An evening of nostalgic serenades

Richard Marx, filled the air at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre with nostalgic tunes on Tuesday, interlaced with his wit and surprisingly good comic timing. The 90's global music star, on his maiden performance in Bangladesh, took the audience on a smooth ride down memory lane, and along with sharing stories about his music, he even brought a Bangladeshi artiste to play alongside him in a song.

“Richard Marx Live in Dhaka” was organised by consumer engagement, music and entertainment company Creinse.

Marx walked on to the stage, all by himself and strapped on an acoustic guitar to open with “Endless Summer Nights”. Without a lot of fuss, he moved on to “Take This Heart”, and it was only mid-performance of “Satisfied” did he start interacting with the audience, getting them to hum back a chorus. Next on his set-list was the 1991 hit “Keep Coming Back”, followed by one of his biggest songs, “Hazard”, Marx called on Kazi Faisal Ahmed, who long-time followers of Bangla rock music would recognise as the guitarist for the early-2000s band Metal Maze, to perform with him on his next song, “Hazard”. He even quipped “He is a better guitar player than I am.”

Marx switched between the piano and his acoustic guitar to perform his hits – as recent as “When You Loved Me” (from the 2010 album “Stories to Tell”) to vintage classics like “Angelia” and “Don't Mean Nothing”. He performed “The Way She Loves Me”, “Hold on to the Nights”, “Now and Forever” and “Dance With My Father” (the Grammy-winning song he wrote for Luther Vandross). Musically, it was a clean, soulful performance in true stripped-back essence, but it was his conversations with the audience that made the night thoroughly enjoyable. He responded to the love from the audience, smoothly dealt with the odd heckler or two, and showed that he's a great storyteller as well: whether it's the endearing story of his three sons performing with him in “Save Me” (a video of his sons playing and singing along was on the background as he sang it) or about the time he wrote “This I Promise You” for NSYNC and young girls followed the band members into a secluded recording studio. His self-deprecating humour about his age and an older following was a definite bonus for the audience, who sang and cheered him on throughout the entire show.

Marx closed the show, to no one's surprise, with “Right Here Waiting”, as the entire audience sang along to their heart's content. Maybe to today's young demographic Richard Marx is just a singer-songwriter from the yesteryears, but to those who grew up listening to his songs on the cassette players, it was a special experience to see a childhood musical hero at touching distance.

The Daily Star was the print partner of the concert.