Got The Life: Karipap Daging’s Sunburst KL ‘09 Review

Gargantuan banner for a gigantor event

It’s been more than a week after the “controversial” Sunburst Kuala Lumpur International Music Festival 2009 happened at Mont Kiara Equestrian, and I still couldn’t find the words to describe how great the event turned out to be especially headliner rock gods Korn’s SUPER ULTIMATE AWESOME set. Seriously, my lack of updates on this blog was the result of my current state of ‘awe-ness’ after watching one of my favorite bands LIVE depan mata kepala hotak aku sendiri(it’s a Malay figure of speech, but direct translation would be: in front of my very own bare eyes and brain head).

But first, let me gather myself up as I dispense my Sunburst KL ‘09 experience as follows…

As me and Futuna entered ground zero, we were greeted with Estrella’s chart-topping Stay filling the air from the Live Sounds stage in front of the entrance, and I thought to myself, “What a very appropriate welcoming song”(we stayed until the end indeed!). Next to the stage was a big ass ‘X’ sign on main sponsor’s Celcom Xpax VIP lounge. Talk about getting people’s attention huh? Must’ve cost them a fortune to build the booth and sponsoring the event. Must’ve raked in MORE fortunes after the night as well.

I was quite surprised with this year’s attendance(Junk predicted around 10,000 turned out), despite rumors going around prior to the concert like N.E.R.D.’s Pharrell Williams would be performing on screen ala video conference, or only Jon Davis of Korn is coming backed by sessionists, and of course, the last minute cancellation of co-headliner Erykah Badu. But I guess people couldn’t care less about the rumors and decided to come and have fun after all!

Festival guide

We met old acquaintances, ex-college mates, all of them music lovers. Hand shakes, kisses, hugs, even punches were traded and we proceeded to take a stroll around the concert’s ground and check out what Sunburst has in store for us.

The environment was quite relaxed with people having picnics and eating while chillin out, dancing even sleeping on the green carpet grass waiting for their favorite artists to perform. There were people young and old, beautiful and handsome, who came in colorful(some skimpy) clothes making the already colorful event even more vibrant!

Other than the big X at the entrance, there was a huge igloo-like red bubbly tent erupted in the middle of the field that caught everybody’s eyes. Me and Futuna walked towards it and soon found out it was the F1 Speedzone promo tent for the upcoming F1 race in Sepang. It has an F1 Ferrari car in front, but they only allow you to ride the simulator video game inside.

Then I met a friend, who told me he saw Jon Davis walking around and checking out at the Silent Disco booth. Holy shit dang, the nerve! (Un)fortunately he was accompanied with bodyguards who wouldn’t let people touch him. But I guess he would’ve went back inside by then so I thought I’ll just see him on stage later that night lah, cewah!

We continued walking to check out the stalls selling over-priced food and drinks, some local brands selling cool designer t-shirts, indie labels selling their merchandise, and there was even a 7-Eleven stall minus the air cond!

Beside was the Silent Disco booth where DJs spin songs and channel the music to the crowd through wireless headphones. It’s the latest in-thing in the clubbing arena I guessed. The crowd looked somehow funny dancing in total silence but in unity. Might work better at house parties if you don’t want to disturb the neighbors!

Technicolor umbrella

At the end of the field was the Art Corner where mural, graffiti artists and photographers displayed their best work. Phobia Klik was spraying away their creativity on the plywood walls with colorful and realistic-looking detailed tags and graphics. They even did a muscle-y Jon Davis’ portraiture!

The Lomo Kids did their usual exhibition. Personally, I don’t really prefer their thousands-of-photos-cramped-together-style display. It turned the lomo pics into some sort of ‘commodity’ and ‘cheap’ because people would just see the whole wall filled with tiny photos and not the individual pretty pics themselves. Should’ve displayed only the best ones in larger sizes, IMHO.

During this time Gerhana Ska Cinta was playing at the Sun stage with their trademark ska, reggae songs while setting the mood to a more chill out vibe to the already relaxing surroundings. Me and Futuna decided to have our lunch and went straight to the food stalls and got ourselves a RM18 Yong Tau Fu! Fortunately it was good and we washed it off with a RM3 mineral water(remind me to open a food stall for next year’s Sunburst ya?)

Nao won the Road To Sunburst competition and was rocking the Sky stage while we were eating. It was my first time watching them live and my hats off to their brand of post-punk fast-metal set. Sounded like a stripped down, raw-er System Of A Down. Sweetness. Wished I could join the mosh pit but I was too hungry to move haha!

