Barely six months after their sold-out concert last year, Irish rock band The Cranberries took centrestage again at Singapore Indoor Stadium on Monday night with their new "Roses" world tour.
The quartet, made up of lead vocalist Dolores O'Riordan along with guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler, took the world by storm in the 1990s to the 2000s with monster hits such as "Zombie" and "Animal Instinct", propelling the band to international stardom.
But the band, exhausted from the constant touring and recording, decided to take a break in 2003, which soon stretched into an almost decade-long absence. Last year finally marked the comeback of the band with their reunion tour and the release of their sixth studio album "Roses".
The Irish band rocking it out with the high-spirited audience. (Yahoo! photo/Nilah Jumat)
The veteran band kickstarted the night with cult hits like "Dreams" and "Linger" and had fans hooked from the start. The frisky audience -- from teens to the middle-aged -- roared their approval with fervent head-bobbing and mouthed lyrics in sync with O'Riordan.
Throughout the night, the band not only satiated the audience's appetite for old-time favourites such as "Ode to my family" and "Salvation" but also peppered their performance with fresh tunes such as "Tomorrow" and "Conduct" from their latest album.
O'Riordan charms crowd
From the get-go, the 40-year-old O'Riordan showed no signs of her age as she charmed the 5,000-strong crowd with her signature reedy voice and recognisable Irish lilt that characterises The Cranberries' distinctive, trademark sound.
Audiences were also kept enthralled by the crooner's effortless switching between the powerful, high-notes of their hallmark rock numbers and the sombre, stripped down version of "Roses" -- a song which the singer penned in dedication to her late father.
Dolores O'Riordan charming the audience with her vocal acrobatics. (Photo courtesy of Eddie Sung & Hype Record …
The night's atmosphere also lit up with O'Riordan's cheeky antics -- which involved (questionable) random butt-swaying and quirky dance moves -- that tickled the audience right to the bone.
The high-spirited crowd also had a good laugh when she jokingly complained, "I had a good time today, I went to the Botanical Gardens… and Orchard Road, where I spent a bomb."
As the night drew to a close, the band ended on a high with one of the biggest hits of their career, "Zombie" -- a politically-charged number about the violence in Ireland in the early '90s -- which saw most of the crowd singing in chorus alongside O'Riordan.
'Kick-ass audience'
"You have been the most kick-ass audience!" exclaimed the singer when the curtain closed for the second time after a four-song encore.
When asked about her concert experience, Anita Raha, who's in her 40s, said: "It was a bit too short… but it's a good thing that they sang all of their hit songs."
22-year-old Helda Gun echoed Raha as she sung praises of the band's consistency through the years.
"I thoroughly enjoyed the show, Dolores is a good performer… Her stage presence made it fun for me to jump along with her butt shaking moves [and] the drummer hasn't aged a day."
Related article: 'We knew we were going to reunite at some point'
