Venue: Stadium Chin Woo, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Date: 17th February 2013
Promoter: Skesh Entertainment
Review by: Nur Efwanna
Special Thanks: Nadeem, and the Skesh Management team
Photos by Shamiera Z. (Massacre Conspiracy, The Padangs, Scarlet Heroes, Pierce The Veil and Sleeping With Sirens) and Alvin H. (Pierce The Veil and Sleeping With Sirens)
The rumour of Pierce The Veil and Sleeping With Sirens coming to Malaysia came about as early as November 2012, sparked by one tweet by Rahul from One Buck Short and comments from Micronesia Creative Management on Facebook. It turns out that relatively new promoter Skesh Entertainment was entity responsible in making Malaysian sheepcats’ and sleepers’ dreams come true.
Early bird tickets were sold out in a mere few days after they went on sale, and soon after the promoter announced a change in venue to accommodate a larger capacity of fans.
Stadium Chin Woo was a tad hard to locate and to get to but that didn’t put out the burning flame of the fans’ spirit to witness their favourite bands live on stage! Some of the fans were already at the venue as early as 9 am, just to secure the coveted front row centre spot. As the meet and greet winners for SWS line up at the left side of the stadium, a white van came by and the fans started running towards them, screaming.
I caught Vic Fuentes glancing and smiling at the crowd screaming his name as he signaled the rock sign with his fingers when he got out of the van followed by his bandmades Jaime Preciado, Tony Perry, and Mike Fuentes. While the meet and greet sessions was going on, more fans started to fill up Stadium Chin Woo’s lobby and carpark. I also personally met our local music heroes, Noh Salleh and Izzat Uzaini from Hujan, and Amber from Oh Chentaku who came to show their support.
When the clock struck 6, fans began to stream in to the venue. I took a spot on the left side of the stage, right in front of the barricades. Not long after that, our own Massacre Conspiracy came up and started performing their hit singles, “Karma”, and “Bloodless”. MC16’s fans mouthed the lyrics while vocalist Ash was screaming on stage.
The Padangs were the next local band on the line up, performing “Waste No Time” and “Party Till You’re Dead”. We were so bummed because that both of MC16 and The Padangs performed only two songs each; we didn’t get to see much from them!
It did help however that Scarlet Heroes, the only punk rock band that night came to the rescue. The group performed “Risk It All”, “Gadis Gadis” and debut single, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Juliet”. They closed their performance by taking a picture on stage with the crowd as the background while Jah (rhythm guitarist) took it further by showing off his starry boxers.
After minutes of waiting for the gear to be set up by the crew, the lights went off. The crowd started to hyperventilate when they heard Vic’s voice from the black atmosphere – it’s the lines from “Hell Above” of their latest album, Collide With The Sky! In seconds, the colourful spotlights were back on, showing the faces of all the Pierce The Veil band members taking over the stage.
Done with the first song, Vic asked the crowd for a “hell yeah!” and the band continued with “Disasterology”. Some of the fans crowd surfed to the front row, took the chance to get close to the stage. Following those two songs, they finally greeted the fans by saying, “It feels good to play our very first show ever in Malaysia! Okay, we’re called Pierce The Veil and we’re a bunch of Mexicans from San Diego, California. Thank you for having us.” He saluted.
“Alright. So, this set goes out to all the people out there in the audience who may feel like they don’t have a home, or a place they belong to because tonight, under this roof right now, this is gonna be our home. Alright?” This was swiftly followed with “A Match Into Water” and “Besitos”.
Vic continued, “I think I might be having the best fucking time of my life right now. We hope that you guys, tonight, have one of the best nights of your lives.” He paused. “So, ah, you know, tonight, this could be somebody’s very first concert. You never know. This could be someone’s very last concert. So if we all die tomorrow, I wanna make sure that we have a good fucking night tonight, okay?” (I nearly teared up at the thought that this could be my last concert). Taking a breath, Vic went on to say, “Okay I wanna see just how loud you can sing this next one with me” and before the band began playing “Bulletproof Love”, “Hold On Till May”, and a song that they never played in any other tour, “I’m Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket.” They were so energetic and utilized nearly every space of the stage, whether it was running around or getting up on the speakers.
After a change of guitars, “Caraphernelia” was up next. “We got two more songs for you guys. Before we go, I just want to truly thank you guys for coming out to our very first show here ever.” He paused, before continuing, “I really hope we will come back as soon as possible to see you guys again. It’s really been a dream to come here for many, many years.”
The band then entertained fans with with “Bulls In The Bronx”, and last but not least, finished off with “King For A Day” featuring Kellin Quinn from Sleeping With Sirens. The sheepcats whole heartedly sang along, bouncing up and down and banged their heads to all 10 songs they performed and just as the line from Bulls In The Bronx which goes “I really hope you enjoy the show”, we certainly did!
Sleeping With Sirens started their set with “Do It Now Remember It Later”, and Kellin amazed the audience with his ability to catch the mic he had thrown into the air. “With Ears To See, And Eyes to Hear”, “A Trophy Father’s Trophy Son” and “The Bomb Dot Com v2.0” soon ensued, with the sleepers proudly singing along every word, living the moment they had been waiting for for years. Quinn, looking cute as he always does, beatboxed during “Roger Rabbit”, which garnered screams of approval form the crowd before they followed up with “Tally It Up, Settle The Score”.
The banter before “If You Can’t Hang” was hilarious as Kellin was seen thrusting on the stage, trying to explain to the audience what the word “fuck” means. It was no surprise that they performed “All My Heart” with so much soul and emotion. Justin, Jack and Jesse were skillfully strumming and plucking their guitars with style, while Gabe was hitting on the drums whole heartedly, before the band ended the evening’s show with “If I’m James Dean, Then You’re Audrey Hepburn”.
All in all, I can say that literally all the bands gave their best that day, and I’m pretty sure that all of us had a great time as we stood amongst people with same music interests. Personally, it did feel like home, which seemed to be a recurring theme that evening. I am hoping that both bands will return as soon as possible!