The night itself...finally...
Reached home to take a quick shower. It was about 6.30 pm. The initial feeling of excitement slowly gave way to weariness as I sat down on my chair under the fan. Now I was feeling tired…and that wasn’t good. Haha. Didn’t know what to wear…brought my jacket coz it would be cold.
Went to Vijay’s house coz we were going to MITC together. He was still bathing and stuff, so I rested on his sofa listening to some music. By the time we left, it was about 7.30pm…Justin called us telling us that there’s a band meeting and we had to get there in a jiffy. So dinner had to wait. Vijay was wearing his shinny shoes…guess he can play drums faster with his magic shoes and his unhygenic hankie.
We met Justin and Zhen Xin and proceeded to MITC. The place seemed pack with people from the outside, loitering, smoking and lining up to gain access into MITC. They were selling admission tickets on the spot at rm14. We unpacked our instruments and stuff and made sure we had our band tags that read: TONES OF ABSOLUTION - Band (ALL ACCESS)/ PG 165. We could feel the crowd staring at us as we made our way to the entrance carrying our stuff. There was a long line that stopped at the escalator where security was allowing the crowd in by batches. And we walked past the queue and saw a heartwarming sight…The likes of Joash, Seong, Abel, Louise, Lucious,Rachel Ann, Rebecca, Michelle, Wee Liem, Edmund, Aaron, Su Be, Carina, Joel,Julian, Mark..(I;m sorry if I missed anyone out) right in front of the line cheering us as we made our way up the escalator. WOW.
The briefing was just to tell us not to do anything stupid on stage and enjoy ourselves. So we took leave after that to grab a much needed bite. Asked AWAKEN to look after our stuff..But I was feeling so energy less. Was feeling tired, nervous, no appetite. We went to Subbaidah. I ordered some stup double egg bread called Roti Hong Kong. The rest of the gang were devouring their chow while I was struggling to eat. Zhen Xin had been down with a flu and sore throat…and Apple was tending to him so gently. Hmm…I wished I had someone to tend to me too…hahah…I bit my lip about three times..ouch. Tempered Mental was also eating there but they seemed kinda bored and antisocial…should smile more. Anyway I bought a can of RED BULL to drink later just in case I still felt lifeless.
Oh, we met Sam Ng, Wee Ni, Stefanie, George and Asher.
The hall was almost packed to the end and the ppl were sitting on the carpet.We were just in time for the speech…as usual the schedule was later than on paper. We were grateful to have missed KRONG’s act. Didn’t really liked them. The first band to perform was Vendetta…a band that I heard won some stuff. You get that kind of feeling of wanting to access other bands and kinda rate them. Hahaa…so it wasn’t a nice feeling coz were 9th on the playing list…so personally, I had to see all the skill and frills. Basically we told ourselves that we didn’t really care how the other bands performed, we’d juz go do our stuff and enjoy ourselves. Vendetta was not bad followed by Phoenix. I couldn’t bare staying there coz of the anxiety and excitement that was building up. So I decided to lepak outside the hall where the bands were stationed. We had to wait a few hours which I spent resting. We had nice conversations with AWAKEN and made fast friends with them. It actually helped me settle down and be more calm about going on stage. Found out that they were not MMU students but only one of them was an Alpha. So I found comfort in people that I hardly knew.
Tempered Mental played and they were really technical. Was nice to see some technical stuff after all the head banging rock that was being played that evening. I think they’re pretty good. TIGHT music.
All this while we were counting down the bands to our turn. Wee Liem and some of them came out after a while and said to us which he summed up the general consensus by our friends.(he wrote this in his BLOG http://weeliem.blogspot.com/)
"U guys are simply awesome! it was worth the trip all the way down, the RM14 i paid for my ticket and the numerous hours enduring other bands being wannabee-metal screaming bands, just to see PG165 win. coz if they hadn't won, a few of us guys had made a plan to beat the crap out of the PG165 members for making us go through all the crappy bands."
So we had some extra pressure which I wanted to dismiss and juz concentrate on why we were there, not just to win, but to make a difference with our music.
Finally we were ushered into backstage. It was about 12.30am. I realized that the defining moment had finally come. I guess I was beginning to feel a bit nervous and goin through the lyrics and stuff. We unpacked our stuff and guitars all tuned. We said a silent but earnest prayer as the other BOTB staff looked at us. The emcee checked with us. I could hear the other band slowly wrapping up their gig. I couldn’t stand the people smoking at backstage. Then the emcee finally said something like, ‘From Melaka…PG 165’…and then I could hear the people go into a frenzy(the friends who came to support us) as we made our way up the stage. I was plugging in my stuff and trying to make sure my settings were perfect and I could hear the CF people and some BOTB people cheering us and screaming and shouting ,' Vijay's so cute...Justin's so cute'. It was an awesome feeling. There we were. I shouted.’Apa khabar semua’ and I couldn’t decipher what the response was coz they were shouting and I was in my mind to start playing. My guitar sounded ALIVE…
Here it goes…SWITCHFOOT's Meant To Live which i dedicated to Awaken. (apparently the crowd knew the song ‘Meant to Live’ and broke into a frenzy when I announced our first number)…I striked the string, and Justin answered…and Vijay and Zhen Xin crashed in and it was symphony…seeing the heads bob up and down to the groove. I wasn’t sure if they could hear me sing…but I sang like I meant it...and savoured everything of the moment. At that time…all feelings of anxiety left us. As the song closed, I could see strangers in the middle of the crowd raise their hands in applause.
‘Waves of Glory’ was an instrumental that we wrote together. And personally it was the song that I feared most to perform becoz it was technical. I did not know if it would make the cut. But it was the most awesome experience as we jammed there...from some punk, to reggae... Each of us played bars of solo pieces. Justin did some finger tapping, Vijay played stuff that he did not play at the rehearsals which he kept in his head, Zhen Xin grooved something that he come out with just two days before, I juz did what I could. It was nice.
‘You’re Everything To Me’ was a slower song that I wrote and the band helped bring to live. Personally I felt something was out of tune as I tried singing.(my guitar suddenly kinda soft) I felt the bass was out of tune. Vijay said that it sounded perfect. I was a biit disappointed after that and was complaining at backstage that I sang out of tune as my friends were consolling me…hahaha…Anyway, I managed to say thank you to a very awesome crowd. Wished that we could have did that song again...actually wished we could play all night... But after that no one complained but feedback was they were blessed by the song…and they actually sang to it. I was pleasantly surprised by that. We hurried off stage feeling strangely in a land of euphoria.
Next: The results and the closing of Tones Of Absolution.
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