Venue: YMCA IH Auditorium, Singapore
Date: 19th October 2012
Promoter: Reconstrux Booking
Review by: M. Zuhaili
Special Thanks: Jai and the Reconstrux Booking team
Photos by Cliff Y.
Between the ages of 16 to 18, I used to commute on the train daily back and forth from Eunos and Dover for polytechnic classes. I would listen to this particular band’s EP from 1996 titled Life In General. All the time wishing to that I would get a chance to see them live on set one day. And I did.
Fast forward 7 years and there I was at the YMCA international hall, mouth slighty ajar and in awe of this three piece band from Washington playing songs that I grew up with in my little silver iPod mini.
With this being the first concert that I attended for the whole entire year, despite it already being already mid-way through October 2012, I was super stoked for even the opening acts! Two of our very own local bands graced the pre-show: four-piece band You And I Collide performed a Malay song during their set, which made the crowd smile in the early Friday night.
Right up next were the resident performers who made a name for them quite a bit in our region, Plainsunset, who were their own usual entertaining selves, engaging the audience in with their witty banters in between songs playing their hits.
It was only a matter of time before the headliner, MXPX came on behind the curtains that were closed during what seemed like an eternity intermission. Sound checking, before they played their first song when a guy beside me said, “it’s like they’re teasing us right now” which seem to encapsulate the entire time waiting at the front of the stage. Lights were dimmed and girls and boys of who grew up with their songs in the headphones during their adolescent years, geeked out like little schoolgirls!
Standing right in the front row, Mike Hererra came on stage right above me and began playing hits after hits (Heard that sound, Responsibility, Tomorrow’s Another Day, etc.) But the one song that I waiting to so long to hear was actually their recent release and current hit, “Far Away”.
The crowd sang along religiously and both Tom Wisniewski and Mike came up front to the front of the stage and allowing the crowd to get close to them even more! People stage diving and people circle pitting and finger pointing were just an indication that all of them are having a really wonderful time. They got off stage once it ended but chants of “WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MORE!” made them came back up to play my teenage anthems, “Chick Magnet” and “Punk Rock Show”. The moment that this song came up, I knew it that it would be a moment that I would want to remember forever. I went to the back of the crowd, and when they started, I two-stepped and fail around singing at the top of my lungs because I never wanted to lose that feeling of being a fan.
Truly a childhood dream came true. A big thanks to Reconstrux bookings for bringing them in!