American folk singer and guitarist Lobo returned for the first time in 15 years last week for a long-awaited concert. And as expected, the 63-year-old singer, along with his band, were very warmly welcomed by nearly 5,000 fans at Siam Paragon's Royal Hall.

Normally, before a concert begins, the audience starts screaming and clapping, urging the band to get started.

However, this time around, the audience remained silent and only started clapping when the lights came on and the band were well into the opening track, "Rings".

Lobo's songs have always been characterised by sweet melodies, sumptuous instrumentation and soulful lyrics and the next few numbers, like "Don't Expect Me to Be Your Friend" and "Don't Tell Me Goodnight" didn't disappoint. The veteran singer's soft voice is still a treat for the ears.

Apart from Lobo's voice and melodies, the audience was also impressed with musical director and guitarist Billy Aerts' comedic interaction.

During the song "Stoney", the talkative Aerts initiated a singing contest.

He divided the audience into two halves - one for his side of the stage and one for Lobo's - and encouraged each to beat the other in terms of volume during the reprise of the song.

After this game, which did much to warm up the crowd, Aerts stepped off the stage and randomly picked out fans to sing the reprise solo. Unfortunately, the first victim's low, leaden tone only won him derisive laughs. The next victim, however, was someone with a good voice and won a big round of applause from the crowd.

Though Aerts had the audience chuckling most of the time, the highlight of the evening was when he answered his cell-phone with: "I'm President Bush."

Later in the show, after an up-tempo version of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", the session musicians left the stage as Lobo and Aerts continued with an acoustic set that included "A Simple Man" and "My First Time" with its sing-along chorus.

There was more laughter when Aerts said, "that was my last time".

The requested "Lodi" was followed by the well-known breezy hits "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" and "It Doesn't Matter Anymore".

Lobo teased the crowds by starting off with a slow song and then suddenly sparking things up with a rousing version of "Yellow River".

Though more senior members of the audience sat still through the song, some did begin to sway a little.

Aerts made more jokes about his baldness and Lobo's full head of white hair before an emotional "Who'll Stop the Rain" and "I'd Love You To Want Me" brought the night to an end.

After disappearing briefly, the musicians came back for an encore and Aerts shouted: "Do you think we forgot one song?"

They had, of course. But the audience was mollified when they broke into "How Can I Tell Her" - a song everyone knew and sang along to.

It certainly was a good way to bring the show to a memorable end, as many of the folk left the concert hall with expressions of happy recognition on their faces.

Kitchana Lersakvanitchakul

The Nation