Sooo... Adam Lambert did 2 shows in the 2010 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix event. I flew across the ocean to catch one of them. This is my tl;dr recap of the whole thing.
If you're here for the show pics, don't bother, bbs. I couldn't get a decent shot during the show. The pics I got are very few and very blurry. Crappy pocket cameras are not meant for night time concerts, after all... But
meine_liebe, who was travelling with me, brought her DSLR \0/ And she took a lot of gorg pics! Go check
her gallery instead!
Recap
Sept 24, 2010
Adam Lambert @ Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix, Zone 4, Padang Stage
Oh god, where do I even start? How do you even explain how you felt when you got what you've been wanting so badly for almost two years?
It started with the yearning, the longing then the wishing then the watching of hundreds of videos made by other people who had seen it then the epic flailing and the rampant twittering then the massive bitching at certain local tour promoter then the freaking out over getting tix and flights and other logistics and lack of monies and lack of passport and the long, quiet wait until the reality of it fianlly sank in.
It was really happening.
Due to a series of good luck and sheer determination (read: fantardness), plus an amazing display of generosity shown by the people of this fandom, I found myself standing in the middle of the wide, open space of the Padang field on September 25th. It felt SO bizarre.
The Zone 4 Padang Field Entertainment Area, around 3 pm
I went to Singapore with my long-time internet-frond-turned-RL-frond-turn-co-worker frond Mel (
meine_liebe on LJ and @incubussuccubus on Twitter). On Saturday at 3 pm, we were supposed to meet up with the Singapore girls I got to know on _ai, hoopla and on twitter. I met them for the first time IRL the night before, when we had dinner at a food court in Somerset where I embarrassed myself by not understanding most of the things they said... *sighs* I knew I would have problems with Singaporean accent, lol. But it didn't exactly stopped us from chattering away anyway.
Anyway.
Saturday afternoon,
terraj guided me from the City Hall MRT to Raffles City's Starbucks over the phone, where Mel & I then met her,
neednotwant,
m_ia_n,
quitesecret,
pollyness and some other people whom I think were Terra's friends? I'm sorry, I suck at names, really... :/
terraj,
m_ia_n and
neednotwant were fresh out of a meet & greet session with Adam. When I asked how it went, they all gave me this wistful look and said "He was really, really nice. It didn't feel real." Lucky benches! >:3333 (HOW DID HE SMELL LIKE, THO? /cray)
When everyone had gathered, we proceded into the Zone 4 Area. Security was pretty tight, which was not suprising. This was a huge international event after all. They scanned our day passes, opened our bags, body-scanned us, and did all other srs bsns security measures.
My Day Pass! I loved that the ticket was in the form of this plastic card that we got to wear around our necks.
So handy! The barcode was our ID. They scanned it every time we entered or left the venue.
We followed the way from the entrance gate, over a closed-up pedestrian bridge where we could not only hear the F1 cars passing beneath us, we could also physically feel the vibration they sent through the bridge. Still felt so bizarre! The noise itself was tremendous, but it got me really excited. They helped reminding me where I was at the time and what I was going to do there. I remember thinking, "HOLY SHIT, I'M REALLY HEEEERE!! WTF AM I DOING AT AN F1 EVENT? I DON'T EVEN LIKE F1!!" Oh, the things I do for you, Dang Dang... (when I got back home, one of my guy friends asked, "So how was Alonso?" and I said, "...Who is that, even?" SMH...)
This is our group, invading the Padang field in our dramatic "so tak glam lah" procession worthy of a spot in the new Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer's action flick
with robots destroying each other, jetplanes dogfighting and the universe asploding in the background (photo courtesy of
meine_liebe)
The Padang field was HUUUUGE! Google Maps Street View doesn't really do it justice! (#geek) It was this wide, open space that was located in the heart of the city's most prestigious area (cmiiw here), walled in by Singapore's most important buildings. Like the City Hall, the best hotels and casino and various other skyscrapers which made up the gorgeous urban Singapore skyline that I love so much <3
It was very hot and bright but damp and wet due to the light shower that fell before we arrived. Strange combo...
