MTV World Stage

Posted on Aug 16, 2009 in Events | 6 comments

Well, I had just gotten home from MTV World Stage in Malaysia – the event was held at Sunway Lagoon. I was contemplating whether or not to go because of my sore throat but a visit to the doctor (who was convinced it wasn’t H1N1 – heck, even I could have told her that!) laid any worries to rest.

It did make it hard to shout though. That said, I wasn’t really in the shouting mood. I was in the Gold Zone, which was for first tier VIPs and Media (the VVIPs got passes to the Platinum area – when am I going to be upgraded?) and while it was pretty comfortable, it was also pretty far back.

The coolest part was their Twitter ticker which ran across the huge screens each time we were in between performances. You could SMS to a special number and have your messages appear as Tweets (they could be associated with your Twitter account) on the screen. There was a period when my name just kept appearing ‘cos my friends in the Mosh Pit were trying to find me and say hi. Quite shy!

The invitation card said that we weren’t allowed to bring in any cameras, so I didn’t. I am, after all, a good boy and a law-abiding citizen. But as you can see from the picture above, my iPhone really isn’t up for taking concert pics but that was the best one I had, from Kasabian’s performance closing the night. What an amazing view though, the stage being right in front of the landscape of the Sunway buildings – resort, shopping centre, convention centre etc.

So since I couldn’t take that many pictures, I did what most bloggers do best. I cam-whored a lot!

Clockwise from top left: Nicolas and I; fellow Ruumz Most Wanted Ruumate judge Jing Shia and Xandria (we met 10 years ago around this time!); Diana Lian and Kenny Sia (who jumped into the mosh pit to get into the action!) and me with Jules, Xan and Yuri Wong.

I got to the event about 8pm, in time to watch Raygun, Pixie Lott, Hoobastank, All American Rejects and Kasabian. I missed Estranged’s performance (I really wanted to watch it but wasn’t well, so didn’t want to spend too many hours out!) and Boys Like Girls (watched them last year at the Nike+ Human Race 10K event, and wasn’t impressed).

For me, it was pretty boring up until Hoobastank came on. I thought they did great, brilliant energy and their unexpected rendition of the Ghostbusters theme song had to be the best moment of the night! That said, I thought All American Rejects was the band of the night – the band’s performance was nothing short of spectacular and you can bet that I’ll be there to catch its full concert when the band returns later this year!

Kasabian was okay I guess, and I really only enjoyed their encore performance (not because it was their last song, but because I liked it!). At the end of Kasabian’s performance, the volcano at Sunway Lagoon erupted! I thought it was pretty cool, even if the effects were a little bit, well, pathetic. The picture below shows the smoke coming up from it, and occasionally flames would emit from the tip for effect.

After that, Nicolas, Diana, Kenny, Jing Shia and I headed over to the after party at Ministry of Sound @ Euphoria. I was most grateful for the food (was starving somehow) and had a couple of free beers. Don’t suppose it did my throat any favours. I also bumped into Christian Neal Capes, Birbiru, Joyce the KinkyBlueFairy and Amanda Choe there, among others but didn’t take any pictures.

I did get one really bad picture of the boyband 2AM from Korea, who performed at the after party. Then I left. And am now heading to bed. Good night all.

2.21am Malaysian time (+8 GMT)