Venue: Aliwal Arts Centre, Singapore
Date: 17th December 2013
Promoter: Reconstrux Booking
Review by: Alvin H.
Special Thanks: Jai, and the Reconstrux Booking team
Photos by Alvin H.
The crowd was pumped up to ‘Defend Pop-Punk’ after moving to the sounds of Aspectrum, Overthrown, and The Caulfield Cult as they delivered mix genres of blistering tracks before MOB hit the stage.
No huge crew of technicians, just the band themselves coming on as the lights dimmed to do their own essential line check humbly, just as a true down to earth band would. When the first note to “White Lies” and frontman Zac Eisenstein greeted the Lion City fans, and with no barricades to hold anyone back, the crowd simply went crazy and wasted no time in taking their positions to dive into the crowd and bodies were already in the air.
Crowd favourites like “Love Your Friends, Die Laughing”, and “World Favorite” triggered sing-alongs by the fan girls and got the boy who had their mosh shoes on off their feet in classic pop punk tempo. MOB turned it up a notch with “Rare”, as stomps shook Aliwal Arts Centre.
Show intimacy was at its best as there were simply no lack of moshpits, stage dives, and body surfs with the band being ever so welcoming and engaging, it seemed like there were at least three fans on the stage at any given point of their set. There just isn’t a more appropriate song than “Where I Left You” to end the night to. Just like the words to the song, the band wants the crowd to stay where they are as they ended the show and greeted all their fans, showering them with hugs and guitar picks. There was almost enough for everyone!
I caught up with Zac after the show and understood how jetlag seems to be in the blood of the true icons of the pop punk scene as he shared how much they wanna deliver their music at the recent Australian leg of shows of the Vans Warped Tour.
The night was what one will deem sweaty and exhausting, but definitely so worth all this torture. Way to go, Man Overboard!