So, who was rocking it out at the Adam Lambert Glam Nation Tour 2010 concert last week at Putra Indoor Stadium? There were a ton of people all dressed up and getting confuzzling me about the differences between a rock look and an emo look!

But, huge thanks to Sony Music Malaysia for hooking me up with some sweet Rock Zone tickets! I love concerts being held at the indoor stadium because it's fully air-conditioned and there's plenty of space for the inevitable jumping around and uncoordinated dance moves!

David and I got there a little late so we missed the local opening acts. But thanks to the rest who were there as well like Kel Li, Nigel, Joshua, Cedric, Jason and Yatz with his new special lady friend Daphne, I got a pretty good picture of how the opening acts went.

Hey, wadya know? Pictures!


Young local singer, Iqwal, did a cover of Jay Sean's "Down" much to the crowd's delight. Because no Malaysian wants to sing along to a song they have not heard on the radio 1000 times a day.


This was followed by a tag-team act of singer Danell Lee and violinist extraordinaire, Dennis Lau! They performed a cover of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life". I have no idea how it would sound like with violins and I really wish I was there to see it!



I've seen Dennis Lau perform a few times at different events, but it was mostly pop/jazzy tunes, so it would have been pretty cool to see a violin at a rock concert.



After the opening acts, there was a wait of about 45 minutes, during which the main sponsor, DiGi, released huge yellow beach balls into the crowd. A few people close to where I was standing got a little too excited over some giant balls bouncing around and I made it a point to move a few feet farther away. Just in case.

Without warning, the lights dimmed, and the crowd started going wild! The stage lights went on and laser beams shout out in all directions. Oh yea, you know who's coming.


Adam leaped onto stage in a huge fur coat and feathery tophat, and immediately launched into his first song, "Voodoo"! His outfit reminded me of Dr. Facilier from "The Princess & The Frog"!


It was several songs non-stop for Adam the minute the concert started!


He went right into "For Your Entertainment", "Rabbit Hole" and much to my fangirl delight, he sang the same Middle-Eastern-esque version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" that he sang on the country music episode of American Idol! Sweet!!


After a short musical interlude, the tophat and furcoat came off to give us a nice look at Adam's insanely glittery mohawk.


His dancers came out and he sang "Fever", "Sleepwalker", "Soaked", "Broken Open" and "Aftermath".


The high stool came on with a lone acoustic guitarist and we know what's coming. A slow song! Surprisingly, it was his mega hit "Whataya Want From Me", which sounded awesome!

The concert was really fast-paced with Adam going from song to song with hardly a pause in between. He did interact with the audience a little with some words of wisdom about love, life and sex (y'know, all the important things), but would have been great to get more going with the crowd.


He then performed "Surefire", "Strut" and "Music Again", which accompanied the always fun to watch introduction of his band members and dancers.


He performed so many songs for this concert, I was starting to get a little restless towards the end!

After saying a few words of thanks to the crowd, he gave everyone exactly what they came for - a sing-a-long to "If I Had You". Everyone just lost it right there and then. I don't know if undergarments were coming off, but the concert turned into a huge party with everyone on their feet, from those in the highest seats around the stadium to those on the floor, dancing and singing with Adam at the top of their Malaysian lungs!

I permitted myself a few jumps and mad swinging of arms before I calmed down.

It was the perfect song to end the concert on a high note with. The lights went down, Adam took a bow and left the stage. It's over!

Well, not quite yet.


After a few minutes of enduring teenage girls screaming "We want more!" at the top of their teenage lungs, the stage lights burst back on and Adam came back on stage with his bad. Mr. Lambert was not done with Malaysia just yet.

He gave a great performance of a cover version of "Mad World" and "20th Century Boy" which involved a lot of electric guitar shredding that almost killed my ears. Finally, it was really over.

What a concert! Adam's voice was amazing and insanely high-pitched from start to finish! I knew he was good when I watched him on American Idol, but to actually witness him performing live right in front of me was awesome. He maintained the standards we expected of him and blew everyone away. I say this about every concert I go to, and I'll say it again - it was surreal.


*pics from Sony Music Malaysia*

I have officially lost it. Both my mind and a ton of money.

So far, I've been pretty successful at keeping my nose in the cheap side of cosmetics and items intended to make one look as presentable as possible. My personal buying motto of quantity over quality has served me well thus far, but ever since I've been having a steady income, the urge to spend has been quite overwhelming! And like a boxer with butter fingers, I haven't been putting up much of a fight against it.

My willpower officially went down the drain the day I happened to saunter (without putting up a fight again, you see) past a MAC outlet the day they launched their latest collection - a collaboration with Disney called the "Venomous Villains Collection".


Instead of going the predictable route with a collection centered around characters that every little girl with fluttering eyelashes and bluebirds following her around longs to be, MAC made a collection based on the characters we love to hate! Disney villains are in a class of their own. With more devious plans than local politicians and methods of poisoning that would make you look upon apples and spinning wheels with unnecessary caution, they're a whole bunch of angry bitches out to get you.

Well, there are male Disney villains as well and MAC didn't want to leave that out.


The MAC Disney Venomous Villains Collection is based on 4 Disney villains namely Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmatians - 1961), the Evil Queen (Snow White - 1937), Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty - 1959) and Dr. Facilier (The Princess & The Frog - 2009). Each villain has a whole range of products like blushes, beauty powders, eyeshadows, lipglosses and such to their name and the packaging for most of it has the classic images of the villains printed on (as opposed to stickers like previous collections). This collection is huge and achieves many levels of epic.

I think the villains that they chose are spot on when it comes to their individual looks, especially Maleficent, who always looks a little green, and the Evil Queen with her red lips. Cruella could have used some eyebrow grooming lessons, but we'll forgive her for that. The odd one out for me was Dr. Facilier. He's one of the most recent Disney villains, while the others are classics. It's a really weird choice since not a lot of people know him (people like myself who completely ignored that movie) and he looks like he's about to spend the night in your closet and wait until you fall asleep.

How about choosing someone like Gaston from Beauty & the Beast? Or Jafar from Aladdin? At least they were nice to look at.


I wanted to buy almost everything from the collection, mostly for the packaging though. I realise that when looking at it individually and looking at the entire collection as a whole, temptation levels tend to differ.

Since it was all insanely expensive (the perils of MAC), I decided to buy things that I know I would use (or most likely not end up in the dreaded "See-how" drawer) and luckily, they were from 2 villains whose design I liked the most!

First up, my first expensive (from someone who has only bought eyeshadow from warehouse sales) eyeshadow! From Maleficent's collection, I chose the "She Who Dares" Mineralize Eyeshadow Duo.

I've never used mineralized eyeshadow before and come to think of it, I never really use a lot of eyeshadow too. So it was quite an investment and the price tag was more than enough to make sure I actually try to use it.

"She Who Dares" Mineralize Eyeshadow Duo is a combination of a sapphire-ish navy blue with black undertones on 2/3 of it and a dirty forest green with black undertones on the other 1/3. Both colours are packed full of shimmer. Nothing a villain likes more than some shimmer to announce that she's got her eye on you.



Being an eyeshadow noob of the lowliest degree, I was kinda hesitant to buy this at first because I was pretty sure I was going to make a complete mess of things. I swatched it on my hand and the colours turned out a dull, messy black with barely noticeable shimmer. None of the bright blue and green colours I saw in the pan. I could barely tell the blue and green apart! How now brown cow??

Sensing that a customer was not about to plonk down a wad of cash into her register, a sales assistant came over to show me how it was done. She grabbed a black Greasepaint Stick (in "Slick Black" from Dr. Facilier's collection), smudged it over the back of her hand as a base and patted the Mineralize Eyeshadow Duo on top of it. I don't know how and why, but the heavens opened up (as they are wont to open at moments like these) and the colours emerged as bright and shimmery as I expected it to be the first time.

Learning my lesson, I discovered that these Mineralize Eyeshadows (and most eyeshadows for that matter) show up best with a base underneath. Depending on the look you're going for, the base could be a neutral skin colour, or the same colour as the eyeshadow itself. I decided that I was going to jump right in with smoky eye looks using this eyeshadow, so after some homework, I found a great eyeshadow base to start with - The Body Shop Kajal Eyeliner (special edition) in Charcoal, which is a basic black crayon-looking kajal eyeliner. It works great as a base for super basic black smoky eye look. I smudge it onto my eyelid, pat the Mineralize Eyeshadow Duo on top of it and it kinda works! Albeit a little messy and dangerously close to looking like bruised panda eyes zone.


I would like to give myself a public pat on the back for successfully (I use the term loosely here) doing smoky eyes for 2 days in a row! I didnt dare use more than 1 colour since my blending skillz are not past Level 1 yet, but I think it looked quite alright!

Back to MAC! Focus, I no haz it.

The next thing I bought is from the Evil Queen's collection, which is the "Strange Potion" Lipglass.


Strange Potion Lipglass is a light peachy coral with very slight gold shimmer. It is opaque enough to be worn on its own and I absolutely love it.

True to MAC's Lipglass reputation, it's pretty a sticky formula, but the colour is so worth the risk of having your lips stuck together for a few seconds each time you open your mouth (solution? talk less when wearing this).


And that's my tiny haul from MAC'S Disney Venomous Villains Collection! You can bet I'll be trying to use these 2 products as often as possible to make it worth the price I paid. I've got a slight longing for one of the blushes from the Evil Queen's collection. I'll try not to go near a MAC store anytime soon.

Mineralize Eyeshadow Duo is RM85 and Lipglass is RM70. Not sure if that price is exclusively for this collection only though. I don't know MAC prices well enough. The Body Shop Kajal Eyeliner is RM35. What a steal!

The next MAC collection launching in a few months looks promising. Just in time for Christmas, the MAC A Tartan Tale Collection has me thinking of very fit Scottish lads in kilts. Short, short kilts, standing on a hill on a windy day.






Be still, my beating heart!!

*MAC A Tartan Tale pictures from Temptalia*

With more guyliner than a panda, more glitter than a hen's night party and the ability to turn everyday angry teen questions in to hit songs, there's no doubt about it - Adam Lambert is one helluva performer.

And who knew that one fine day, he'll be bringing his very own brand of glam to Malaysia!


That's right all you closet and not-so-closet Glambert fans! Adam Lambert is bringing his Glam Nation Tour Live in Malaysia, brought to you Live by DiGi in all his glamorous glory, on 14th October 2010 at Putra Indoor Stadium, Bukit Jalil!

Aaahhhh... From humble beginnings on American Idol to sell-out concerts around the world, I remember following his progress on TV (back when AI was actually entertaining). He's the last performer I'd expect to come here to Malaysia honestly, but let us not question fate!

If you've been reading about his on-stage antics recently like I have, it's only natural to have no idea what to expect at his concert. Concert ticket prices range from RM103 (luke-warm fan) to RM298 (uber rabid fan). If you haven't already gotten your tickets, here's how you can grab some pretty good deals so you don't have an excuse to miss out!

Tickets can be bought at TicketPro online or at their counters, so find out the full list of counters at their website. Now Sony Music have recently released a special edition Adam Lambert album which is the "For Your Entertainment - Tour Edition". If you buy this album, there's a special coupon in there which you can use to get 10% off the concert tickets. Or if you buy tickets to the concert, you get a special coupon to enjoy 10% off the "For Your Entertainment - Tour Edition" album! Win-win!


For all Adam Lambert’s concert goers, be prepared to come all “glammed-up” as 5 lucky fans with the best glam look for the night will stand a chance to get an autographed Adam Lambert Glam Box as well as to meet Adam backstage! In order to participate in the “Glam It Up” contest, just get all “glammed-up” and have your photo taken at the official photowall, stationed at the main entrance, by the designated photographers between 5.30 to 6.00pm. On top of that if you are one of the lucky 5 chosen winners and also a DiGi subscriber, you and a friend will automatically be upgraded to DiGi’s zone to watch the concert (ticket upgrade not applicable for “The Pitt” zone ticket holders)!!

