I went to a Mayday concert in HsinChu city.
Mayday is a highly popular Taiwanese band, the first indie band in Taiwan to achieve mainstream popularity. They broke the mainly boy bands, idol-type singers pattern, and wrote songs that really resonate with Taiwanese youth. (like songs about scooter racing or instant noodles...)
So i bought their new CD and there is a voucher inside for entrance to their concert tour. i missed the Taipei one because my boyfriend was in Taiwan earlier on and i was hanging out with him. so since HsinChu is not very far from Taipei, i decide to go to this concert instead.
I left on the 6:13 am train and got to HsinChu 7:48 am. when i got to the venue, the line for the mosh pit was ridiculous, circled around the venue a couple times then snaked around the square. So i lined up for the balcony.
The line for the balcony was rediculously short compared to the mosh pit. i was about the 300th person for blacony. They handed out braclet with numbers on it at 10am. The number system is to insure orderly and fair entrance (so the people who came first can get in first. no pushing!).
HsinChu is a nice city. quite pretty and well planned city centre with big squares and riverside park. I returned to the venue at 5pm. The worker counted and counted the number making sure that the audience are in the right order. I got a glow stick. Blue. Apprarently that's the perferred colour.
The opening band was Champion. They are kind of Mayday's portege, couple of them worked as Mayday's technicians before. The day of the concert was the bassist Cola's birthday. A cake was brought on stage for him and just when the audience was chanting for a pie-in-face act, they pulled a BL. (for those who are not into Manga/Anime, BL stands for Boy Love, male to male intimacy that makes girls squeal. very popular in Japan.) The singer kissed the cream off Cola's face, the gitarist licked the cream off his cheek, and the drummer fed the strawberry to him mouth to mouth. I can't believe things like this actually happened in reality. seemed to come straight out of a shoujo manga.
Champion's music weren't bad but they lack certain depth that Mayday has. but at least they are the best opening act i've seen (in my rare concert going experience...).
Mayday opened their act with four old songs from their previous albums progressing from 1999 to 2005. I cried when they got to "Stubborn" (2005). The song really touched me and suited where i am in life. "If I compromise, if I lie to myself, even if i am forgiven for that, i cannot forgive myself." "Against the wind I fly better, I am not afaired of thousand people stopping me, only afraid of myself surrender." (but then in Chinese and rhymed...)
Half way through the concert, the cieling fell down. Really. Four cieling panels fell during the concert. No big injury but I heard that someone was sent to the hospital. the band made the audience promise to NOT JUMP under any circumstances, because the venue floor might caved in under the moshpit. Maybe this place needs a renovation...
The guitarist Monster do a cartwheel every concert as part of thanking their sponser Le Power(an energy drink that sent them to Tunisia to film their MV). Because his dad was in the audience, he did four cartwheels.
I had a great time. If i had someone to go with that might even be better... kind of hope that they will sing "Call me number one" (Family in Labour theme song) or "Okay la" (KK's theme song). oh well, next time.
Very pretty cake with gold dust on it. i always want to eat a cake with gold dust on it. DELUX.
