The above are some of the things we would often get to hear when Rzeznik is around. So happen Discovery Channel was showing a documentary on some hyena like animal on the TV while we, Pneo, Marc, Rzeznik and myself, were having dinner at Outback Steakhouse just this evening. He read the subtitles and reiterated to us the above instead. We had to hold back our laughter to avoid spitting out good beef (all the guys had the same burgers) and lamb (lamb chop for yours truly). It was funnier when Rzeznik realized his own error and that brought back to memory another Rzeznik special.
A couple of months back, we were having dinner at Chili's 1Utama and the waiter recommended some new beef menu to Rzeznik. Instead of just keeping quiet or telling the waiter that he does not want any of the new items, he lied saying he does not eat beef. I took notice of this because I was informed that Rzeznik does not eat vegetables and eats more meat than anything. A couple of minutes later, he then placed an order for Beef Bacon Burger and to have the beef prepared medium. I brought this up after the waiter left and since then, we have not stopped teasing him about it.
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I am still having a hangover from Saturday's awesome experience. A group of us got together to attend Michael Learns to Rock Eternity Tour concert! Shuper Shweet I tell ya.
Marc together with his sister drove Pneo and I up to Genting Highlands. Before hitting the Genting Highlands exit, we had a pit stop at McDonald's drive-thru and Dunkin' Donuts for Marc.
Halfway up the winding road I had to make Marc stop so that I could do the ever famous trick of mine. My close friends who travel with me often enough would know this. As this was not the first time I sat in Marc's car up to Genting I was quite confident I could pull through this one as well. I underestimated my lack of sleep the night before and thought resting at Pneo's before Marc came to get us was sufficient. Guess not. Sorry Marc!
I was then let off near the main hotel when we reached Genting because I did it again. While Marc and his sister searched for parking, Pneo accompanied me and we started to look for the Arena of Stars. I must say that the signs within the hotels were rather confusing. We followed 3 signs that lead us to nowhere.
We took a wrong turn but thankfully we found Marc and his sister not far off the correct direction. Being early we hung out at Coffee Bean to enjoy some hot drinks. Pneo got the both of us a Vanilla Milk which tasted too sweet for my liking. It was rather amusing that Coffee Bean was playing the latest MLTR album on their in house music system. But I was pretty much stoned from the motion sickness anyway to pay attention and I had no appetite whatsoever. Even when there was slices of blueberry cheesecake at the counter!
A while later we got into the Arena of Stars and we had to wait before anything happened. Marc's other sister chose us really awesome seats and as you can see from the picture below we faced the stage directly. When I was here for Jacky Cheung's I was right at the back and towards the left hand side of the stage. Can't get any better than this people. Really awesome!
We got a surprise when a voice over welcomed us to the show and everyone in the arena was so excited and cheered like crazy until the mention of some Andrew Tan to come up on stage. Cheers immediately turned to jeers. It was slightly embarrassing if you asked me. I definitely would not want to be up there on that stage when that happens. Andrew Tan sang a Chinese song and he sounded not bad though slightly off key sometimes. The audience gave a satisfactory applause anyway. I can tell you he sounds better than what was to come in a while.
Finally, lead singer Jascha, lead guitarist Mikkel and drummer Kare appeared to a big applause. I was so excited I wanted to pee in my pants. I am kidding.
That was when we noticed a female in the band. Without much introduction the band went straight for the first song - Sleeping Child followed by old songs. Being forgetful I cannot remember the sequence but there were songs like Strange Foreign Beauty and Complicated Heart.
Barely halfway, Jascha went for costume change and the bassist, by then introduced as Eden, took to the stage and totally murdered mine and Pneo's favourite MLTR song You Took My Heart Away! I was not happy at all. I gave a half hearted applause for the effort but she redeemed herself by showing her prowess on the bass with an instrumental performance with the lead guitarist Mikkel. Now that, was impressive.
Until this time, a lot of the audience members were video recording the performance with their cameras. I found this irritating. I know you paid a lot of money to sit right at the front but it is not ethical of you to record the artistes' performance. You buy the seat not the rights to their songs. They are performing for you so that you can appreciate their music in person. So behave and act accordingly.
Jascha came back for a solo on his keyboard. There were some rather slow songs then. When the rest returned to the stage, they played another favourite of mine I'm Gonna Be Around and Out of the Blue. I could still remember the latter song well as it was also one of my dad's favourite songs. If anything my dad was the one who introduced Michael Learns to Rock to the household. He would play the whole of the Colours album on weekends for at least a couple of months.
Few more songs and I was anxiously hoping and waiting for Take Me To Your Heart as it was their version of Jacky Cheung's Wen Bie. Just when I was telling that to Pneo, they performed it! I was singing along like nobody's business. What followed were newer songs and one of them Angel Eyes, which Pneo said sounded like Eurobeat, really caught my attention. They then played a song from their Eternity album, entitled It's Gonna Make Sense. I thought it was slightly different from their usual playing styles and unlike the older albums.
Paint My Love was the last song they performed before they were going to leave but the audience beckoned for more. Afterall they have not played all the songs we knew. True enough they reappeared for encore and played 25 Minutes, Wild Women and That's Why.
Well, all things must come to and end. So the band and the audience bid goodbye to one another and soon enough the gates were packed with people leaving. I dare say that every person leaving the Arena must have felt rather nostalgic with the cool atmosphere outside, singing their favourite number aloud if not in their hearts. I thought the ambiance quite romantic too. Pneo and I could not stop complaining about the butchering of our favourite song and decided to sing our own together. Perfect.
We decided to just go home and we had to walk a fair bit to Marc's car. On the way down the hill, I was again trying to keep calm and hoping not to get sick again. The embarrassment from earlier had not left me. This time Marc drove slowly making sure I was doing all right. I occupied myself by singing along to songs that were in his iPod with my Pneo as Mr DJ.
By the time I reached home I was knackered and stoned once again. It took awhile to drag myself up to my room and washed up. It was 2:30am by then. I knocked out and I woke up at 1:30pm today. Which is a record breaker since I came back from Australia :)P
Thinking about it now, I almost did not want it to end. I grew up with Michael Learns to Rock and I confess I am one of those people who pick out their songs to sing during karaoke sessions. So easy to sing and the lyrics are simple yet meaningful. It had been awhile since I heard from them so it was really wonderful to hear them perform their most popular songs, live. I enjoyed the concert even more so because I went with Pneo and we had friends to go with too. Their music is loved by everyone of all ages and I hope they will continue to create and perform more songs like these in the future.
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