Well, what do you know?
It might be slow, but I finally managed to fulfil my new year’s resolutions from ages ago to update my blog regularly. Well, I pledged to post something, at least, once a month. Yeah, yeah, I know I didn’t make any post in October, but I will make it up this month.
So … it takes some while, but yay, I has progress!
And a long post.
So, about three weekends ago, I flew to Singapore to see Muse at the Singapore F1 event. I have to wait until around 10 PM to finally get to watch them walked to the stage though, but it was all worth the wait. Muse gave an excitingly spectacular show, and I’m thrilled that I got to see them live. Although, not by my usual “standard” of clinging to the security fence – two people away from the stage – but hey, it’s still great!
I remember it was back in 2007 when Muse stopped by to Jakarta, and I really wanted to go then. Unfortunately to me, I was only a fresh-grad kid, who just landed the first job a few months prior, so I have to skip it. Little did I know, Muse won’t be returning to Asia until ten years later.
I had a close encounter with this English band when I was travelling to London back in 2012. Now, this might not be an excellent example to follow, boys and girls. See, few days before I left for London, I did a little research on artist or bands who will be performing at the time I was there. I mean, come on … to see one of your favourite performers at the kinds of Wembley or O2 Arena would be one of the ultimate bucket lists, yeah?
Right, so I found out that there were going to be two squee-able shows in London when I was there, Bryan Adams at Royal Albert Hall (FANCY THAT!) and Muse at the O-bloody-2 Arena. My first instinct would be to Bryan Adams and found out that the ticket was, obvi, bloody expensive. And also, obvi, already sold out. Well done, Bryan, proud of you!
Then I tried to search for the Muse show, I saw that the price was still up, which means they still have tickets for the show, then me being me, I told myself just to purchase it on the ticket box when I arrived. It was still on sale anyway.
And that, fellas, was my lesson of “It’s better to regret purchasing it than having regrets not to”.
It took me around six years that I finally could see Bryan Adams again, and twelve years until I could see Muse live in concert for the first time.
I’ve read here and there – *COUGH* Wikipedia *COUGH* – that Muse can be extravagant in the tech department for their show (compared to Franz Ferdinand, oops). But I really didn’t expect them to be that brilliant in utilising the technology.
Okay, I might be exaggerating here, but, really, they have fantastic thingamajig tech for almost every song that was played. They use this fancy musical instrument for the song Madness, that was also really beautiful. It’s called a Misa Kitara, and I was in awe of how it worked. It looked like an electric bass, but there was something like an LCD thermal panel on it, so every time Chris played a tune, there were colourful traces of his rhythm.
It’s the same instrument that he played in the video for the song.
Throughout the show, we were also entertained by a group of dancers wearing a variety of sci-fi uniforms with really nice equipment in their hands and LCD screen on their helmet. Very Starship Troopers-ish. I remember on Psycho, the screen on the helmet showed the words “AYE, SIR!” accordingly to the parts of the song.
The setlist was brilliant, they mixed their older tunes with the recent ones really well, and it built up the excitement in such an adrenaline-boost kind of way.
Watching Matthew Bellamy bounced around the stage, and even ran with all his might from one side to the other while playing his guitar flawlessly, was the energy and hysteria that I missed from watching a concert. I might have to check out next year’s F1 concert’s line up again, just in case anyone interesting will stop by (crossing my fingers for Duran Duran, really).
Before I have a passion for travelling, going to concerts was the thing for me. There was a time when Jakarta had loads of fantastic artists and bands performing here, the kinds of Sting, Rod Stewart, Franz Ferdinand, NKOTBSB, even the Queen, Kylie Minogue, once was blessing the Big Durian with her fabulous show. Which I was unfortunate enough couldn’t go and see it. Ooh, make that my wish for next year’s F1 concert as well, please.
My excitement for concerts has brought me to neighbouring countries to see my favourite bands and musicians live. I mean, there are times that the shows that you were waiting for to see just won’t stop at your city, for some reasons.
If my memory serves me correctly, I’ve been to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Adelaide to see a concert, and each city brought exciting experience as the next.
Adelaide, South Australia
Adelaide might be the city where you would love to chill and slow down your pace. But it is still one of the big cities in down under. They’ve got fantastic events worth to attend to, even if you have to fly across the oceans.
