I wish I was a Taylor Swift fan. If I was a Swiftie, I would have jumped on the gig tripping bandwagon and booked a ticket to one of her concerts overseas—something I did for a less popular but equally gifted artist.

When Rachael Yamagata announced her Beyond The Garden Tour for Asia, I knew I had to go. Her voice knew all about heartbreak; her songs best played when the mood calls for something bittersweet.

Oddly enough, I stumbled upon this American Japanese talent because of my Korean obsession. You all know how I fell head over heels in crush over Korean actor Hyun Bin during the pandemic. So smitten was I that I watched every movie and series of his that I could get my hands on, discovering other artists in the process, including Rachael.

I didn’t know any other Rachael fan, but I reckon I was old enough to go to a concert alone. Plus, it was a good excuse to fly to Hong Kong.

The venue was small, intimate, with maybe room for a couple of hundred people, most of them in their twenties, some in their thirties. I did see one other woman who I think was near my age, but she was beside a younger person. She escorted her daughter, perhaps? Who knows!

Be that as it may, I felt right at home. I was on the second row, and an artist who I only knew from my Spotify playlist was performing live before my very eyes. It was a singular experience. There’s one other thing I discovered about this watching-a-concert-alone thing: There was absolutely no need for commentaries. When you’re watching a performance with another person/persons, there is this instinct to share. You want to tell the other person what you think of the performance or maybe share an anecdote or two, whatever. When you’re alone, you can totally immerse yourself in the performance. It was liberating!

What I did find surprising was how absolutely polite the audience was. I thought they’d be livelier because they were younger. I didn’t hear anybody else singing with Rachael, or if they did, they did so quietly. There were no random screams of adoration, and no dancing to her livelier tunes. She practically had to cajole the audience to get up on their feet at one point.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself immensely, and I am looking forward to doing it again!