After stuffing ourselves, we went back to the Live Sounds stage to check out The Otherside Orchestra’s electic electro-funk-disco rock set. Guitarist Wan’s minor broken amp/technical issues didn’t stop the crowd to have a good time as Dhiya the vocalist really knows how to rock the stage and move them backed by her skillful band members. But their set was too short and they should’ve played the main stage!

Chillin out at Cosmic Kitchen

While making our way to the Sky stage to wait for Butterfingers after Estranged’s set at 8:30PM, Irish band Cosmic Kitchen was playing at the Sun stage beside. We stopped by to check them out and eventually stayed to their brand of soul, jazz, R&B and world music fronted by half-Malaysian, half-Irish vocalist Aminah Dastan’s sweet, soulful voice wearing a cute kebaya.

The band featured members from Seville, Poland, Detroit, Mauritius, Dublin including our own Justin Lim on percussions. There was a Penang Medical College logo on the screen, so I guess they all went study and met there. Everybody enjoyed themselves dancing especially when each band members, including Aminah’s brother Salim, played their solo part! Super cool.

Then 2008’s Juara Lagu winner Estranged took over the Sky stage. Their set was OK, not much different than last year’s, except for some new songs and mask-wearing bandits running around and head-banging on stage. Kind of annoying and taking the attention away from the band and music causing a mediocre set.

They should’ve chosen a better set list and not the fast, slow, multi genre numbers like they did because it’s kind of anti-climatic. Maybe they wrote their songs to cater to all sections of the crowd, young, old, male and female, which is good, but I think it’s better to have your own sound and music to cater all of the crowd than to make many different styles for each of them, IMHO. They do have the talent and skills, but I guess they’re still looking for their own trademark sound?

Being an avid Butterfingers fan, when Indonesian Nidji took the Sun stage beside, we and other Butter’s fans went straight in front of the barricade of Sky stage to wait for them. So we watched Nidji on the big screen eventhough they were stone-throw away from us.  I only knew their song for the Heroes TV promo on Astro, Shadow, but Nidji’s set turned out to be quite good with their upbeat modern rock(?) tracks. They have a Coldplay/U2 vibe going on especially when vocalist Giring kept talking about world peace. Make love people!

Fresh from their supposedly “last show” at Istana Budaya last February, Butterfingers rocked the Sky stage sans guitar maestro Loque.  Super-producer Greg Henderson did a great job filling in the guitar works playing their latest singles from Kembali. Loque’s fiance, Dalia also made an appearance during Maharani and sang with Emmett, although she didn’t quite memorize the lyrics haha!

Unfortunately there was a problem on their monitor’s signal, so they only had a short 6, 7 songs set. But it was as good as their other shows nonetheless with sing along from all of us there. Closing their set with Selamat Tinggal Dunia, Emmett changed the chorus to “Selamat tinggal Malaysia” saying his goodbye when he flies to Canada soon.

Then Indonesian Agrikulture took the Sun stage with a storm. Frontman, Irfandy was wacky, “colorful”(he had different outfits for each song!) and has a funny stage antics(he reminded me of Borat!). The hipster crowds seemed to enjoy their set especially when Irfandy threw freebies at them(we looove free stuff don’t we?). Agrikulture’s hard, bassy electro-clash set really sets the mood for N.E.R.D. who’s coming up next.

Me and Futuna proceeded to Sun stage to wait for Korn while N.E.R.D.’s crew sets their equipments at Sky stage. Thousands of people were already packing the floor and after 15 mins of waiting, Pharrell and his band came running on stage. The crowd(girls, esp. of course) went berserk to see him despite earlier rumors and mosh pits and crowd surfing started to take flight(as demanded by Pharrell later). They played all of their crowd favorite singles like Rock Star, She Wants To Move, Everybody Nose, Sooner or Later and even gave their Malaysian fans to a special treat when they played a new song, Pop Corn.

We enjoyed their energetic set especially when some lucky sections of the crowd were invited to join the band on stage! A good friend was also one of the lucky ones and got what she always wanted- meeting(and touching) Pharrell! N.E.R.D. did a great set and if it wasn’t for Korn, we would’ve joined the crowd too haha! And what’s even cooler was, some of Korn’s fans that were waiting with us at the Sun stage sang along to N.E.R.D.’s songs!

And then, there was the legendary Korn.

