last night was the performance for Audio Image band (A.I. in short). we (woei kee, zhenqiang and me) rushed down to victoria concert hall after directly booking out from SAFTI MI after our SAF day parade yesterday. just side track a bit. zhengyi saw me in my no. 3 vest slack, also in my worst form (sweaty and smelly and tired). saw him in his no. 3 wif his (issit?) SAR, quite funny and weird, to be seeing classmates in army uni with a weapon. haha.

anyway, we managed to reach VCH quite early, much earlier than expected. the concert had not even started yet. so i quickly changed, and (upon's lifeng's request) joined the band from the first song onwards. it was, well, quite terrible. the first song, First Suite in E flat by Gustav Holst. i tot it was actualli much better than our rehearsal. all the individual parts came out, and nobody broke down. i onli find that the percussion part (esp the clash cymbal) was, well, overpowering. besides that, i was actualli quite satisfied. but jeremy tot it was quite terrible. haha. perhaps i heard the worst version of it (which was during my very first rehearsal with AI).

second song, Concerto for Horn and Symphonic Band by Strauss. three words: Marcus broke down. *ops* the band was overpowering the single french horn too.

third song, Saga Candida: 7 Impressions for a Witch Hunt by Bert Appermont. argh~ i cocked up all the eupho soli parts by playing all the wrong notes. felt DAMN DAMN paiseh!! adrian was staring at me with a look of "i'll kill u if i'm not conducting now"!! dun dare to face him!! but on the overall, the sound was actualli quite ok, tho some solo parts din come out as well as i expected them to be.

fourth song, Internal Combustion. three words again: we broke down. some section din dare to play their soli parts and the whole song was so weirdly quiet at weird places. terrible.

then the pianist came out and performed her composition and two sun yanzi songs. woah~ she's great man! i meant her piano performing. it was really really performing! it was really really very entertaining to hear her playing. tho her singing cudnt really make it, but i was so mesmerized by her piano. she's not merely playing, she's really really putting herself into the song to perform the pieces! darn! i was so so pei4 fu2 yet so jealous at the same time!

after that, Misty featuring Ronnie's solo. he was really great, tho he looked weirdly paiseh on stage, almost like rephrasing the first line of the lyrics. haha! but he was really great, the song was great too!

South Rampart Street Parade... er... in my opinion, worst song of the night. the stupid drumset player tot that this was HIS song and played rubbish thruout the piece. damn it~ i liked the song so much and he destroyed it totally for me! urgh~

then the emcee sabotaged us and made the audience call for encore. so we played The Way We Were featuring Adrian on the saxophone. hmm~ nice. he got style in his playing. zhenqiang asked me to compare him and gilbert, i said Adrian was better becoz this piece so suited his style. anyway, i sight-read the song on the spot. it was pretty simple tho, but the thrill of doing it was so... satisfying！ haha.

i guess, as a player, i enjoyed the night. dun noe if i'll be going back to play in subsequent concerts, coz i actualli find the repertoire interesting tho demanding. oh well, this marked my debut band concert in vch! upcoming next, kim seng this sunday! gosh~

stressed-out,
Johnzzon