~Kept this post as a draft for a week coz I was too lazy to finish it...~
~This post was edited over a few days and finally posted up on 20th March~
~So, i apologize if the time frame is a little off~

Last sem I got together with a few friends,
And we formed a band... Calling ourselves Radiant...
And we finally made our debut in uni yesterday...
Limkokwing University recently organized an event called "Heal The World"
In support of the plight for the recent Palestinian war.
Ok, some of us might not agree with it, but let's not go there right now...

I was told a week before we got our shot at performing in uni on friday....
Was really worried about it, but I figured it wud just be the regular Friday afternoon band performances at plaza during lunch time...
Only to find out later its for a fund raising charity concert, in the presence of a foreign country ambassador, university VIPs, and of coz sound and music faculty people...

So we basically spent the entire week in and out of the studio, practicing for the big event..
Honestly, its really getting in the way with my classes and studies...
Im actually behind now in Business Law and IBS..
Gonna have to buck up and catch up over the next few weeks...

So, on the day itself, around 12pm I got an sms from Davis telling me that our sound check was pulled forward from 3pm to 1230pm...
Great way to start the day.. I rushed to the shower, got ready, met up with him and we went over to campus...
Only to find out that they were still busy setting up the sound equipments...
There was nothing much we could do, we just hang out, had lunch...
Went up later to check on the studio, see if we could practice a little more... Only to find out that its totally closed.. Everything was brought down for the event...

So, we just chilled all the way till around 3pm... Then the bands started going up for the sound check...
Waited for Joy to come with her guitar, and we were up, right after Melodica..
Another great start for our band, sound check right after the best band in the uni...

Soundcheck went pretty well... It was more pressure than I thought, although its just a soundcheck...
After that, we carry on to juz chill...
As time pass, we could see the guest artists coming in one by one...
All taking turns to do their sound check...
We took the time to grab a bite, and freshen up.. All of us changed into our outfits..
And we waited...
and waited...
and waited....

As if we were'nt waiting long enough, when it was our turn to play,
they announced the arrival of the VIP...
Suddenly, everything was in a mess....
The stage manager... or wtv u call him, the guy who organize the acts....
He told us that they had to put our act on hold... We cant go up after the other student bands as planned earlier....
So we waited, they carried on with the official events...
We who were supposed to "open up" with the other amateur student bands, had to wait till further notice...
FYI, we were told we were up at around 640pm..

We waited ALL THE WAY till about 11pm and still no news about us going up..
On and off they wud come n tell us to standby, they might find an opening...
But we were still waiting backstage, wandering around... Waiting for good news...
Finally our opportunity came... When the staff couldnt locate one of the guest artist for the nite, Dina of Malaysian Idol Season 1....
She was supposed to perform right after Common Culture, a Malaysian based American band...
So since she was nowhere to be found, we were put on standby again... And by the look of it, we were gonna make it this time....
Only bad news is, Common Culture totally got the crowd all hyped up...
They performed 2 songs at first... But they continued to do another 2 more for the encore...

There was really not much we could do.. We tried to keep the hype up in the audience...
But the bar was set really high...
And we only had one song planned for the nite...
Titled Beyond A Cry, written by Joy specially for the event itself...
So we didn't really expected much, we just step up after Common Culture, set up and played our song...
Well, obviously the crowd wasn't as responsive as they were during the previous act...
But they were ok... We expected worse...
They did respond.. At least our presence were noticed...
Best part of all, is we actually enjoyed ourselves up on stage...

And for the iceing on the cake...
Few days ago, Joy forwarded an email from Tifannie Marie, our beloved President's daughter and his "special assistant"..
Praising us for our effort... And saying that they'll deifnitely invite us to play more shows in the future...

Well,
Guess all our efforts actually paid off... :D

My only regret...
We were too excited and nervous about our performance,
that we totally forgot to get people to take pictures of us on stage... XD

Its a beginning for Radiant... Hopefully there'll be more in the future...

~This post is 3 days late~
~Sry for the lack in picture quality~

Nope, I didnt take that picture up there.. Wasnt that close.. And my cam isnt that good either.. :P

So, the geek in the pink hit Malaysian sand last Wednesday...
Honestly speaking, I wasnt expecting much from the concert...
Was thinking that its gonna be.... well... a concert...
But that nite.. It was just amazing... Worth every single sen of that RM138 i spent..
Jason Mraz is certainly a natural performer...

So, let's back things up a little...
Whole thing started off with me renting a car, driving to Subang with Martin...
Picked up KarMern, KaySim and his brother from their place,
And we left for KL, took the NPE, which led us to Bangsar, then link to Federal and to Stadium Negara...
Got caught up in the jam a little.. We reached around 7pm if im not mistaken?
Can't really remember..

So we got there, and the area around the stadium was already packed...
Cars were seen parked everywhere.. And I mean EVERYWHERE...
There were even cars parked on the pedestrian walkway.. Or whatever u call it...
We ended up paying RM10 to park at an empty lot beside the stadium...
I know it cost a lot, but we didnt have a choice..

