| Sunburst Music Festival |
SUNBURST MUSIC FESTIVAL I am going to be honest here, Sunburst exceeded my expectation. I was skeptical with Sunburst 2009, I remember when the line up was announced I was so disappointed with it I was even considering selling off my ticket. But thank god I did not. Sunburst 2009 did NOT top Sunburst 2008, but you could see the difference with how organized Sunburst 2009 is. The line up consists of a lot of Malaysian and Indonesian acts, there were only 5 international acts. I was mostly excited to watch N.E.R.D perform, but when Saturday came I decided to get my RM 143 worth. It started with Russian Winters under the hot humid and blazing sun, but all was forgotten when I heard Russian Winters played. I have never heard of them, when they were performing I didn’t know a single song. But they impressed me, that’s the beauty of discovering new music especially when you hear it live. They are good live, if and when they perform here or anywhere near I would definitely check them out again. We had the privilege to talk to the bassist of the band Rob while he was walking around the field. He is nice, humble and adorable. Rob if you are reading this… we would contact you and your band soon for an interview that you promised us ;D After Russian Winters, we tried to catch what’s left of Estrella’s set. We only heard one of their songs but it was enough to say they’re good and they sound just like the on their record, I wished I had seen more of them. We then rushed back to the Sun Stage to catch Gerhana Ska Cinta, we danced and sang to Gerhana Ska Cinta it was so much fun. We then wondered aimlessly around the field for almost 2 hours waiting for Estranged. Estranged performed at 7.30 pm the moment they took the stage everyone felt energy they were feeding us, people were singing along to the songs and there were even people moshing. Nidji was on my list of ‘must see’ band, I’ve heard a couple of their songs and I liked it. When I saw them live I was sold by their performance and stage presence, during “Sudah” fans got over excited and sang the chorus before Giring the lead singer did. He jokingly said he would pray for us to have two lovers the crowd cheered him on. Giring also invited us the fans to sing a long and dance with him during “Laskar Pelangi”. I wanted to see Skye but all of us wanted to eat before N.E.R.D performs, we fished for food outside the venue. By the time we came back she was done with her set, we walked around the field again we stopped behind the sky stage and thats when we bumped with the bassist of Russian Winters. We talked with him for awhile and N.E.R.D started playing, I walked further in to get a better view of N.E.R.D. leaving them behind. For me N.E.R.D was the one who convinced me that Sunburst 2009 was worth it, they knew what we want and they fulfilled it. They know that the fans want to have a good time and they made sure we had fun. During “Don’t Worry About It” Pharell got mad with a photographer for pushing fans, he told the photographer to back off. He then told the fans that its okay to go in front and have fun. The crowd interaction was fantastic! I think that is why I loved watching N.E.R.D. they brought up fans to be onstage, let them dance on stage and with them. Korn was the headliner, they were so loud I became partially deaf. I think the crowd was more into then the band was, I wished there was more crowd interaction between Jonathan Davies and the crowd. But one thing that I cannot deny is Korn is good live. They may not interact with the crowd as much as N.E.R.D did, but they know how to blow your mind with their performance. At one point, Jonathan Davies came out with his bagpipe and started playing it. They had an encore and performed three songs. Last on my ‘must see’ list were Twilight Action Girl, I liked them because they spin music that I like. They mix the songs so well and make it danceable, I was impressed with and definitely I would watch them again. They opened their set with OAG’s “60’s TV” I however did not get to see the full set but like I said, I would want to see them again. All and all, Sunburst 2009 was not that bad. I enjoyed myself, which I thought I wouldn’t. I hope Sunburst 2010 would have better line up and I hope Pineapple Concerts won’t have that pre-sale thingy before the line-up is confirmed. © More Than Good Hooks |
