Hujan&Komplot; Celebration of Arts @ Mont Kiara Plaza!

Komplot. Hujan. Gigs. After fantasizing over this event for a week and a bit, it actually happened. Decided to go to Mont Kiara at 4 something when Iman called me to hurry me there [when I spent the whole day hurrying HIM to go]. He met my mama, who wanted to see who I was going to be hanging out with for the day. They talked at McDonald's about random advice stuff while I was the "go-to-the-counter-to-buy-me-coffee" person. Not fair. Human rights, dude.

ANYWAY, waited for the rest of the gang to arrive. Met three new funkyboys by the names of Rozy, Don & K-Lah! WHEEE, they were scared of my hyperness for a bit, but I managed to get them hyper too, so it was all well. Haha, they were friends of Iman's, and I just ducked under his elbow and went "HULOO!" at them. Rozy kind of jumped, and stared, before laughing. HAHA. I won some shampoo pack for giving the name of one Komplot member [I answered Enche Chino] so that was pretty randomly funny. By the time night arrived and Komplot was about to perform, we were hyped and ready!

Komplot. Disco beats that got everyone who went there to stand around looking pretty jump until their make-up were runny. :D Was introduced to some of their other songs [which Ija helped me give the titles to]. Crazily humming to the songs, screaming our heads off to Konflik[!], hi-fiving Zac and getting winded up with the crowd. That was Komplot. Oh and not to mention laughing at the annoyance of Jeffny's face everytime he moved the microphone [the noise was excruciating]. Really enjoyed their full-on performance, there were no flaws whatsoever, Zac MADE SURE everyone there was participating in the moshpit. Managed to record one song [minus the first verse] performed by them.

Iman was sweat-drenched and stunk by the end of them, and Rozy and K-lah became Komplotans.
Hujan. The final act, and the moment most had been waiting for, after Komplot finished.

Komplot gave us all an energetic boost, and we were all ready to pounce on Hujan [or was it Noh, as he was nearest to us] the moment they went on stage. However, the amps decided it was funny to not work and left us all dangling between hyperness and exhaustion. After minutes of screaming "TIPTAP HUJAN DAH TURUN" with random shout outs from the back asking them to "cepatlah", they finally rocked the stage.
Introed with Aku Scandal [which got me and K-Lah hyper as we were singing that together just a while ago]. Tried to video it but failed almost instantly as the crowd was getting more and more rowdy by the seconds. With a thought of "ah, screw it" I stuffed my camera back into my pockets and joined in with the craze. In less than a few minutes, we were pulled into a mosh with some guys beside me. Ija protected me at the beginning, then must've realized I wanted to mosh, and let me handle it on my own. Was completely into it, dehydrated and all, singing along to every word, headbanging at every riff. Ija appeared next to me every once in a while, singing along, with our arms around each others' shoulders.
When Pagi Yang Gelap played, it was obvious that the crowd was suddenly a lot louder [made me laugh as it reminded me of Starlight and Muse], and I was grinning maniacally along with Iman and Ija. "Aku adikmu, dan engkau abanggg" - my words to Iman all the time. Hee. This led onto Ludah Amerika which led onto Empayar Mu if I was not mistakened. Or was it Ludah, then Pagi then Empayar? I dunno, all I know is the final song was EMPAYAR MU prolonged with two extra choruses or something like that. It.was.CRAZY.

Everyone sensed that it was going to be the final mosh for the night. I caused a guy to fall, turned around, asked who fell, and the guy I was talking to raised his hand. I shouted "SORRY" and he held his arm out for a hi-5. Funny bit.

The night ended mellow. Crowd died down, went to McD to bid Mus and Brandon goodnight. Said buhbye to Iman and the funkyboys. Walked by Noh and took a picture with him.
noh: *points at me* "Ah u I kenal lah, dari myspace hehehe!"
me: *grins while ija giggles
Walked home with a pulled muscle and an awesome memory. WHOO! Iman broke his thumb bone. Retard xD
KomplotHujan!

Celine hopes you guys are lovin' this blog.

Merdeka '07 @ Magical Theatre; Sunway Pyramid

Wowow, Merdeka of 50 years Independence was the bomb. No I was not strewn in the crowds at Merdeka Square or watching local stars at KLCC or sitting waiting for a countdown at Bukit Bintang. Nope, I was at a gig :)

A good gig.

