Hujan Gig at Zanzibar

Hujan is a Malaysian band coming all the way to UK to promote at a few places and they stopped by Liverpool on the 29th of March 2008.

It seemed like even the weather was welcoming Hujan to Liverpool as it rained a few times yesterday. At first I didn't want to go, but since most of my house mates are going, and it will be an excuse for not revising, I went in the end.

Me, after 15 minutes of make-up. Sorry ML and S. I still don't know how to put the eye liner.

We walked to town, the ground was still wet from the afternoon rain. Then, it started drizzling which got heavier and heavier. Next time, if there's a band called 'La Nina' or 'Thunderstorm', don't invite me, ok?

We reached the place wet and cold. Paid the 4 pounds entrance only to find out that Hujan's performance will be the last, after 5 local band. I thought that they would be performing at 8.30pm. Never mind, since I've came all the way.

The place was quite small and most of the seats were taken. Squeezed between my friends but half of my butt was hanging in the air.

There were 5 performances before the Malaysian bands take the stage. It ranged from heavy metal to ballads, bands to solo performers. At least there was a variety.Started with this heavy metal band. The main singer, as you can see, has really long curly hair which he kept on tossing it up, down, and sideways as he shook his head vigorously. With heavy metal, you cannot miss out on the screaming which I wondered if he'd have a sore throat after each performance.

The funniest part was, as his 2nd song ended, one Chinese girl in the audience exclaimed, "Isn't he tired?!" in Mandarin. I guess she never would have expected the song to end at that very moment.

Video compilation of the local performances:



I really liked the duet performance coming from a girl and a guitarist (Picture: top row on the right). The songs were ballads, and I don't usually have a liking towards slow songs. However, his guitar skills were mesmerizing! Too bad I don't have a recording of the part where he played so skilfully.

Finally, it was soon the opening act by our local Malaysian band. It was almost midnight and some people at the gig were getting drunk.

I was leaning against the staircase waiting for the anticipated performance when this guy came up to me, extended his hand, so, not wanting to offend him, I just gave him a handshake. Then he put his face so close to me, expecting a kiss. I was like, don't come any closer and wished that I could just disappear from the spot. I could even smell the alcohol from him as he was that close. I told him 'sorry' and luckily he moved away. Then he went to disturb other people. I can't believe this happened even when I was standing with my friends. Scary!

Finally, the opening act. I was impressed that they sang a song in Spanish, I think. Sorry, I don't know how to identify what language it was.

Video clip of the opening act:



Their performance wasn't bad at all. At least the type of music appealed to the locals who stayed on. Funny how you know all these people before and then see them performing on stage. I was impressed.

I thought my worries were over for that night, when the same drunk guy came back right before Hujan's performance. I quickly ran to hide behind my friend. Luckily that was the last time I saw him.

Crowd suddenly grew restless, Hujan was getting ready on stage!
I can say that their performance looked more professional compared to our local Malaysian band consisting of students studying here. More movement and audience engagement.

However, they do say some really lame stuff. Like for one performance, they halted suddenly.

Pause.

Main singer approached the mike

' I see swimming pool'

Whole band continued jamming as he ended that sentence.

What the.......

I don't know if that's the effect that they wanted to create among the audience but I just think that it's not helping them to sell their image.

Worse part was, they don't know how to converse in English properly. Which is a big shame towards Malaysians as we do study English as our 2nd language. Plus, they've been planning to tour around the UK since ages ago. At least improve on basic conversation phrases with the audience. I wonder what kind of impression the locals will have on us. I don't think it helps with our strive towards the status of a developed nation.

I don't mind that the songs are in Malay. If the melody is great and the performance is awesome, people foreign to the language can still enjoy them. That's why I like Japanese and Korean songs. But at least learn some proper English before you come over to perform. Now I wonder who their target audience are? Malaysians in the UK only? Hmmm.

Enough said about that. I really did enjoy their performance. Melody was plentiful, vocals not bad, stage presence good, songs were not very catchy though.

I'm sceptical about their success in breaking into the UK market. For a band singing in a language besides English, their only form of appeal will be looks, skills, and music. Only time will tell.

One of their performance for that night: