It was the day where punk rockers, who grew up in the 90s could relish with hardcore joy.

It was the day where 2000+ fans queued all evening and gathered with one sole motivation.

14th April 2012. It was the day where Sum 41 rocked our Malaysian stage!

 

Sum 41 LIVE in Malaysia 2012

 

Yes. I am certainly one of those punk rockers at heart.

My teenage years were the most significant memories of my punk rocker demeanor.

 

Sum 41 was a band that I remember rocking out to – on my own – within the confines of my bedroom 

 

And now here I am at the upper deck of KL Live watching my teenage idols perform LIVE

 

Remember I ran a Sum 41 contest here? Well, I'd like to congratulate the 3 winners of my contest again!

Hope ya'll enjoyed the concert as much as I did

 

Bumped into one of my winners for the Sum 41 contest.

Congrats Melissa!

 

My lovely assistant for the day – buddy Pamela 

 

8PM | Bunkface kick-started the party as one of  the opening acts of the night.

They sang 4 songs altogether.

 

      

Bunkface on stage!

 

   

Rocking out with their guitars!

 

Playing 'Extravaganza'!

 

     

And 'Silly Willy'!

 

Those two are my favorite songs from them Too bad they didn't play 'Through My Window'!

I loved that song heaps! 

 

8.30PM | One Buck Short took to the stage  

They sang '10:04'. Hurrah! I remember singing to it last year in my car all the time when it played on radio.

 

   

Don't wake me up! This is our love song!

 

t   

Rahul, lead guitarist of OBS!  

He was amazing and definitely a man of talent

 

   

They performed a slow rendition of  'Puppy Love' as well

 

What I found really impressive was their cover of Katy Perry's 'Last Friday Night'.

It was such a brilliant metal version, complete will all the growls 

 

     

OBS introduced a violinist who played LIVE! It was a terrific accompaniment to their songs

 

10PM | No sign of Sum 41 just yet. We had been waiting for an hour!

People were starting to get a tad restless after the long wait but there was still merriment in the crowd.

 

Pam and I camwhored our boredom away!

 

What I found really amusing was the way people find such delirious ways to entertain themselves!

The audience from the upper tier started throwing free drinks to the audience below.

 

While everyone else started to freeze and sing our national anthem, 'Negaraku' and bursting out into random sing-a-long songs.

 

 

10.30PM | Finally! Sum 41 broke the frustration with a sudden grand entrance

All the dissatisfaction and rage immediately transformed into high levels of energy from the crowd!

 

Stealing the show with their Screaming Bloody Murder tour with 'Screaming Bloody Murder'!

 

Lemme introduce you to the band members of Sum 41!

 

Lead singer & guitarist Deryck Whibley!

 

Bass guitarist and backing vocalist Jason McCaslin!

 

Lead guitarist & backing vocalist Tom Thacker!

 

Drummer Steve Jocz!

 

Over 2000 fans queued up as early as the afternoon began! Talk about some die hard fans here.

And hours before Sum 41 rocked the stage, the entire KL Live was packed with crazy punk rockers coming from all over Malaysia and even foreigners who made their way here to watch them live! 

Left side of the stage!

 

Right side of the stage!

 

When Sum 41 began playing their signature songs from the earlier albums, both the upper tier and lower tier were roaring with people all ready to rumble!

I had my fair share of yelling (singing) along to my fave songs 

 

Derryck and Jason giving the crowd one they'll never forget

 

They continued with 'Reason to Believe' and brought the house down with 'Hell Song'!

The crowd began to crowd-surf amongst each other.

 

There's a video at the end of this post! We managed to capture a guy surfing away

 

Throughout 'Hell Song' , Derryck began cherry-picking people from the crowd

 

Picking out another one!

 

Bet it was hard to choose; everyone would kill to join Sum 41 onstage!

The crowd was yelling, screaming and jumping as much as they can to be THE CHOSEN ONE

 

Just keep choosing and bringing 'em people to your stage, Derryck!

 

He brought up not one but FOUR people up on stage! Saw some of them giving Derryck a big hug.

Everyone got real jelly when they saw that and went 'HEYYYY!!!!' but it soon changed into an 'AWWWWW!'

 

Turning the mic towards the crowd so we can sing the bridge for him!

 

NOW I'M IN OVER MY HEAD!

FOR SOMETHING I SAID!

 

COMPLETELY MISREAD!

I'M BETTER OFF DEAD!

 

The crowd got into the zone and began to whirl up a massive circle pit in the mosh!

