Venue: The Bee @ Publika, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Date: 28th September 2017
Promoter: IME Malaysia
Review by: Sofea A.
Special Thanks: The Warner Music Malaysia, and IME Malaysia teams
As the news of Against The Current’s In Our Bones World Tour II hits social media, Malaysian fans were hoping for a second visit from the American pop rock trio. All thanks to IME Malaysia, the announcement of their show was made through frontwoman Chrissy Costanza’s Twitter account. The performance was set to happen at The Bee, Publika, where it has housed many acts in the past both locally and internationally. Though it was mid-week, I was in awe to find a long queue has already been formed in front of the venue t-minus 4 hours before doors open at 7:30pm.
The organising team was punctual and efficient as they made their way to tag everyone once doors were opened sharp on time. The humble venue was filled quickly as one by one, grinning fans entered. You cannot deny the excitement in the air and it was contagious! Parents can also be seen accompanying their children. Without further ado, in merely half an hour, out came the opening act DVA. The dynamic duo comprising of Sher and Juanita kicked off the night with a cover of Paramore’s “Decode” which had the crowd screaming along to every word. They were both exuberant and charismatic which had sparked the venue up. They also performed their original song “Free The Music” before closing their short but spectacular set with a cover of Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic”.
Not long after, lights dimmed as the introductory tunes blasted through the speakers and out came Chrissy along with Dan Gow, Will Ferri and their touring members, Jordan Eckes and Roo Buxton. Together they took the stage with “Running with the Wild Things” followed by “Gasoline” and “Paralyzed”. After the third song, Chrissy engaged with the fans to say how incredibly happy they are to be back in our country. They then continued the set with “Forget Me Now”, “Runaway” and the dance-y number, “One More Weekend”. The crowd can be seen jumping and screaming to every word, being louder than the speakers even! It was phenomenal to witness how incredible the melodies that comes out of Chrissy Costanza are. Young and petite, the 22-year-old is at par with all the other amazing female vocalists in the scene. It was even better to listen to her vocals live than on recording, I can assure you.
Next came my favourite performance of the night, “Chasing Ghosts”, which continued with the ballad “Roses”. After slowing the tempo up for the last two songs, next came “Outsiders” which brought back the energy as the crowd swayed along with the band followed by the fan favourite “Dreaming Alone”, which is a song originally sang with Taka of One OK Rock. It was, I would say, the loudest the crowd sang that night. Before beginning the next song, Chrissy got the crowd to chant “Talk! Talk! Talk! Talk!” and then proceeded to perform “Talk”. As she introduced the next song, “Wasteland”, she also announced that it would be their last song of the night.
Once the song was over, with all their might, the crowd started chanting “ATC! ATC!” begging for an encore. A few minutes later, out they came with the song that is also the album title, “In Our Bones”. It was sweet and beautiful. As the band played their final song “Gravity”, it was evident that the crowd was thankful for yet another opportunity to witness Against The Current live in Kuala Lumpur.