THE STAGE OMG IT WAS REALLY HAPPENING!
The stage was big! It's a stage for huge arena concerts and international music festivals <3 I heard somewhere that it really was physically the biggest stage Adam had ever been on during his GNT run? Well, I could totally believe that. Seeing that stage made me want to make sure that I should get as close as to the first few rows or I wouldn't be able to see him.
Mel & I, taking the time to pose while the field was still empty. SORRY FOR THE HOT MESS THAT IS ME.
And yeees, I wore flipflops to the show. So not glam lah, but those babies saved my feet, okay.
This is the City Hall, I think?
Apparently, this is not the modern-day Noah's Ark. It does look handy during tsunami attacks, tho.
People deliberately put a boat on top ot these buildings for reasons even most Singaporeans can't fathom.
I couldn't stop LOL-ing at it! Even though I know that it's actually one of the best (and newest?) casinos on the island.
Even Adam had a fancy dinner there on his last night in Singapore :P
The skyscrapers, unf unff
LOL, I know, I know, less buildings, moar Adam. I know. But I couldn't take a lot of Adam pics, so maybe these photos can give you a feel of what I could see around the venue :3
The queue to get into the Fan Zone area
A small queue had already been forming outside the Fan Zone area, where Adam fans who wore the special wristbands could watch the concert from the area immediately in front of the stage (other people could still watch the show, but from the rest of the viewing area behind the Fan Zone). There was also some confusion with the Daughtry Fan Zone thingy. Daughtry would be performing on the same stage at 6 pm, while Adam was set to go on 11:30pm. We were told the queue would be ushered into the Fan Zone during Daughtry and would be asked to leave the Fan Zone and re-queue for Adam afterward. We all decided to go wait somewhere that had chairs and air cons and return later during Daughtry's set.
So we sat in the Coffee Club at a nearby Funan Digital Life mall where cold beverages and indoor human civilization existed. Thank Zeus, it made me feel like human again.
I...uh, can't remember the name of this drink, but I do remember it involved strawberries. Probably in a way that the strawberries themselves weren't too happy about...
We hung out, cooled ourselves (because Singapore, OMFG, is even hotter & more humid than Jakarta? HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?), drank our pretty, colorful drinks.
pollyness and I were trying to get a free wifi access. There was an island-wide free wireless service that required us to to register for an account and stuff, which we did but we still couldn't access it. In the end, we gave up and prayed the twitter people wouldn't murder us later for the radio silence... D: I was a little bit bummed because I wanted to do a real-time twitter-flail in my only show... D: Ah, well, ces't la vie.
We went back to the venue at around 6 pm. Daughtry's set hadn't started, but there was already a queue for Adam... There was no Daughtry queue anywhere in sight... Hmmm... But when Daughtry began, half the people in Adam queue ran into the Fan Zone... which didn't help much because their friends were still guarding their spots in the queue, LOL.
The view of the queue right in front of me.
Still, we got a decent spot. We quickly set up camp. The sun had set, so the weather was cooling down. It was really pleasant. A nice couple shared us their plastic mat, so some of us could avoid sitting right there on the boarded up lawn.
Then Daughtry took the stage.
It was my first time listening to Daughtry. At least that I'm aware of. He had a decent voice, I guess. He could sing, but I just didn't feel his music. I didn't even know he was from AI before I joined _ai. As you can see, I'm not a his fan at all. I couldn't be bothered leaving my spot to get a better shot of him. I was more fond of sitting, sorry :P So I just sat there in the queue and took pics of the video screen and the people lining up for Adam.
A good amount of people showed up for Daughtry. But even from where I was sitting, I could see the Fan Zone was far from being filled up. Mel could walk around freely inside the Fan Zone to take pics (again, check out
her gallery for Daughtry photos). There was a thin layer of people watching from outside the Zone, but that was it.
