It was a little too intense.

On the other hand, I did eventually manage to be FRONT ROW CENTER in the mosh pit which despite everything else, is pretty fucking amazing.

I think I have thoroughly fulfilled being a crazy teenager.

If we were to rate the intensity of mosh pits:
Level 1 - Really tame. LOTS off space to jump around, some attempted body-surfing.
example: Rockerfellaskank 2

Level 6 - Packed. Some scary moments. Some difficulty in breathing, seeing but on the whole, still safe and enjoyable.
example: Franz Ferdinand concert

Level 9 - CRAZY SHIT. Too many near-death experiences. Too much bodysurfing. Main concern: air. People being pulled out. People almost fainting. People getting trampled.
example: Muse concert


Part I: Music
But first, let's talk about the music.

Impeccable, to the point that it was rather overwhelming. There was just so much that I did not know what or which to focus on. You could focus on Bellamy's vocals, but then you're drawn into the intense instrumentation and it's like woah drums! no wait, bass! oh god, guitar! vocals, fucking soaring vocals!

Note that the following may not be accurate. Cos you know, there was such a sensory overload that I couldn't track the songs...I think after awhile, I wasn't even able to recognize songs - it was just shit-awesome SOUND.

(Scroll ahead to the *, if you're not much of a Muse fan)

They played :)
- Map of the Problematique;
Which was amazingly beautiful. I think I was in the front row by this time. The layers of guitar instrumentation! I wanted to die, because I could only express my exhilaration with minimal headbanging cos that was all space permitted.
- Starlight:
The lights were incredible at this point - it's a beautiful song. Thought of Syahrul, who was stuck in a Changi barrack :( Can enough be said about the vocals here?
- Invincible
Thought about the Missing Boyfriend again as it is his favourite of the new album. Apparently, a lot of people's too. But still not so for me, although it was undeniably epic.
- Supermassive Black Hole
Hahahaha the Britney Spears Song! But yeah, it was good.
- Assassin
PHWOAR. CRAZY BAT-SHIT INTENSE. I think I was in the third or second row at this time, so the crowd went (enjoyably) nuts. The lights here!
- Endlessly
I think they played this. Thank goodness too, cos as a slow song, it chilled the crowd down abit.

- Soldier's Poem;
On acoustic guitar
- Time is Running Out
Awesome.
- Hysteria;
As a song alone, it is massive. Played live - when the opening riffs began the crowd went berserk. The trilling, then soaring vocals! He was crouching on the stagefloor with his guitar and oh god, so intense.
- Plug In Baby;
Yes!!
- Deadstar
Double-Yes!! Some good headbanging was accomplished here *pleased*
- Feeling Good
I was so happy that they played this. Bellamy was on a white piano, and at that part, he sang into a loudhailer which was da-yum! Sexy. And there was white confetti -.-"
- Butterflies and Hurricanes
I think they played this. It's a rather long song (officially 5:01) so I might have lost track haha
- City of Delusion
I think mosh pit wise, this was a pretty tough time. Shoving, making sure I had air..thus, not much attention was paid to the song itself.
- Knights of Cydonia
- Exo-Politics

They didn't play :(
- Pink Ego Box
- House of the Rising Sun
- Thoughts of a Dying Atheist
- Cave; dammit, was hoping so much that they'd play this.
- Unintended; see above.
- Agitated; disappointed they didn't play this, but good too I guess. If they did, I think people would have died in the crowd surge.

In retrospect, they played a hell lot of songs! Haha while I was there it was moving so fast, so intensely and then it ended. At least, that's how it felt - one long, beautiful assault on the ears.

*Part II: Mosh Pit

On the body though, not so beautiful an assault.

The drama began with Jennifer.

I don't care Jenn, I'm telling!

The show had not even started okay, but they were playing some music. The crowd pressure was considerable. This girl suddenly crouched down on the ground - at first I thought she was making a phone call.

But no, she was feeling giddy, which okay, we'll keep a close eye on you. General concern and whatnot.

When she crouched down the third time however, a WAVE of bodies surged from both our left and right - which let me tell you, is incredibly scary because it would have trampled over her. Incredibly, in retrospect, Tash, Aini and myself managed to form a ring around her and either through a burst of superhuman strength stemming from panic and SURVIVAL, managed to push back the surge.

