& Map of the Problematique // [MUSE]

Xx MUSE Live in Singapore: Good Show, Bad Crowd xX

Word of notice:
1)This post might be generously peppered with vulgarities.
2)The term "M" and "m" is up to you to interprete. I will not directly point out to any particular group of people.
3) Use "Open in a new window" when viewing photos in full size.
4) Reader discretion advised. :)

Alright peeps. Concert was held on the 16th of January 2006. I had Joseph go in the morning to queue first, for the sake of getting to the front row. I had lab in the morning, so yeah. Haha. Anyway, shouldn't have turned up so early. Take this handy concert-going tip from me. People will cut queue, regardless of how hard you stare at them. So, don't go uber early, but do have the courtesy to not cut queue. I have pictures of the perpetrators, but I've decided not to paste their ugly, swine-like faces all over soft.com or on my blog. Oh yes, a thing to keep in mind, Ms' will always ruin gigs. They ruined my experience. Oh yes, groupies (or groupie-wannabes) with placards will always be present. Lol.

Anyway, moving on. The gates opened at 7pm. Managed to get into the 2nd/3rd row of the centre-left side. It was probably the 2nd best spot to watch the concert from. The "spot-of-all-prime-spots" was obviously in-front of the extended platform where Matt would do his solo pieces. But unfortunately, the queue-cutters managed to root themselves there. The concert didn't start on time. Music was played to "entertain" the crowd. Sounds fun? Not exactly when you have Ms' start singing (horribly) and moshing (actually, shoving would be more appropriate). Don't take me wrong, moshing is fine, but shoving is a far cry from that.

The gig started at 8.40pm. This is when the real terror begins. The shoving (not moshing!) becomes extremely violent, I tell you. People in the front row, including Jo & I, were just totally squashed. Packed even tighter than sardines in a can. I can swear on this, I tell you. Nobody could breathe easy at all. Elbows were like everywhere. Less than 1 minute in, the shoving claimed it's first victim. Girls started passing out and people were like begging for help from the security guards. If you fall, you're dead meat. A huge number of people requested to get pulled out by the guards. I couldn't take it too. Jo asked to be pulled out by the end of the 2nd song and I "tapped out" near the end of the 3rd song. Got pulled over the fence. I wish I've stayed on, 'coz the conditions kinda stabilized after half an hour. It's alright, we all know who were responsible for the shoving. :)

Anyway, that was the bad part. After being pulled out, Jo and I found ourselves an OK spot at the left side of the crowd. Wasn't really in the mood after what has happened. Joseph had no problems losing control of himself though. It was pretty scary standing beside him. It's like he was totally possessed and the only one moshing into people within a 3 metre radius. Lol. Tried to enjoy as much as I could, and that's all I could do.

Oh yeah, I read that some twats (British slang for CCB) actually threw bottles at Matt, and one bottle actually hit him while he was riffing. Like what the Fuck?! Are they retarded? Fuck you little twits. If people knew who you were, you'd probably have thousands of bottles shoved down every single orifice of your body. You know how fortunate it is already for them to come down and play for a pathetic crowd of 6,500 people? Tickets to the 90,000 seater Wembley Stadium got sold out in less than 1 hour and I tell you, from all the overseas gig videos I've seen, the entire crowd behaved much more mature than you did. Don't fucking give them a reason to not come back at all. It's as if MUSE are so bloody desperate to play here. We're the desperate ones, not them! Fucking retards!

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This is the setlist, for those who are interested.

Knights of Cydonia
Hysteria
Map of the Problematique
Butterflies & Hurricanes
Supermassive Black Hole
New Born
Forced In (Instrumental)
Bliss (Extended)
Feeling Good
Sunburn (Piano)
Invincible
Time is Running Out
Plug in Baby

Encore:
Soldier's Poem (Acoustic Guitar)
Starlight
Riff + Stockholm Syndrome

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Oh yes, Matt Bellamy unveiled a new guitar! But it was a pretty boring one. It's been named the Delorean Manson and it basically looks the same as the Silver Manson except it has a tremolo bridge and totally no integrated effects circuit at all. It was meant to replace the now-retired Silver Manson. If you ask me, the Delorean is a bland addition to his amazing guitar arsenal. Boring Boring Boring. This is just my honest opinion though.

There were fantastic bits, of course! Messing around with the Kaoss Pad on his guitar, pretty awesome solos, "Bliss" Balloons and who could ever forget this, Matt throwing his precious Manson guitar at the drumset. He ended the show, saying "See you next year!". I can only hope that it will come true. Frankly, I didn't think he had a good time either.

