Second day. Everyone had to get up early for a "meet-the-fans" session at
City Music at the Peace Center. After some banana fritters for breakfast, we were transported to the famous music store. When we arrived, I couldn't help but recall the scene in
Spinal Tap where the band had a similar session... in our case, it was more like "meet one journalist who didn't turn up" appearance. However, three fans
did turn up, so it wasn't totally Tap. Nevertheless, we had fun: fooled around with all the instruments in the showroom, played lounge music (much to the bemusement of our manager), had free lunch (chicken rice
again! aaargghh!), and I got away with a 31-band mono rackmounted eq unit for S$90!
After the afternoon fiasco, it was time to get ready for the big rock show. We went back to the hotel to recuperate and at around 5pm, King Shah arrived from KL having run his qualifying race just this morning. Muix' voice was recovering but he was still way below the 'comfort level' for performing. After some pep talk and briefing, we were ready to hit the road... at least, in stages. While we were waiting for our turn, we decided to make an impromptu documentary (which will be available here, soon).
By the time Muix, Badang and I arrived, we were just two songs away from the end of Yakamashi's set. I bet our management were having seizures before they saw us arrive... heh heh. It was a good thing that I had tuned my bass at the hotel, I had literally no time to do anything else but to jack in and go! Then just as the crowd was getting antsy, I realized the speakers on my bass rig was not working!
"What the.... !"Apparently, it was blown to smithereens earlier on and I had nothing but the monitor in front of me for reference. The side fills weren't helpful... neither the fact that all our amps were spread quite far apart. Sam Maya's monitors predominantly had Badang's keys on it and my bass seems to drift in and out of the drum's monitor mix. Muix' vocals took a good turn at the last minute, he ripped through the entire set without too much trouble.
As usual, Metalasia's crowd was, well, static. Everyone was into the finger acrobatics (and one bassist's running antics and machine-gunning the crowd ala
Steve Harris). I guess, the tempo changes made it difficult to headbang... nonetheless, the crowd was loud and sang along to
Silantra and
Puspasari Penawar Puteri at the end of the set. Apparently, both songs reached No. 1 in the local charts. When we started to play the intro riff to
The Trooper, the crowd went nuts!
According to the people in the crowd, our sound was really happening. We didn't have our usual pyros but we did give away a guitar to one lucky dude in the crowd. I think he wasn't sure that he was to take it home, at first... at least until I beckoned him to take it!
"Ambik...! Ambik la...!"The setlist goes: Silantra, Serangan Katari (instrumental), Istana Api (I had a bass solo intro... nerve-wrecking!), Puteri Natya Syastra, Bahtera Puaka, The Trooper, Khalifah Alam Maya and Puspasari Penawar Puteri.
Henjut tak ingat dunia.To see so many people on the green is really an incredible sight... until you hear how loud they were... I think we won over some hearts this night. We made new friends, signed autographs and posed for photos after our set was up, and a journalist (the one who did a Spinal Tap on us earlier this afternoon) came by and interviewed us in our tents for a local daily. The next day, was of course, shopping day for almost all of us... but what's rock 'n' roll about that, right? I'll just save it...
It was a good show. For Metalasia, it was our first time performing in Singapore. I would like to thank the fans for such a warm reception and I hope we'll be around to come back for another offering of metal and mayhem... at least on stage, that is.
to be concluded...
Nightfall, we geared up for the soundcheck. We loaded up the vans and made our way to Fort Canning. The stage was big: 40'x60' and had the truss rigs and sound system of a full-blown festival-style setup. I was impressed. As for my rig, I was quite happy to be using the Trace Elliott full stack they had prepared. Everything went down without a hitch. King Shah wasn't with us during the first day since he had to attend an equally crucial business back in KL, so the soundcheck went on with Ritz and me doubling up to test King Shah's rig. So far so good, all went well. I didn't know what to expect for the following night: no one did. Let's just hope that the response is a good one so that we can have a decent show at the very least.
