And over a week plus ago, I went to a festival in Singapore after winning a contest. I know, I should have blogged about my experience right after I land last week but I was too lazy and honestly, it's been a while since I've let my written words flow. I think, I'm losing touch with my inner writer but eh, I don't expect anyone to read this anyway, so it doesn't matter right?

So ok, I won't bore you with the details leading up to the first day of SINGfest, even though there were things that had happened that annoyed the fuck out of me, I think I'll remember those regardless. So here goes, my two cents of SINGfest 2008.

SINGfest Day 1

Got to Fort Canning Park around 2 pm or so but ended up finding the goddamn entrance about 40 minutes later! Why? Well, from where me and Naida came it was on the opposite side of the park so that could only mean, we were way way off! And asking people for directions didn't help either, they lead us to another way which was tiring to get there to be completely honest. Fort Canning does not a have straight pathway, it's like a wave and it means, to get to somewhere, you gotta walk up and down and up and down which for me, made me insanely tired and to add to that walk, before getting to the pathway, we had to climb million flights of stairs. I was dead tired even before I got into the festival!

Anyways, after reaching the entrance, we both had to wait for someone from Channel V to give our tickets. So we waited for about 20 minutes before meeting with one of Channel V's representative. After getting the tickets, we got in and got our bands and the little extra things from the sponsors of the festival. When we got in –the entrance weren't at the same place as it was last year, you had to walk around the parking lot to get to the entrance, so we technically got in behind the Fort Canning building- I noticed that there were concession stands everywhere and there's a small stage there also for the local bands. We both just walked on by the "distraction" because we just want to get in to the main stage area. We would have bought something before going in if we knew the f&b's are only sold in that area and no where else –meaning getting to the stands would make you walk a bitch of a mile. So after getting down a flight of stairs, we saw the merch booths and what not and realized that there's a line leading up to an "entrance" to the big stage. Being me and being a Malaysian, I don't understand the meaning of lining up so Naida and I bailed on lining up and stayed on the side. So we waited for a little while before getting in and I killed the time by killing my lungs one puff at a time. When the clock strikes 3++ pm, they finally opened the doors and we both snuck in from the side and got in first –yes, being a lazy and non-courteous person gets you so far.

So both of us made a run for a nice spot and sat there till the show starts. While we were sitting down, we also cam-whored ourselves because one was an obvious cam-whore and the other was an oblivious one. So as we were busying ourselves with Naida's camera, we were approached by someone from Starhub stating that she took a picture of us cam-whoring and she wanted our e-mail addresses so they would keep us updated with everything. After that was done, we sat in the hot sun, lounging and waiting for the first act to appear on stage. Everyone around us was either protecting themselves with an umbrella from the hot sun or used a place mat for them to sit on the grass. People, it's not fun when you are being a princess/prince, let the sun burn your skin and let the grass give you horrible rashes, it's a good story to tell your friends later, really. After waiting and listening to the sponsors' advertisements on the big screen the first band –Dearest- took the stage; here are my two cents of each bands/musicians performance:

Dearest

In all honesty, I have never heard of this band's name before but I have heard of one of their songs which I recorded that performance with Naida's camera. They were amazing live, even though not many people there was screaming or rooting for them. They brought great energy regardless and to be frank, they're a band everyone should look out for, I feel like they would get the fame and recognition they deserve soon enough. Even though I was completely enjoying their performance, I had to wonder why in the world would Andre –their vocalist- wear so many layers of clothing while performing at a place like Singapore. It was an insanely hot day that day and he was wearing a white turtleneck and topped it with a white jacket, even though it was white, it was still a crazy choice to wear such a thing while performing here in Asia. But whatever it is, one thing struck me about their performance, during the last bit of their last song, Andre climbed the railings on the side of the stage and then one of them actually climbed higher up on the other side. That behaviour reminded me of Pete Wentz from FOB because that man likes to climb inanimate objects for fun, just like this guy I guess but I was kinda scared that he would fall trying to climb down the unstable railings.

After an energetic performance, the stage took a rest for a few minutes before the next band took over the stage and the band is Crowned King.

Crowned King

The first time I ever saw this band live was last year –at SINGfest- and I wouldn't say I have never ever heard of them before last year's SINGfest because one of my Indonesian friends actually introduced me to their music about a year before. Again, they were amazing, maybe even better than last year. I took note that I actually recognized their songs when they performed it and I did sing along to the words I know. Although I was enjoying their performance, I didn't get up from my seat and joined the crowd, I guess I was still a little tired from the "walk" Naida and I took. After seeing them live for the second time, I vowed to myself that I would definitely need to take note of this band, you know, listen to their music from time to time, I feel kinda bad for neglecting my interest in their music.