Anyway, photos are below. Rather blurry shots 'coz of all the shoving and erratic lighting. That's the limitations of an idiot-proof digital camera. An SLR would've done the job, but it'd most likely be smashed to pieces over there.

Show rating: 9/10 (-1 for not starting on time. Ha.)
My "experience" rating: 7/10
I would love to see them again next year, provided I'm not already a goddamned conscript (Recruit is too mild a word =P). Btw, my ears are still ringing. =/

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The entrance. Lovely banner. =D

An Itch? He must hate me for this unglam shot. Ha.

Stage Setting

Matt riffing on his new Delorean Manson

Famous "Bliss" Balloons

Kaoss Manson, possibly the first guitar with a Kaoss Pad

Playing "Soldier's Poem" on the acoustic guitar

MUSE equipment box. Nice =)

New Delorean Manson. Image taken by who, I don't know, but what a bad facial expression on the right. Ha. =P

~2/3 of Supermassive Black Hole. Matt messes with his Kaoss pad at 1.13. And I love the way his M1D1 Manson reflects light into my camera at 1.46. =D
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P.S. The concert organizers should seriously start up like a M & m corner at all these rock gigs. It'll help a lot, seriously.

"How many M's can 'relac' in a round room?"
- None, 'coz got no corner.

Cheers!

// Citizen Erased @ 4:50 PM

Xx 1 more week! xX

Wee Hee! One more week to go! MUSE a.k.a. "Band who sold 75, 000 tickets in 45 minutes", Live in Singapore! Mr. Matt Bellamy's awesome guitars and totally chaotic on-stage persona is set to blow everyone's minds.

The shiny M1D1 with an oh-so-cool Kaoss Pad

Wow. Singapore's gonna be the first show of the year for them. Wonder what new stuff they're gonna unveil! Hoho. Hopefully, they will be playing more old songs. :)

Having bloody practical next Tuesday morning though. Damn. Monsieur Joseph shall be camp-queuing then. Can't help it la, must go front row (or not more than a few metres from the barrier.) Besides, there are plenty of pesky, graduated Secondary school kids who have loads of free time on their hands. Damn you! School should start earlier! Or they should release O' level results on that day! Alright, I was once a "graduated Secondary school kid". Meh. Hopefully, I'd be able to sneak a camera in. Bloody bollocks Sistic. No photography at an open air concert, my bleeding balls. What kinda lame crap is that? Like hell, I'd listen to you.

Oh yeah. I don't think the tickets were sold out here. The market here is pretty small. Too many boring people. Hahaha! Just kidding (a little). Tickets in Malaysia and Indonesia sold quite well. If they're gonna base their next tour on ticket sales, Singapore might well be knocked off the list, so this is probably the only chance to catch them. Chowdersaur, you're gonna regret this! You sold out a night of orgasmic euphoria for a measly profit of $30!
Note: The term "orgasmic" was used for dramatization purposes only.

Ok. Guess I'm boring you already. Lots of things have changed in the past week.

First off, I got another dog! R.I.P. Oreo. Anyway, shall formally introduce him when I have time. Hahaha. Just plain lazy right now. His name is Bongo, for start.

Secondly (*Mundane stuff alert*), I've got a new phone! Nokia's sweet, sweeeeeet N80. Mehehe. Sold out everywhere, but I finally found it at Starhub's store at Raffles Place. J'aime le N80!

Now, I shall reveal my CT scores.

Electrical Technology: 94
Engineering Mathematics 3: 83
Transfer Processes - Fluid Flow: 56/65 (roughly 86)
Reaction Engineering: 100 (very common score for this module's CT)
Bioprocess Technology: 92

Hahaha. Pretty well done, I suppose. But obviously, there are more extreme scores when compared to mine. Heck, this might not even qualify for the top 5% in the cohort, and I'm not being humble or just joking.

Lastly, ExxonMobil interview this Thursday. I don't know how I should react to it. As of now, when I'm thinking of it, there's a slight pulse of nervousness and uncertainty. I don't really know what I should say during the interview. 16 people shortlisted, they're hiring 9. 2 persons per interview, so they're probably gonna take in around 1 from each interview. Well, that is unless they totally reject 1 pair la. It's like I've unwittingly joined "The Apprentice", except now, it's "You're rejected". If I don't get the job, then I'd lose all the confidence, albeit little, I ever had.

By the way, Reuben is probably quite pissed. He was promised an interview from Nestle company, but in the end, they decided to interview only 3 students. The 3 students with Über-fantastique grades. Pity.

Phew. This is quite a long post. Took me some time to type all these out. Ha.
Anyway, till next time. Au revoir!

// Citizen Erased @ 9:01 PM