12-13th September 2009, T Music Festival: A Blast

Added news clip!

Why 12th to 13th? Why 'A blast'?? Because this is the first time I watch a concert from 7pm until 2am in the morning! And why a blast?? Because there were blasting music, blasting fireworks, blasting smokescreen, blasting screams and blasting lights that the whole stage couldn't take it any further causing everything to turn dark and silent for a full 45 minutes!

Yes, a power cut! What!? You may respond in surprise. Yeah, power cut during such a big concert event. My first time ever experiencing something like this. In this blog entry I will pen down my comments and experience on T Music Festival including the many technical problems during the concert.

I reached Bukit Jalil Stadium at around 6.15pm. It was still early so I walked around and saw two yellow shirt ladies with neon light boards. Yellow t-shirt + neon boards....has to be Joey fans. So went to meet and talked a bit with them. After that me and my mum decided to go in and the JY6 Malaysia fanclub leader can't go in yet because she's waiting for someone else. Its already about 6.50pm that time. LOL. Anyway, by the time I got to my seats the concert already started with Andrew Chan singing. My seats isn't that bad. Fourth row from front. After Andrew sang, Rickman sang next. I won't comment much on them as I'm not too familiar with them.

The hosts for the night was Amigo Chui, Ngan Mei Yan and Nicholas Yeung. The next performing artiste was Kelvin Tan. Kelvin is a blind singer but his voice is just superb! So much feeling and gives you the goosebumps when he sings! I'm going to listen to some of his songs soon! Maybe as people say as he cannot see, so he sings from his heart with feelings. He also sang with a guitar which makes him much more admirable.

I will not go through each and every artiste performing in detail but more to which one who gained my attention and interest. The next one I should say is James from Thailand. He has quite good looks and also nice body build! And his showmanship is really good! He could make the audience go high with his comical 'thai traditional dance'!

When Manhand performed, it was the start of technical problems. The mic was too soft for the lady band member and one mic was not even working that they have to share mics! It is annoying to have that kind of technical problem during such a big concert event. I will note this as technical problem 1. And one of the performance that I enjoyed the most that night was from Soler!! I was surprised with their performance at first because didn't expect it to be so energetic and fun! Dino and Julio was really rockish that night showing off their muscles and two caucasian guys singing in cantonese just makes it much more interesting! I love their rendition of Siu Fung Jie's 'fung dek guai jit'! Thumbs up to them!

Next to talk about is Power Station! In my opinion, they have one of the best vocals that night. But its near to rockish band so they need to have loud voice. Power Station is the not having good looks but talent band. And technical problem 2 also happens before they were performing. One of the singer's guitar couldn't work and they had to dim the lights and the other band members create music beat atmosphere with their instruments to not make the audience anxious. It took about 10 minutes before his guitar finally produced sound. LOL. Power Station's performance was great but I feel it is a little bit too long. I think they sang the longest compared to all the other artiste. Power Station then introduced Jade Liu from China and they sang a song together 're qing de sha mo' if I did not remember the song name incorrectly. Its that song that Harlem loves to sing. LOL. Jade has good showmanship too for a young lady like her. She's very active and lively. But should I say technical problem 3?? Jade's mic also sounds soft. By now, I'm guessing that one of the mics may have lack of battery or something. LOL. Jade has a lovely voice in my opinion and I would have enjoyed the performance more if the volume was just a little bit louder. Volume as in mic volume not music volume. And I love her song 'wo jiu shi zhe yang'.

Next person, Kenny Kwan. I think Kenny Kwan is one of the artiste that received the less cheers from audience. I do not know how popular is he in Malaysia but I expected more people to know him. Kenny's performance was so-s0 he sang his new and old songs and I guess he is the only singer with blonde hair and wearing a hat and scarf that night. LOL. Its hot at the place ok!! After that Chin performed. And wow...he walks out in style..wearing sunshades, like catwalking out and sexy lady dancers follow dancing around him and as he sing...almost...almost to the chorus..then BOOM! Everything became dark....silence...surprsed! Chin and his dancers stopped in motion. Audience was left with surprise? Is this intentional? What happen? Then Chin started walking around for people in front who were taking this advantage to take photos of him. LOL. (Remember, camera and camcorder strictly not allowed). Then audience started to cheer and also jeer!! As Amigo, Nic and Mei Yan walked out...we all now know its a technical problem. It was pitch dark, no music, mics not working. They were using torchlight and screaming their lungs out to be heard until soon after they took that what you call?? Erm..loud speaker thing to communicate to us.