All eyes on stage now

You could tell you’re in for a real treat and how professional their crew was when right after Agrikulture’s set prior, the whole stage was removed; amps, speakers, drums, monitors, even mic stands and they brought in their own equipments. The anxious crowd screamed when the crew pushed in Korn’s sessionist drummer Ray Luzier’s drum set onto stage as if it’s some sort of holy shrine!

His majesty Jonathan Davis summoning his humble servants to rock!

Chanting “We want Korn!” over and over again really builds up the already heated up atmosphere. Me and Futuna was at the front and trying to secure ourselves by holding tight the barricade cause people were coming and pushing from behind. Never would we leave such a good spot!

We even shouted for "Jagung, jagung, jagung!" during intermission

Then around 12:05PM we saw silhouettes of people running on stage and went straight to the drums and keyboard section. Another guy came behind the bass amp with a guitar then the keyboard/sampler guy started playing a familiar orchestral intro music. My guess of it to be Right Now from the band’s 2003 Take A Look In The Mirror was right when the drummer and second guitarist started joining.

Fieldy looked abit Arabic

The lights started to flash when suddenly Fieldy came running on stage towards us and slaps his bass signaling the chaos was about to start. The crowd went crazy! Then Munky came towards us with a straight face and nodded then strummed his 7-string guitar. The crowd went wild! Finally Jon Davis hops(skipping?) to the mic(unfortunately it wasn’t his infamous Giger mic stand. Maybe it didn’t pass our customs!) raises his fist and started head banging the same time the full song came in. The crowd went berserk!

Then the rest as they say, is history(check out the videos from that night by tooteeleeana, 6thcircle, ewoksoldier and shazalomaniac by clicking each song title!)

I couldn’t remember the exact set list, but they played most of their singles from all albums, including (in no particular order) crowd’s all time favorite Blind(they usually play this at the start of their shows, but saved it during encore instead. The intro part was longer than usual, thus more impact and crazier mosh pits!), Clown(awesomenesss), Faget(Jon asked “Who am I?” during song and we replied “Faget!”), Helmet In The Bush(Jon played the bagpipes to Shoots And Ladders intro before this song), A.D.I.D.A.S.(I still couldn’t believe it they actually played this one, considering the amount of obscenities in the lyrics. But we all sang the chorus anyway, “Aaal daaay I dreeeam abooout seeex, aaal daaay I dreeeam abooout fuuuckin!” hahaha), Freak On A Leash(I almost vomited my voice box during this!), Falling Away From Me(the live version sounds waaay better), Somebody Someone(Jon’s growl during chorus gave me the shivers!), Here To Stay(oh yes, they will stay alright, even without guitarist Head and drummer David to rock us out!), Did My Time(the Tomb Raider film soundtrack. Unfortunately no Angie in sight haha), Coming Undone(a straight to the point, head banging, feet stomping heavy track. Oh and they “remixed” it with a bit of Queen’s We Will Rock You!), and Hold On(a more recent evolved sounding song with the heaviness still intact) from 2007’s Untitled.

None of these pics do justice to their show. You have to see them live!

Korn ended their set with another crowd favorite, the Grammy award-winning Got The Life, and “got it” they still, after 15 years in the rock metal circuit making groundbreaking music and defying conventions. I wished they would’ve played Twist or Dead Bodies Everywhere or Y’all Wanna Single, but I couldn’t complain more as I’ve my best live act experience to date. How do I describe it in three words? INFINITE ROCK BLISS.

Munky throws a bunch of picks, but I couldn't catch any. Argh!

Like an hour and a half thunderous storm, the mighty, inkredible Korn came and ‘kornquered’ Malaysia, leaving their legions of old and new fans, bruised and scarred but most importantly the satisfaction and pleasure of having one of rock music’s ambassadors reclaiming it’s reigning crown in rock-dom. Oh and finally I got to wear my Follow The Leader T-shirt to where it’s supposed to be- a fuckin Korn show!

Kudos to event organizer Pineapple Concerts for putting together one of the best concert this town has seen, again. Only suggestion is for them to learn from whatever this year’s mistakes and make up for a bigger show next year! The night ended with Twilight Action Girl rocking out their mixers and turntables at the  Sky stage with what was left of the Sunburst crowd that day. Me and Futuna was totally beat and decided it’s time to head home and call it a day. A day and weekend that we will never forget!

See more photos of Sunburst KL ‘09 at Flickr here and YouTube here.

Read Junk’s review here and KLue’s review here.

Read ‘Karipap Daging’s Sunburst KL ‘08 Review’- Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Pt. 4, Pt. 5