 

Their next song on tonight's playlist was 'We're All To Blame'

 

Performing a beautiful rendition of 'Walking Disaster'

I must say, eventhough I haven't been catching up or keeping myself up to date with the latest songs off their latest album Screaming Bloody Murder, I truly enjoyed their newer numbers.

Sum 41's new release of tracks felt darker, deeper, less punk-rock – routing slightly to the metal rock genre

 

Sum 41 performing 'Time for You to Go'

 

The next two songs were 'In Too Deep' and 'Motivation'. Boy, I swore I could feel the reverberation throughout the whole upper deck!

Imagine 2000 people, upper and lower tier, jumping and headbanging at the same time.

 

We be causing our own tremor in KL Live! 

 

Sum 41 letting Steve Jocz have his moment!

 

He definitely stole the limelight throughout his drum solo!

 

The continued their performance with 'Sick of Everyone', a number off their latest album as well.

 

 

Despite it being one of their newer songs, die-hard fans knew all the lyrics by heart.

Now that was impressive… and so much undying love for Sum 41! 

 

ROAARRRR WHO WANTS SOME HEAVY METAL!!!?

 

To our surprise, Sum 41 gave us a few short performance-covers of some really popular metal songs.

They covered songs by Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Metallica and a few others.

 

 

After 'Underclass Hero', another twist was in store for us.

Derryck then passed the mic to Tom and he gave us a stellar guitar solo and vocal performance!

 

Woooootwoooooot!

Tom's guitar solo

 

Derryck's guitar solo

 

T'was great seeing how all the band members of Sum 41 were so cooperative and supportive of one another onstage.

Such wonderful showmanship! Their transitions and performances jived seamlessly 

 

Jason and Derryck began picking out more people from the crowd to join them onstage

 

"I choose you!"

 

Performing 'Still Waiting' off their 2nd studio album Does This Look Infected?

 

SO AM I, STILL WAITING?

FOR THIS LOVE TO STOP HATING?

 

'Still Waiting' was another one of my favorite Sum 41 songs and I enjoyed headbanging and yelling throughout the song.

It was mayhem! Another circle pit started in the mosh again and more crowd-surfing soon ensued 

 

It was so insane till a point where security had to come and keep things back to an orderly manner LOL

 

 

Don't want anybody to get hurt, ey?

Keep moshing but be safe, fellow punk rockers!

 

The boys of Sum 41 performing a cover of 'We Will Rock You' originally sang by Queen

(encore)

 

After that performance was over, the crowd was already soaked with perspiration and brimming with their own heat.

The temperature rose and many people were seen pouring bottles of water over themselves.

 

Some even splashed their water on Derryck!

 

Oh you wanna play huh?

Let the games begin!

 

WATERFIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Derryck then grabbed his waterbottle off stage and splashed it towards the audience in retaliation

 

Derryck was soon outnumbered. The waterfight just kept going!

 

Sum 41 proceeded to perform their final song of the night, 'Fat Lip'. 

For those of you who have been listening to them back in the day, you would know that 'Fat Lip' was the very first single released off their very first album, All Killer No Filler, back in 2001.

 

Geez, how time flies!

 

The final twist of the night : drummer Steve Jocz takes the centerstage and wows the crowd on the mic!

 

There you have it, the boys of Sum 41!

 

This was the first time in all the years of my covering gigs/concerts that the drummer actually got down

from his drumset to steal the show with the microphone instead

 

It was impressive no doubt!

 

Sum 41 then threw out guitar picks and drumsticks to the crowd.

Everyone flocked to wherever those goodies were being thrown to! Now, I wish I was at the mosh too

 

They gave us a bow after their stunning two-hour performance

 

Although it was a pity that they did not perform 'Pieces', which was a crowd-favorite (I could hear people chanting Pieces! Pieces! Pieces! as early as 10PM!), we enjoyed their live performance and all that wait to see them perform in the flesh right in front of our eyes proved to be worthwhile.

Only a true fan would wait for hours (rain or shine)and still support a band to the end and back.

 

Here's the video of the night

Thanks to Pam for the footages & thanks to Kon for helping me edit them! 

WATCH EEEEEEEEEEEEET  

 

You've made these two girls very happy and proud of the music we grew up with

 

I'm sure the entire crowd of 2000 exuberant fans can vouch for what I said

 

Freddy Mercury approves

 

Sum 41 made us, punk-rockers so proud tonight!

We wish you all the best for the remaining stops of your Screaming Bloody Murder tour

 

A major shout-out to Rahul of One Buck Short and Livescape Asia and for putting together this amazing one-night-only show for us and making it happen!  I had a terrific time, thank you! 

