when you wish upon a rockstar

"Don't let your mind stop you from having fun!" said Jason Mraz in his concert at Stadium Negara last night. and what the wizard of words says, we follow.

oh, man, we had a blast, my brother and i! it was his first concert experience ever, and mine the second. we're not the concert going type of person. for me its generally because i hate standing in line and being amidst the sea of screams and sweats. for my brother, its because he's selective over which artist is worth his money and time on.

falie didn't exactly know the way to the stadium, so he called and asked papa. "you know where VI is?" asked dad. "err.. no" why would a Johanian want to know where VI is located anyway? after consulting google map, we drove to the stadium by 4, almost 5 pm, and somehow got lost along the way because we took the wrong turn and detoured a long way. but we got there eventually.

"if we have to stand in line in this rain, kita boleh upgrade from fan to fanatic" falie said while driving."fanatic is when you stand in line since this afternoon. kita cuma peminat tegar!" i said.

so we found a space to park right at the back of the stadium, near the backstage gate where Jason were to come and go from. and had to walk all the way around the stadium to collect the tickets and stand in line. there, we stand amongst the fanatics. there were a group of girls that have been there waiting in front of the gates since 11 am. how do i know? because one of them exclaimed loudly to the person on the other side of the phone she was talking to shouting "Dude! I've been here since 11 fucking AM. where the fuck are you?". and there was even one girl who had thick printouts of Jason's lyrics in hand so she can sing along flawlessly, probably? and there were a lot of people with fedora hats.

geez. jason, here i thought, i was your biggest fan. it was a very humbling experience for me standing in that line for 2 hours. because then came a woman with a protruding belly joining the line. PREGNANT, ok? standing in line to be at the pitt. very humbling for me, indeed. i brought along a book to fill that time with, but where there's people, there's opportunity for peoplewatching. and that 2 hours gave me a lot of windows to whisper to my brother every wrongs possible committed by human beings, like "OMG what the heck is she wearing? baju polkadot merah besar-besar, kasut wedge kuning, tudung gila bunga-bunga kaler hijau!" or "eee. tak suka betul tengok girls smoking." or "teheheh. nampak chelabon dia!" (celabon = celah bontot? fyi, that's buttcrack for you kak liana!)

probably as much as people would say "eh pompuan bulat tu. dahlah tetek besar dan londeh perut menggelebeh dah tak macam muffin top dah. macam kek meletop ada kot. lagi nak pakai ketat-ketat camtu!" about me. fml.

around 7 pm, they finally opened the floodgates. but we were stopped for security bag check. only they didn't really checked our bag but my brother instead 'mengaku bersalah' for bringing a camera. they didn't allow cameras in. but whatever. falie handed in a flash card for collateral, but he had 2 more in his pocket. and we also hid the video cam.

finally, we're at the pitt where we had to wait for another hour before jason went on. he was 30 minutes late. not his fault, i know. he was there since before we were standing in line. i know coz i saw the 'bas persiaran' parked just near where we were lining up. heck, they were still doing sound checks at 8.15.

while waiting, and zealously protecting our 'personal bubble' we mingled with the people next to us. the pregnant lady and her husband was right behind us, and it turns out they flew in from singapore, because Jason's concert in singapore tonight was sold out. and she was, get ready for this, SEVEN MONTHS PREGNANT. i was like, whoa, omg woman, you rock! and there was also a few girls from Bangkok who self-proclaimed that they were "Jason's BIGGEST fan!"

by 8.30, they dimmed the lights and *shrieky woohoo moment* JASON CAME ON! he's so much hotter in person, let me just point it out because he was right there just a few metres in front of me. pandemonium in the stadium ensues. he started the concert with Make it Mine. and all the song lineups after that was a blur for me. i know all the songs by heart, but i cant remember which he songs he sang when exactly. thank god i brought along the video cam.





he sounds exactly like how i expected him to sound live. GREAT. AMAZING. PERFECT. maybe even better than perfect because the whole thing is complete with his cute facial expressions and body language and dancing and adlibbing and scatting and sexiest guitar strumming. his wit, his funny, his child-like wild, his charm. everything he does is magic!



the only thing that didnt work though, was that sorry excuse of a singer that came in late to sing Lucky with him. Lucky became yucky, no thanks to her. who was she anyway? nobody has ever even heard of her. the Thai girls tapped my shoulder asking me who she was and i went, i dont know! her voice didn't even gel with Jason. im sure there were many other better singers out there. Atilia would've worked it better. but nevermind that AhMei, we came to see Jason. and the crowd can simply drown her shitty voice by singing the Colbie parts.





the Thai girls who self-proclaimed they are Jason's BIGGEST fans, really truly absolutely are Jason's BIGGEST fans. borderline obsessed, maybe. they knew every word to his songs, even they ones Jason adlibbed. and they even sang along, word per word, The Dynamo of Volition.

i seriously under-estimated the malaysian crowd. i thought they only knew at most, 2 songs ... but turns out, they were singing along to every single thing he sang. even Sleeping to Dream. or probably just the people in the pitt. because only true devotion (and RM258) gets you in that pitt. but all in all, i was in awe with KL. i think jason was in awe too because after the 5 minutes intermission, he came back on stage donning "I HEART KL" sleeveless t-shirt.





when he sang A Beautiful Mess, i swear he was singing to me personally. (perasan much lisha?). because occasionally, when i entertain my delusions, i like to imagine it's a song my husband would dedicate to me because the lyrics just sort of says a lot about our beautifully messy relationship and my presence in this relationship. especially the line that says 'Although you were biased I love your advice. Your comebacks they're quick. And probably have to do with your insecurities'. but since my husband doesn't listen to him and even mispronounce his name, i'll just leave it as a beautiful delusion.



i was layaning Jason singing A Beautiful Mess (singing to me personally) when a DUDE behind us said "ooohh, he's ssssoooooo HOT!" rudely bursting me out of me reverie. kacau ah kau! diam boleh tak?

the final song was totally unexpected, though. he strummed his guitar and i, fumbling with the video cam, immediately knew what song. the kinky-est, most erotic song since Dave Matthew's Crash Into Me. my favourite one in his new album. the one i've been waiting to hear him sing live the moment i first heard the song.

BUTTERFLY.

i was totally Mrazmerized.



thank you again, falie for taking me with you, for the tickets, for the drive, for sharing this experience with me. thank you Jason for coming to KL and let us indulge in our view the most beautiful you and showing us a great time. thank you ayis, for letting me go crazy and forget that i was married and a mom for a few hours.

i conclude this amazing post update that altered my life and make me strike one thing off my things to do before i die list with something only Jason would write.

"And through timeless words in priceless pictures
We'll fly like birds not of this earth
And tides they turn and hearts disfigure
But that's no concern when we're wounded together
And we tore our dresses and stained our shirts
But it's nice today, oh the wait was so worth it"

p/s : i would post the video once i get my brother faiz to transfer it to something digital so i can youtube it. (they're a bit shaky because it's hard to control when i was dancing and jumping and going crazy at the same time) but do enjoy the amazing photos falie managed to capture! as noisy as most of them are, they're all (in flickr and in this blog) rights reserved, by the way.

here's mraz from fadz