Performance 2: Graduation Day 2008

Wednesday
28th May 2008


An extremely tiring and taxing perfomance. Since I hadn't rested enough after long hours of practice for 3 days straight, so suffered huge counts of exhaustion all over my body a few days before. The gap between both performance occassions is extremely close since we had only 2 weeks of practice, My opinion, Way Too Close.

The morning show where I played the song from the Official Opening of Moberly was better this time round. What's more we've got a bass player!!! Needn't slam that much now. Vocals still slightly screwed though. But Patrina's drumming improved.

I had to manage the afternoon show as a stage manager myself. The day before, I did alot of switching between groups from my afternoon slot and the slot at the Lunchtime at Moberly. So I got the groups with Azlan, James and Evan dragged in. During the actual day, I had to make a decision fast whether I could shift Ollie's group in to perform first since He couldn't make it later. Some groups could rest up abit as most didn't perform for the afternoon show. For me, I was the very few who stayed behind and oversee the performance and sound checks, and also look after all the belongings when the owners ain't around. I talked with Mandric and his gang and agreed on the switch.

I needed to get some sleep after managing the afternoon graduation segment. So ragged and tired I was, that I knocked out for half an hour with Bo Cheng on the table of the shelters before starting my performance. At least though, The entire operation went smoothly. Not bad for managing a performance by myself for the first time.

Evening Performance, time to get the show running. I was playing as a drummer in Jon Bonjovi's It's my life. It so happened for whatever reason that caused me to drop the stick on the right hand. Overall, as a first timer on a Drum Kit, it was pretty good(much to Geoffrey Low's positive feedback). But the ironic thing is that I cannot hear what I was playing on the Monitor speakers. But others say, it was adequately loud. So was it me, or my ears are starting to act up again? Thanks to Ollie for the sticks. Unlike the song by Norah Jones, This one was with my usual gang(Bo Cheng, Wira, Si Hao and Henry) so we were quite ready for it. 2 of us are playing different instruments instead of our primary ones. Apart from me, Si Hao was playing bass guitar and could handle it quite well.

Back to the Keyboard for the next 2 Duets. It was Stevie Wonder's Isn't she lovely and X-Japan's Endless Rain. Actually that wasn't a good pick since this was a slow and a instrumental version for the real thing. For the latter I had the notebook placed on the keyboard for refering to the Interlude which I was to recite. And I recited some of the words wrong.... darn. Moreover, I could get more time to memorise all the parts which I hard to harmonize. After practising on Monday, at least it was not as bad as I expected it would be.

It could had been better if We're given a day off to rest up. In my opinion, I want to feedback that would be a Much more fitting than going to school, worned out(much to my annoyance), the next day. I'm, more or less, more exhausted than anyone else performing that day(Other than the PA Guys).

Performance 1: Official Opening of Moberly Complex

May 9th 2008

Venue: Theater at the Moberly

This was the first time I played this song by Norah Jones: Thinking about you. For this song and with a couple of reasons, I didn't feel comfy playing songs which I have not even heard of. With the inexperience of playing with members Lenus, Patrina, Joanne and Hui Zhuang(all girls), practically the first few times playing with them. That, I'm not used to unlike playing with my old buddies who I feel more easy. We had quite a number of practices here but the song just doesn't suit the style that all of us are familiar with.

It was a difficult performance to do. I could lighten up with my touch on the keyboard even though it is weighted since I was much of a classical piano player which I always ram the keys repeatedly. The vocals is screwed, but understandable as Lenus has a phobia of Stages or you could say, stage fright. Because of her, though I had been giving alot of cues when to come in, she affected our performance pretty badly. There wasn't any bass player so I had to handle the bassline as well.

I was quite washed up at the end of the day, fatigued. But not as fatigued as the next performance I had on the 28th May by more than significant extent. I would scream out loud and annoy everyone around me if I were to do this song again. I would swear that I wouldn't perform this type of songs with this type of people I was gonna get to play for it.

After that performace, we were told of another one in a couple of weeks. It occured to me that we were to play the very same song for the Graduation day. It freaked me out abit. No choice, though I really damn hate to do this song again.