Myo Gyi sings during the four-and-a half-hour Iron Cross performance. Pic: Lwin Maung Maung

WITH the return of popular singer Lay Phyu, not to mention an impressive billboard campaign through-out the city, it was hardly surprising that Thuwanna stadium was packed for the two Iron Cross performances on August 24 and 25.

The concert, organised by the Myanmar Music Association, was more expensive than usual, and even made use of printed CD tickets to prevent the circulation of fakes. Despite the price it seems that Lay Phyu, who has not performed live with IC for more than two years, was too much of a temptation for most fans to resist.

As the Timeout team arrived at the stadium for the first of the two concerts and half an hour before the 5pm start, two long entry queues stretched all the way back to the road, with fans shouting ‘IC!…IC!’ creating a real buzz. The band is not known for starting their concerts late so as 5pm approached people began rushing to get through the gates.

With most of the seats occupied and the floor awash with people, the excitement was intense. As the band took to the stage (at 5pm exactly), the audience began cheering and clapping, shouts of ‘Lay Phyu! Lay Phyu!’ booming across the room.

Myo Gyi took the mike first, kicking off the show with the famous song ‘Nayyaung out ka athetshuthan myar’ (Breaths under the sunshine), ecstatic fans sang along, waving their hands slowly in the air.

Singer Lay Phyu returns to perform with Iron Cross after a two-year absence. Pic: Lwin Maung Maung

Next up was eagerly awaited Lay Phyu whose passionate vocal performance of ‘Thaychin ye dagarmyar’ (The doors of death), received a massive audience response in gratitude for the stars temporary return to live performance. Even the IC band members looked pleased to perform together as one band again, with Myo Gyi remarking: “I haven’t performed this song, ‘Ein ko pyan khae taut’ (Come back home again), with Ko Lay Phyu for three years. I’m really happy to be here with him.”

Then Myo Gyi, Ahnge and Y Wine livened up the audience again with their popular hits: Laypyay (The breeze), Khar (Bitter) and Thamin lae pyan (Glance back at me).

“Mingalaba…,” shouted Lay Phyu in greeting to the crowd. “I’ll sing a lot because I love you all.” The star looked slightly taken aback at the audience response to his return admitting that he was excited to meet his fans again and that he had never performed in front of so many people before. Thuwanna stadium was almost full to capacity with more than 10,000 people in attendance.

Lay Phyu then invited the audience to get up off their seats and join with the band for some fist pounding rock anthems, made all the more special by some impressive stage pyrotechnics. Across the room the excitement — and the temperature — was mounting, with many of the more enthusiastic rockers peeling off their t-shirts and waving them frantically about their heads.

Myo Gyi then took the stage again to perform lengthy versions of ‘Kyi loh ma kaung tae pwe (The unfair race) and ‘Ein a pyan lan’ (The way towards home). He was followed by Ahnge and Y Wine who performed mellower songs, even pulling out some of their rarely heard classics from their first solo albums.
Highlights from the evening included some exhilarating solo performances, spec-ifically the 15-minute drum solo by Kha Yan as well as some speedy guitar gym-nastics performed by lead guitarist Chit San Mg.

As one of the only bands of the 90s era still going strong and with all its original members, their non-stop performance lasting four and a half hours was testament to the band’s talent and impressive energy.

The evening finally came to an end at 9:30pm with Lay Phuy’s greatest hit ‘Alinyaung’ (The light). As the audience reluctantly filtered out of the stadium, some fans were even talking of returning for the following night’s performance, proof, if any was needed, of Myanmar’s enduring love for Iron Cross.