.it's a love story

Thursday, 13 December 2007

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE WAS HOLDING A ONE NIGHT CONCERT AT MAX PAVILION, TUESDAY.

I had slept at 2am, and got up at 8 am.

The world has flipped, I swear.

Normally I grumble and kick around whenever people try to get me out of bed. And I actually got up, of my own accord, out of bed and went to do my maths homework.

I checked my phone, and there's a message from Siaw Ee, telling me that she'll be at Max Pavilion at 12am and 1pm.

I told my mom that and she's going "The concert starts at 8pm and you want to go so early for what?"

She seemed to believe that there would hardly be any fans at all, at most a few hundred.

Hahaha. I wish.

So I was a good girl, did my maths, chores, chatted and SMSed Siaw Ee, kept her entertained.

And then round noon, I start getting calls and messages from lse and Hanis that lse's freaking out at the Max Pavilion since "Teenagers are scaring the shit out of me."

So I start the begging and pleading. "Can I please go there now? Please? Please???"

Finally, my mom agrees to let me go after lunch. Then my siblings get into this argument with who goes downstairs to buy lunch. It's 1am then, I'm hyperventilating by this time, cuz there were what, 50+ people there by noon. So of course I offer to go down and buy lunch and get Macdonalds. I come up again in 15 minutes, munch everything down in 5 and go to change.

Guess what ? I wore what I did to the Black Parade contest. In case you don't know what that is, it's jeans, boots, a black turtleneck and a red blouse over. I had a pair of hand socks in my bag (Of course I brought a bag, I'm Natalie) My mom takes one look at me and goes "It's so hot! How can you wear that! etc.etc." So I tell her that I'm going now, and she says no, she'll take me there by cab.

It's 2pm now, (Coz I took a shower before I changed, sorry Siaw Ee, but at that time you said you were dealing with it) And my mom says no, I'll bring you by cab. Let me rest 15 minutes first.

Fine. I sit by a corner and fiddle with my maths homework, watch my siblings play Metal Slug on the computer, work on my drawing...

20 minutes later

"Ma! Wake up!"

"10 more minutes... zzzz..."

...

15 minutes later

"Ma!"

"Mmm? zzz..."

...

"MA WAKE UP OR ELSE I'M GOING BY MYSELF!!!"

We leave the house (with my younger sister) at 3.05 and I'm panicking. My mom goes "Don't worry, we'll reach there by 2.30." We reach there 2.40.

...

First thing I noticed? People in black. LOTS of people in black. I walked around and saw Shoba sitting with some more girls.

Gawd, Shoba. Why must you look so damn hot? She was wearing a bright red tube top, and looked really good. So I screamed at her for not picking up my calls and answering my messages... (Sorry!) Apparently, she's been overseas, and has been leaving me lots of messages, but I didn't pick up.

And one of the girls look at me weirdly. "Don't you feel hot in that? I mean, it's a turtleneck."

...

Funnily, I didn't. It's cloudy, and there's a breeze blowing. So I say bye to them and look for lse. I turn a corner and *gasp*

A long line of people, defintely over 100, were sitting on the floor. Mostly in converse sneakers, MCR T-shirts, hair in the face, markers on skin, and other wear labeled "emo".

How unoriginal.

But it's really unnerving walking down that corridor. It's as if everyone's looking at you, at your clothes, you hair, etc. And I definitely felt out of place.^^"

So I find lse. She looks good too. Laced-up boots, pleated denmin skirt, a very nice blouse which sleeves she had very unprofessionally cut. And she was reading Vampire Knight. Somehow, her clothes reminded me of the Day Class uniform.

We sit around for hours. HOURS I swear I'm not exaggerating. Then around 6, people start standing up and moving forward (For what I don't know). The doors open a few times, and then people start screaming and shouting, so I guess that one of the band members came out. I'm pretty sure Mikey came out. And Shoba calls me, like an angel and gives me a Q-Jumper.

Immediately, I'm screaming that I want to leave lse and Chat (Oh, yeah, Chaithali came around that time as well). lse manages to calm me down (barely), persuading me that Hanis deserves it more.

Aw crap. I just remembered what I swore I would stop harping myself with. Remember the bloody drawing I did? I put it in a file to give to MCR and Hanis bought a teddy bear to throw on stage and I meant to pin it on the bear and we throw it together and ... I should have effing given the drawing to Shoba to give it to them. Shit.

T_T

I can't stop tormenting myself with that thought...

Anyway, the doors were supposed to open at 7 as the concert started at 8. They didn't. The doors opened 10 (or more) times altogether. After 6, they were cheers, then yells of disapointment. (I'm guessing the people weren't MCR) After 8, the cheers got more and more half-hearted.

There was a minor riot. People started banging on the doors and stomping. It lasted about 3 minutes.

