In-Fest 2004

What seemed to be a blurry and boring Saturday turn up to be a super duper, fun-filled and power-packed day for me. I started of my day by saying

“Oh man, I am not going back home this week, so what shall I do?”

Eventually, me and my house mates started to be hooked up to games, that we played Diablo2 the whole day ever since the time we woke up(around 9.30AM). it’s the usual hack-and-slash game, where you go around killing monsters, picking up items, and also to level up(that’s te main idea of the game anyway). We played and played until I finally got bored of it at that moment (What?? Jowen actually got bored of Diablo? The sun will rise in the North, and sets in the south) I quit the game, and resume chatting in Yahoo Messenger. I was looking at people’s status message when I came across this.

“In-Fest 2004, 8PM, The Summit Hotel, ADMISSION IS FREE!!! Come Come Come….”

Honestly when I saw this status by one of my friends, I went like “ Oh, just another musical event, nothing big, just some rock star concert”. I brushed myself of the thought of actually going there to see. But something soft spoke to me, and urges me to go for it. ( this is not an illusion, I got the feeling to go). I messaged one of my buddy, WeeLiem, for transport, and he said his car was full.

Oh man, car full = cannot go…I was disappointed at that time, and told him to enjoy the show and whatever the concert that is. Seriously I was down and sad that I couldn’t go for the event, and like every other people who is feeling disappointed, I loaded up the game, Diablo2, and fire it off with my housemates again.

Something strange happened. As I was happily killing monsters and shouting to my housemates to back me up, my phone rang.

“Hello”

“yea, Jowen, WeeLiem here. Leo will be driving to In-Fest, and faster let him know that you want to go too”

“OH…ok…Thanks ya”

Hallelujah, I can go!! I can go for In-Fest at last!!! Thank God….in a split second, I ended my game, which leave my housemate wondering why I quit, and rang up Leo.

“HI Leo, I was wondering if I can hitch a ride with you to In-Fest later”

“sure dude, meet me at …….”

YEA!!!!! I got dressed in “0 minutes, and walked my way to the meeting point. Never in my heart I felt so much of joy before, and I was singing praises to my Lord as I made my way there. We left Cyberjaya around 6.40PM, and headed off for dinner somewhere in Puchong. It was a pretty cool ride with Leo in his kancil, as he drove with the skills of Michael Schumacher, minus the red F1 car, and the 380Kph. We chatted, and I got to know him well that night. I shared, he shared, and of course by the end of the day, I got to know this brother a lot more now, and also I got to know myself too…we stopped by at “Restoran Ramai”, and I had Quey-Teow-Soup for dinner. At 7.50PM, we headed off to The summit Hotel, for In-Fest.

Upon reaching the place, I sense a feeling that I am going to like this event, though I didn’t expect anything more to a concert of blaring music, and funky costume adorned by artists. We reached there as the show was about to bagan, and I got a rude hshock when one of my church members came up to me and say

“Whassupppp Jowen, Long time no see…..”

I was blown away, and at the same instance, several church members came up to me and greeted me. WOW…the feeling of being united again with friends whom I have not seen for a while, is so homey and nice. I( FYI, I have not been going back PJ, and at such, I missed my home-church service. I came from Good Shepherd AOG) about 20 of them came, and they were Jesse, Shama, Sheema, Catherine J, Catherine T, Lyna, Jennifer, Samson, Vedadas, Simon, Sanjay, Andrew T, Richie and Ashwin. It was more like a reunion rather then seeing In-Fest itself.

I took my place at the calling of the MC, and I began to like the show even though it had not even started yet. The show started at 8.35, and the first band that came up on stage was “A-basher” (forgive me if I misspelled the name), led by Jason Ding. The MC sort of like joke with Jason, and said that his sir name reminds him of the song by Hooobastank “The Reason”, where the intro part goes something like “Ding…Ding…Ding….I’m a….” the crowd Laugh AT THIS comment, and the MC rushed off to asked them whether are they ready. They were set to perform, nd I got to hear what seemed like a rock concert. Jasons own composition was sung that night, and it was cool, and inspirational., Cheers form the audiences whows how well was the songs that were sung, and the band sung and performed about 4 songs. The second band who performed that night was called “ Her Reverie” and it’s a all girls band, except for the bass guitar player and the guitarist. The guitarist, with the name of “Keng” really was superb when it comes to effects pedal, and the whole performance by their band was spiced up by the various effects done by him, and they sang around 4 songs also. . I couldn’t help but watched in amazement at the magical sound that the pedal does, and it left the crowd cheering and clapping as they ended their performance.

We adjourned for a 15 minutes refreshment, and I seized this opportunity to talk to my church members. All were well, and of course, the feeling of church-sick suddenly came upon me, as we chat about services and also of the activities the church is organizing. It was indeed a joyous moment, as I got to meet them again after 2 months of not seeing each other, and of course, int hat very short time of break, we managed to get contacts and if it was not for the call to be back in our seats for the next show, I would have been talking and talking and talking and ………The third performance was a splendid one. A Malaysian well known artist, a solo and dual performer who sang for various events took on stage to mesmerized us with her powerful vocals and wonderful talents. She is none other the Shelly Leong. I hve heard of her several times and have seen her appearance on TV, but today I saw her face to face, and I am flattered….Hehehhehe, I must admit that I didn’t really know her, but her voice fascinates me. Her voice projection was so strong, that she kept me glued to my seat throughout her performance. And also backed by her band of 3 members, a drummer, bass player and a guitarist, the performance was nice and rocking. …throughout my time spend there on the Summit hotel, I felt no regrets at all for coming, and all the tiredness were swept away by the powerful aura of music, and I really want to say thank you to my friends who heard of my plea to came for In-Fest.