This girl spent a lot of time doing her makeup :D
The crowd leaving the Fan Zone after Daughtry's set.
When Daughtry was over, the people in the Fan Zone had to leave and rejoin the queue. They looked like a tiny exodus of some sort. They were staring at us as we were staring at them, secretly happy that we kept our spots in the queue :3 I saw
sahiraa in this crowd. She quickly joined my line, not too far away from where I was. She said hi to the other SG bbs, but she didn't really see me :P I also saw
ugipinky as she was swayed by the crowd to the end of the line XD
It was getting dark. The line was getting longer and more packed, but we still have more than 4 hours to wait. JFC, Adam, the things we do for you...
The queue behind me.
This is the very end of my queue, around 8 pm.
Around 8 pm, I heard there was another queue forming at the left side of the stage. So I left my stuff with the girls and checked it out. True enough, the other line was even more crowded than mine. A lot of them were probably the people who watched Daughtry earlier.
And because I was bored, I took a vid of each queue so you guys could see it for yourselves :P
The line on the right side of the stage :
Click to view
The other line on the left side :
Click to view
*SIGHS*
THIS IS ALL GETTING REALLY TL;DR AND FUCKING BORING ISN'T IT? I'M SORRY, BUT THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED WHEN PEOPLE MAKE YOU WAIT FOR 6 HOURS WHILE DOZENS OF HIGH-OCTANE MACHINES WERE RAPING YOUR EARDRUMS. YOU GET A LITTLE TRIGGER-HAPPY WITH YOUR CAMERA JUST TO HAVE SOMETHING TO DO.
I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING.
BUT I FEEL LIKE I HAVE TO MAKE UP FOR THE LACK OF ADAM PICS, OKAY.
This is the view of the stage from the middle of the field. The skyline made a really gorgeous backdrop <3
Thank god there were fianlly some signs of life on the stage!
THEY WERE SETTING UP FOR ADAM! EEEEEEEEEE~~~!
I quickly ran back to my queue. Soon enough, without prior announcement or warning, people at the start of my line were standing up! Then there were running inside the Fan Zone. We collectively cursed and dragged our asses off the ground and started running to the front of the line. The officials held us back. They only let in 10 people or so at once. It was craaaazy! Our group got separated. When I got to the front of the line, I only saw
meine_liebe and
pollyness behind me. Then the official opened the way AND I RAN AND RAN AS IF SATAN WAS HOT ON MY HEELS AND MY FUCKING DRESS WAS FLAPPING IN THE WIND LIKE CRAZY AND I WANTED TO LAUGH AT THE RIDICULOUSNESS OF THE WHOLE SITUATION BUT AT THE SAME TIME I WAS EYEING FOR A GOOD SPOT BY THE STAGE AND WAS CURSING SEVEN KINDS OF HELLS AT THE UNIVERSE AT LARGE.
HELLO, 5TH ROW FROM THE FRONT, TOMMY SIDE.
This was the view from my spot.
It was 5 rows of people, mind you, since it was a GA show. Not 5 rows of seats. I was 5 fucking heads away from the edge of the stage. Even though there were a fenced gap between the stage and the first row, it was still pretty damn close. I quickly looked back to find my friends, but a wave of people were coming at me like a scene from Braveheart; sans the kilts and hairy feet, but with similar fervor and battlecries... Somehow,
terraj landed beside me. It took me 10 minutes to realize that the person in front of me was actually
pollyness! But I couldn't find the other girls... I was so bummed about that. I wanted us to watch and flail together :(
We waited some more... It was still one and a half hour before the show. Whoever the fuck came up with the idea of opening the Fan Zone one and a half hour before the show needed to find a fire and kill himself in it. The race, that had started again since Daughtry's set was done, was getting fierce, judging by the sound of the engines. We were forced to watch the race on the big screens because there was practically nothing else we could do. Well, Terra was busy with her phone, lol. Polly and I kept a close watch on the stage, I think. I knew she was looking for Neil, lolol.