And then Hanis turns up at 7.30pm. Why so late? I mean, this is Hanis we're talking about, the one who has a folder full of vintage MCR magazine clippings, who influenced me to become an MCR fan because she printed out the lyrics and dissected them for me, getting me to listen to them because they sounded so cool and -

Ahem. You get my point.

She's late because she was forced to the bloody zoo and birdpark with her Malaysian cousin by her mom. I bet Hanis would have started queuing at 9am if she could, but no...

Parents can be so evil sometimes...

I actually managed to hold myself from jumping across the barriors and running to the Q-Jumper line for over an hour.

And when Hanis comes, I shove it to her, almost in tears, (Fine, I'm exaggerating) and she goes "But I want to stay with you guys!"

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I FELT LIKE PUNCHING HER AT THAT???

Stupid Hanis.

So she finally accepts the Q-Jumper and I hand her my drawing to pin to the teddy bear (Which I bet she didn't. )

It's past 8 before we get into the building.

So there's a security check. They didn't allow water or cameras. lse and I anticipated that, and I said "I need the water."

lse goes "She needs it for her pills. She has gastric."

Voila, I get to keep my water.

And I had brought a camera. It was hidden in lse's bag, in one of the plastic bags she has. The security guard didn't even bother checking through the bag, and lse goes innocently ""I dont have a camera, but are phones allowed?" He says yes, and lets her go in.

Food, water, cameras. These were the three things banned, and we smuggled all of them in. (I think lse had a pack of chips or something in her bag.)

The theatre was really impressive. Unfortunately, it had pretty bad acoustics, since the roof was so damned high. Hanis calls and says that she's on the right side of the stage, near the drums. We head to the right but can't push ourselves in front. And damn, everyone there was taller than us. We could hardly see the stage, but we're almost underneath the speakers.

It's 8.30. People are getting impatient, they want MCR. They bloody cheer everytime someone gets on stage, even if it's only the guitar tuner or something.

Morons.

Then some sick person has the brilliant idea of blowing up condoms and throwing them around.

...

There was a riot, for less than two minutes. People started screaming "MCR! MCR!"

...

Singaporens seem to have to inability to riot, it seems.

Good news for the governemnt; strikes in this generation should be short and infrequent.

So the lights dim slightly past 9 and MCR comes out and starts playing This is How I Disappear. I don't normally like that song, but DAMN it sounded good. After that was Dead! . ^^

Let me say now, EVERYONE was bloody taller than us. I could barely see Gerad, and the only person I could see clearly was Ray with the guitar and Bob bashing it out on the drums.

You know, the funny thing is, they all looked so... big on stage. Larger than life or something, I don't know.

After Dead! I lost track of the songs played. It was mostly The Black Parade songs, (Sadly, they didn't play Disenchanted) and This is the Best Day Ever from the first album, I'm Not Okay (I promise), Helena, You Know What They Do To Guys Like Me In Prison and Cemetery Drive. The did a couple of unrecorded tracks I didn't recognise, and Desert Song, which, according to Hanis, they have never played live.

On the whole, it was pretty cool. When they started playing Sleep, lse said "I don't like this song."

I told her (shouted actually) "What is wrong with you?"

And the girl in front of mean turns and says "I'm sorry I stepped on your foot."

Huh? "Erm... Okay..."

"But this is a concert. Live with it."

=_="""

Throughout the concert, people are creating domino effects. Push forward, back, forward, back... It gets pretty annoying. Lucky I was wearing boots (so was lse and Hanis) so I hardly felt it when they stomped on me.

I tried taking photos, but no, because of the lighting, I couldn't get anything. I mean, there were people in front of me using camera phones, and with a heck lot better success than moi. And I was using a digital camera (4.0 mega pixels and 5x zoom) I gave up and just enjoyed the concert.

At one point, Gerad takes (I dunno, was it a shirt or a towel?) and starts swinging it. He yells for the guys to do it too, and they actually do.

At another part, he says "Listen, if you see anyone fall down, you fucking pick them up, understand?"

I later learnt that at that point of time, Hanis had fallen down and someone picked her up. And she swears that Gerad looked right at her.

Etc. etc.

They finished with Famous Last Words and disapeared. People started screaming for an encore and they appeared again and played Desert Song.

So people start filing out when they realise that it's over. Chat has to go and lse and I stay behind to look for Hanis. We find her and realise security is much tighter than expected, but I bet I could have sneaked in anyway, but my mom calls and says that she's waiting outside, and has been for the past 45 minutes.

....

Fine...

So the night ends...

Disapointingly....

So many regrets...

But still it's pretty good. MCR sounded great, and their review (See Life! on 13 December, comics page) was good too. And I had fun.

Â -close your eyes ;