The forth and final performance of the night, was none other then The GoodShepherd band, which consist of Ashwin on drums, Sanjay on guitar, Sheema on keyboard, Samson and Shama on vocals, and Mozart on Bass( Ok, he switched from piano to bass, cause piano is too heavy to carry around :P). The first performance of the band was and instrumental, a havy one that is. Electrifying waves of the electric guitar was sent out by Sanjay, and powerful bass was produced by Mozart, plus heart thumping beat was cranked by Ashwin, and also as a add on to the already spiced up groovy music, is the sound of keyboard played by Sheema. Add them all together, and you get a sound that will sent u shouting “We Want More, We Want More”. Even those who are music blind will be guaranteed know what is real music, after hearing what seemed to be the best performance of the night. The second performance by the band was a rendition of the song “Higher” by Creed, and is another explosive song which featured Samson and Shama. Powerful sound waves were produced by Samson, as he took on singing most of the parts for the song, and I can imagine if I were to sing at the same pitch and tune that he is singing, I am afraid my vocal chords will break, that’s how strong his voice are. Shame did well, and he sang what seemed to be the bassy part of the song. The duet by them was so good and power, that at the end the performance, shouts of “Samson” were heard from the audience, and it’s by me, Hahahahhahhahaa……….

The third performance is a song Shackles, and it featured an extra vocalist, which is Sheema..This song was the band’s favorite when they go out to perform in gigs and in concerts. They managed to get the audience to wave their hands during the chorus part, but subsequently no one did that again for the remaining parts, because the hands were literally concentrating to the music, and the voices. Powerful vocals and explosive music were the main focus of the band, and it is what all the audience expectation of a good music. That is what In-Fest is all about, and it really lives up to the audiences’ expectation.

The forth performance was a truly heavenly music, which can only be played by professionals. It’s an own composition of the band members themselves, given the song title as “Heartbeat.” Well, it really keeps our hearts beating at maximum beats-per-minute, some even at it's maximum, with explosive music and sound from the 3 musical instruments filled the room. Shock waves of various instruments were sent out, and all of us were stunned and glued to our seat, like the F1 car racers when they go racing at breakneck speed, at 550Kph. It was that super cool music, which leads the audience to groove along with the music, me especially, was moving my head from top to bottom, and from left to right, like someone who is High on ecstasy. A couple of us gave a standing ovation as soon as they finished their stuffs, and of course, some were literally glued to their seats by the awesome performance by them. Shouts of “En-Core” were heard from the audience (not by me this time), and amazingly, the band members responded to the calls, and invited to director for IN-Fest2004, Mr. Gary to jammed alongside with them. It was yet another super explosive show, with 2 identical bass guitars, and 2 not-identical players performing together. The bass waves could even drown an elephant in shallow waters, and can even burst any amplifiers. But it is a miracle the amplifiers didn’t explode, but it is the heart of the audience that is exploding. Waves after waves of nuclear music were sent out, attacking each and every corner of the body. One couldn’t be surprised to find out that the whole body was an eat that night, trying to enjoy every nano-second of the show. 2 bass players performing together at one time on stage. That’s something I’ve heard for the very first time, and the sound is really deafening, and it’s AWESOME!!!!!!!! Soon all of us got deaf while hearing the explosion of music, and gave a standing ovation to The GoodShepherd Band. It was really an eye-opener to those music freaks out there, who thought they have heard everything about music, as after the shows, several people were seen asking for music lessons from them.

Every band gave their best and every musician is a winner. Pastor Kenneth gave out souvenirs to all performing bands at the end of the concert, and the show ended at 12AM. It was indeed an power-packed, fun-filled, nuclear-driven, and explosive concert one could ever attend, and it was a night of remembrance for me, , as I got to meet with Mr Andrew Tan, one of the Malaysian Idol top 4 finalists. He was there the whole night for the concert, and WOW, he’s handsome and cute…J Hahahahaha……I know I shouldn’t have said that, but anyway, we went for supper at some mamak stall in Subang, and call it a day at 2,.30am, as we headed back to our cozy home to take a rest.

I was indeed a wonderful experience for me, and was really amazed at Christian genre of music. It changed my perception of music altogether, and was truly amazed at what music could be. I really want to acknowledge a few people here, whom I looked up to because of this show, Wee Liem, who is sensitive to my need to go for the event, Leo, who is also willing to fetch me to this event, without him, I couldn’t have experience the explosion of music in The Summit. My church members, who have been a great help in boosting up my confidence in life, and had supported me all the way, and also to all CF members, who attended the event, who has been so much of a help, who I can talk too, I can shared with, and whom I can find comfort within. Thank You God for giving me all this things to give thanks for…..:)