Stage crew came and went, the air was getting hot, pain was starting to shoot up my legs, but the race kept on and on and oooon. OMG it felt like there wouldn't be an end to the race. I don't think I had ever hated an a whole branch of sport that badly before.
Neil showed up sometimes to take pictures of the audience. When he appeared, we screamed and threw him some catcalls, which he returned with a scowl <3 It was true love, I could tell.
This was the shot of the crowd right behind me.
Because I was stuck in a really crowded spot, I couldn't even turn around to see the crowd situation. I stuck my camera over my head and took a pic of the crowd behind me, but I still couldn't see if the Fan Zone was full or how the audience situation was in the area outside of the Fan Zone (later, pics and news articles showed us that
the area was packed with 30.000 people? HOLY SHIT, ADAM!)
Then, just when I was going numb with all the pain and the heat, THE RACE WAS OVER, FYE WAS PLAYING ON THE SPEAKERS AND THIS CAME UP ON THE STAGE.
SHIT WAS GETTING REEEEEAALLLLL!!
I HAD BASICALLY LOST MY MIND AT THIS POINT.
YEAAAAA, IDEK ANYMOOOREEEE!! /0\ HE APPEARED AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS AND I LOST IT. HE PRAWLED DOWN THE STEPS AND I LOST IT. HE BREATHED AND I. JUST. LOST. IT. NOTICE THE PATTERN?
IT TOOK ME A WHILE TO GET USED TO THE IDEA THAT, OH HAY, THIS IS ADAM FUCKING LAMBERT. RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. IN THE FLESH. OH GOD, COULD WE NOT PUT THE WORDS "ADAM" AND "FLESH" IN ONE SENTENCE? I JUST COULDN'T DEAL. I THINK I WAS GETTING AWARE THAT HE WAS SINGING SOMETHING SOMETIME IN THE MIDDLE OF DTRH. I TRIED TO TAKE PICS, BUT THEY WERE ALL BLURRY. SOMETIMES I SIMPLY FORGOT TO TAKE PICS AND JUST STAAAAAAAAAAAARED AT HIM.
I'm a short girl, so when he was at the center or back area of the stage, I had to stand on my toes to be able to see him. LOL I caught more pics of people's cameras than of him. OH BUT WHO COULD EVEN REMEMBER TO TAKE PICS WHEN HE STALKED OVER TO YOUR SECTION AND EYEFUCKED YOUR VERY SOUL /0\
THEN, FEVER.
OH MY GOD. FEVER.
I ACTUALLY PULLED MY HAIR AND WENT "OMGOMGOMGOMGGGG! I'M WATCHING ADAM KISS A BOY IRL. ADAM IS KISSING A BOY IRL AND YOU ARE LOOKING, REEEEEII!!"
It wasn't even a deep, wet one. It was a peck. But the little smiles they exchanged after that KILLED MEEEEEEE.
terraj, I'm so sorry if I freaked you out that night. I did ask you to slap me with your hand fan if I got too loud, but you didn't, LOL. WELL, YOU SHOULD'VE.
At some point, I remembered to actually listen to his voice. But FUCK MY ACTUAL LIFE, I was standing too close to the stage, I was almost leveled with the speakers. The speakers weren't facing at my direction, but more toward the back of audience. My part of the audience was clearly not for catching the best audio, because his voice sounded a little bit weird. Like, higher than it should be (or at least, higher than in the youtube vids) and sounded a little helium-y, which I was preeeeetty sure shouldn't be the case. The singing was perfection, tho. Techniques were ridiculous. THOSE HIGH NOTES. IN REAL LIFE. I CAN'T EVEN. WHAT EVEN. I NEVER GOT TO SEE THE BIG NAMES IN CLASSIC ROCK PERFORMING IN PERSON. I NEVER EVEN SAW AXL ROSE OR SEBASTIAN BACH HITTING THOSE NOTES IRL. I'M ALWAYS JEALOUS OF THE OLDER GENERATION THAT THEY GOT TO EXPERIENCE THE LEGENDS. BUT WHEN I HEARD ADAM SING LIKE THAT, I THOUGHT, "SO THIS IS HOW IT'S LIKE."