They explained about some technical problems and told it needs about 5 minutes....which then changed to 10 minutes to fix the problem and asked audience to stay calm. Under this unexpected situation, how they handle the situation is very important and crucial. So the host started asking stuff like who else hasn't perform? And they went David Tao!!?? Justin!!?? Khalil!!?? Joey!!?? and all the Joey fans sitting about 5 seats beside me started taking up all their neon boards and screaming...hahaha. And Amigo said look...I say Joey and all the boards are up. LOL. Because before they didn't carry anything up and just sat like normal audience. Haha. And once Joey's name was mentioned suddenly all her fans are visible. LOL. So for now I should put a big big technical problem 4 here!

It seems like 10 minutes is just too short...so they need to think of something else..so what they thought of was bringing artiste out to calm the crowd and talk to them. So first they brought Justin out...and the crowd went cheering like mad. LOL. And Justin talked a bit and then sang a chorus part of his song. After Justin, power still not up...so Khalil came out. Sang chorus of 'red bean'. (While all this were happening, lights appear part by part from the stage. They are repairing it one by one I guess) So Z-Chen came out next. Sang and talked a bit...and OMG...still not up! Now they have to bring out bigger singers already. Kay came out. And hehehe...took this advantage to take this video too. Its not too clear but you can at least listen to what she says. (and I feel the final part of Kay taking pictures was kind of unappropriate....is that her assistant or manager or whoever asking her to take the photograph? At this time?)

Then, oh no....still not done yet with technical works...so they have no choice but to invite David Tao out already. I was thinking that if after David it still doesn't work then Joey has to come out already...but I think Joey was not there yet when it all happened!! I think she's just on the way or something..hahaha. So I took a video of David's part too. And from the video you can see....sound and light finally works. LOL.

So after that they invited Chin out again and he said 'I was shocked!!'. Suddenly 'Boom!!' and everything stopped. Hahaha. Poor him! Alright, after that continue with the show! Chin's performance give a different feel already. Audience lose part of their 'high-ness' and its like watching a whole new concert again. Which sucks honestly, as you're supposed to feel higher and higher throughout the show. During his performance, there were still some parts where the mic suddenly produced no sound....urgh..technical problem 5.

Next performance, Kay Guo. I have to say this may be the worse performance of that night. Why is she even performing here? She lacks showmanship and coming out after all these power cut and stuff and having her to perform is not the right time. I feel her songs sounds more to lollipop pop which is not my cup of tea. Well, maybe she is unlucky. They should have slotted her to an earlier timing. Kay Guo then duetted with Eric Lim. They sang Charlene and JJ's 'xiao jiu wo'. Eric sang way better. He also sang 'My Way'.

Then next was Z-Chen. Okay...technical problem 6! His music just stops at random times. Can you imagine? Singing..singing..then suddenly music stops. Then he has to sing without music at certain parts and also skipped half a song. How lousy is that...haihz. But Z-Chen handled the situation well enough. Next, Khalil! Khalil's performace was not as good as I expected. I don't know but I think it really has to do with the mic. He got the soft mic I guess. Because can't really hear his voice. Erm..should I put technical problem 7?? Its so mean to repeat the same technical problem again and again. So well, include all the soft mic problem into the previous one then. Haha.

Okay...have to speed up this post. LOL. Next performance to talk about is Kay Tse!! When Kay came out the amount of cheers was less than what I expected. Does Malaysians not know Kay too well yet? Kay sang 'yelling', 'song of the year', 'zhong mou yim' and 'hei dip gaai'. Her voice was better than what I expected! But I admit there are some little little parts of off-key but very slightly. Kay sang 'zhong mou yim' very well and the ending drag part received loud applause! Kay has a unique voice, but she just needs to improve on showmanship as she did some mistake on her own rundown during performance as in describing the wrong song. Well, at this point, I suspected because of the power cut, the singers may have cut down their song numbers. Kay said at Myfm she will sing 'ngoh jui hei ngoi dek goh' but she didn't sing it in the end.