So about 6pm, my cousin, Louise, and I reached Sunway Pyramid where we met up with my friend, Nindy. We tried to find the place where the gig was going to be at. While waiting for our other friends to arrive, as we stood at the entrance of S.Pyramid, Louise had pointed to a guy with a backpack and a mini mohawk, and wondered aloud if he was Chino Komplot. After recognizing him, it was like as if a ghost went into my body. I jumped up as dashed to him, grabbing onto his bag. He was definitely caught by surprise, but not until I said I had seen him perform in The Curve about two months ago. He was really nice, and told me he had a performance with another band (The Otherside Orchestra) and sold me Komplot's 'Konflik Metropolis' CD. Thanks again, Chino! Louise, who had this 'he's so cute' thing for him, stayed with Nindy, eyes oggling greedily. Hahahaha.

So, we followed where Chino went to and bumped in Adam Dragon Red, which confirmed that venue was where we were meant to be after all, which was about three shops away from where we stood lost. -_-

Waiting. Waiting. Adam spoke to us a few times when John, my classmate, arrived along with Brandon and Kamarul Dragon Red. Finally, people were arriving! So me, Lou, Nin, Bran, John and Camero went to Burger King to grab some things to eat. Louise was constantly calling Kamarul "Sombong", which was damn funny.
Lou: Yee, so sombong lah. When he goes to the counter to order, he won't order he'll just stand there and stand... like '-_-'

Kamarul: Whatttt...
Us: LOL

I kept stealing everyone's root beer, and John was obsessed with Nin's boobs per usual. After B.King, we went back to Magical Theatre where Jarrod arrived! With Wu Hoo! SO, after everyone's arrival, we went to grab a table and listened to old classics by The Police while waiting for the show to begin.

The show begins! We were greeted by a very, extremely, phenomenally UNimpressive magician that caused me and Jarrod to insult his every outta-the-book tricks. I think he heard/saw us laughing (we were quite in front)... Oopz... 

Then there was some really random bands playing which I didn't even know the names to. One tried to be very Muse-like, doing a trio band, sounding a little like a Muse cop-off, too, but the drummer was quite faulty.

Brandon: Can you play better?

Me: I hope so.

LOL.

Dragon Red did their first set (the boring one) and after the performances we were nothing but a huge groan and aching for food - we were sent away from the table because apparently we were "blocking them from business" as we weren't ordering much but just occupying the table. So we were spotless so we decided to grab some KFC while waiting for Dragon Red to perform. 

Brandon left to help D.R with the equipments, so Ija, Jarrod, Wu, Louise and I went to KFC, while everyone else had left... KFC was damn PACKED as it was Merdeka Eve and everybody was rushing to grab some dinner in the midst of Sunway fun.

Rushed our food to head back to catch Dragon Red. We were like... a pathetic small line of moshers just headbanging away in front of tables of crowd just... staring?

Pathetic. Dragon Red did a very good performance, though, doing a few of their originals, as well as adding in two covers. One very serious one - Plush by Stone Temple Pilots, and the other a complete crowd teaser by Sam Hui - a classic Cantonese oldies which I found an old Chinese man dancing to. SO awesome! Slyde is fluent at Cantonese so he did most of the song, giving "Pun Kan Bat Leong" to Adam, who completely... ruined it? HAHAHA.

Him: *indian accent* bongahnbartliung...

Me: Wtf is he singing?

Louise: LOL HAHAHA I don't have any fcking clue!

Whole gang: WAHAHAHA!

After their performance, we were greeted with Chino and The Otherside Orchestra! What a colossal performance! I was dancing, dancing, dancing to the beats, head bobbing, arm flailing! Great performances, I was so awed by his drumming - once more! :) We were having fits over the moves of the keyboardist who looked like he was epileptic on the keyboards. HAHAHA.

The only turnoff from the band was when I saw the frontman's wife right beside the amps and speakers holding their CHILD! A little child! His/her (can't remember) eardrums must've been completely destroyed. Gosh...

