Music: Endless Story by Reira starring Yuna Ito

Awesome + verrryyyy tiring weekend!
So on Friday, met with all my pep25 friends... very fun indeed.
Had to leave early eventhough I very badly wanted to stay and listen to Mr CEO's speech. Was looking forward to the dialogue session, had a bunch of questions to ask him actually. I mean, there will be no other opportunity like this.. but oh well, Boyz II Men nye pasal..


Boyz II Men Concert @ Arena All Stars Genting Highlands

So my last con was that Malaysia+Indo thingy.. naturally, I was looking forward to this one. Arena All Stars was not as big as I thought it would (as seen on AIM). There were lots of people, but the arena wasn't full. Stage, freakin nothing. Just black. Nothing. Half way, the black backdrop was filled with 'stars'. Very unimpressive. Their performance, ok lahhh.. nothing much. Eh don't get me wrong, they sang really well no doubt, but that's it. Minimal dancing.. but can't expect much, all their songs were ballads anyway, and a couple of fast songs. Their dance routine reminded me of 4U2C hahahahha.. no kidding.. move around the mic stand.. tolak2 mic stand.. one step to the left, then to the right.. then depan.. then blakang.. hahaha u know what I mean right. Well, didn't really mind that. What pissed me off, was the sound system. Arghhhh.. the bass was too loud. I've been to enough concerts to know if the sound system was good or not. It was too loud to the point yg boleh dengar bunyi pecah2. Gawd it spoiled everything, for me that is. For the rest of the audience, they didnt seem to mind the least.

You know when you watch Malaysian Idol/One in a Million/AF, whenever the contestants nyanyi note tinggi gila.. or asalkan tarik sikit je (regardless if its sedap or not).. the audience will shout and woooooooooooooo like crazy and every single freakin time??? That pisses me off seriously.. Its soo obvious lah, one minute is silence, the next minute bunyi woooooooo.. then the next minute silence again.. its like you can only way to get a reaction from the audience. It's as if the audience doesn't know how to appreciate, and even gauge who the good and bad singers are..

Anyway, this was what exactly at the concert... boring aku.. except that this time I can justify lah because Boyz II Men mmg nyanyi sedap gila so valid lah... but to do it every single time (bukan nya sekali dua Boyz II Men tarik note).. urghhhh... irritating.

The concert was enjoyable but wasnt entertaining enough. Macam buat con half-heartedly. Just for the sake of doing it, and they know they could rely on how good they sing, but the entertainment value wasnt there. Oh yeah, it was also disappointing that they used minus one. All the way man. Even the backup singers were included in the minus one. Its like karaoke but with reallly2 awesome singers. I paid a good 110 bucks to watch a live show dammit.. See what I mean by half-hearted effort? Lighting was normal and unimpressive. It wasn't bad.. it was just normal.

It was awesome when they sang their popular ballads like End of the Road, On Bended Knee, Mama, Water Runs Dry etc.. the whole arena sang along.. I like that..

So in conclusion, I guess it's obvious that I wasn't satisfied with the con, the singing was awesome (I give credit where it's due), but everything else wasn't up to par with anything that I've seen.


Rain Concert @ Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil.

So the day before, went home at 2.30am lepas lepak2 kat Rasta makan after the Boyz II Men's con.. woke up late, pastu sambung tidur till 6pm, hahahaha.. before I head off to Rain nye concert plak. After being let down by last night's con, I didn't want to expect too much from Rain's con, after all dia from Asia je (I knowwww that's soooo jahat to think like that). Managed to sneak in my camera, and thank god I did! Because.. Rain's con was frigggggginnnnnnnnnnn awesome!! hahahahhaha.. to think I bought tickets to con only knowing one song (vid clip lagu dia kat tgh2 war zone selalu tunjuk kat MTV), and not only that, to hear some Korean guy sing stuff that I don't understand hahahaha..

Anyway, its straight up hands down to Rain. Totally international standard material, his con that is. Almost all of the songs had gimmicks.. props everywhere... lighting..perghhh pawe gila.. in tune with the beat summore.. there were fireworks and fires everywhere.. there's even water!!! hahahah. well his name IS Rain. Totally reminded me of Britney's concert. At the end of one of his songs, he stood in the middle of the stage, suddenly there's rain pouring down.. lama lak tu!!

There were a total of 7 screens! 5 on the stage.. which showed awesome clips made especially for the con.. also in tune with the songs.. 2 screens at each side of the stage, camera yg ikut Rain (ni mesti ada). The stage setup cam dalam MTV Awards.. ada ruang tgh2 stage yg ada org berdiri situ.. in front ada moving stage (left and right), imagine it like OK Go's vid clip yg guna tread mill tu.. sth like that.. one of the screens on the stage tu is actually a door.. macam sliding door.. utk keluar masuk... ada byk lubang2 around the stage for Rain and the dancers to keluar masuk backstage.. tangga kat tepi stage yg gerak kiri kanan tu. also there's like 3 places around the stage yg he can disappear (up and down cam lift). The stairs on the stage next to the sliding door screen can also move left and right. At the left and right side of the stage, were the live bands! Yeahhh that's more like it. Live music! No such thing as minus one. Ada real backup singers. They were good. Sound was good. No bass pecah2, it was loud, but it was just right. You can feel your heart falling at every beat (like at most rock cons I've been to).

And that's only the technical part. I haven't even started on Rain himself just yet hahahh.. His dancing and dance routines were.. omg... really.. OMG!!! how to describe???!!! His singing was ok.. very good, tak sumbang lah. Like any normal pop singer lahh. His songs sedap gak actually.. Pop songs.. leaning more towards R&B and soul... remember, it was the first time I heard all his songs hahah.. crazy. In between songs, he knew just what to say/what facial expressions to make, to make all the girls go wild and crazy hahahah.. Ni baru entertainer.. During one song, a fast one, he asked everyone to stand up.. and he said 'Please' like 5 times... 'please... stand up.. thank you'.. sigh.. it was sooo... endearing.. to hear him say that.. I dunno why..

THe con totally exceeded my expectations. It was supposed to be at Stadium Bukit Jalil, but my cousin read in the papers that they had to change to Stadium Putra coz the big stadium couldn't accomodate the really high tech equipments they brought for the con. Ntah betul ntah tidak. The highest priced ticket was more than 1000 bucks. Gila. THe con was worth more than the 130 bucks I paid. Kinda compensated the unfulfilling Boyz II Men's con. I guess it's not really fair to compare and pop singer's con with a ballad group's con, hehe, but can't help it lah.

Everything was awesome except probably for one thing, Rain said 'Singapore' instead of 'Malaysia' once... kantoi!! luckily he wasn't shouting into the mic, and the audience was shouting like crazy and so loud at that time, so I don't think that many people realized.

After the 2-hr concert, went to my cousin's house for a birthday party plak... then went karaoke-ing till 3 am, best gila melalakk tgh2 pagi buta and no one cares hahahah.. bangun tidur on Sunday, terus demam... and couldn't make it to a wedding that I was invited to..

Sorry I couldn't make it to bowling session at OU jugak.. Hakam, kau selalu balik mengejut.. how laaa.