Concert
I didn't expect to go for it, but my Dad just handed me tickets for the Linkin Park concert in Singapore on fine day a few weeks back. After watching the concert last night, I could say that I've come back with a whole slew of observations about our youth, its culture, beliefs and so on.
One thing I realise about concerts is their ability to attract people from all walks of life for particular age group of people that the music genre relates to. A concert's "ability" to draw people almost mirrors that of national service. Though it may be stereotypical once again, I believe it isn't too sweeping to say that rock concerts attract the youth, retro concerts attract the babyboomers, classics concerts attract the older generation and so on. Very generalised, but yeah, the dividing lines are more or less in position somehow.
I headed over at about 6 plus in the evening only to be greeted by the sigh of a queue that stretched from one end of the Supreme Court all the way to Suntec City. Singaporeans indulging in the greatest socially accepted national pastime in the history of mankind - queueing. Definitely a nonsensical social ill brought about from our culture of being afriad to lose out, having nothing and dying. And its not a queue whereby people line up one by one, more like groups of 5 to 10 persons being stacked together. So it really was a very long queue.
After being ushered into Gate A. I realised how interesting the set up was. Those guys that paid for the 85 dollar tickets were kept in a cordon exactly halfway through the padang. And it was a free for all area in the other half for those who had paid for the 152 dollar tickets. So I could see stack of people that had already lined up to cover out the entire width of the field in the cheaper section, while in the more expensive part, there was so much space that me and my brother could comfortably slip into the 4th row from the barricade, with plenty of space to spare. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.
The concert was supposed to start at 8. But even by 8.30, nothing much had even begun. There were plenty of sound checks, light tests and so on, but nothing. Shortly after, it was Daniel Ong and that Sheik Haikel fella from the Perfect10 coming on stage to brief the crowd on things not to do. So technically, one one hand everyone was told to take MC the next day, on the other, there was to be no bodysurfing, no moshing, and a whole slew of silly rules. Yes, so much for a more open Singapore. We have mosh pits in a rock concert where people aren't allowed to mosh about. As much as I usually take a neutral stance, then again, its quite silly to have such rules when the whole world and even our muslim neighbour malaysia has no problems with such.
Then came the opening sequences by a korean heavy nu-metal rock band PIA. It took quite some time for the crowd to warm up to their korean brand of music, but since it was more or less similar to Linkin Park's, I guess soon after the first song started, people started hopping around and banging on each other with hands raised and all. The crowds in Singapore are definitely tamer to those overseas in the States and the British "Empire".
The band PIA really really overdid their opening sequences. By the 4th song, they were already hinting it was to be last song and that Linkin Park would soon come on stage. But then this was repeated for the 5th, 6th and 7th and 8th songs as well. By then it was just a real mood killer. People were somehow more happy to see them leave the stage than to have heard them perform and wasted everyone's time. By this time, it was already 9 and still no Linkin Park. I guess everyone was getting rather impatient at this time.
Then the stage crew came about to clear off PIA's equipment and unfurl canvasses that held Linkin Park's equipment as well as to raise a huge blue Linkin Park Banner to much cheers. Add another 20 minutes of intense waiting before the drummer Rob came on stage into his drum kit to defeaning cheers. Then Chairman Hahn (!!!) came to his sound console and the lights darkened. By this time all the waiting had been done and before we knew it, Brad, Phoenix as well as Chester and Mike came on stage for the first song. It was seriously euphoric. The crowd just went ecstatic and I saw people flying over me.
The crush was incredible. One minute everyone was standing still. Next minute the whole crowd seemed to surge forwards violently, crushing those at the barricades in front. I saw people bodysurfing around till some of them got stopped by the security or else just dropped when no one supported them and many of those people who were at the back took the chorus opportunities to squash their way into the front. It became so hot at some points that my glasses just fogged up. I saw a few people faint as well as some at the very front requesting to be escorted out after being unable to take the crush of the crowd constantly surging forwards.
