El Nin-YO!

Yesterday was an incredible night out.

After discussing with my parents to use the car to drive to KL (for convenience sake and other related purposes), they finally relented and at about 4pm plus, I picked up Esther, Heng, and Andy, and off we went our merry way to KL.

We used the NPE to get to our destination, and with our quite doubtable instincts, we actually got to Ruums Bar & Club without making any wrong turns at all.

A little background: Yen generously gave me 4 tickets to the Tata Young showcase (since she couldn’t make it), and the invitation ticket was an incredibly glossy card, presented by DiGi and MTV. (Also note that we went there not knowing most of her songs, or rather, all, but just wanting to hang out.)

Since we reached there rather early (at about 5pm plus), we decided to look for food instead, knowing that going for the showcase later wouldn’t allow us enough time to gobble up (pricey) food.

After unsuccessfully looking for food within our RM10 budget (it was only either clubs, pubs, or more expensive glamorous restaurants.. but we (or rather, I) snubbed the nearby mamak joint since I wasn’t in the mood for it >_>), we finally settled for Secret Recipe, whose price range falls within RM17++ and above for a good, stomach-filling set.

I kinda liked the d?cor.. very relaxing ambience with slow music cooing over the speakers. And unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you look at it) when we went there, there wasn’t a single customer in sight.

The carrot slice brownie which was made Brownie of the Day in my set. Quite good.

When we finally finished our dinner and headed back to Ruums, there was a torrent of people lining up at the very empty Ruums at few minutes before the designated 7pm. @___@ We rushed immediately, and because we were late, the free 100 Tata Young CDs had already been given out. =.=”

It was quite disorienting and discomforting when the queue only moved 2 steps after a whole 20 minutes. Feeling fed up, Heng managed to find a seedy back way to jump the entire queue (we’re typical Malaysians, heh) and reached the front of the queue, where we had to wait a further 10 minutes to actually get inside. Imagine if we were to stay at the back. >_>

Because of our queue-jumping performance, we managed to get quite good standing place right in front of the stage to get a good view when the showcase was supposed to start. Barely 15 minutes later it was already crowded behind us.

The free drinks that were given up weren’t alcoholic but “soft drinks”, but we got the invites for free so we shouldn’t be complaining anyway.

After watching almost 2 entire episodes of MTV’s Room Raiders projected on the wall nearby and feeling my leg muscles tire from standing for an hour and 30 minutes plus, VJ Utt appeared, entertaining us for a while and basically getting the energy of the crowd up.

Some lucky draw thingy with Utt for those who registered their prepaid earlier.

When Tata finally did appear, I was quite taken aback by how close we were actually to her (okay.. this is most probably because I don’t actually get to attend concerts and showcases with such good places like the front of the stage, so this is my first), and how amazingly gorgeous and sexy she was in real life, which explains her Thai-American parentage.

Super blur lah picture. Sorry I bought my Sony camera few months before a new line of Sony cameras with anti-shake came out. =___=

Tata groovin’ (omg look at her.. somewhat revealing, nipple-covering outfit @__@).

Utt did remind us no flash cameras and recording devices were allowed, but when Tata appeared, I saw hands holding their cameraphones and cameras snapping and videoing away so I joined in the chorus of stealthy picture-snapping.

Since it’s absolutely horrible to look at blurry pictures, here are some videos for you guys to enjoy. :) (No, it isn’t like Wang Lee Hom’s recent private concert where we ended up watching the televisions rather than the speck of human called Leehom light years away beneath us.)

Tata performing El Nin-Yo!, very dancey and groovy beat. Sorry for the shaky hands since I was concentrating more on Tata than videoing anyway.

Tata commenting about her upcoming number by Sir Paul McCartney.

Longest video of the three, this video has Tata performing her 2nd single at Malaysia, which I can’t recall the name of.

I was expecting the showcase to be a two-song thing where she leaves us abruptly (S.H.E.’s showcase few years back comes in mind), but she did take time to interact with the audience and joked with Utt after performing two of her songs, who was somewhat ‘naughty’, as she said.

bq.. Tata: We’re all getting really perky now!
Utt: Perky? *looks downwards* Yes I’m getting perky!

Overall the showcase was rather entertaining, and the thought of regret that once crossed my mind slipped away instantly the moment she appeared. It ended after about 40 minutes (which, maybe due to my lowered expectations, weren’t that short) which I suppose is a norm with showcases.

We hung out a bit more, with me getting a Long Island cocktail which ended up costing RM20, heh. By the time my collegemates Bryan, Ching Ching and Steffi arrived at Ruums (supposedly pronounced as “rooms”, despite a lot of us enunciating it as “rums”), I was quite red-faced and feeling quite.. perky.

We stayed a while, then Esther suggested to go to where her collegemate is going, to some Salsa Club or some sort. We had Bryan leading us, and after a few wrong turns we finally reached Little Havana, whose top floor has the so-called Salsa Club.

RM10 cover charge was inclusive of a glass of Tiger so it wasn’t that bad I suppose. We weren’t sure what to make of the dozens of people salsa-ing on the somewhat small dance floor to Spanish music, since the reason we left Ruums was because it was Retro Night over there, and the music wasn’t particularly appealing.

After a while my eyes were quite fixated on the people doing the salsa with total strangers, with almost everyone filling the dance floor, moving their bodies deftly and almost naturally to the music. It was quite surreal.

Eventually Heng was supposedly ‘drunk’ enough to try it out with Esther’s friend, Eva (since we did pay RM10 not to just stand there watching the rest). We then followed suit near the staircase, trying it out after Heng taught us the basic moves, and just trying to have pure fun. Everyone on the dance floor looked like they were really enjoying themselves.

Heng and Eva caught in the act. This picture was originally intended to blackmail him.

We finally left the place at 12am plus, and reached home at almost 1. It was quite a fun night out - something I don’t think I’d done in ages - although I don’t see myself hanging out at these places very often in the near future.