 

Tonight's special Rockaway showcase was indeed, brilliant.

Can't wait for the Rockaway Fest this year!

 

 

It was the first day and the first session ever of the Malaysia International Tourism Bloggers Conference & Award (MITBCA) 2012 organized by our very own Ministry of Tourism and the Social Media Chambers.

For more, check out both my previous blogposts where I shared what MITBCA 2012 is all about and announced who the award winners are.

 

Rise & shine! On the morning of Day One, I was all set and ready to go.

 

Semi-formal/smart casual outfit of the day. TheJessicat wears : 

Black pin striped blazer by S.U.B

Pink tank-top by Tommy Hilfiger

Black high-waisted skirt by Cotton On

Grey peep-toe suede wedges by Nose

Brown leather satchel by Forever 21

 

 

When I arrived Seri Pacific Hotel, the ballroom was already buzzing with delegates!

Wow, talk about being enthusiastic. Great turn out, guys 

 

9.30AM | Our very own Minister of Tourism, YB Dato Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen set the ball rolling with her keynote speech & welcomed us all.

 

This photo only shows half of the ballroom

 

Sheila Scarborough (prominent specialist of Social Media application on Tourism Businesses)

gave her talk on the 'outreach beyond travel bloggers'

 

This catered more to business owners of the travel & tourism related industry.

She shared how to identify one's niche markets, where to find them, how to connect to them and recommended ways on how to interest them in one's destinations and places of interest.

 

11.30AM | After her Tourism Social Media Specialist Talk, it was time for the first panel session to begin.

This session shares the ways of creating an engaged social media community

 

A friend of mine, David Jr. Hogan of Malaysia Asia, was one of the speakers for this session

Good on you, pal!

 

He talked about the community expansion through travel and sharing the Malaysian experience

 

Other speakers of this panel include other notable people in this similar field of expertise, Ali Watters from Scotland, Kiruba Shankar from India and Shane Dallas from Australia.

I found each of their sessions very enlightening and by the end of this panel session, I can bet your bottom dollar that everyone had learnt a thing or two about building active communities through blogging and how to promote destinations & services through new media platforms such as blogs and twitter.

 

1PM | LUNCH HOUR! 

Time to stretch, mingle about and take a break over scrumptious buffet lunch

 

Buddy Joe and I – good luck in your speech later! 

 

Muzaffar and I

 

David and I – great speech earlier! 

 

Made a new friend and fellow blogger  - Lash from the US of A

 

Hanie and I – good luck on your speech later dearie! 

 

Bumped into a one of my blog readers, this lovely lady beside me, Glow!

So nice to meet you after a few years of interacting with you only on my blog and on Twitter.

 

She replied my  tweet the night before the conference & mentioned she was attending the conference too. Another new friend made today 

It was very nice of her to approach me to say hi! We talked and clicked well 

 

2PM | The second panel session, which began right after lunch hour, focuses on entrepreneurship in tourism using social media.

Now, we're talking about the money money money here! $$$$$$

 

A good friend of mine, Joseph Lee began the session by

sharing ways to create good leads and generating immediate income

 

I found his talk informational and very ingenious! 

Good titles, how you say things online to first capture your readers/viewers attention is just as important as being dedicated in selling yourself well to gain monetary returns.

 

The next speaker was Anuradha Goyal from India who crafted many good ways

on how to create a tourism blog that generates interest

 

Dr. James Craven from the UK speaks about the importance of feedbacks & market interaction

Improving customer services through social media – something EVERY business must bear in mind.

 

Iman Brotoseno from Indonesia then shared how to drive engagement effectively

and adding value to social media via travel blogs

 

After almost two hours, it was time for the third panel session to begin after a short break.

 

To my surprise, I spotted my friend Khairul Anuar whom I've not caught up with in a while.

It slipped my mind that he was the moderator of the final panel session!

 

Great bumping into you today, pal!

The session that he moderates will emphasize on effective campaigns through the new media – enjoying one's holiday and sharing it to the world.

 

Hanie and I again.

See her rolled up paper? She came well-prepared on what to say

 

And it begins!

 

3.30PM | The session began with Windy Ariestanty from Indonesia who spoke about lifestyle & travel – going places and blogging about it.

She shared her experience and fun with the delegates.

 

Michael Aguino from the Philippines presented crafty ways to write

& blog about shoppers paradise in different countries

 

Good to know! I found his talk very entertaining and I learnt heaps from it as well

 

Next up was Anis Nabilah, host of 'Icip-icip' a television program on the Asian Food Channel (AFC)

She shared about the food junction : eating > drinking > blogging! 

