Archive for November 2013

Urbanscapes Satellite Show #1


if seeing me blabbering about this event for the past week isn't enough, here is a blog post just to finally put an end to all my non-stop fanboyism for these 2 epic bands haha. (okay, maybe I'm more bias towards one of them but I guess that is too obvious) Anyhow, I probably won't go too much into details about either Mew or Explosions In The Sky (apart from they are epic!) but I'll probably talk about the event itself instead. So yeah... this marks the second time I've been to a concert in my life so far (the first being AFA Malaysia last year) and probably the first concert which is more towards the more "normal" crowds. (if there is such a thing, hahaha...) Why normal? I never really counted AFA Malaysia as being a proper concert since its more or less an anime convention with the concert as their side attraction. (also the crowds are just... different? perhaps?) This is more of a proper gig with nothing but the bands playing right in front of everyone.

Anyhow, the day pretty much started when I left work early to get back home (to clean myself, change clothes and get ready) and went off to KL Live (the venue of this gig) and apart from a small traffic jam at Sunway (well, obviously everyone was coming back from work at the time) I managed to reach KL and the venue on time even though I should've probably left even earlier than I planned! The door was open at 7pm and I think there were already quite a long line when I arrived however I managed to cut the queue a bit after I somehow... made a new friend while I was parking my car lol!!! Somehow after parking my car, another car came and parked beside me and when I got out of my car, the guy beside me asked if I was gonna be watching Mew, and I was... "hell yeah!" and somehow from there I decided to hang out with him for the rest of the concert along with his girlfriend and her friend as well. Also met 2 Canadian chicks while I was there too, but sadly I never really got the chance to talk to them or even get their photos. (one of them was like Asian-Canadian and was named Megan and another one being white but I never talked to her or even knew her name lol) They were more looking forward to EITS, but yeah... was totally random sh*t lol. Anyhow, probably gonna skimp on the details (already said too much, haha) and express how the concert was from my point of view.

It was hard to believe it at first, but I was a bit disappointed to find out that Mew were the first to perform instead of EITS. Despite that I was still really looking forward to their performance, and this being their first time performing in KL I guess they had even more pressure to impress us all. But yeah, I knew that watching them perform live was really gonna be something special. While I did managed to enter the stage around 7:30pm or so, but it took them almost an hour before their performance actually started. (by then the room itself was just packed with people, glad I managed to be one the early ones lol) Surprisingly enough, Mew started out their performance with one of their newer songs, Making Friends, which kinda surprised me as I thought they would be starting out with either Circuitry Of The Wolf or New Terrain but they did eventually play those songs later on in the show. And yeah... their performance was just mind blowing. They mostly played songs from either Frengers or And The Glass Handed Kites and also a few songs from No More Stories but they were definitely focusing more on their last 2 albums instead of their latest one. Also they did play one of their newer songs which might appear in their new album which was pretty cool stuff. All in all, their performance exceeded my expectations and to my surprise it seems there are a lot more Mew fans in Malaysia than I thought! Oh, and the fact that everyone was singing to Comforting Sounds at the end was almost just too good to believe... I still get goosebumps thinking about that moment even as I type this!

After Mew's performance ends it took the organizers and crews another hour to setup the stage for EITS (who are apparently the main performer I guess?) and well, wow... their set is just mind bogglingly good. Sadly I don't really know their songs all that well and I barely even scrobble them as much on last.fm compared to Mew, but I do know one of their hit songs... which the managed to play during their performance. I think I was overjoyed with emotions when I heard the starting of Your Hand In Mine playing, and likewise the crowd just seem as enthusiastic as me regarding this song. Somehow their songs just felt more relaxed and at times... really energetic too. But still... you don't really expect anything less from probably one of the best post-rock bands in the world. Just kinda wish I could listen to them a lot more... if only my iPod and HDD didn't die on me. =/

So after EITS performance ended, it was time for everyone to go back home... well, most of us anyway. I ended up following my "frengers" to grab a bit somewhere and then head back home myself. All in all, despite the ticket itself being a bit overpriced (at RM180 its not cheap for a small gig like this honestly) but I think its worth going just to see 2 of my favorite bands to perform and supporting them in any way possible. Even though their sets do feel a bit short (both bands played roughly 2 hours each) and I didn't get to buy anything much there either (lets just say things were either too expensive or too uninteresting to bother paying up for) nor get to meet up with the bands up close (Mew already left the building when EITS was playing sadly) and get their autographs but I guess I'll just have to be patient and wait for them to hopefully come back to KL and perform their own shows instead. Yeah... definitely looking forward to that!

Yeah... and this is just a small teaser for what is to come. There is also the Urbanscapes main event (which sadly I won't be going because of work, that and I don't have the money to pay for more tickets and I'm not really too keen on the line-up even though I do like some of the bands that is playing that day) which is happening later this month. You can find out more info regarding it here. There will also be another Satellite Show in December which Metric will be performing, but I don't listen to them all that much either! So many concerts, so little time and money. ;_;

Oh, and before I close this post I'll just leave a link below this paragraph. Its just some pics I took during the gig that night. Its nothing much, but the memories that I had that day will never be forgotten. Oh and if you want more pictures or even videos of the concert, I'm pretty sure you can find it on Instagram or Youtube haha. I saw a lot of people recording the event even though the organizers clearly state that you can't record the performance whatsoever. Typical Malaysians... =P

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