Sat outside after their performance with Louise, behind Dragon Red's table, only to get the gang turn to look at us, wondering what the hell we were sitting away from them for, and told us to join them. They were being served free beer (watered down, yuck!), and everyone was enjoying the service. I on the other hand, wished they had food. xD

Kamarul did some disgusting, weird stunt with his piercing of which he took out his lip piercing, put beer in his mouth, and squirted the beer out from under his lip. I was like "ARGHHH!!"

He did it opposite me! So it was almost spilling on me! Sicko.

Had a nice chat with Joannie, Adam's girlfriend, who was shitcool. Amil and a few others seemed a bit surprised (in a BAD way) when they found out I was studying in GIS. Hahaha, the reputation of my school is just sooooo bad.

Anyway, was in the midst of sitting beside Amil and Kamarul when suddenly we heard a loud "Are you ready to RAWWWWK" in that really old school high pitched voice, and Amil and I practically bolted out of our seats, astounded, rushing to the stage with a huge "WOAHH!!". 

It was Revenge, the old school biker band, rocky, heavy and firm tunes pouring out from the microphones and amps. Great, great sounds. But their fans were totally annoying, hogging the musicians, pushing me out of the way, blocking me sight, so I just got annoyed of it after about 2 songs, and went to sit again. xD

They were goooood, though. So after all the performances, after the "MERDEKA!"s and lots and lots of hanging out, we went home, ending the day with a great yawn, and smelly bodies. xD

Thought of and laughed at by Celine

Good Charlotte @ Bukit Jalil

Pre-Concert; the big debacle

The target demographic was there – the tweens and teens with their palaver of Valley-inflected, American English affectations, some with their parents tagging resolutely along for a wholesome, standard, MTV pop-punk experience. Punctuating the drizzling, arboreal evening air were lusty ejaculations of ‘FUYOH’ – already, Digi’s VIPs and cadre were plugging the sponsor’s name for the cameras and anyone who cared. Teenaged girls caked in mascara and dressed in minis, boots, heels and (your standard clubbing fare) prowled the yard, a familiar sight reminiscent of Muse’s gig not too long ago (which I’d also attended), looking, as they were, like it was Tiesto’s instead of Good Charlotte’s show. The media booth (the one manned by BMG Sony) was finally operational come 7pm, and it soon dawned on the some of the media members that a PR travesty had occurred. Plagued by management glitches resulting in many media personnel being denied a media pass (and thus forced to queue with the mortals), some of the media representatives were already seen haranguing on their flip phones over the sponsor’s deportment, bewailing their stripped cushy status which includes access to the media tent (where the artistes mill and congregate after their performances) and the MEDIA/VIP pit with its plum view and proximity to the stage area. Perhaps by dint of my effervescent companions, the queuing was not torturous. Lesson learnt: always attend concerts with cool people. The bulk of the VIP seats – it was revealed later – were reserved for DIGI FUYOH subscribers, of which there was a major surplus – and safety concerns barred more from entering its hallowed (if rickety) terraces.

The Malaysian Invasion
The stage itself, plus two giant screens – filled one end of the rectangular-shaped parking area’s breath. Veejays Denise and Colby appeared at 8.30pm– after what seemed like endless screenings of MTV fodder (a whole hour) – which included MORE plugging for hip hop / pop acts Ne-yo and Natasha Bedingfield (cookie cutter hip pop acts at a punk rock concert? Blasphemy!) And just as the aforementioned vee-jays moseyed off stage with intimations of the concert finally kicking into gear, up came another gratingly random, redundant video. When One Buck Short appeared at 8.41pm to deliver us from the senseless boredom of more MTV fare, it was with aplomb. Launching headfirst into their set with hits ‘That Day’, ‘Fast Times’ and (new tune) ‘R.I.P’ after a lengthy drums solo, the veterans proved their underground mettle and popularity– replete with guitarists (Rahul and bassist Izal) who wantonly flung their instruments away at their set’s conclusion – and gleefully jumped into the crowd (or was it the barricade? Cant tell – too far away). Estranged flounced onto the stage bathed in a pall of purple light and instantly milked the teenaged throng with their breakout (and relatively mellow) anthem ‘Itu Kamu’ – the catalyst for the first major sing along of the night – before slipping back into their default nu-metal styling with ‘Enjoy the ride’ and ‘Velocity’. Lo ably capped the Malaysian Invasion with crowd favourite ‘Operator this line is dead’ – in all its twinkling strings glory - and gave a wistful (if funny) aside about how ‘MTV Asia played ‘Evening News’ only once – six years ago’. As the first strains of ‘Evening news’ twanged across the leveled parkway, thoughts of Good Charlotte was momentarily suspended. Trust Lo to engineer the biggest sing along yet at that juncture for the Malaysian crowd – with scenes of girls actually pogo-ing to ‘Old Newspaper’ (Lo: yat ee san sei!) and the aptly titled closer ‘Malaysian Invasion’ being a noted achievement for the local front.