Overall, it was a superb concert. The wait had felt like an eternity, but it felt like an instant of a second the moment the first song began. The good thing was that from my location, it was just about a few meters in front of one of the step up platforms that the band would switch amongst each other. Hence, I guess I could say that I was within 5 meters of Chester Bennington, Mike Shinoda as well as the guitarist Brad, who seriously looked like Nick Berg as well as the ever cool as cucumber bassist Phoenix. The music was really good, very loud yet not deafening and the backdrop of the Swissotel as well as the city made it all the more "modern" and avant garde, after being used to watching concerts in the Indoor Stadium.
The crowd just sang and danced to all the real Linkin Park classics like Faint, Numb, In The End, A Place of My Head, Points of Authority, PAPERCUT, Somewhere I Belong as well as Crawling and One Step Closer to finish up the concert. I was introduced to Linkin Park by both my brother as well as T-Squared from like the FIRST day of 2nd intake in ACJC. I still remember that I was skipping physics lectures and heading over to camp at the cafeteria when I had a first listen to One Step Closer on T-Squared's Discman.
Overall, I guess that the consensus from most of the people I knew was that they supported Linkin Park. Not to mention that it was a welcome fresh breath of air that their lyrics didn't have offensive or foul language in them and were just something everyone could relate to and being a good reflection of society and life in general, although from a more angst point of view. I listened to Hybrid Theory all the way from the time of preparing for my term tests in JC1 all the way to Compulsory Self-Study just before the A-levels in JC2. Linkin Park's CD was one of the few that would really define my life in JC and just hearing the band perform live just a few meters away from me was a real treat indeed.
And I was a stupid boy not to bring my camera!
I find it funny that a person, I prefer to listen to Jazz Classics, new age piano solos as well as music that is generally towards the "softer side". Hymns as well as Christian contemporary too. Then again, I find it odd myself that I don't cringe away to heavier stuff like metallica being played in my police academy bunk else black occult music that is often jammed through the CD players at some AC parties. However, the dance tunes that are often played by Ah Bengs in their Subaru WRXs are serious no-nos for me, as they lack absolute taste even in terms of being "listenable". It irritates more than entertains.
Generally, I guess I would concur with what the New Paper reported that the crowds in the front were necessarily not the best fans, just the more affluent youth who could afford the more expensive tickets. Indeed. A good number of international students indeed, a large number of foreign students as well as a good number of people that spoke english accented british, japanese, chinese, korean, indian and so on. Children of the Foreign Talent. As someone pointed out to me very rightfully.
One interesting thing was that as I was queuing to enter the place with my brother, they had this MTV crew who somehow randomly just picked up a bunch of youngsters from an international school queuing just behind us for them to scream into the microphone while (VJ) denise asked them if they were die-hard Linkin Park supporters. Maybe my the back of my shirt will be in the final cut, but that's very unlikely I guess. But then again, Discovery Channel is way more interesting than MTV at my age. Unless its a live episode of TRL from NEW YORK CITY's TIMES SQUARE, then that's really worth watching as well.
I really think that every educated person ought to read up on Politics, Philosophy as well as Economics in his or her free time. Because these are huamities subjects that empahsise on a very much higher level thought process. If mathematics is the abstraction of the sciences, then philosophy would indeed be the abstraction of the humanities. Politics and Economics are so well tied together that it would be essential to have a working knowledge of such forms of international relations/political science for greater viablity in the global economy.
Even when I brose through the papers today. I am no surprised by the skyrocketing rates of divorce as well as the falling rates of marriages. Many years ago, probably 8 to 10, I read a Christian book that predicted that these would be the trends in the social issues that would confront generation X and Y. Which is why I say again, that the Focus on the Family, Singapore is really the most under rated Voluntary Welfare Organisation in this country that has the knowledge, the expertise as well as the brilliant thinkers in it that can help our society. Let's not waste our time with MCDS. Printing pamplets of theoretical knowledge when this is the very VWO that does the hands on work and knows exactly how to meet the needs of our community. Only too bad that they do not have enough funding as well as manpower. At the of the day, if we look very closely and carefully at the way our youth is headed. We are in for a big crash sooner rather than later.
I can comment more about the youth of our age, but then again, I'll definitely need more exposure. I have to break out of the mould of people that I know of to reach the other end of society. I feel that hanging around with too many rich people's offsprings that are headed to study in Boston/New York and live it up the glamourous lifestyle has indeed warped my understanding of the disadvantaged as well as underpriviedged. More in future. And I don't even know what I'm writing.
