MTV's most wanted

Regardless of the stripe, music fans in Malaysia are a pretty lucky bunch. Kuala Lumpur, the capital, has played host to an impressive three MTV World Stage concerts in as many years. Shining the spotlight on some of the planet’s biggest acts, the annual sound spectacle has featured favorites such as Katy Perry, the All-American Rejects, Tokio Hotel, Kasabian and the Wonder Girls performing back-to-back on a single platform. With a line-up to make any teenage muso salivate and blather, this year’s show carried on the tradition of knocking fans’ socks off and set the bar even higher as far as sweaty, shouty fun was concerned.

For one, this year’s extravaganza took place not in a giant emptied-out swimming pool, but at i-City, a 72-acre LED-filled wonderland in suburban Shah Alam, Selangor. And more important, the whole thing was the first ever to be shot in glorious 3D in Asia. As someone who has been turning up at MTV World Stage since 2008, I couldn’t help but notice the newness of it all. Maybe it was the sight of a million twinkling digital lights or the energy of the iPhone hordes, but it somehow felt like it was my first time again. Surprises like that are always welcome.

Asian Sensations

Truly Asia, truly global: Moots!, lead singer of the multilingual Malaysian band Pop Shuvit, dives into the mosh pit.

After MTV VJs Utt and Holly – who became the network’s latest talking head at World Stage 2010 – welcomed the thousands who came to jam, local heroes Pop Shuvit stormed the stage and officially kicked off the global television special with “Ol Skool Rocka.” The blend of rock and drum ‘n’ bass – imagine Asian Dub Foundation and Helmet folded in with a little Bomfunk MCs and Linkin Park – made my brain tell my heart to throb louder. It was refreshing to stumble upon a truly multilingual and multicultural Asian band and the five dudes of Pop Shuvit proved they were it with all their songs, especially Seperti Syurgamu. That last track was a fitting way to wrap up their set, as it boasted live guest vocals from Daly from Singaporean hip hop group Ahli Fiqir, Thailand’s Daniel Tanapon Supwattana and the Philippines’ Jamir from Slapshock.

As K-pop devotees showed up in droves yet again, the screams that started up when Beast appeared onstage didn’t subside until six songs after. It didn’t matter that their hits required subtitles: from the moment the six South Korean stars opened with Shock until they concluded with the single Beautiful, their hold on today’s popular culture was evident. Beast’s calling cards may be the same as most K-pop groups’ – synchronized dance moves, directional haircuts, ambiguous sexuality – but that hasn’t stopped the masses of placard-waving girls – and some boys – from eating up everything they do with a spoon.

Take a bite of my heart tonight: Neon Trees vocalist Tyler Glenn turned the show into one big house party with his arena-filling showmanship.

Arena-Filling Showmanship

Neon Trees, third in the roster, epitomized the words stage presence. With his white-boy dance moves and arena-filling showmanship, Tyler Glenn – vocalist of the Provo, Utah foursome discovered by the Killers – called to mind Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters sporting a mohawk made popular by Puck from Glee. The fever-dance pop hooks of Your Surrender, In The Next Room, 1983, Love and Affection, and Sins of My Youth – all from their 2010 debut album Habits – totally lit up the crowd, including kids who wobbled cutely. But it was the “uh-oh”s of their chart smash Animal – hollered in amazing unison – that bookmarked the moment and turned the event into one big, goose-bumpingly cool house party.

By the time Thirty Seconds To Mars met the public, the whole of i-City was glowing with adrenaline, not to mention heavy with anticipation. As Escape, from their latest effort This Is War, started building up, frontman Jared Leto emerged clad in a black poncho. The ageless performer – he is a mind-blowing 38, but hardly looks it – has been making doe-eyes at the rock mainstream since 1998, when he and his brother formed the band in Los Angeles. More than a decade later, the ranks of loyal followers continues to swell, thanks to singles such as A Beautiful Lie, Attack, Search and Destroy, and This Is War, which were all part of that night’s well-cheered repertoire. 

Seoul train: The boys of Beast concluded their set by throwing flowers to the females in the audience. PHOTOS BY PHOTOGROUP

A part of me became anxious when it seemed that they had left out Kings and Queens, my favorite Thirty Seconds To Mars track. So when I detected the chirp of cicadas that opens it – or was it my imagination? – I took in a lungful of air and started singing my heart out along with everybody else: “We were the kings and queens of promise / We were the victims of ourselves / Maybe the children of a lesser god / Between heaven and hell.” What a finale!

Combined with the warmth of both the location and its people, that song – which has been in my iPod since early 2010 – somehow became more tactile, more alive. There couldn’t have been a more appropriate metaphor to sum up my MTV World Stage experience. Again, goosebumps.  

* * *

A two-hour version of “MTV World Stage Live In Malaysia 2011,” the first ever to be shot in 3D in Asia, will premiere on Monday, August 8 on MTV at 11p.m. A one-hour version of ‘MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2011’ will be broadcast worldwide on MTV channels to over a half-billion households in over 150 countries later in the year.

Special thanks to Ching Yee Wong and Paul Anand.

* * *

You can find me at ginobambino.tumblr.com.

Mars attacks: As part of their encore, Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto invited dozens of fans onto the stage, capping a great night of live music.