:'))))))))))))))))))))))))
The off sound bugged me a lot, tho. It obviously bugged him too, because he went to the side of the stage a couple of times to bitch at the sound guy in a really animated way, which got me & Terra LOL-ing. BITCH MOAR, HBIC, UNFFFF. He took his time too, so the stage was dark for a couple of minutes. Twice. LOLOLOLOL I wish I could hear what he was saying. tho...
I tried to focus on the pretty, because I wasn't going to let the sound ruin my show. He looked exactly like he does in the hundreds and hundreds of youtube videos I've seen. Maybe it was because I already knew what to expect. I knew he'd look taller, slimmer and RADIANT LIKE THE SUN in person. Even so, I wasn't expecting THE INTENSE EYEFUCKING. Srsly. That boy. GOD. He was so, so, SO FLIRTY. WITH EVERYONE. I swear, every time he went to my side of the stage and EYEFUCKED EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN MY SECTION, I froze up and whimpered pathetically. I think, at one time, I almost broke my glowstick in two because I just couldn't handle the ~ANTICIPATION. I wasn't sure what I was ~anticipating, lololol. I wasn't even in the first row! But when he looked at you with that look in his eyes, you just.... IDK, there was an alarm bell in my head that was screaming, "DANGER! DANGER! ASLDFJWAOEJ DANGER!! BUT DROP YOUR PANTS, JUST IN CASE!!"
Fucking intense, Adam.
Fever went away unexpectedly, mostly because I still wasn't ready to let it go, dammit. Where's that damn replay button when you need it? Someone brought a chair to the center of the stage and we all knew IT WAS TIME FOR OPRAH. His lecture on ~luh was ridiculously endearing, but then again I was obviously biased :P WWFM sounded faster than I thought? But it was perfect. So was Soaked.
ASLDFKJAWEOIJAS;FOWEIJ SOAKED.
I expected to cry during Soaked. I really thought I would. Surprise, surprise, I didn't. I was too busy being blown away by the power of the second chorus (and trying to ignore the pain in my feet) to even cry. I was, however, grinning from ear to ear like a rabid hyena because I was so, soooo happy I could hear DAT VOICE in person. Oh god that second chorus <33333
The grin remained a permanent fixture on my face through the end of the third part, which I was surprised to find as my favorite part. I was jumping up and down through most of the third set while raising a glowstick in one hand. It was a wonder I didn't accidentally hurled the glowstick to the stage or poked someone's eyes with it... I LOL-ed when he told us to jump. I was already jumping, you idiot! XDDDD But the Lord hath speaketh, so I think we all jumped even higher... Polly was doing it too! God, she was a hero. She was on freaking high heels and she didn't stopped jumping around. I think our excitement was infectious, because the group of Indo girls on my right started to do it too.
Songs went by faster than the F1 cars, it was ridic. Before I knew it, a deep, thumping bass line shook the stage and he started introducing his band. I remember going "Noooooooooooooooo! Not IIHY!! No no not yeeet!" outloud... /0\ I really loved Cam on the keys. Isaac was okay, but I still loved LP's powerful tribal sound better. AND OF COURSE TOMMY WAS JERKING OFF HIS BASS WHILE ADAM WAS STARING. HOW IS THIS MY LIFE?? Monte was crazier & more daring than Orianthi, UNFF.
I couldn't really see the dancers intro, but I saw Brooke's part very clearly. I didn't really know what she was going to do but she WAS going to do something to Adam and Adam just backed out. LOL, ADAM, YOU WUSS. He ended up shrugging and laughing, I think.