I didn't expect to go for it, but my Dad just handed me tickets for the Linkin Park concert in Singapore on fine day a few weeks back. After watching the concert last night, I could say that I've come back with a whole slew of observations about our youth, its culture, beliefs and so on.
One thing I realise about concerts is their ability to attract people from all walks of life for particular age group of people that the music genre relates to. A concert's "ability" to draw people almost mirrors that of national service. Though it may be stereotypical once again, I believe it isn't too sweeping to say that rock concerts attract the youth, retro concerts attract the babyboomers, classics concerts attract the older generation and so on. Very generalised, but yeah, the dividing lines are more or less in position somehow.
I headed over at about 6 plus in the evening only to be greeted by the sigh of a queue that stretched from one end of the Supreme Court all the way to Suntec City. Singaporeans indulging in the greatest socially accepted national pastime in the history of mankind - queueing. Definitely a nonsensical social ill brought about from our culture of being afriad to lose out, having nothing and dying. And its not a queue whereby people line up one by one, more like groups of 5 to 10 persons being stacked together. So it really was a very long queue.
After being ushered into Gate A. I realised how interesting the set up was. Those guys that paid for the 85 dollar tickets were kept in a cordon exactly halfway through the padang. And it was a free for all area in the other half for those who had paid for the 152 dollar tickets. So I could see stack of people that had already lined up to cover out the entire width of the field in the cheaper section, while in the more expensive part, there was so much space that me and my brother could comfortably slip into the 4th row from the barricade, with plenty of space to spare. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.
The concert was supposed to start at 8. But even by 8.30, nothing much had even begun. There were plenty of sound checks, light tests and so on, but nothing. Shortly after, it was Daniel Ong and that Sheik Haikel fella from the Perfect10 coming on stage to brief the crowd on things not to do. So technically, one one hand everyone was told to take MC the next day, on the other, there was to be no bodysurfing, no moshing, and a whole slew of silly rules. Yes, so much for a more open Singapore. We have mosh pits in a rock concert where people aren't allowed to mosh about. As much as I usually take a neutral stance, then again, its quite silly to have such rules when the whole world and even our muslim neighbour malaysia has no problems with such.
Then came the opening sequences by a korean heavy nu-metal rock band PIA. It took quite some time for the crowd to warm up to their korean brand of music, but since it was more or less similar to Linkin Park's, I guess soon after the first song started, people started hopping around and banging on each other with hands raised and all. The crowds in Singapore are definitely tamer to those overseas in the States and the British "Empire".
The band PIA really really overdid their opening sequences. By the 4th song, they were already hinting it was to be last song and that Linkin Park would soon come on stage. But then this was repeated for the 5th, 6th and 7th and 8th songs as well. By then it was just a real mood killer. People were somehow more happy to see them leave the stage than to have heard them perform and wasted everyone's time. By this time, it was already 9 and still no Linkin Park. I guess everyone was getting rather impatient at this time.
Then the stage crew came about to clear off PIA's equipment and unfurl canvasses that held Linkin Park's equipment as well as to raise a huge blue Linkin Park Banner to much cheers. Add another 20 minutes of intense waiting before the drummer Rob came on stage into his drum kit to defeaning cheers. Then Chairman Hahn (!!!) came to his sound console and the lights darkened. By this time all the waiting had been done and before we knew it, Brad, Phoenix as well as Chester and Mike came on stage for the first song. It was seriously euphoric. The crowd just went ecstatic and I saw people flying over me.
The crush was incredible. One minute everyone was standing still. Next minute the whole crowd seemed to surge forwards violently, crushing those at the barricades in front. I saw people bodysurfing around till some of them got stopped by the security or else just dropped when no one supported them and many of those people who were at the back took the chorus opportunities to squash their way into the front. It became so hot at some points that my glasses just fogged up. I saw a few people faint as well as some at the very front requesting to be escorted out after being unable to take the crush of the crowd constantly surging forwards.
Overall, it was a superb concert. The wait had felt like an eternity, but it felt like an instant of a second the moment the first song began. The good thing was that from my location, it was just about a few meters in front of one of the step up platforms that the band would switch amongst each other. Hence, I guess I could say that I was within 5 meters of Chester Bennington, Mike Shinoda as well as the guitarist Brad, who seriously looked like Nick Berg as well as the ever cool as cucumber bassist Phoenix. The music was really good, very loud yet not deafening and the backdrop of the Swissotel as well as the city made it all the more "modern" and avant garde, after being used to watching concerts in the Indoor Stadium.
