chant along, or to stop and soak it all in. I end up doing both badly, but who cares? This is bliss.

3. Heartache for everyone
There's a clear pattern emerging. They're playing one Amy song, then an Emily, and now it's back to Amy. This is from All that we let in, and though I wasn't a huge fan of the album version, the way they pared it down last night infused it with a broken melancholy that was so moving. For some reason, I think of Brokeback Mountain (look I loved that movie. No gay jokes please!).

4. Fill it up again
Yep, now it's an Emily song. And again, it's from All that we let in. Very happy. Emily sounds chirpy, in a good way!

5. Shame on you
From Shaming of the sun, this is a definite crowd-pleaser and everyone chants along to the chorus, "La la la, they said, shame on you." Amy smiles as she sings "They say we've been looking for illegal immigrants/ Can we check your car/ I say you know its funny/ I think we were on the same boat back in 1694". The crowd cheers.

6. Get out the map
Still on the same album, and this is another one that gets the crowd going. Amy and Emily play the whole song on mandolin and banjo. HEAVEN!

7. Three County Highway
From Despite our differences, this is my favourite Amy song of the night. It's gone so quiet that all you can hear are Amy's amazing vocals and the first miracle of the night, Emily's work on slide guitar. Again, scenes from Brokeback flash through my brain! Aiyoh!

8. Power of Two
The girls quip that someone present at a radio interview in Singapore requested this song. When the first few notes of Power of Two are played, C and I practically leap up in our seats. After all, this song, along with Closer to Fine, are what got us hooked on IG in the first place. This song was on my wedding playlist, it's in my top three IG songs of all time too. To hear it live was, my god, a treat.

9. Ozilline
Amy wrote this about her grandma. They make a funny joke about how their greatest fans are Amy's grandma, and their parents. Seven of them hanging out in a bar.

10. Pendulum Swinger
This is one of their more political songs of the night. From Despite our differences, it's catchy, and everyone happily bops along, until they sing "If we're a drop in the bucket/With just enough science to keep from saying f*ck it". A few ears prick up, did someone actually say the F word on a Singapore stage? They did? Whoopee? Yay!

11. Become You
The title track from the album, the night is entering energetic mode again. I like!

12. Love of our lives
Amy says that they're going to play a few new songs if the crowd doesn't mind. We hoot in support and she says this is a new song by Emily in their upcoming album Poseidon and the bitter bug. The song blows me away. It's Emily at her best, it's lyrical, the melody is inventive, the chord progression unexpected and so typically sonorous! And the lyrics are the best part. I cannot, absolutely cannot, wait to get their new album.

13. Sugar Tongue
Now an Amy song from the new album. Very nice! It's Amy channeling her Land of Canaan muse.

14. Ghost
Oh. My. God. When Emily plucks the oh-so-familiar first notes of Ghost, I am at once goose-bumpy and almost weepy. I experience objective correlative in the flesh. A wave of emotion and memory sweep through me and I am so grateful it is dark (and also for the choicest of choice seats which C bought one-minute after the bookings opened). Anyway, this was the second miracle of the night, especially hearing Emily's soaring vocals at the end.

15. Driver education
A song from an Amy solo album given the IG treatment. Cute! I like!

16. Closer to fine
The signature tune. The crowd goes mental, channelling their activist/collegiate days through our ageing bodies. People leap up from seats waving their arms wildly around. What fun!

17. Chickenman/ Bitterroot When the opening bars are played, C and I stare at each other. We definitely know this tune, but h-a-n-g o-n, not in the best way. We struggle to remember the title then suddenly it dawns on us and we can barely keep it together. Chickenman. Yup. The song that was permanently fast forwarded when it was the cassette-tape era, and skipped once we bought CD players. But you know what? We hated the album version but the live version seriously rocks! Who else but Amy could sing about road kill and make it sound vaguely charming? They end the first set there, but the crowd scream and chant for more. They're back out in a short minute and launch into...

18. Kid fears
WHAT?! That's from their self-titled first album and C and I loved it as it featured one of our other favourite people from music land, Michael Stipe! IG and REM hail from Atlanta and hence the guest spot! Wonderful performance, though C and I kept singing the Michael Stipe bit, which was sadly missing. But I can't believe they actually sang this from 1989! Wowee!

19. Galileo
They say this is their last song. I freak out and yell, "Galileo? It must be Galileo right? They haven't done Galileo yet! What if they don't do Galileo?" The American guy next to me pats me on the back and says that he's glanced down at the sound booth and can see Galileo scribbled down as the last song. I let out a great big Yaup (thanks Dead Poets and Walt Whitman). I am officially completely filled with joy. The crowd sings along. I am so happy that they know the lyrics.

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The concert ends and I ask the sound booth guy for the set list. He gives to me. C and I queue for about half an hour to get autographs. Amy and Emily sign the set list I took, and C's copy of Despite our differences. I gush about how I've been a fan for 17 years and they say, "thank you, thanks!" And I say a very courteous, almost shy, thank you. When all I wanna yell out is, thanks y'all!

In line for autographs