explosions in the sky at kl live.

i've been avoiding writing this, mostly because i should have had two concerts to talk about at the end of 2013 and i actually only have one. and that depresses me. i need to talk about why. 2013 was a good concert year for me. and by good, i don't mean i went to a lot of concerts and had a lot of fun. i mean i saw people i'd been waiting to see for ages. for AGES.

well, actually, it was good and bad.

i saw the backstreet boys, which made me ecstatic and nostalgic.

i saw explosions in the sky (who i'm talking about in this post), which made me ecstatic and nostalgic and made me tear up.

malaysia brought both of them to me for a small price compared to what it would cost to see them in the US. so that was good. i saw some other people in concert who i normally wouldn't see, but went because it was cheap to see them here, and that was good too. i found a new love in rita ora and her cheese dress and the way she handled her mic messing up with grace.

then the bad. not talking about the bad concerts. talking about the good concerts that never came. mainly, my girl ke$ha. i must have been living under a rock, but i found out the day before she was scheduled to perform here that she was scheduled to perform here. ecstatic, as usual, i went out and bought my tickets that night without checking any social media. that was a mistake. the next day, right before i started to get ready i said, "hm. ke$ha is so crazy. i really can't believe she's allowed to perform here [given that other female artists who are less vulgar have been denied performance]. i better check the internet." sure enough, there it was, right on ke$ha's facebook and twitter and the redtix page: girlfriend got canceled. the reason is undetermined. concert organizer blames the government, government says concert organizer never filed the papers properly. who knows. they refunded everyone but i was unable to get a refund because my bank is in the US. it's okay. i'll hold on to my warrior tour ticket forever and cry glitter tears.

so anyways. that bummed me. but, alas, just a few days after that, my beloved explosions in the sky were coming as part of the annual urbanscapes concert. they were performing at a satellite show with mew. this was perfect, because it was a walkable distance (whereas the actual urbanscapes show was quite a bit far out).

i've been waiting to see explosions in the sky since 2006, when i fell in love with them. unashamed to admit, like many others, i only noticed them when listening to the theme song for "friday night lights." i ended up downloading all of their albums soon after. their music is, admittedly, the soundtrack to my emo college years. i listened to them while studying, i listened to them while crying about boys, i listened to them to calm me down when anxious, i listened to them all the time. i still listen to them in all those scenarios. that might sound like their music is meant for sad times, but it's not. i fully intend to walk down the aisle to the string version of "your hand in mine."

so i was ecstatic. because they are instrumental, not many people i know listen to them. but i do. and that's why i was surprised to find the line at KL live totally out the door! i had no idea they'd be popular here. mew was performing first, so i didn't mind getting in late. one thing that the organizers didn't really make clear was that the giant line out the door? yeah, it was for people going to urbanscapes who purchased the full ticket (urbanscapes + satellite shows). there was a much shorter line for those of us who had only purchased for the satellite shows. i figured it out soon enough.



mew was fairly good. i've only heard their songs in passing, but they were energetic and fun to listen to. i was mostly impressed that their drummer's hair and shirt stayed seemingly dry throughout the set. does that man not sweat? (also, my pictures were pretty terrible because i took the camera that i can't figure out to use after 1+ year of having it.. oh well)







the crowd was fairly full. i still managed to get myself up to the very front, leaning against a guard rail for the whole show. my tally is 3 for 3 front row at concerts here.



i have to say, in between sets is where my love for eits solidified. maybe i am just an unexperienced concert-goer, but when they all came out to set up their own instruments, i was impressed. i've never seen an artist set up their own... set before. i loved them.




my angle didn't lend well to getting pictures of the whole group, but i'm happy with what i got. they performed for about a solid hour and a half. considering they don't really break between songs, but instead blend one seamlessly into the next, that's impressive. i just loved them. loved them. i couldn't tell you what songs they played since it was now almost three months ago, but they were perfect. you can see how emotionally invested they are in their songs. i'd see them again and again. and again.

my only negative came in from the crowd. the guys next to me trying to sing along with the music the entire time, which my camera picked up perfectly in the audio of my videos >:| and constant headbanging. i realize i maybe just look at the music different, but i don't see it as headbanging music. it's mellow to me. but whatevs. i still saw one of my favorite bands in concert. check that one off the list.

as i said, 2013 was a good year for concerts. 2014 is already promising for future music fest, so i'm excited!

Categories: concert, eits, explosions in the sky, malaysia