The crowd just sang and danced to all the real Linkin Park classics like Faint, Numb, In The End, A Place of My Head, Points of Authority, PAPERCUT, Somewhere I Belong as well as Crawling and One Step Closer to finish up the concert. I was introduced to Linkin Park by both my brother as well as T-Squared from like the FIRST day of 2nd intake in ACJC. I still remember that I was skipping physics lectures and heading over to camp at the cafeteria when I had a first listen to One Step Closer on T-Squared's Discman.
Overall, I guess that the consensus from most of the people I knew was that they supported Linkin Park. Not to mention that it was a welcome fresh breath of air that their lyrics didn't have offensive or foul language in them and were just something everyone could relate to and being a good reflection of society and life in general, although from a more angst point of view. I listened to Hybrid Theory all the way from the time of preparing for my term tests in JC1 all the way to Compulsory Self-Study just before the A-levels in JC2. Linkin Park's CD was one of the few that would really define my life in JC and just hearing the band perform live just a few meters away from me was a real treat indeed.
And I was a stupid boy not to bring my camera!
I find it funny that a person, I prefer to listen to Jazz Classics, new age piano solos as well as music that is generally towards the "softer side". Hymns as well as Christian contemporary too. Then again, I find it odd myself that I don't cringe away to heavier stuff like metallica being played in my police academy bunk else black occult music that is often jammed through the CD players at some AC parties. However, the dance tunes that are often played by Ah Bengs in their Subaru WRXs are serious no-nos for me, as they lack absolute taste even in terms of being "listenable". It irritates more than entertains.
Generally, I guess I would concur with what the New Paper reported that the crowds in the front were necessarily not the best fans, just the more affluent youth who could afford the more expensive tickets. Indeed. A good number of international students indeed, a large number of foreign students as well as a good number of people that spoke english accented british, japanese, chinese, korean, indian and so on. Children of the Foreign Talent. As someone pointed out to me very rightfully.
One interesting thing was that as I was queuing to enter the place with my brother, they had this MTV crew who somehow randomly just picked up a bunch of youngsters from an international school queuing just behind us for them to scream into the microphone while (VJ) denise asked them if they were die-hard Linkin Park supporters. Maybe my the back of my shirt will be in the final cut, but that's very unlikely I guess. But then again, Discovery Channel is way more interesting than MTV at my age. Unless its a live episode of TRL from NEW YORK CITY's TIMES SQUARE, then that's really worth watching as well.
I really think that every educated person ought to read up on Politics, Philosophy as well as Economics in his or her free time. Because these are huamities subjects that empahsise on a very much higher level thought process. If mathematics is the abstraction of the sciences, then philosophy would indeed be the abstraction of the humanities. Politics and Economics are so well tied together that it would be essential to have a working knowledge of such forms of international relations/political science for greater viablity in the global economy.
Even when I brose through the papers today. I am no surprised by the skyrocketing rates of divorce as well as the falling rates of marriages. Many years ago, probably 8 to 10, I read a Christian book that predicted that these would be the trends in the social issues that would confront generation X and Y. Which is why I say again, that the Focus on the Family, Singapore is really the most under rated Voluntary Welfare Organisation in this country that has the knowledge, the expertise as well as the brilliant thinkers in it that can help our society. Let's not waste our time with MCDS. Printing pamplets of theoretical knowledge when this is the very VWO that does the hands on work and knows exactly how to meet the needs of our community. Only too bad that they do not have enough funding as well as manpower. At the of the day, if we look very closely and carefully at the way our youth is headed. We are in for a big crash sooner rather than later.
I can comment more about the youth of our age, but then again, I'll definitely need more exposure. I have to break out of the mould of people that I know of to reach the other end of society. I feel that hanging around with too many rich people's offsprings that are headed to study in Boston/New York and live it up the glamourous lifestyle has indeed warped my understanding of the disadvantaged as well as underpriviedged. More in future. And I don't even know what I'm writing.
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