Most likely also is that the crowd in close proximity saw the Casualty (that's you, Jenn) and helped too, which is the Thoroughly Awesome thing to note about mosh pit behaviour. More on such etiquette later.

So when we finally got her to stand, we and the crowd tried yelling for attention so that they could pull her out and YEAH THIS IS THE PART WHERE I FEEL LIKE A HERO haha. Because we weren't getting the security's attention, with my free arm I threw the poncho that I had in hand and it landed exactly in front of the security guy's face (who was a distance away). This is awesome because in general, I have a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally crappy aim.

Hurrah this proves that when the situation calls for it, I CAN DO ANYTHING hahaha!

So! It was my thrown poncho that first got the security's proper attention and consequently, Jennifer Champion was saved. (At least, that's how I remember it lol)

But anyway, fucking nuts lah, this girl in the end was fine, and had a hell lot of fun. Perhaps more so that me and Tash who were overwhelmed in the front row. Pffbt. WELL AT LEAST I WAS CLOSE ENOUGH TO LOOK UP HIS NOSTRILS, HAH!

In the early beginnings of the concert, there was some fair amount of bodysurfing, which after the novelty passed, began to piss the hell out of me.

It sucks okay. In rock concert footage, it always seems like a lot of fun, and crazy rowdy camaraderie but hell to the N-O. We're "supporting" you because your arse is about to crush my FACE and I need to BREATHE dammit! Tash said she punched a guy who was bodysurfing and I can only say that I wish I had done the same.

The middly first half of the show was rough, with massive, ribcage-crushing shoving especially because we were in the third or fourth row. It came to a point where it seemed that the crowd's bodies (consisting entirely of shoulders, because of my height) were going to smother me. It was at this moment that I thought: This is why my mum doesn't want me to go to a rock concert - I could die here.

And I don't think anyone who was there could honestly say that it wasn't a very real possibility. I also think this was why I did not feel as exhilarated as at the Franz Ferdinand show. A good portion of my adrenaline was being channeled into making sure I stayed alive.

How To Stay Alive (for short-ish people)
1. Keep your head up, as in TILT it to make sure you have access to air.

2. Always, always make sure that your hands are not pinned to your sides, because you need them to push people back. Keep them at chest level, elbows out, for good leverage. Good also is having an arm free in the air - no, this is not to make ROCK-4EVA signs, but to get security's attention when you need it, and also, to get water.

3. Communicate. Sounds crazy I know, talking in a civil manner in a hellhole but it works. Rather than a lot of angry shoving, there's angry shoving but people know that you're shoving only because you need to BREATHE. When they know this, I think its realized that you are a Person instead of an anonymous body with whom to struggle against.

Such is the etiquette that I mentioned before. At the Franz Ferdinand gig, I felt like a collective whole with the crowd physically, but this time, it happened mentally as well. After awhile, you realize that you are completely in tune with the crowd's movements and crazy mish-mash of shouted single words and hand gestures.

It's quite incredible, and thoroughly interesting, from the perspective of studying human behaviour.

Words are reduced to move, out! out!, 1-2-3 push back!, you okay?, everybody okay?, need water?

Gestures eventually have clear and distinct meanings. Palm straight faced out means Wait. Lots of people pointing at the head of a single person means This one. He wants out! After a period of some rough shoving, looks given and returned mean Okay?/Okay. To get your attention, the security would gently touch the top of your head, which I find strangely intimate and perhaps because of this, rather reassuring.

I had a snippet of conversation with a girl beside me who went:
"This is the worst mosh pit I've been too! I can't even mosh!"

"Well at least you can breathe."

"True."

Or funnily, with this guy behind me where I said:
"Can you move back please?"

"It's the people behind pushing!"

"Sorry. I'm going to have to push you anyway."


The show finished, with a single, lucid thought in my mind: That was intense.

But hell yeah, I feel like a tough cookie for having survived it all! FRONT ROW CENTER, NAH I'M NOT BRAGGING AT ALL.

Hahaha, I feel accomplished.