So, we went on to look for the gate...
And this was hosw the crowd looked like...

Can't really get the picture of how many people were there at that moment actually..
But it was packed.. Like, seriously..
Thank God for Sanjaka who was there that day...
We just quietly slip in to the queue together with him...

Us, minus Martin... Waiting to get in...
Oh!!! And we bumped into Adrian Calvin and Haafiz Nordin as well...
Lots of familiar faces...

Gates opened at around 7-ish...
And before we know it, were in...
We were lucky to get in kinda early.. Crowd havent build up inside yet..

View from the top.

The area on the floor surrounding the box in front of the stage was where were allowed to be..
Kinda fun, being able to walk around, even sit if we want...
While the others are just sitting at watching from above.. XD

See that barrier at the bottom right of the picture?
That's wat seperated us RM138 from them RM258....
We could've just jumped in actually..

The stage for the night

The RM68 ticket was the favourite.. Obviously...

Malaysian people are really funny, I tell you...
Everytime someone steps on stage, they start screaming their heads off...
First was a guy setting up the mics...
The crowd just went crazy when he stepped up..
After cooling down, another guy steps up... This time preparing the instruments...
Again, they start screaming their heads off..
Which later led to Martin screaming "We love Guitar Guy" all nite long..

A few minutes after 8pm, the lights were dimmed...
I was expecting an opening act.. Kept thinking who could it be...
Coz I couldnt think of any local acts who sounded like Jason Mraz..
Except maybe... Reshmonu? O.o

But I was wrong, there was no opening act...
The star hit the stage immediately...
Without saying a word, he kicked the nite off with Make It Mine
First track off his latest album We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things

I duno if its visible, but the guys on the horns are actually wearing out national football jersey...

I gotta say, all these while I have this negative image about Malaysian crowds...
Maybe coz last time during Good Charlotte, the crowd sucked...
They didnt know the lyrics..
Througout the nite, they only sang along to 2 or 3 songs...
And the response was pretty bad...
But not tat day with Jason Mraz...
The crowd was amazing!!! Like, seriously!!!
They know most of the songs.. Sang along, cheered for the entire nite..
Just never ran out of energy...
That made me enjoy the concert even more...

I enjoyed most of his new songs..
Like the intro to A Beautiful Mess, the lyrics of If It Kills Me, his amazing rapping skills in The Dynamo of Volition and his optimism in Live High.

He even did Lucky with a little help from Penny Tai, a local pop artist...

Obviously, the crowd was the loudest when he played songs like I'm Yours, Lucky and his older hits like The Remedy (which he cleverly mashed it up with Oasis's Wonderwall just like he did at his NYC concert).
My personal favourite though, is him performing an acoustic set to You And I Both...
The band faded out, and all lights were on him...
It was only him, the crowd and his guitar...
It was just magical...

He managed to play about 13 or 14 songs if im not mistaken?
The concert was done at around 1030...
We hanged around a little, waited for most of the crowd to leave before we actually left..
And guess what we stumbled on our way to the parking lot...


His bus waiting for him backstage..
And look at the crowd, getting their cameras ready...

So, we waited till the he and the band exited the stadium n boarded the bus...
And drove off...
Sadly I couldnt get a close up picture of him...

So, after all that, we headed back to Subang...
Dropped by Asia Cafe for a bite, sent them off...
Then Martin n me headed back to Desa...
All in all, an unforgetable experience...





There are actually more pictures taken using KaySim n Sanj's camera..
I'll post them up if I get to lay my hands on them...
Till then, this is the biggest group picture I have at the moment..

The dudes present that nite..

I'll end here with a quote from Jason Mraz himself...

"Don't let your mind stop you from having fun"

I know some of u out there might get bored of it, coz a lot of ppl have been quoting it recently...
But I totally agree with it..
And now I can remove it from my msn's pm...

A great concert indeed...

Jack's Mannequin and Paramore's were on tour together last August!!!
Bet it was awesome...
Sometimes I feel like Im born on the wrong side of the world....
Being so 'used' to the culture that I can only dream of having...
And coming back down to earth to realize that my very own culture is the total opposite...
Which one shall I embrace?

Well, at least one or two international acts are kind enough to drop by our pathetic little country part of their asian tour...
Speaking of which...
Jason Mraz is just a few hours away... :D

On a side note, hats off to Andrew McMahon for his battle and victory over leukemia and coming back to the world of music after that.. As though nth ever happened...
Kinda old news.. But I figured very little people from this side of the world would even know about it...

Seriously now.. Are u that lifeless???
To spam my chatbox using my name is one thing...
But to spam my fren's chatbox using my name... And think that he'll buy it?
Seriously..
Whoever the heck u are..
Grow up...

Sorry Kev for all these...

Got my new fragrance today... Wohoooo!!!
Dad got it from the airport, duty-free, on the way back from India...

I actually asked for intuition for men...
But he got me this instead...
Oh well... It's all good... :D

I just love new things... ^^

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