After Kay, then I'll talk about Sam Lee! He sang 3 songs too and his vocals is good and showmanship not bad too! I shall listen to more of his songs too! Following him is Justin!! Justin also sang 3-4 songs. Which I feel is very little....I was thinking if without power cut, will it be more songs?? Justin's singing was great! And he could arrouse the atmosphere but his dance part was weird. What's with punching and kicking the dancer for a dance? Of course its fake kicking and punching sequence..but it doesn't look nice on stage. OKay...next! David Tao! Its like almost 1 am already when he appear. An my eyes also tired and almost yawning already. But Joey still not yet perform k!!! Hahahaha. And David sang 4 songs. Two new songs and 2 old classic songs. His showmanship is great too! But I think its not his best live performance vocally.

So finally after him, Amigo finally introduced Joey!! And the crowd started screaming loudly. LOL. And Joey fans with their neon boards high up...and they even stood up too! LOL. Joey appeared singing 'yuet cheong yuet keung'. And oh man....I think she picked the wrong mic...LOL. Soft mic. Soft mic + yuet cheong yuet keung is not a really good combination. After singing the song Joey started screaming loudy saying "Do you know how afraid was I!!??? This is the first time I attend a show that needs me to sing at 1 someting AM!! I was so afraid that when I come out, I'll be facing an empty stadium." HAHAHA. And she added, "tomorrow you all don't need to work right? I sing until 2-3 am also no problem? Haha" And some guy must have said something because Joey replied to her, "What!? You even want to eat breakfast with me!??" Hahaha. I think Joey is the only performer who almost always add humour to her performance. I must admit she improved a lot on her showmanship.

Then Joey went on telling audience she released 2 albums recently and sang 'sau san gei' which received warm response. I would not say Joey's singing was the best performance that night. She could have sang better and plus soft mic just makes things worse. But she was good in waking the audience up...asking them to cheer. And when it was not loud enough she pressed on, "I can't hear you!! louder!! louder!!" Haha. After 'sau san gei' she sang 'Is this love'. And it was nice of her to give a warm wave and acknowledgement to her fans with neon boards and thanking them and saying "I know you all had been waiting very long. Thanks a lot." After 'Is this love' some guy tried to snap pictures of her from below the stage. And Joey went.."Eh...are you trying to get a position to snap a picture? You just have to ask me mah!!" Then she stood still to let that guy get a good shot. Joey also removed her jacket as she said its very hot...LOL. Justin did that too earlier and he said he has flabby fats on his arm. Haha. Joey instead said, "What? There's nothing to 'see' also," when the audience cheered. Haha. Joey ended her performance with 'My Pride'. It was a great song to end the show as the last verse of the song was “我覺得光榮　因有你擁戴”(I'm feeling glorified because of your presence) and after that back came the 3 hosts to end the show. I was hoping more songs to be sang by Joey, Kay, Justin, Khalil etc. And Joey's performance wasn't even around 20 minutes.....

Anyway, overall, it was a blasting concert as you get to experience various performance by different singers around Asia showcasting their unique stage performance. You can see each singer have their own way of performing and style. It is also a good way to first introduce yourself to different singers before you go for their major concerts. RM168 for my ticket? It was really worth it!! And because buying it early I got nice seats and even get to sit very close to JY fans who bought RM268 tickets. So lesson to learn, buy tickets early! Hahaha. T Music Festival is one affordable and worth the money concert, but they have to be more careful with their stage equipments...make sure nothing like that ever happens again in other events in the future. Especially if its a solo concert!! Also if you are watching a concert is Bukit Jalil Outdoor, then get the expensive ticket.

p.s I just received a youtube comment that the power shutdown was caused by a small fire incident at the left side of the stage...overheated is it?? Hahahaa...and i left out Ocean...the guy who sang with Vincy Chan in the hit duet song this year. He sang that song solo. His voice is quite good!