Lorde embraces adulthood in her new album
ROCKAWAY The Saga Continues had big shoes to fill last Saturday when it ‘blasted’ off at the Extreme Park Bukit Jalil. This mega-concert had to top the epic Rockaway Malaysia MotoGP concert on Oct 29 which brought together Musa’s Mayhem, Wolfmother, The Darkness, Wings, and Scorpions on a single stage.
What The Saga Continues promised was the chance to see 28 local and international acts, across three stages.
Music fans who made the walk to the top of the hill where the concert was held were indeed spoilt for choice.
There was a Main Stage made up of two separate stages where mainstream acts performed while up-and-coming independent and heavy metal bands were featured on Stage Three.
Ask anyone in attendance which act they were looking forward to the most, and you would get a different answer every time.
And neither the blistering heat nor the long 15-minute trek up the hill or the eventual rain dampened their enthusiasm or stopped the flow of incoming fans.
The Saga Continues was kicked off by acoustic rock group Dirgahayu on the Main Stage, while Malaysian melodic hardcore band WTNSS took over Stage Three.
Toko Kilat was up next on the Main Stage, followed by loud, fun-loving DIY punk band LyMe.
Its frontman Javier Badillo kicked his shoes into the crowd while dancing, and promptly asked for them back after his set was done.
At the same time, Man Under Zero Effort continued the beautiful acoustic rock vibes on Stage Three, and were followed up by 60s TV, Don’t Look Back in Anger Born to be Wild, Jump. But no other band brought out the fun like Son of a Policeman (SOAP). The indie band from Subang pulled the crowd to Stage Three, with a set featuring coloured powder, bouncy balls, and dhol drum beats, all despite the light rain. Next up were The Summer State from
Singapore, and local rock NEW ZEALAND singer Lorde ( left), who enjoyed phenomenal success while still a teenager, celebrated her recent 20th birthday by announcing a new album that will explore becoming an adult.
The long-awaited follow-up to her blockbuster 2013 debut album, will be out soon, she said, without giving a date or a title for the album.
“Writing was my way of enshrining our teenage glory, putting it up in lights Ku Hijau. Bohemian Rhapsody. forever so that part of me never dies, and this record – well, this one is about what comes next,” she wrote on Facebook from New York, where she has been busy recording the album.
On turning 20, she said: “I’m not a kid any more, and I’m realising that the weirdness of those Mylar balloons is going to be okay.”
(She was referring to the shiny, colourful balloons present during birthday celebrations.)
Having written songs since Kau Ilham while hanging upside down.
This was followed by Third Eye Blind who brought back memories with Jumper and Semi-Charmed Life.
Finally, capping off the 11-hour concert was Butterfingers. After a 17-year hiatus, the band still had the touch, leaving the 8,000strong crowd satisfied.
When everything was over, everyone began the walk back down the hill, still pumped with adrenaline from the biggest rock event in Malaysia.
With their paths lit by streetlamps, thousands of rock fans went home with a skip in their step, a ringing in their ears, a song in their head, and a story to tell from Rockaway the Saga Continues. age 13, Lorde became an international sensation with her song, Royals, a mocking look at the pursuit of material wealth that won the Grammy for song of the year in 2014.
Lorde, whose real name is Ella Yelich-O’Connor, has managed to avoid the excesses and tabloid headline-generating lifestyle that are notorious among child stars.
She made “a very deliberate choice to withdraw from public life” over the past year, she wrote, and enjoyed the greater anonymity for the most part.
“I started to discover in a profound, scary, blood-aching way who I was when I was alone, what I did when I did things only for myself.”
Saying little about her forthcoming album, Lorde boasted its lyrics were “the best I’ve written in my life”.
“The party is about to start,” she wrote. “I am about to show you the new world.” – AFPRelaxnews