Venue: KL Live, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Promoter: Livescape Asia
Review by: Amanda G.
Special Thanks: Marlina and the Livescape Asia team
Photos by SJ
10 years ago. That is how long Sum 41 has been stuck in my head. People say as you age, you tend to change your tastes in music, and while that is true, it certainly didn’t stop me from enjoying punk until now. And hey, we are never too old to enjoy punk anyway! Punk’s not dead as they say.
It has been a long time coming as I have been waiting for them to perform in Malaysia all these years and I still kept waiting even though their performance at Rockaway Festival last year was cancelled. My prayers were answered recently – finally! Here I am on a Saturday night, rocking out with Sum 41 at KL Live. I must say that I felt much older than the majority of the crowd who were at the age I was 10 years ago. It was my first time at KL Live; the venue looked pretty small, but thank goodness for the indoor venue (as it did drizzle about an hour ago).
At last, the lights were off as I slowly squeezed my way through to get to the front of the stage. Opening act, punk band Bunkface appeared with a couple of catchy songs which got the crowd singing along and chating “More, more, I want more!” I was surprised by their performance and how talented they were. I had only heard one of their popular songs, “Through My Window” (which was used on TM Net ad) and never knew they were from Malaysia. I felt that they were a good choice as an opening act, seeing as their music and Sum 41’s were in the same vein.
One Buck Short came on after Bunkface, and they were another local punk band not to be missed as well. I’m not much of a fan of Malay songs until I listened to “Ditiup Kata Rindu”, a slow track with the violin played at the background; it just blends in perfectly and suits the atmosphere. The band, or OBS for short, entertained the audience with songs off their latest album ‘Kampong Glam’, and ended their performance with their very own rendition of “Last Friday Night” by Katy Perry.
Now came the moment that we all have been waiting for – Sum 41. We were eagerly waiting for them to perform. The lights dimmed, but all that happened were technicians coming on and off the stage, with background music on full blast.
Where’s Sum 41? It was about an hour wait before Cone (Jason McCaslin; bass), Bizzy D (Deryck Whibley; lead vocals, guitars), Stevo32 (Steve Jocz; drums) and Brown Tom (Tom Thacker; lead guitar) broke the silence with their first track, “Reason To Believe”, from their latest album ‘Screaming Bloody Murder’. It was hard to not notice Deryck‘s spiky pink hair as the crowd screamed for him and the band, of course. The crowd went wild, with many fans trying to get closer to the front of the stage. It wasn’t a good idea being in the moshpit as expected, as I had been pushed and dragged around. I was also stepped on a couple of times as the crowd jumped and raised their fists in the air, but it’s a rock concert anyway – clearly we couldn’t expect any less at a show like this!
Sum 41 had the audience craving for more with songs off their current album, but they also played tunes off their first record, All Killer, No Filler. Hits such as In Too Deep and Fat Lip definitely reminded me of the good old days when I used to scream my lungs out to their songs as a teenager. The band also performed songs off their second album, Does This Look Infected? including “The Hell Song”, “Still Waiting”, and “Over My Head (Better Off Dead)” which were popular hits on the radio.
When asked by Deryck on which song the crowd would like them to play next, there were a mix of tracks that were yelled out and “Pieces” from their third album, Chuck, was the clear favourite. Unfortunately, that song didn’t see the light of day that night but they compensated the fans with some heavy metal when they took notice of a fan in the crowd was clad in a Slipknot shirt and launched into a medley of Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Van Halen classics. Their set also comprised of their versions of two renowned covers, The Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black and Queen’s We Will Rock You.
Sadly, while ‘Pieces’ was not played during their set, they did however perform “We Are All To Blame”, another fan favourite that got the crowd singing along. What mattered most was that the fans enjoyed the two-hour night with Sum 41 after a long wait. Although my feet hurt by the end of the show, they were not a walking disaster for me and it was worth it seeing them live for the first time in Malaysia – up close, no less!