After Crowned King, it was time for Melanie Subono to take the stage (she was supposedly to perform before Dearest but I have no idea what had happened, she's the third musician to take the stage). During Melanie's performance, I saw Maya and her friend walking around, at first I didn't know if it was her and because of that I waited for her to see me instead. After me looking at her for a little while, I guess she felt me staring, she looked at me and came over, we talked for a little while before Naida and I felt the need to get some food and drinks in our system.

So as we made our way to the other side of the venue to get some f&b's we bumped into Jimmy from Saw Loser, I didn't see him at all, Naida was the one who pointed out to me that someone famous was there. So I looked at where she pointed to and ran up to him and asked for a picture. At first I let Naida take a picture with him and later we would trade but Saw Loser's manager –I think- was breathing down my neck and kept saying to me that he would take the picture for us so, I gave up and gave Naida's phone to him and went to Jimmy's side for the picture. Jimmy was kinda confused if he was supposed to take a picture with only me or with Naida too, I just looked at him, signalling "Dude, just wing it." And so he did. After the other dude snapped the picture he looked up and said "Oh my God! That was sooo amazing! You girls were so great!" and I just looked at him weird but I knew he was drunk, so you gotta excuse the dude for saying such weird things. So both of us said our "Thank Yous" to Jimmy and jet off to the f&b area.  

When we were browsing through the f & b stands, one word that stood out in my head and the word is "RIDICULOUS!". The foods costs S$6 and there's only three choices of food to choose from –kebabs, hot dogs in a bun & cheesy nachos- and all of which I vowed to never eat if I were to go to a concert but we didn't have a choice and we were starving, so we bought cheesy nachos with extra cheese. Then after getting our food, we went to grab some water before going off to our spot –reason for us to get the drinks now is so that we don't have to walk up to this place again. So after burning our money on the ridiculous f & b, we both walked back to our spot where Maya and her friends hang out. Naida and I downed our nachos before getting completely sick of it, we were only quarter way through our nachos and we were regretting the purchase. So what could we do with this situation, we offered Maya and her friends some but they politely refused but after a while I forced her to take at least one so I won't feel bad and she did! Thanks Maya! LOL! So after downing the overflowing cheesy nachos we all waited for a little while before New Found Glory took the stage.

New Found Glory

When the radio djs from a Singapore radio station announced that NFG was the next act and was about to get on stage, I picked myself up and went to the front, squishing myself in between sweaty and smelly bodies. When they appeared on stage the whole crowd roared out of excitement of seeing those guys in the flesh. I just stood there screaming my lungs out to the point most of the people in front of me had to look behind and look at their annoyance right in the eye and silently tell her to shut the hell up! But being me, I couldn't care less; I was there to watch those boys rocking out the stage and my socks. I was so glad that NFG played most songs from their Sticks & Stones and Catalyst albums because to be frank, those two albums are my favourite from them. Jordan, Chad, Ian, Steve, Cyrus and Mike was amazing on stage, even though they're considered veterans in the music industry they still rocked out hard like they were starting to break out in the music industry. During their performance, one fan actually told Chad that he could play one of their songs and Chad invited the dude on stage and played with them –I am so fucking jealous of the guy, I mean it's a great story to brag to your friends- and I must say the kid's quite good, hats off to you man. Honestly, I would have never thought for once I would see this band live –never, ever- but I guess I was wrong, my God! That's all I could say, it brought back so many memories, I felt like I was 16 again, being interested in these bands and what not. Honestly, I have been neglecting punk rock music for such a long time now, my interest died when the trend of emotional bands came along. So I would like to thank New Found Glory for bringing back my interest in their genre again.

After New Found Glory left the stage, I was satisfied with my "concergasm" but the day is still young and there's four more bands to go. I went back to Naida –at our spot- and shouted "OMG! THAT WAS THE BEST!!!" and really it was. After NFG, the state of our cheesy nachos was disgusting, someone had stepped on it and there were some grasses in it too, so I asked Naida if we could move to another place and so we did. After finding a spot, I rested my body and hydrated myself for about 20 minutes before the next band to come on stage and the band is Melee.

