fashizzlemanizzle

A perfect, perfect way to start the year. Muse performing here on our shores. Holy guacomole. It was, in a nut's shell, super-fantastiche! Came armed with yellow, disposable S$1 poncho and all, smuggling in camera. Thank God the heavens did not open up to pour. Reached ground zero at 7, entered the arena and bam, the front near the stage was already crowded. Found the most central position, together with this click-kids central malay star, with his noisy cronies, and wait and wait and wait. Whilst waiting, managed to feel how it would be like at a Rage Against The Machine Concert, when Testify was played during the pre-show prelude. People around were all singing, "Fak you I wont do what you tell me", hahhaa, great great moment. Oh yea felt like Kurt was in Singapore too when "Stay Away" was played.




At abt 8.20, Matt and gang came on stage. Expected to be blown away with a big-sounding song, like Apocalypse Now or Take a Bow, but they played it safe by gunning straight into Knights of Cydonia. Hell yea, as expected, the crowd begin surging forward. Saw this panicky dude, who really really looked like, "Oh my god, wtf is happening, somebody help me". Man I pitied him coz he looked really helpless and was trying to protect his wife? Other people from the front came out and went towards the back. Heard it was real bad in the front. I managed to hold on my own, with the missus beside me. So it was like, "No one's gonna..." and shove shove, "the time has come to..." shove shove shove. So yea. But it was all good.




Here's the set-list for the nite, courtesy of the Muse Forum:
01. Knights Of Cydonia
02. Hysteria
03. Map Of The Problematique
04. Butterflies And Hurricanes
05. Supermassive Black Hole
06. Newborn
07. Forced In
08. Bliss
09. Feeling Good
10. Sunburn
11. Invincible
12. Time Is Running Out
13. Plug In Baby

Encore:
14. Soldier's Poem
15. Starlight
16. Stockholm Syndrome

A few problems though with the concert. Numero uno, the sound. It was just blasting away. I guess it being held outdoors, the acoustics were just lost in the air, unlike if it were at Indoor stadia, the sounds would have been reverberating throughout the place, perfect for their orchestraic sounds. And yea, air-con might help coz it was wayy too warm outdoors. Numero dos, matty matty, wassup wif the stage deco? A mandarin fan?? To symbolise some oriental mumbo-jumbo? How about putting a huge Fork and Spoon (as below in a posed picture) to show some racial diversity? And at least maybe a huge Muse backdrop might have helped man. The stage did look kinda small for such a big band.



Numero tres, Matty matty, how come not much communique from you. Interaction with fans helps make us feel important yea. There werent even much interaction between the members themselves. You know some bands, like Steve Tyler and Joe Perry would stand back facing each other and do some boogie-woogie. Showmanship. And how some artiste would learn the local language and spurt some hokkien expletives perhaps. But this could be down to them being jet-lagged. It's alright. It' all cool. For all these minor matters, it was just awesome lah to see them live. Matt goreng his guitar, fingers carressing the pianos gently, switching from piano to guitar seamlessly. Tight tight band they are. And thank you for jamming Maggie's Farm. That was just excellent, would've been better if you'd play the whole song. And seeing Matt sing, his eyes closed, totally immersed in his own singing, his hair flying around. Oh so sexy.

Lots of people were complaining abt the short duration of 1hr 15mins. Personally, that seems to be the 'market rate' of bands performing here. Rarely does any performance go almost 2hrs. So yea, it was all good. Heard from Sujin (like I know him personally like that) they're interested to come back here. For all the masam tee and muddy shoes, it was all worth the pain and pogo-ing.

On another note, there was this huge Mat Salleh, who managed to squeeze beside me, his wet armpit was close to my right sleeves. When he moved away, and much much later, I felt sweat on my lips, and I sadin only wiped my lips using the Mat Salleh-armpit-stained right sleeves. Soursweet Symphony I tell ya.


Pics Pics Pics




Starlight


Spot the fan, win a KDK electric fan!




Chris Wolstenholme


Dominic Howard (with Fan, not fans)


Wat time is it? Wat time is it?


The expression, and flying hair, says it all.




Tamat.