The power of nostalgia is strong.
American pop-rock band The Click Five reunited after 12 years for a Southeast Asia tour, and tickets for their May 6 stop in Singapore went flying off the shelves.
They are even adding a May 7 show due to high demand, with tickets going on sale April 3.
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Lead singer Kyle Patrick and bassist Ethan Mentzer spoke to AsiaOne recently, crediting guitarist Joe Guese for the initial idea of getting the band back together.
“We’ve chatted about it over the years, and there just hasn’t been the right opportunity,” Ethan, 43, said. “This time around, there was, so Joe and I chatted about it, and then we urgently sent a message to Kyle that we needed to talk to him within 24 hours.”
He added: “Everyone’s doing different things, both creatively and personally, and it was hard to figure out if there’s any interest to where we could actually pull it off, come together and make it worth everyone’s while.
“We feel really fortunate that it seems those things are in place.”
Kyle, 38, added that the band felt lucky they still have a large audience in Southeast Asia, including over 800,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, despite having done “zero promotion in the past 10-plus years”.
“These are crazy numbers to say out loud, especially when we just haven’t really put any sort of effort into it,” he said.
“We like the idea of giving people what they want and making a really fun experience for people coming to the shows. And I think a big part of that is nostalgia.”
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Making new music for The Click Five is also something the band has been contemplating.
“We’re kind of thinking of this in phases. Like, this is phase one, we’re going to play these shows in May, and start with that,” he said. “Then if that goes well and we feel good about it, we’ll do some stuff. We’re trying to see what’s fun, what feels good and keep the fun going.”
Since the group disbanded in 2013, Kyle has been releasing music under his solo project Pacer and producing for other musicians, Ethan is in the band Atomic Tom and working as a songwriter and producer, while Joe plays for the band Grand Canyon and is a touring guitarist for singer Linda Perry.
The Click Five will be playing in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Singapore, Manila and Cebu. Former keyboardist Ben Romans and drummer Joey Zehr will not join the band on their upcoming tour due to scheduling conflicts.
Fans fainting, nearly going deaf
Kyle has been back to Singapore several times since The Click Five broke up, performing twice in March and September 2019, and spending the early part of 2020 producing music for local singer Jayefunk.
Ethan hasn’t been to Singapore since the band performed at the Youth Olympics in 2010, except flying over the country on his way to Australia to visit his wife’s family, but he does remember some things, like eating chilli crab and visiting Little India, fondly.
And some things less fondly — like a fan fainting at their 2008 concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
“People were pushing against the barricade at the front [of the stage] so much. And I think we were only two or three songs in, and I watched somebody get pushed up against it and then pass out,” he recalled.
“And there were medics getting this person out onto a stretcher and taking them away. And we were playing like, ‘What is happening?’ I hope they were okay.”
Kyle also had a traumatic memory, this time playing for our neighbours up north.
The Click Five performed to a crowd of over 1,200 in a venue only meant for 400 in Kuala Lumpur, and he said they had to stop because there was going to be a stampede.
“I remember crying myself to sleep that night, but not for those reasons,” he continued.
Kyle had in-ear monitors that he couldn’t get working properly, and trying to hear his guitar better, he pushed his ear up to the speakers.
“I burnt my right ear. It still has never been the same, since that show in 2008,” he said. “I think I dipped immediately after that show, went to my hotel room and was like, ‘I’m screwed. I just blew it’.”
Kyle’s ear is in better shape now, and music equipment is better nowadays too.
He said: “I feel like our experience on stage is going to be a lot more comfortable, and our travelling experience, knock on wood, is going to be a little less stressful.
“I’m very excited about that side of things, and just having a modern experience of touring after not doing it for so long.”
While Kyle is excited about new technology, what do fans have to look forward to for their May tour?
“Something we’ve never done before is bring someone up on stage, and if there are people who know how to play any of our songs, they should maybe raise their hands and tell us that at some point,” Ethan suggested.
Kyle added: “Make a poster that says, ‘I play guitar’ and what song you want to play. We might just bring you up and throw it all on you.”
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In an Instagram post, he also recently asked the audience which songs they should play on the tour.
“There were some very surprising songs that made it closer to the top of the list, ones that we probably never would have thought to put in the set list that we will,” he said.
“So that’s all I will say about that, because we want some things to be a surprise.”
Watch our latest E-Junkies video for our interview with The Click Five.
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