Paramore/Singapore #3

NOTE: Please read post #1 and post #2 before you continue here.

March 7 - 2000 SIN

The concert started right on time.
Much to my surprise, there WAS an opening act.
I've no idea what the name of the band is, it's a Singaporean band as far as I know.
It was similar to Paramore - all guys except the lead singer, female.
When the girl came on stage, people were screaming like mad. But it was short lived.
I was laughing away when most of the crowd thought it was Hayley Williams, Paramore's lead singer was on stage.
The opening act sang 4 songs, and took about 20 minutes.
I was pretty happy about it, as I heard from Kelvesh, the opening acts for Green Day's concert went for 1 hour 20 minutes. That is very long.
During the break, I was talking to this girl beside me. She was pretty cool.
She was shocked to find out that I bought 3 Paramore T-shirts. :P
I did see around the stadium. It was a sell out. Except for the cheapest seats.
Soon the lights dimmed. The whole crowd was anticipating the start of the performance.
It was nearly pitch black. The usual Paramore intro was played during that time.

And suddenly Hayley appeared, she went crazy as the crowd did too. It was loud! Deafening.
Nobody was seated. Every single person was up.
And the first song was Ignorance. Really nice performance. She did shout quite a bit of the song.
The second song was Crushcrushcrush. I knew the whole lyrics for this song, so I just sang my heart out.
The third song was That's What You Get. This really got the crowd going even crazier and louder. Everybody had their hands up, jumping like mad. It was one of the most fun ones.
I did see a news article, that 10 people needed treatment by the end of the song. Wow.
And then they played Looking Up. I jumped as high as I can during the Whoa-Oh-O-Oh, Whoa-Oh-O-Oh! And
sang at the same time. At the end of the song, I started coughing. Started to feel the loss of voice.
The 5th song they played was Careful. I think it's the perfect song to play since quite a number of people got hurt :P
They played Let The Flames Begin right after. Love the guitar solo. And they played an extended version of it. Really nice.
Soon, they decided to play a song from their first album. They played Never Let This Go, one of my favourites from the album.
The band took a 2 minute rest. They were pretty tired, and finally the crowd didn't go crazy as before that.
And it went a little mellow after. The Only Exception was played. Hayley said that at one point its video was named Video of the Week on MTV. She got almost everyone to wave their arms from side to side during that song. Loved the feeling. A very meaningful song.
I did record about 35 seconds of the performance in my phone. But quality very poor, and I only did it for a short while. I wanted to enjoy the concert rather than recording all the performances.
And back to getting really pumped up again, Pressure was played. Back to jumping like mad again. We all just went nuts.
The next song was For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic. It was the song where I knew the least of the lyrics. I didn't really know the lyrics of the verses. But still, never backed down, went for it, even when it's just guessing the words. :P
The next song - My current favourite - Where The Lines Overlap. I was so passionate about this song, that I actually heard my own voice in this song. The rest, I couldn't even hear my voice. But I still sang as loud as I could though for all the songs. And I love the lyrics, it suited me, that 'no one is as lucky as us' (those who came for the concert).
I suspect there were loads of Twilight fans there. They all went mad when Decode was played.
I think it was this song when the speaker or the guitar on the lead guitarist failed? Damn... I didn't hear part of the lead. But the lead guitarist, Taylor York, yes, not Josh Farro who didn't tour still ran around with his guitar, just for the fun of it.
When he got his replacement guitar, his guitar was slightly off key. But the PA system people slowly fixed it. Thanks to them :D (It's Singaprore, not Malaysia :P)
Misery Business was next. More jumping to do. Hayley changed the lyrics a little. From 'I'm sorry honey', she changed it to 'I'm sorry Singapore' :P.
13 songs done. Paramore closed the event with Brick By Boring Brick. She did say that Singapore has the loudest crowd she has ever experienced. She also promised to come back within less than 5 years. (Fran and Sofea, it's your chance!)
We all used up the last bit of our energy for the song. It looked like the crowd favourite.
And lastly, the band members started throwing stuff towards the crowd - drumsticks, Hayley's water bottle :P
14 songs were pretty alright. But they only performed for 1 hour 30 minutes. Wished it was longer.
Another regret - Not bringing my camera in. Loads of people took theirs in. And nothing was done.
Wished I brought mine in... Gah!
Next time. Maybe next time.
And ah... I went out a little too late.
I was late by about 30 seconds from being able to buy a limited edition poster. Gah! Again!
But the concert experience itself was awesome. My first concert. Great. Superb. Brilliant.

| To be continued in post #4 |