The Show
The switch from Lo to the headliners pilfered another half hour of our lives as the twin screens projected yet more recycled hip/pop MTV commercials. At 10.15pm, the crowd had grown listless, with many spotted lying, lounging, sleeping and sipping overpriced soda at RUUMS concession stands. Good Charlotte’s eventual surfacing was greeted by a constellation of illuminated hand phone screens – all set at ‘video record’. (Ironic – considering how thoroughly we were patted down by security detail for ‘recording devices’ at the entrance earlier)

Garbed in a Johnny Cash-like all black ensemble with aviator glasses, Joel Madden and Good Charlotte tore into an obscure track off ‘Good Morning Revival’ – ‘Misery’- ….with dismal results. The crowd, clearly anticipating a cogent intro to communicate a much delayed gratification was left in interrupted aural coitus – with a few luke warm and disparate, wilted pumping of fists and cheers. There were exceptions though – that being the horde of screaming, nubile things at the front who regard the band as the personification of something or rather. So much was their reverence for the band that the Maddens’ every pause and cliched line was the cue for them to empty their lungs with the highest of shriek frequencies, squealing like syncopated war klaxons. The overall mood improved when the band rang in the familiar riff for ‘Lifestyles of the rich and the famous’ and continued with a retinue of MTV hits up to the industrial-rock leanings of ‘Keep your hands off my girl’. However, it was in plundering their early catalogue of hits off their debut that the crowd began to be more generously raucous in their cheers and applause and participation.

‘Cheese’ was the operative word for the band’s rapport with their adoring audience, though – with the brothers Madden spewing lines which sound suspiciously scripted. Consider this cinderblock from Joel’s speech: ‘we would like to move to Malaysia (cue: banshee screaming). And to get citizenship we have to marry an Asian girl (high pitched shrieks here)’. And this sentiment was repeated VERBATIM by Benji, amidst other throwaway, puke-worthy philosophical froth like ‘reach for your dreams and believe in it’. The corniness even trickled down to their insistence on endeavoring the lighter-in-the-sky schtick (for ‘hold on’ and ‘we believe’) – though this is admittedly a de rigueur one for arena concerts, of which this is NOT.

However, whether the band was exhorting the crowd into a lusty frenzy of call-and-response or instructing them to pogo; it was undeniable that they had (most of) the audience firmly by the gonads. Aiding this was the stellar sound system (which lent an almost CD-like quality to their live sound) and the tight instrumentation throughout.

That aside, the waning fan energy was again resuscitated for ‘dance floor anthem’ – with the crowd cheerily chanting ‘I don’t wanna be in love’ to the pulsating synths and the more prominent bass line of the song, and carries the momentum through the pandemic ‘the river’ – and topped with a cherry from the past – ‘I just wanna live’. And the whole kit and caboodle would have ended on THAT denouement if Good Charlotte had not taken the stage for the requisite (unasked for, at least from my vantage point) encore. By this time, a sizeable portion of the crowd had already broken away from the body of people in front of the stage and was heading towards the exit. Flagged enthusiasm of the fans notwithstanding, Good Charlotte plowed through three more songs: ‘all black’ and ‘march on’ (both from the new album) and ended the set with crowd favorite ‘the anthem’.

It certainly was a triumph for MTV crowd that night, though many with a predilection for edgier music had certainly advertised their affiliation by leaving after the Malaysian assault had ended, leaving the salivating mass of youth to lap up MTV’s product. Perhaps this explains the voluminous number of Good Charlotte tickets handed out free on the night.

