Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Chronicles of a One Night Rockstar..

Finally, the day that I've been waiting for over 3 months has arrived.. Friday, 8th December 2006..

After Friday prayers I stopped by the office to get my things..
Went up to 5th floor where we'd practise daily during lunch time & after work..
Had a brief moment to look back & say my 'good-bye'.. I wonder what the future holds for that room..

Drove back home for a quick shower (not counting the rain).. dropped by the next door to check on Amani.. she was sound asleep.. gave her a kiss on the forehead and went on my way.. It was still raining and there was a minor quick flood that caused my stress level to go up a notch.. the radio played "Sedang Ingin Bercinta" (Dewa19) and I thought it might be on of those 'signs'.. I kinda blanked out the lyrics and just listened to the music.. konon tak nak ada Ahmad Dhani's influence in my rendition..

After the dreaded Sunway toll, I managed to arrived at Sunway Hotel around 3.45pm.. just about the time that we were all supposed to gather at the lobby.. Zafi was just a few seconds behind me.. He came lenggang kangkung.. didn't even bring the his drumsticks nor his shirt (I assume the others would understand that we wont be going back home to change after sound check).. I was too 'into the performance' to be mad at him.. lantak lee.. hehe..

Not long after that came the rest of the 'motley crue'.. Ujang, Zainy, James & Jai.. Zafi and I went up to the ballroom to see if the event management guys have finished setting up.. this was what I saw..


Really laa.. Does this look like the deco of a BIG company's 10th year Anniversary?


Since almost everything seems to be ready, I went back down to call the guys for sound check.. it was about 4.30pm and Zafi noticed that if he didn't go back home now to change, he might not make it back in time - Sunway area being a bottle neck after 5pm.. and so I let him go.. Jai was quite pissed that Zafi didn't help carry the stuffs up before leaving.. I couldn't careless.. hehe..

The guys came in to see the small stage and the lousy backdrop.. the right side of the stage felt really unstable - macam berdiri atas jambatan gantung! We set up the equipment and started our sound check cum final jamming.. James had made a last minute decision to not use the keyboards.. lucky for us, one of the guitar amp was busted and we had to use the the keyboard amp instead! The soundguys tried to cover by giving me direct connection via the mic for my semi-acoustic guitar.. I didn't intend to plug it in anyways.. :P As we played, we noticed only 2 monitors we provided.. we asked for 5.. now Jai couldn't hear much at the back.. We asked them to crank up the volume and it kinda worked.. I reminded the dude to record the audio.. I should have seen it coming when his faced went blank for a split second.. the boss promised the audio would be recorded in MD format.. something that would turned out to be another janji Melayu later in the evening.. :P

So, we had our sound check (without Zafi actually playing his part).. Atleast we did got through all 5 songs before the soundguy stopped us to allow the dancers to practise.. it was about 5+pm.. Everything was set perfectly when we finished.. or so we thought!

Since we got time to kill, we went across the road to a mamak stall.. I was still on a 'no-ice diet' so I was the only one drinking a hot drink.. The guys made me to go easy on the curry.. I said what the hell.. hehehe..

After the brief mamak session, Ujang & Jai went to the guitar store at Sunway Piramid to buy a guitar strap for Ujang semi-acoustic (last minute decision to let Jai play guitar on 'Beyond') and last minute accessories shopping.. The rest of the gang went back up to register & change clothes.. Zafi still haven't arrive at that point..

Being the 'anak tiri' performers for the night, we weren't provided a changing room so, staying true to the rockers that we are, we opt for the toilet.. nasib baik toilet bersih! haha.. This is me after finish dressing up.. that's James & Zafi (far left) at the back..



So we made our way back to the ballroom.. I could hear the 'fans' going "waaa.." when we entered.. we stayed put at the table.. Zainy was feeling abit 'chilly' while my throat was getting dry.. James started drinking the Jasmine Tea.. Ujang came back around few minutes before the event started as he was charging his handphone batery..


This picture was taken before we performed.. masing-masing tak boleh nak senyum betul-betul.. hehe


After the speeches (MD said bonus is year is ALMOST 2 months - how lame is that?), staff award ceremony & several lucky draws, finally it was time for us to stand-by.. The MC gave as an introduction (calling us THE Blind Sight.. alo, takde THE laa) and we played the intro to "Smoke on the Water".. could hear a few people yelling and that got my adrenaline pumping!

Our set started of with "I Believe in a Thing Call Love" by Darkness.. I was totally in my zone until Ujang's guitar solo.. we couldn't hear any sound at all and I mistakenly thought it was the 2nd verse.. Damn the sound guy! What the heck happened to all the volume setting during sound check?


Blind Sight covering Darkness.. me pointing to Ujang for the guitar solo that wasn't ment to be..



One of my best shot in recent years.. this picture made it to the company's main notice board.. hehe



Cool moves.. Me & Ujang doing a Steven Tyler & Joe Perry..



2nd song - Sedang Ingin Bercinta.. Setiap ada kamu, otakku berfikir bagaimana caranya untuk berdua bersama kamu.. ;)



Zafi on vocals.. He did the 'dangdut girl' verse..



Zainy doing great backing vocals for last chorus on "Sedang"..



James going "Beyond".. a real 'amoi' puller this guy.. check out the cameras..





We did a Chinese + Japanese mix on Beyond's "海闊天空" (遥かなる夢に~Far away~).. I took the Japanese part of course.. still need work on my Chinese hehe..



Great shot by my buddy Andre.. wallpaper material here.. :)



Jai shifting from drums to guitar for "Beyond".. no shot of Zafi on drums..



Zainy the "Pencinta Wanita".. yours truly on guitars & backing vocals..


Last song was Ratu's "Teman Tapi Mesra" done in A.. Check out the crowd's reaction!


Performance wise I think we did well.. many expected us to crumble on stage but we managed to proved them wrong.. the sound guys didn't help much on that.. sishhh.. and they kinda blew any chance of us using the audio recording for future purposes as they only got the last 2 songs on tape.. yes you heard me, not MD but cassette tape!! 2 lagu je pulak tuu!! Damn disappointed!

Next after a crowd game & some lucky draw, Farahdhiya took the stage.. Hmmm.. I have nothing against her but she could have made a better song selection.. She did blew me away on "Bertakhta Di Hati" - her last song for the night..


Me, Ujang, Farahdhiya & Jai - Celebrities should stick together.. hehe


Our last time on stage that night was for the "Happy Birthday" number.. the directors came up to cut the cake & we played the 'normal' version before rocking the song with a "Pretty Woman" mash up.. We could have dragged the song a few more times but opt to stop as the MD didn't know what to do on stage.. hehe..



Blind Sight feat. Mr Mikami - Each of us got a 'token' for our 'great' performance..


All in all the night went pretty good.. Before we parted ways, we took 1 last group photo for the album.. It surely was a night to remember and probably the start to an interesting future.. who knows, kan? :)


Blind Sight - 8 December 2006

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hi, i'm just a random guy who likes Beyond. i would like to ask if u have (遥かなる夢に~Far away~) Lyrics and song..

please reply to me to my Email..

autumn.zean@gmail.com

Many thanks..