 

 

Hanie was the final person to speak!

 

She spoke about how she started travelling with her family at a very young age and finally decided to document her travels online. Hanie also spoke on how to closing the gap and connecting closely to one's people.

 

5PM | Day One of MITBCA 2012 ends!

It was great to have reunited with so many friends from the industry that I have not seen in a while as well as meeting a whole new bunch of people from various fields of expertise.

Apart from that, the conference went very smoothly in a perfectly organized manner and it was enlightening to hear different perspectives of the panelists regarding tourism blogging, travelling and social media.

 

Two thumbs up to the team!  

 

Today was a fantastic day of information sharing and a good flow of questions and answers from the delegates and endless discussions.

Alright, I shall freshen up and put my best foot forward for tonight's MITBCA Gala Award Dinner.

 

 

Looking forward to more in store for us on Day Two!

 

 

Remember my previous blogpost regarding this prestigious award ceremony organized by the Ministry of Tourism?

The voting period has ended, the panel has tabulated the scores, judges have made their final decision and it is my pleasure to congratulate the winners of the 16 categories of Malaysian International Tourism Bloggers Conference & Awards!

 

Tourism Fashion Blog – Hanis Zalikha from inibelogsaya.blogspot.com

Fabulous Food 1 Malaysia Blog – Zuraida from koleksi1001resepi.com

Tourism Lifestyle Blog – Emilia Yusof from emiliayusof.com

Tourism Music Blog – Yuna from myspace.com/yuna

Tourism Photography/Art Blog – Daniel Zaidi from danielzaidi.com

Tourism Technology Blog – Steve Yu from mytechquest.com

Tourism Micro Blogger – Andy Telasai from twitter.com.andytelasai

Celebrity Blog – Zarul from ZarulUmbrella.com

Tourism Travel Blog – Jard from ignorantbrat.blogspot.com

Tourism Blog of the Year – Bella from enveeus.com

Expat MM2H Blog – Docgelo from docgelo.wordpress.com

Eco Tourism Blog – Janggel from janggeltrekking2.blogspot.com

Homestay Blog – terataihomestay.blogspot.com

Tourism Destination Blog –  John from kakiberangan.blogspot.com

 

and a personal congrats from me to both my friends for winning the Tourism awards too!

 

Tourism Duty Free Shopping Blog – Wilson Ng from placesandfoods.com

Tourism Entertainment Blog – Nazuwan from beautifulnara.com

 

 

Looking forward to the Gala/Award Ceremony night at Saloma Theatre Restaurant! 

Don't forget to attend the two-day conference! 

There will be world-class international speakers presenting us a very informational session about tourism, travel, blogging, social media and their experiences throughout the years.

 

Registration is  free!

 

Make sure I see you this coming Tuesday and Wednesday! 

 

For more information and staying updates with the latest of MITBCA, do check out the official website www.mitbca.com, like their Facebook page at facebook.com/mitbca or follow them on Twitter at twitter.com/mitbca2012

 

 

Just got word that there will be a notable two-day conference followed by a prestigious awards ceremony that's all happening early next month.

I am more than honoured to be one of the official bloggers to represent and blog about the Malaysian International Tourism Bloggers Conference & Awards – an event of such a grand scale!

 

 

This global event for bloggers – organized by the Ministry of Tourism in association with Social Media Chambers – aims to honour and award tourism bloggers across the globe for extensively promoting tourism in Malaysia.

16 categories and 16 awards will be awarded to the most deserving travel bloggers who blog about tourism, tourist spots and share Malaysia in one way or another.

 

It's good to know that the government has acknowledged and is now riding on

the waves of blogging and social media! :)

 

Experience our city that never sleeps. Think : food, shopping & nightlife!

 

Immerse yourself in our cultural experience & getaways!

 

An excellent move to boost tourism in Malaysia, if I do say so myself. 

The ministry aims to attract 36 million tourists, a goal targeted based on last year's 24.6 million tourists last year.

 

 

The two-day conference will be held on :

8th & 9th of May 2012 at Seri Pacific Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Do come! Registration is FREE

 

It's gonna be a very informational and enlightening session,

with international guest speakers as well!

 

Nominations have been closed and locked in – a whopping 100K nominated blogs in total!

Voting period has begun and closes on the 1st of May 2012.  

 

All the best to all the finalists! 

 

So you know what to do… vote for your favourite or most deserving travel blogs at MITBCA website!

 

 

For more information, head on to the official website itself at www.mitbca.com

Also, while you're at it, stay updated with the latest regarding the event on Twitter @MITBCA2012 and check them out on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mitbca