AFTER THAT, I DIDN'T EVEN CARE ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE ANYMORE. I WAS SINGING, I WAS JUMPING, I FELT AS IF I WAS IN A CLUB BACK IN 1999. THE SONG, HIS VOICE, THE LIGHTS, THE DAMPNESS IN MY EYES, PEOPLE JUMPING AROUND LIKE CRAZY AROUND ME AND SINGING AND SWINGING THEIR ARMS, IDEKKKKK I WAS SO DAMN HAPPY, I FORGOT IT WAS THE END OF HIS SHOW.
Except it wasn't.
After a short break where we pleaded for an encore, he appeared shortly to unleash Mad World. When he said good night to all of us and went backstage again, I remember asking to Terra, "WTF?? That can't be the only encore, right???" But it was :'( And I was srsly, srsly bummed. I'd kill to hear WLL or TCB live.. :'(((( The audience was in the same state of disbelief. They all stayed in their spots for a long time, still asking for another encore, until the stage crew started disassembling the instruments. We reluctantly left the Fan Zone area to look for our other friends.
All in all, it was a solid performance. I knew he was exhausted and jetlagged and probably still very pissed at the F1 noises, but he gave his all. The energy, the passion... it was as if he hadn't been at the end of his 72-city tour and tossed across the ocean for another 3 months of doing the exact same thing. ILHSFM. He really belongs on the stage. I was so damn lucky to be able to catch a moment of that. But dammit, Adam, it was not going to be my last >:3 You still owe me another encore and I'm going to chase you down until I'm done with you, which I hope NEVER.
ILUSFM, my fucking rockstar.
/sap
Um, right.
So.
This recap isn't over yet, haha... *awkward*
After the show, we left the Zone 4 and hung around near the exit that was guarded by the security. I was ready to find a horizontal spot to rest my legs, but I couldn't resist waiting with the others there. It didn't take long, really. Soon, a buggy car opened the way for a silver car.
Of cooouurse the only pic I caught here is the one of the driver. Of couuuuuurse.../0\
I missed the moment to take a pic partly because I was busy staring at Tommy (and his blonde, blonde hair) who was sitting behind the driver, and partly because I thought it'd be rude to blind these people with my camera flash. Although it didn't stop everyone else... I couldn't see the person who was sitting next to Tommy (Sasha?), but I could clearly see Cam and Taylor in the backseat. I was standing next to Taylor's side of the car. He partly opened the curtain by his window and looked right at me as I waved at him, lol. He looked exhausted and shy, the poor thing. No one could see Adam. We didn't even know if he was in that car. The crowd dispersed after that.
The girls and I spent some time resting on a stone bench nearby. While we were talking about the show, another buggy car passed by with Neil sitting at the back. We all shouted "BYE, NEEEILLL!!" LOLOLOL.
pollyness hated herself for not waiting by the exit for him. LOLOL.
We left the venue not too long after that. But where we were heading next is another adventure saved for another post :) That was my first and, from the looks of it, last Glam Nation Tour show. I have now officially lost my GNT virgin status *raises glass* Now I only need to get my official numbered VIP membership card, then I'll be set for life >:P
Thank you so much to all of my Singapore bbs for being there with me!
neednotwant, thank you so much for the tix and the Glambox! No, srsly, thank you! I wouldn't have been there without you! <333 Thank you so much,
m_ia_n, for everything, really! Thanks for the help with the hostel and thanks for letting me rant, lol <333
quitesecret,
pollyness, thank you so much for your company! <333 You guys made it really, really fun! And
terraj, thank you so much for guiding this tourist to places, lol. You were really, really nice! <333 And thank you,
clear_liquer, for the glitters, the glowsticks and the adventurous midnight walk down Clarke Quay, lol <333 And thanks to every one else in the group, whose LJ usernames I couldn't quite catch (I'm sorry~). Hope to see you all again next time! :D
SECOND ALBUM INTERNATIONAL TOUR, ADAM. BRING IT.