Synchrosound's "Rock the World" concert
There are no words to describe the size of the
event. The promotion given to it was completely
unexpected, being out in the radio and TV for
weeks before the concert. The stage was beyond
anything we had experienced before. The 9-meter
digital screen on the side of the stage was
mindblowing. The stage, the instruments and the
coverage made us feel we were playing in the US of A!
It was the biggest gig ever for Lyme. We got this
call from Nick from Synchrosound and we were invited
to play..visited their office in PJ a few times and
were completely thrown aback by their awesome equipment!
We felt sooooooo small...! :) But it was cool though..
It was a great feeling being invited to play such
a big event. Though we didnt expect it to be THAT
big! Damn! Anyways, to the details:
It rained half of the afternoon and most of the
previous night, making it hard to finish the stage
on time and impossible to soundcheck..OH OH! As soon
as we got to the place we hung out with the Spunky
Funggy guys in a small tent where they were selling
their brand new tshirts (got myself one) and waited
there as the clouds became darker and started to
threaten with rain..which did happen after a while
and panic spread like fire across the whole parking
lot (by the way, the concert was not held in the
inside parking lot of One Utama, but on an empty
lot right next to it). After a long storm which
almost blew the camera towers down, the work was
resumed and people started arriving around six.
(the show was supposed to start at 5 but it was
delayed one hour due to the rain). Anyways, the show
started off with John's mistress, an excellent
pop-rock band..but alas..the mixing was terrible!
Noooo! It was so sad looking at the guys play their
hearts out and no sound from the guitar could be heard!
It was so unfair..such an amazing sound system, and
you couldnt hear the instruments properly. And same
thing happened with the rest of the bands! It was
catastrophic! The mixing was something that, as we
have experienced before, means basically everything
for the band to have a good show. The poor sound
didnt make sense after so much preparation had been
done. NOTE: READ THE BOTTOM CONCERT POST-MORTEM,
EMAILED LATER BY SYNCHROSOUND! Our set came third last,
after an excellent performance by the Spunky Funggy
people (who were pissed off with good reasons for being
told to cut their set short since there was little time)
and by the awesome rapcore band from Melaka, Kelp..
We were told to cut down our set to five minutes
(only one song!) but we complained so much that
at the end they let us play our three song set.
(we would have played anyways). When I went onstage
I was overtaken by the sight of thousands of people
who faded out in the dark distance...its simply
something amazing..I dont think Ill ever forget!
First problem...Lymeus Delta (the PC)...didnt turn
on! The monitor blew up, not only for the fact it
was an old, battered up screen, but I believe also
because it got wet with the rain (even though it was
covered). I spent time drying the PC, but I think
it was not enough. Oh well..we played nevertheless.
Our first song was Keropok, a really fun and energetic
new song to play. As soon as it was over, Victor
and Boy were tuning down while I was asking how many
girls and how many boys were there..getting an
astounding response! We went straight on to Purda
Kurda, which was really great to play and watch
people dance to it..even in the long middle 'swimming'
part. Still, the sound sucked. And it was really
annoying to listen to our music so distorted and
terribly mixed. And we closed the set with 'something',
without the computer. A real sad moment for me there,
having to do the computer sounds with my voice (and
it didnt sound too convincing). But it was still fun,
though. Then all our behaviour broke loose..the song
was reaching the psycho climax and we were not happy
for the sound we were getting. The silent part came up
for me to say that there was "something that is going
to get you..and no one will get away from it..." and
then when I said "not even fucking panasonic will" there
was a huge roar from the crowd..and I quickly moved on
to the "its there!" part..where we started losing it.
Boy lost his sound completely after I accidentally
stepped on his distortion pedal. (not even after plugging
it back did it work). Next thing we know, victor is
playing alone with moez and boy and I are going crazy,
with me shouting hysterical and boy throwing his bass
around, jumping without control, both of us kicking the
mike stands and diving around the stage..until the song
was all but over, and I jumped off the front stage
(which was the height of a person) and walked the short
distance between the crowd-fence and the bouncers,
made my way up with the help of the front guys,
and ended up crowd-surfing all the way to the back
of the place, and back again to the front! Hey, and I
was perfectly fine, no drugs and no alcohol, for those
of you who shouted at me "you're drunk, fuck you!"..
that wasnt funny, but I have to expect all sorts of
comments for my actions! Oh well, I was sober. Hope
everyone enjoyed themselves with our set..we didnt
exactly love the quality of the sound, but we did
enjoy ourselves as much as we could! Thanks to all the
supporters we had out there, it was really amazing to
do it the underground way in a huge corporate show
as it was the Panasonic free concert! Woohoo, maybe we
should do it again! Next time, bring the drumkit down!
hahaha! Hey, and we still got out mastering time in
Synchrosound for the Lyme Album! cool!