For fans who comes between 6.00 to 8.00pm, you can still get your photos taken and be included in the “Glamberts Hall Of Fame” photo album which will be uploaded on Facebook after the concert. To view your Glam photos, just go to Sony Music Malaysia Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/sonymusicmy). You can also share your photo with your friends by tagging yourself. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the “Glamberts Hall Of Fame”!

I'm definitely going to the concert next week! Guess which section I'll be singing "If I Had You" from? Hint: Barney.

I will be bringing out my disgustingly awesome eyeliner skillz (translation: cannot make it) in full force in honour of Glambert! It may be the most eyeliner I will ever use since I discovered eyeliner, but it will be worth the disapproving stares of society!


For our entertainment? For sure!

I don't claim to be a know-it-all when it comes to obscure music and bands that no one has ever heard of, so when I caught sight of this new duo called Hurts from the UK whilst doing the television cowabunga one fine evening, I didn't really give them a second thought.

Well it would seem that it would not be the last I'd hear of Hurts. I got a copy of their debut album "Happiness" from Sony Music Malaysia and after a few spins in my crappy car CD player, "Happiness" by Hurts seems to give me some feel-good times with a little serving of deep melancholy on the side.


Immediately judging a CD by it's cover, "Happiness" certainly looks a little retro and foreboding with Hurts frontman Theo Hutchcraft (what a sexy name) sitting all dapper in a suit with his slicked back hair and an ear piercing, while his synth partner Adam Anderson glares at us in his rolled-up-sleeves and suspenders. If you think it looks like a mug-shot, you're not alone.

The whole album art is done in a monochrome fashion with no colour other than black and white. Lyrics are provided in the album sleeve, which is becoming a rarity these days. But the initial feel you get is that it's either going to be terribly depressing or insanely boring.


Personally, I am thankful that "Happiness" does not turn out terrible nor insane.

Hurts falls under the synthpop genre which sounds very much like all music that came out of that terrible time we call the '80s. Most of the tracks might sound a little dated when you listen to them randomly, but this is an album that slowly grows on you. Most of the tracks have, but some are taking a little longer to gain my acceptance into my loving arms.


Hutchcraft's voice is the perfect glue to bind all the songs in the album together. It's rich, smooth, dripping with butter in some tracks (like "Blood, Tears & Gold") and can go from a high balladeer's warble to a slightly deeper tone that makes the song feel like it's going to be an epic journey. Try the full-0f-synth-juice first single "Better Than Love" and you'll see what I mean. It sounds like an 80's dance track, but the chorus is pretty haunting.


If there is an opportunity to insert a choir and full-blown orchestra into a track, Hurts will grab it by the throat and milk it for all it's worth! That combination brings an exciting feeling of grandeur to the album and coupled with their pretty intense lyrics, it makes for some pretty good tracks like "Stay" and "Unspoken".

My favourite track from the album is the first track "Silver Lining" and it's the perfect song to kick off the album. There's a slight funeral-march feel at the beginning, but it quickly dies off to a mesmerising piano beat and you're rewarded with a taste of Theo Hutchcraft's hypnotic voice as the song picks up and rolls you into a big haunting chorus. It dies down as soon as it picked you up by surprise, and I think that's what I like about this song. There's so many different layers to it.


Another morsel of delight in this album is "Devotion" which features Kylie Minogue! The song sounds rather concert-anthem-ish (the kind where everyone will throw their hands, lighters and girlfriends up in the air and sing along) and Kylie's voice adds just the right bit of drama to a stirring ballad.

"Happiness" by Hurts is not an album for everyone. It took me a few cracks at it before I finally discovered what I liked enough about it. There is a lot of attention to detail in all the songs - from the lyrics to the well-timed up's and down's of the volume in each track. You may feel a little mellow after you've gone through a session of "Happiness", but I suppose that's what the word meant to Hurts.


P.S. If the thought of Rick Astley suddenly jumps out at you as you listen to this album, you have nothing to feel guilty about.

P.P.S. If you need more details on where to find Hurts' album, check out Sony Music Malaysia on Facebook or Twitter.

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  Hsu Jen
  jen2wyvern@hotmail.com
  
• @serpentinegal

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