Adding to the nooooise!

So here's my theory.

If you have been listening to a band for a gazillion years, and have never seen them live, when they finally do come, you obviously get super-excited, BUT! it just isn't the same.

Catching a band live when you've just bought their latest album no more than a year ago is damn exciting.

Catching a band live when you have listened to their old songs years ago, but have not listened to their latest album much, is not as exciting.

So, catching Switchfoot live was very anti-climatic. Not that they were any bad though, 'cause they pretty awesome.

Jon, with his somewhat effeminate gestures and long hair all over his face and his staggering around the stage, looked like a drunkard. A drunkard that rocks out on the guitar and preaches.

Yeashhh, I have never been to a concert where the band's front man actually preaches (morals, not gospel). But you cannot expect anything different from a band like Switchfoot.

Anwyay. I think I kind of over-listened to their songs since form 3, to the point where the songs are killed a little. (Much like how songs that are overplayed on the radio start losing their appeal.)

I mean, I remember coming home from school and putting them on repeat while I play volleyball against myself (err, the wall). I particularly remember "Learning To Breathe" being repeated a little too often. And then they play it during the show and it somehow falls flat. So the moral is, music players' repeat mode kills songs. Like, really.

And here comes the part where I complain about inconsiderate people at concerts.

There isn't a single live show I've been to that doesn't have signs prohibiting the usage of recording devices.

But. There isn't a single live show I've been to that doesn't have people trying to record the entire show.

It is completely fine if you want you whip out your camera for a few snapshots (even though it clearly isn't allowed), but it is not fine when you have your camera up, video-recording the entire damn show!

It is annoying as heck! I didn't pay more than RM300 (in the case of the MCR show) to stand close to the stage, only to have my view blocked by your hand and camera!

Everyone would be jumping to the music, and there your hand will be the entire time, blocking, obstructing, basically being a nuisance and annoying the heck out of people beside and behind you.

And there wouldn't be just one of such people. There would always be quite a number, which basically means if you are unfortunate enough, all you see are hands and cameras.

So there will be times when I just give up and resort to looking at the band from the view screen of cameras.

I don't get it though. Doesn't it ruin their whole concert experience, to have their arms raised the whole time, and not being able to move/jump just to keep their cameras steady? There was this Malay girl whose right hand got tired I guess, so she was supporting it with her left hand. Tsk.

And again, all this while large signs were pasted outside "strictly" prohibiting recording the show. Sure, if strict means turning a blind eye. You'd wonder what the security were looking for when they go through their bags before letting them in, because they sure didn't confiscate recording devices like they threatened to on the signs.

Tee-pee-cal Malaysians. Tsk.

Anyway, I feel obliged to leave you with something from my favourite Switchfoot song.

Where's your treasure, where's your hope
if you get the world and lose your soul?

Where indeed.

I recall reading something like this from the Bible. But it doesn't matter, it serves as a pretty good reminder to everyone.

You know, for a band whose songs contain words such as "decadence" and "entropy", and so often sings about moral degeneration, Switchfoot is a pretty upbeat band, the kind of band that serves you wake-up calls and make you re-evaluate yourself and what you stand for.

Niiiiiiice.

(They didn't perform this post's namesake though. I was so hoping they would.)

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Interview tomorrow. Weirdly, at an Indian mamak.

Ciao!