Melee

Another band that I wouldn't have thought that I would see them live at all, only because no matter how famous their song "Built To Last" would get, no one would ever bring them down to Malaysia. Their performance was kind of liberating, after being out of breath jumping my ass of during NFG's set, I was allowed a little down time with Melee. Although I am not saying their songs/performances weren't jumping worthy it's just more laid back. They were definitely amazing, Chris' voice range was even better than what I have heard on their record, he even gave me shivers when I heard his voice live. Ryan was very laid back and pretty shy on stage which made him a million times adorable, Mike was as great he would ever be and Ricky (Muscles) was ripping it up with his solos. The energy the whole band gave away was beautiful; they were crazy when they needed to be and were mellow when the mood strikes and I was singing along to them the whole time but what I am really thankful about was the fact that they played the song "The War". That was the first song I ever heard from them and that's the first song that made me fall in love with their music. Honestly, seeing them perform that live was too much for me that I actually shed tears of appreciation during their performance of that song (this is the second time where I actually teared up at a show, the first was at Daughtry's when they played "What About Now", the song's marvellous and sad, I cry even if I listen to it on the radio).

So after their set ended and after wiping my cheeks with the back of my hand, I moved back to Naida, I was smiling all the way back to our spot and sat back down and looked at Naida and sighed happily to her. We hung out, talked and smoked –on my part- before the next act took over the stage. When the djs told everyone the next act was gonna be Lostprophets, everyone stood up and pushed themselves to the front but I took a rain check and stayed where I was because I knew somehow the crowd was gonna get ugly and I don't have the energy to deal with that at that moment. Plus the view was incredible – we weren't that far from the stage though, and we were smacked in the middle, so the view was nice- and I didn't have to murder someone verbally or physically just to see the band playing.

Lostprophets

I know I should stop saying this but this is another band that I would have never thought I could ever see live! They were great and my opinion about Ian being an asshole pretty much changed, he's not an asshole, he's a smart aleck. Gets himself into trouble with his words and what not, he's pretty much like me, so I had to excuse the guy. Again, I am so glad they played songs from their old albums because I am more of an old fan than a new one and the best of all; they played "Shinobi vs. Ninja" and "Burn, Burn". My sister was the one who introduced me to them and those two songs was the ones she forced me to listen to and know what? Thanks, sis! I completely enjoyed their performance and honestly I almost lost my voice screaming on the top of my lungs for them and for singing my heart out along with them. It was a euphoric –almost- and nostalgic moment for me, again, seeing them live brought back such memories being a few years younger than I am now and singing and rocking out to their music in my living room –alone- *sighs*. But whatever it is, they were very energetic, Ian even looked like a vampire with all of his black clothing, messed up hair, guyliner and his sensual & scary stare. Jamie rocked out the keyboards like no one have ever done. Stuart, Lee and Mike joined their amazing strings skills to complete the sound –of progress- and Ilan, fairly new member but I have so much respect for the kid (yes, I could refer him as a kid because he is 2 years younger than me) he was wonderful and he had so much energy performing live, I couldn't say much but an elaborated "WOW!"

Then after I let them rocked my life, we were both pretty tired –well, I know I was- and we sat down, rest, hydrate ourselves and smoke -again, my part- before the next band would shake our lives up. I knew the next band would be Simple Plan because Travis would be last and there are only two bands left, a no brainer eh? So yeah, we waited for a while longer for the techies to set everything up, SP's set was taking much longer than it should but I couldn't care less because I know they're amazing live, so waiting is not a problem for me. So after a few more minutes of waiting they finally came on.

Simple Plan

They opened their set with a bang –although, David kept running from one side to another of the stage for two songs which distracted me from their amazing-ness; I was rocking out, singing my heart out and screaming at the top of my lungs for them. They were even better than the last time I saw them which was in '04 or '05. They played some songs from each album which to me was a good thing because I haven't memorized the words to their new songs, so at least with that particular song line up, I was in good to sing along and lose my voice. There were a couple of funny things that happened during their set, since I was smack in the middle of the crowd and a few feet away from the actual crowd, my view was perfect and also their view of me was perfect. What happened was, in between songs, Pierre was talking to the crowd to get some response and feed off energy from us, while doing this, he was standing in the middle of the stage and said something that I can't remember, as he raised his right arm, I did too –same arm-, at the same time and screamed my lungs out –if you know me, you would know how loud my voice is- Pierre then noticed that and looked at me and chuckled. Then the rest of the night I was just doing things with my hands that I later realized matches Pierre –weirdly enough- so I forced myself to not raise my arms up until the end of their set. The other funny thing that happened was, during their performance of "Jump" I was actually jumping up and down, round and round until I got overzealous with my jumps that I ended up falling on my butt –while I was falling, I remembered the time I fell off my chair in high school and ended up laughing my butt off, I'm weird, I know- and automatically got up again and screamed, Naida thought I was crazy but eh that's me. The whole band was amazing, Pierre couldn't stop asking people if he could get some beer but vocally, he was amazing, David was incredible but he seemed a little timid than he used to be, Seb was an amazing dorky guitarist, Jeff was fantabulous and Chuck –surprised me with his new body, when the hell did that guy started working out?- was blowing me away with his amazing drumming skills. All in all I was so very satisfied with their set and felt like I could die happy –well, not really- now, I missed them so much, it's great getting to see them live again.