Scrutinized from Jarrod's memory. :)

Muse Live In KL, Stadium Negara

I'm actually speechless, trying to find the right words to put this as close to how it was. I went to the stadium at around 3pm, and we waited for about 4 hours for the gates to open. We ran as fast as our bodies could carry us down the steps of Stadium Negara and a few of us managed to get the front of the Pitt, which faced right in front of the stage.

We sat down for a whole ass-numbing hour waiting for Muse to come out, with some light screaming for Muse. The excitement of being in front was starting to get to me, and I was getting a bit annoyed as a cameraman was standing in front of my view of where the bassist, Chris Wolstenholme, was going to be, so I was pretty upset.

9 o'clock. Where were they?? An answer to my question, the lights suddenly dimmed and the fullhouse of the stadium erupted into an ear-splitting roar, and in just a few seconds... there they were. Right. There. A meter and a bit away from me. I was going crazy, and the whole pitt seemed to tear apart as I was slammed onto the barricade trying to keep from being shoved away and holding the camera at the same time. The crowd continued to roar, and Muse started off with Knights of Cydonia. Everyone went mad. Crazy. The lights were a devilish red, in dress code with it was Matt Bellamy, the singing sexbomb.

My intro video was a complete blurr as that was the point of the roughest people, and a girl beside me was screaming very out of tune very clearly into my camera, therefore, you could hear her more than Matt. But that's only one song. =)

Fists punched into the air in co-ordination with the "Ah, ah ah!" of Knights of Cydonia, the music was deafened away by the voices of all of us, united as one: Muse Fan. "Hysteria" came up next, with Chris standing in the middle and that was when I realized in just one song, I was pushed from standing in front of the drummer, Dominic Monaghan, to the bassist, therefore the cameraman was blocking Dom from my view. Cursed guy. I also realized that my cousin, EJ, who came along to the concert with me was missing from the wave of the crowd but I couldn't think on it when Matt finally said, "Selamat Petang, Malaysia." which was pretty entertaining, and followed by a few "Terima Kasih!" and "Apa Khabar?"

Some other CRAZY songs came on, followed by Apocalypse Please, Feeling Good and a few other songs from their previous albums. Me and Dullah were getting restless and the moment we had a chance we shouted "Assassin, Assassin!" and believe it or not; they played Assassin. It was so SO amazing, nothing could make me resist tears.

After a while, they ended for a minute, and the crowd was going crazy, screaming and winding up the poor guards and backstage people who had to support the barricade from the other side to stop it from toppling over.... amazing. There were moments when Dominic seemed to be grinning like a hyenna, overcrazed perhaps, and Chris kept his cool head throughout. Matt pointed to the sky as if he was Superman at one point, beckoning us to shout through our hearts.

We had our anti-dehydration crew, who poured water into the mouths' of people in front [I was one of them]. Then Muse came back on, and cunningly calmed us down with "A Soldier's Poem" which again, was irresistible to feelings, and everyone were enjoyably failing to match up with Matt's amazing melancholy falsetto of a voice.

A few more songs, and this half was AMAZING, as all the songs that caught people off their feet and heads unhooked from their necks played on one by one. Supermassive Blackhole, Starlight, Time is Running Out, Stockholme Syndrome [everyone, EVERYONE, went crazy], and Map of the Problematique were those that blasted everyone's hearts outta their chests! Map of the Problematique was another that me and Dullah screamed for!

Constant "I love Dominic/Matt/Chris" and "I love Muse" were repeated throughout the show. They played a short instrumental which was crazy! A white skinhead walking around [probably their bouncer or something] were egging everyone to jump higher, scream louder, and sing further. This was one of the concerts which every song was sung to. Loud and proud. A sing-along rocker concert that was unforgettable.

"Invincible" was incredible, Matt and Chris's heart-grasping voices reaching out to so many fans, and brought so many people to tears. Unbelievably amazing. I was so starstruck. I snapped some pictures and videos, but all the videos seemed to go askew for people kept crushing me to get to the front. I appeared in the large screen quite often as the camera guy kept turning to the Pitt where we were standing right in front therefore it always went to us.

Finally, oh I hate that word, finally, they sang a prolonged version of Take A Bow and ended with Dominic getting up from the drums telling us how amazing we are and... "Goodbye."
Though it was quite short, it felt the best ever. Muse, please come back again. Our screams were loud enough to send tremor to the middle of Earth.

Written by: Celine, doh. :)