The Weekend Review : Islamic Song Festival dan Yuna

Going to Yuna's show is just a last minute decision.  I may not go if it's somebody else's performance.  But then Yuna is one of the artiste I began to notice way before she became one of those mainstream favourites.  Heck, I even bought her EP from some cupcake deli.  The thing that I like about this group (I still see her as a group, not as a solo) is how they inculcate interesting piece of art and photography into their album.  Their promotional poster during the EP launch is superb - which shows some raw sketching of a girl in hijab.  The best would be the photography taken when a thick coloured paint splashed to their face while the group maintained a composed facial expression.  That's true commitment I would say.

Anyway, she performed at my sister's school carnival for some charity event or something like that.  After much probing from my sister, I agreed to go.  Before the show starts, they have this 'sesi bersama peminat' kind of thing.  I grabbed my favourite Salvatore Ferragamo perfume bottle and handed it to her for autograph.  Mind you I'm not the type who pester for autograph from artistes, but considering the crowd is minimal, might as well I do something different with this.  My sister initially mocked at the idea of this perfume-signing, but when I got the shocked face of Yuna, it's worth it.  Anyway, Yuna is incredibly tall, I feel like a retarded midget standing next to her.

(I'm not even sure why I have to twitch my lips that way)

She's amazing as always - but then, singing in a hall full of school-ers, the great singing is drowned by that irritating buzz that only school-kids can do.  And going to school reminded me of how much I really hated school.  With the students walking around with DSLR hanging on their neck -  it's Subang Jaya, where people brag about everything.  So, I kind of anticipated that kind of scene.  Nowadays, they don't really care about who wears the branded socks anymore.  It's all about DSLR-laptop-gadgety kind of era.  Haha!!

Later on that day, I rushed to Shah Alam for the earlier planned Islamic Song Festival.  I fetched Azmul at his place, and stop by the petrol station to perform the evening prayer, and let me tell you, I'm frantic.  We're getting late -- and Azmul is keeping it cool -- eating ice-cream, walking slowly, and driving super-slowly -- I know, he's hesitant in joining this 'Islamic' thing with me.  Haha!

Aaaanyyyway, as a review of the event, the show was great, the performance is interesting, the vocal way exceeds the par of any reality show star - but then, when you put the word 'Islamic' in front of anything, don't expect a big crowd.  Seriously.  No matter how grand it may seem, you'll never get a big crowd, especially if you are to pay for the event.  We ended up as a small crowd of less that twenty people-kot seated in the massive indoor Stadium.  Imagine how empty it may look like.

Here's the blunders that the committee should look into.

1) If you put 6pm at the ticket, you don't really expect the security to hold you saying that the gate is not open yet at 6.15pm.  Do you?  I thought Islamic teaches about punctuality.

2) If you're organising an Islamic associated event, look into two things : The praying room, and the toilet.  The praying room is unkept, bad humidity, and the toilet is terrible.  I almost got smashed by the door.  And hygienically -- erkh, do I have to explain?  Maybe it's the facilities issue, but then, when you're organising a so-called international event, you should at least look into these kind of things.  These kind of things are the one that would've tarnished the image of our so-called beloved country.

3) Going to a so-called-Islamic event, you expected people to know the way to the Surau.  And also a unison in the right route of going there.  I got Mr Security A who asks me to wait while he confirms back the location of the surau.  Mr Security B who shows the shorter way to the surau.  And Mr Security C who stops you and tells you to go via the longer route.

4) When you have 5-10 people covering for security at each entrance for only a 20-something audience -- in other words, the security troop is more than the audience itself, then -- something must be wrong somewhere.

5) People only starts coming in after Maghrib - and after the so-called-VIP Puteri Raja mana entah arrives.  Uh-huh...  Get the cash cow in, and only then others will follow suit.

The best thing is that they should promote this event at universities with Akademi Pengajian Islam as one of the faculty.  Insya Allah - it would've been much better than 20-ish people scattered in the massive stadium.

Half way, I'm almost tempted to go back -- but then, when you're paying RM38 for each tickets, and the show is amazing, you don't have the heart to even reduce the number of the already minimal audiences.  Anyway, the best song of the night would be this.  Enjoy...

Celebrate by Aashiq Al Rasul

And - Azmul is not impressed.  He's been puffing his upteenth ciggie, and the good thing of asking him to accompany me here is that he make some funny youtube middle east jokes that really helps me from falling to sleep while waiting for the show to really start.

Maybe if you are to put Bunkface or Faizal Tahir singing the Islamic Song, maybe there'll be something to talk about.  :-D