And this city also happened to be the place where I lost my concert virginity. It was a Bryan Adams show, back when I’m about to start my first year at uni. Since I don’t know pretty much anyone, I decided that I just go by myself there. I managed to get myself on the front row, well the second row, and had a good time. I mean for a concert from a particular Canadian singer that I’ve been fangirling to since I was 14 that was a good result for all those years waiting, yes?
Then I also went to see P!NK when I was in Adelaide. It was quite random for me since I wasn’t exactly following her music back then. Also it was free, so why not? If my memory serves well, my cousin and I went to the concert with outfits resembling pyjamas, or something you’d wear to bed. The show itself was good, and I was surprised to see P!NK singing on top of her lungs while being hung upside down with ribbons. That was an excellent performance there, I really enjoyed the show she gave us.
Yeah, no photos for these both, because it was still the technology of, as us Indonesians call it, “Ambil foto pake tustel trus dibawa ke FIP buat di-avdruk.”
Singapore, Singapore
Fast forward many, MANY, years later, I went to another adventure to catch one of my favourite bands performing in a neighbouring country. This time it’s Singapore, and it was also my first experience watching an F1 concert. I honestly wasn’t sure when was the first time they add concert show on an F1 race weekend, but that time was my first time knowing about it.
Anywho, my first F1 concert was The Killers. On the day, I was preparing to watch the Las Vegas band by myself, but then turned out one of my friends also went to see them. Funnily enough, she was there with her friends, but they got separated, and she decided to see the show with me instead since she didn’t feel like searching for people between the oceans of humans that time.
So we found ourselves a nice spot near the giant screen and had a great time singing and dancing to the songs. It was a different experience, really, but still nice nonetheless.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
My next concert abroad was Franz Ferdinand in Kuala Lumpur. Well, of course, whenever they’re having a show near my area, and it’s reachable, I will go (try my best, at least).
So, the lads were performing at this music festival called Urbanscapes. Funnily enough at that same year, I also went to another music festival in Jakarta called Big Sound Festival, with Blur as the main headline, and both festivals had Tegan & Sara and The Temper Trap on their lineup.
I felt like a groupie for these two performers.
Franz Ferdinand, as always, are fantastic. They probably one of those bands who would sound better live than on CD/Spotify. Upstage they have endless energy, and brilliant dance conductors, true to their mission in making music, to make girls dance. Although in the end, everyone would dance to their music.
Alexander Kapranos‘ persona on stage was irresistible as the lead singer and almost equivalent to Freddie Mercury. The strut, the pout, the seductive confidence, it’s hard to believe that when he’s off the stage, he was actually a shy person. At this concert, we still have Nicholas McCarthy as the lead guitarist of the band. The beat leader with energetic moves and … kind of reminded me to chipmunk on caffeine, really.
Another show that I went to in Kuala Lumpur was, again, Bryan Adams. I went to see it with my sister since we grew up with his music and thought it would be fun to watch the concert together. We even bought the ticket as soon as the Kuala Lumpur show was announced, out of excitement. Only to find out that he will ALSO perform in Jakarta a few weeks before we left. Right.
It was quite an intimate show, despite the venue that could fill up a whole village. I found it a bit interesting that the KL show provided a huge and rock concert-proper of a venue for Bryan’s show, whereas in Jakarta he performed at one of Ritz Carlton’s Halls.
Although it has been, what, almost 20 years since I first watched him live, the experience is equally fun. Singing along to his greatest hits and new tunes (which, I have to admit I don’t know much about them), a mass karaoke night is something to expect from an artist as legendary as Bryan. Him and Keith Scott, the lead guitarist, even entertain us with their cheeky humour.
I know he hasn’t been doing this for ages, but I really miss the excitement when Bryan would call one of the audience ladies to join him on stage and sing When You’re Gone with him. A surprise bonus when Melanie C suddenly popped on the stage and made it a trio.
Damn, where did I put my Live at Slane Castle DVD at home now?
Looking back now, and writing this entry, I found that I still have that excitement in me to go and see my favourite artist or band live. I love the atmosphere and the adrenaline rush whenever the songs you were waiting for was played, and just how I love my films, I try to stay away as much as possible from spoilers. Yeah, sometimes I like to know which songs that have stronger possibilities to be brought up on stage, but it would be even more exciting to have them as a surprise.
So, locations aside, what is your deepest desire favourite concert to watch by far?
Disclaimer:
- Chris playing Misa Kitara came from http://www.homebrewaudio.com
The Wolfe's Lair 