Standing under OneRepublic

WATCHING OneRepublic perform live, you realise that Ryan Tedder is a natural-born entertainer, extending beyond his duties as frontman and songwriter for the band.
Of course, it helped that the rest of his musical family – guitarists Zach Filkins and Drew Brown, drummer Eddie Fisher, bassist/cellist Brent Kutzle, and touring member on keyboards/percussion Brian Willet – were there supporting him.
OneRepublic marked its second visit to Malaysia, as part of its Asian tour, with a concert at Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur, on April 25.
“The last time we were here was like monsoon season, so it rained and rained and rained until we had the concert,” said Tedder that night.
“This is the first time that I’ve gotten to stay right in the city and … I gotta say, this city is amazing. Absolutely in love with the city, and that’s no B.S.”
Tedder also told the crowd that the band would be “making up for lost time”.
He added: “This is the last tour we’re doing before we release new music, and a new album, and new everything else.
“[We] actually recorded two songs today, right here in Kuala Lumpur.”
With a nod to the hot and humid night, Tedder jokingly said everyone would “lose five pounds” after the show.
“What’s funny is, leading up to tonight, we [only] found out today that it was an outdoor gig, which we love, but we just came from where, basically in the US, it’s winter,” he told a giggling crowd of around 10,000.
But, he added: “It’s one of the most beautiful outdoor venues we’ve ever played.”
Perhaps it was the humidity but Tedder seemed to start on a shaky note when he sang Stop and Stare, and Secrets.
However, he soon made up for it with witty remarks in-between more controlled and powerful renditions of arguably some of the band’s greatest hits – Apologize, I Lived, and If I Lose Myself.
Tedder, who is credited with writing hits like Adele’s Rumour Has It and Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love, also said that the band only recently started performing songs he had written for others.
“I feel weird doing other people’s songs but I wrote them, so technically, they’re my songs, aren’t they?” he said as more of a statement than a question.
The band also played Beyonce’s Halo, and a tribute to the late DJ Avicii, performing his hit Wake Me Up, with Tedder this time on the piano.
Still on the piano, Tedder and the band performed a rendition of Ed Sheeran’s Happier, which he co-wrote.
“The video comes out, I still haven’t seen it but I wrote this with Ed in New York City probably 18 months ago. For those of you who know the song, the original version, the demo, was written on piano,” he said, adding with a playful look of mock disbelief on his face, “and that son of a b***h put it on guitar”.
In another instance of his cheeky side, he stopped singing Happier after two lines, and said: “Picture this with a British accent,” before going back on track to his version after two verses.
Born to Race might not be a familiar OneRepublic tune just yet, because the band did it for video game Need For Speed.
Tedder added: “I can’t believe they asked us to do this; this is like somebody ask you to write the theme song to the next Batman”.
Tedder claimed to have played Need For Speed since he was 15 years old. “Hope you like it. If you don’t like it, just shut up,” he quipped.
That’s the thing with Tedder, he’s unbelievably real with his fans, and probably gave the concert security heart palpitations when he dived into the crowd.
He made it to the back seats of the set-up in the middle of the stadium, shaking and slapping the hands of screaming fans, while his bandmates rocked on stage.
At the end of the night, Tedder said: “The next time we see you, it will be with brand new music. It will be with brand new clothes. It will be … well, I don’t know what else it will be.
“It will be the absolute best we’ve ever been, but hopefully tonight was at least 95% there.”
Despite the shaky start, OneRepublic’s attitude that night deserved 100%.
OneRepublic Live in Malaysia 2018 was organised by WGW Entertainment and supported by Malaysia Major Events (MME).