After rocking out hard, I was beat and pretty much was ready to raise my white flag but felt I should just ignore my tiredness and go on with it and plus, the next act's gonna be Travis, what physical harm could that band give me? So we waited for about half an hour before them getting on stage, while we were waiting, as usual we did the same thing but for me I added another thing, nursing my left wrist. I've hurt it pretty badly from the fall and was suffering from it but at this point, the pain wasn't the thing that clouded my head, it's more of me worrying if it'll bruise or give away a huge bump on my wrist. Now I am for one ainn't gonna worry about no bruises/scabs/bumps but I was supposed to go for a meet & greet the next day and I wouldn't want to meet the bands with a Quazimodo like bump on my wrist! So after massaging my wrist for several minutes, Travis finally came on stage.

Travis

Wonderfully epic! That's all I have to say. Even though I don't know most of the words to their songs they somehow made me feel like I am involved with their set, spiritually. Although, they did play some songs that I knew like Closer, Selfish Jean and Sing in which I was able to sing along since I knew some of the words. They were actually surprised and humbled by the crowd's reception to their songs, a lot –and I mean a whole lot- of people sang along to their songs and with that it shows the majority of people who came were actually there to see them perform more than the other bands.

Even though I was enjoying Travis's set and was feeding off energy fellow Travis fans gave out my head was doing insane spins and honestly, I felt like I was about to get a seizure. Actually, even before Travis's set, the lights pretty much contributed my head spins which could trigger seizures –yes, I know when I am about to get them and I could remember them actually, it's called Simple Partial Seizures. Although, the lights aren't the only reason to blame my dizzy spells, it's also from the fact that I didn't sleep –at all- the night before and hopped on a plane that gave me intense head pressure and also with everyone around me keep blowing on their whistles loudly. So with that, I told Naida we should bail before I fall and other hell would happen, so she agreed and we walked up the hill to find the nearest exit and I had to try hard not to fall. I was actually walking like a drunk person but I didn't care, all I want to do right at the time was to get out of that place and rest my ears and my head.

After getting out from there, we walked up to the merch area and Naida told me to take a seat for a little while, while she checks on SINGfest's merch so she could get some for her brother. So I sat and tried to calm myself but my eyes started to wonder around and then I saw Shaun Frank and Jonny Biggs from Crowned King hanging out at their side of the merch stand. Naida obviously didn't see them that I had to tell her when she went back and sat beside me. After I told her, she got up and we both went up to them to ask for a picture, I was actually kinda shy to approach Shaun but he kinda made me feel at ease, he was really nice and sweet. So Naida and I took turns to take a picture with him after some dude who was making noises about how he wants to get a picture with Shaun but apparently his camera was dead –I didn't get a picture nor did I talk to Jonny, only because he seemed to be really busy with other fans, so I pretty much took a rain check on asking him for a picture.

After the picture taking, Shaun asked me "Did you get our CD?" and I was staring at the CD in his hand and finally looked up and said "Uhh…No" he then chuckled and handed me one and handed another to Naida –yes, free CD! I was kinda confused though, I thought Shaun said he would give people free CDs if they bought their merch…eh I was lucky I guess, and am glad too because obviously can't find their CD in Malaysia and well, downloading, not many people are aware of them, so yeah. But then, I saw the other girls, they got him to sign their CD so I asked for his autograph but had to wait for a little while because someone stole his sharpie, he was cute about it too! He whispered to me and said "She stole my sharpie!" and then points to a girl who took his sharpie from him, I just chuckled and smiled at him. After Shaun got his sharpie back, he signed it and I said my Thank Yous and Goodbyes to him and then Naida and I were off.

We walked out before hailing a cab and went to 7-Eleven which was near our hotel before getting back to our room. I took a shower and made some instant noodles before hitting the sack and thank God, I could actually sleep, I was worried about that.

So that's my Day 1 review, I will get back soon with the Day 2 review and Panic's show in Malaysia's review…

I'm really tired right now…

So with numb fingers, aching shoulders and some dizzy spells…

Adios!