Force of Nature Tsunami Concert Memorabilia
by Farah 'Fairy' Mahdzan (9-Apr-2005) | Readers Say

Any Malaysian who loves music and had the means to go would have been utterly insane to not have gone for the Force of Nature concert held on Friday last 18th March. The event was colossal, marking one of the most prolific concert to ever take place on our home soil.

Apart from contributing to charity for the December 26th 2004 tsunami victims, the lineup of local and international artists was unprecedented. I highly doubt we'd ever see, say, the Backstreet Boys and Boys II Men and Sheila Majid and Jackie Chan all in one show, ever again! Seriously, what are the odds? We have better chances of successfully ricocheting to the moon in a souped-up Perodua Kancil going 200km/h that had tripped over a stray brick on the road. (Wait, does a Kancil's speedometer even go up to 200?)

The tickets for the concert ranged from reasonable RM82 to a heart-clutching RM500+. Needless to say the admissions priced in the lower brackets sold off quicker than you can say "pisang goreng panas." My decision to not go was eventually negated as I decided, heck, when am I ever going to see something as huge as this? Plus, I'd get to see Ruth Sahanaya and Eric Benet sing again.

Racing from the office a little after 8PM (the show was supposed to start then), I got to Stadium Putra in Bukit Jalil close to 9PM and managed to blindly secure a seat somewhere.

I missed the opening acts by Lauryn Hill and barely made it for Sheila Majid's appearance who was already singing Sinaran, and a little later on Jauh with Anuar Zain, Dayang Nurfaizah, Innuendo and VE.

But I obviously had missed only a tiny fraction of the concert, as it lasted a whopping 7 hours! I left the viscinity at 2AM and the last act Black Eyed Peas was still going at it!

It would be cruel and unusual to grandmother-storytell you what went on during the concert and who exactly sung and made the all filler appearances (folks, that's what Google is there for). I will however share with you these highlights of the night that I best remembered.

• Wyclef Jean. I swear this man has got to be the most charismatic, jet-fueled performer I have ever witnessed. With an expression so serious on his face, he haggled with the audience, declaring that he had sat in the plane for 26 hours to come to Malaysia and entertain us all, and that we shouldn't be sitting down! Right he was. Not a single soul's bottom was touching her seat throughout this ex-Fugee member cum Haitian rapper's performance.
  
  
• Wyclef had commanded everyone in the audience to turn on their mobile phones (in replacement of lighters). At the risk of sounding geeky, I choked back tears as I watched the sea of nearly 13,000 bobbing lit-up handphones; it was all very magic-like and beautiful! (Yes, OK, you can stick that "I'm a Geek" sign on my back now...)
  
  
• Oh! He frenchkissed his guitar! Yes, that's what I said, Wyclef Jean frenched his guitar! Well OK let's be fair and try to explain this properly. He positioned his loud electric guitar in front of his face and proceeded to pluck the strings his tongue, strumming melodies parallel to those if he had done it with his fingers. Unbelievable.
  
  
• The 2-minute silence. Lance Brass and Joey Fatone of boy band N'Sync made a brief appearance for a few minutes, which of course caused all the teeny boppers to shriek the stadium down (casting a cloud of doubt to the engineers who actually constructed the darn architecture). The heart-throb duo had requested to observe two whole minutes in remembrance of those who had perished in the terrible tsunami. The crowd was more than obliged, of course.
  
  And so, a large cloak of silence immediately blanketed the stadium and the hair on my arms rose at such drastic drop of mood and noise. The whirring giant fans from the power generators near the stage became significantly more audible. I stood up with everyone else and murmured the Al-Fatihah under my breath to make my two-minutes count for something. Such silence in a concert setting was truly unheard of. Once the observation had ended, good mood set in again and the crowd cheered, hooted and whistled madly! I have to say, the dramatic change of atmosphere from sobriety to screams was almost too obscene.

But enough with my mediocre recaps, let's check out some of the goodies I brought back from my night at the Force of Nature.

Rubber bracelets like these are all the rage this season. Force of Nature wasn't going to miss banking their cool factor with these, so these bright orange gelang getah were given out at the merchandise booths.

No purchase was necessary, the things were free. People were literally begging for fistfuls of orange bands for themselves and friends. I did not ask for the bracelets and instead bought some other souvenir items. The guy behind the booth shoved four of these into my hands when he handed me my paid merchandise, which I thought was nice.

I then gave two away to friends and kept two for myself. However I had no idea how big of a loop the rubber band would make on my small wrist until I slipped it on. I suppose I should have expected this when I saw a girl wearing it as an arm band...

A Force of Nature Poster! Yes, concerts are virtually meaningless and would be unknown if it weren't for the crucial roles of something so simple yet effectively promotional as posters posted all around town.

A giant styrofoam hand for some serious hand waving! This neat glove was sold together with the poster for a modest sum of 5 ringgit.

We come now to my most favorite item from the Force of Nature concert. What is encased in this tiny cardboard box sealed with the trademark logo of the Force of Nature...

...is a gorgeous pewter pendant made by our very own national brand of pewter products, Selangor Pewter.

I absolutely love this thing. It's handsomely engraved with words meaningful to the entire concert-charity campaign.

And on its flip-side is a variation of the hand print logo.

Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys is seen in this photo wearing the pendant in question.

A message printed in the inside of the pendant box.

Thinking that the pendants were only sold for a one-time period, I was proven wrong when I passed by a Royal Selangor shop in One Utama mall two weekends ago; the marvellous pendants were still for sale! It had the pricetag of RM38 a piece (three ringgit more than what it was selling for at the concert).

These are rather terrible pictures of the pendant display, but it's there, I swear. I read the notice that accompanied the display with interest, and I can confirm that it states 30% of the price of the pendant would be donated to charity.

Apart from being a truly one-of-a-kind keepsake, the pendant makes a funky jewelery. The best part of all, it's for a very good cause.

Related stories:

Force of Nature official website
This website is poorly maintained; it had promised coverage and photos from the concert but that has yet to appear.

Photos from the concert by The Star

Photos of the Force of Nature: results from Google

TSUNAMI: Mother Nature's Terror!
TSUNAMI: Coming to the World's Rescue!
Cagle is my absolute favorite comic site which regularly features cartoons by comic artists worldwide. These two links will bring you to several artists' perspectives of the humbling force of nature that hit this region last December.

Readers' Comments: 6 entries

#5	SyL - Website	20-Apr-2005, 20:42 MYT
Hi, Fai Mbak Syl tulis email barunya, biar bisa ikut milis nya Fai, so I know when you wrote something new. The pendant is so beautiful..... We are heading home this coming Saturday for mudik liburan. This time we will stroll around in SIN for 5 days. Can't wait to eat empek2, minum teh botol, dan bakso abang2 . Pls send our warmest regards to Jida ya.

#4	Fairy	11-Apr-2005, 01:23 MYT
Ah, I found a link to the Soliditaris Kebersamaan. It is apparently a campaign to raise money for education for less fortunate Indonesian kids. See this Link

#3	Fairy	11-Apr-2005, 01:17 MYT
CHARMAINE: Yes, yes rub it in... ADHE: Soliditaris Kebersamaan itu campaign apa? Kira2 ada nggak rubber bracelet buat isu Ambalat? That would be so funny...

#1	Adh3 - Website	10-Apr-2005, 23:21 MYT
Oh my gosh, what a concert! And that rubber band is quite a trend too. I am wearing "Solidaritas Kebersamaan" red rubber band for almost a month now. Huhuhu I want to collect them all And that pendant is just totally awesome!

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