WITH six stages and over 30 bands and artistes, Sunburst KL International Music Festival 2009 was definitely a hit that did not miss.
The festival, once showered with many criticisms from local music fans for its “boring” line-up, has definitely proven to many non-believers that it would not fall short.
Organised by Pineapple Concerts, the highly anticipated music festival was held on March 21, at the Polo Pavillion, Bukit Kiara Equestrian and Country Resort, Kuala Lumpur.
The 12-hours of non-stop, back-to-back live performances by local, regional and international artistes include Korn, No one Ever Really Dies (N.E.R.D.), Estrella, Reza Salleh and Twilight Action Girl.
As expected, the boys from N.E.R.D. and Korn stole the show.
Before hitting the stage with their killer rhymes and beats, N.E.R.D.’s frontman, Pharrell Williams made it clear to the crowd that they had six things that fans should know: “One; it’s the first time we ever step foot on this soil. Two; it’s great to be performing at a festival together with the great Korn. Three; crowd surfing is a mandatory thing to do. Four; we want to see a mosh pit in the crowd. Five; for girls, if you’re standing beside a guy, you should get on the guy’s shoulders. Six, if that’s considered breaking the rules, screw it, that’s what you paid your tickets for!,” he said which made the fans roar instantly.
Williams told the crowd that N.E.R.D. was all about having fun with the fans.
“When you come to a N.E.R.D. show, the outfit is all about entertaining people and having fun as a family,” he said.
One photographer was verbally slammed by Pharrell for pushing fans away from the stage and immediately demanded to stop the show.
“Stop pushing all the people to the side, dawg! You’re a photographer, just take the pictures! By pushing these people, you’re not letting them have a good time, that’s what they paid their tickets for!” he said.
Williams also threatened to stop the show if the security guards were trying to stop the fans from coming near to the stage.
As soon as N.E.R.D. was done, it didn’t take long for the next band to get ready. Geared up with his seven-stringed guitar, Munky, real name James Shaffer, and the rest of Korn, Jonathan Davis, Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu stormed the stage with their drums sessionist, Ray Luzier, with a tight performance, playing songs from the latest album, Untitled which was released in 2007.
Fans went wilder when songs from their much previous albums such as Korn, Life is Peachy, Follow the Leader, Issues, Untouchables, which include Falling Away From Me, Somebody Someone, Clown, Freak on a Leash, Faget, Got the Life and many more, hit their eardrums.
The crowd was seen crowd surfing and singing along to every song, disregarding the aggressive security personnel who were slammed by Pharrell earlier.
In between songs, Korn’s vocalist, Davis expressed his regret and revealed: “We would like to apologise for not coming to Malaysia since 15 years ago.”
Davis was seen wearing a Scottish kilt, his signature style.
Before ending the spectacular set, Davis promised the band’s music-thirsty fans by saying: “We promise that it won’t be another 15 years before we come back!”
All in all, Sunburst Music Festival has made fans happy, and definitely was Korn-tastic and N.E.R.D.-ilicious nonetheless.
