Mayday.

Because of my laziness to resize the pictures I’ve taken in Taichung, the travelogue will be delayed for another issue at least. But don’t worry, I’ve got interesting things to talk about today.

I went to the Mayday “Down to Earth” concert last Saturday at the AsiaWorld-Arena. The concert was not the best one that I’ve ever been to, but it really wasn’t the fault of the performing artists. Instead, it’s the whole place (AsiaWorld-Arena) that contributed to the disappointment. Overall the concert was actually brilliant, but if those elements at the Arena were not there, it would be about perfect!

The concert itself was great. As usual, Mayday delivered their style of rock which got everyone standing up from the word go, and with all the classic songs on show, it was just wonderful. The best thing was perhaps the second encore, which I thought wasn’t suppose to be in the first place. I remembered it was after all the credits were shown, the whole Arena was lit up and completely bright and people were already leaving. Then the five of them ran back up onto the stage and started singing – those who were on their way out suddenly all ran back into the Arena! It was quite cool, actually.

But then there were a few things that gave an otherwise brilliant concert some blemishes, and – may I emphasize here – it’s not Mayday’s fault at all.

The first rant was about the security officers. They were a constant menace – always running around asking people to stop taking pictures. The whole deal was that photography was supposedly not allowed (that’s what’s written on the ticket), so these officers would run to whoever that’s holding a camera (even when he might be just viewing the pictures he’s taken a few years ago with his Mum and his ex-girlfriend) and ask them to shut it off. I understand that they were doing their job, but what I couldn’t accept was that they went to the extent of disturbing other people to do their jobs. They would squeeze into a row full of people standing, just to shine a torch light at the whoever that’s taking a picture. In trying to stop one person from apparently disturbing the concert, these officers were incurring the wrath of many more, whom I presume are less than impressed with these people. I was just thinking, if they were really that keen in stopping people from taking pictures, they should either have do a bag check at the start and get those with cameras to deposit it somewhere, or have the guts to confiscate the cameras. They did neither, so when they were trying to stop people from taking pictures they simply had no way to do it except running around and disturbing others. Furthermore, they were so inconsistent in their work. When they see some people who look kind of fierce, they dare not do anything. Instead they picked on those who were smaller and seem less likely to argue back. What’s their freaking problem?!

Furthermore, they were constantly patrolling the Arena, looking for people who were breaking rules (like standing half a centimeter too far in front of their seats). Have they ever been to a rock concert? I mean, doing their jobs is one thing, but going to the extent of being over-sensitive and over-particular about how the audience behaved was out of this world. For no less than one occasions I thought I was actually in prison as an inmate and all these security officers were actually the wardens. I just don’t like the idea of being watched that closely at a concert.

Then the sound system was actually quite horrible too. The moment the concert started we were treated to a rapture of noise rather than music. It wasn’t because Mayday couldn’t sing, but it was because the sound system was acting up strange! Ashin’s voice was constantly being cracked, as did the guitar and the bass. The music got so warped that I think if Mayday had a choice they probably won’t want to have their concerts in this Arena again. The sound system at the Hong Kong Coliseum wasn’t perfect, but it was still miles better than this one here!

The only thing that is worth a mention was the transport arrangement at the end of the concert. Basically it wasn’t difficult to get out of the place after the concert – after all nobody would like to be stranded in Lantau Island at midnight!

Mayday’s last concert in 2008!

I-took-this-right-under-the-noses-of-the-security-officers-so-if-they-aren’t-happy-then-go-sue-me #1: Sea of blue lightsticks at the start of the concert. Heartwarming.

I-took-this-right-under-the-noses-of-the-security-officers-so-if-they-aren’t-happy-then-go-sue-me #2: During the second encore – for those who left thinking that Mayday were going to do only one round of encore, you really missed something!

Back in office today, and just like the name of Mayday’s concert, it’s “down to earth” and back to reality for me. Not fun.