Band Life

Week 5
Sarawak State Level Marching Band Competition, 21-23 May, Sibu.
Same time last week, I was staying with a bunch of high spirited and evermore hopeful kids, eagerly waiting to be rewarded of their months or perhaps years' long effort to put up a great show. I must say that I had a great time personally.

The prayer

I joined the school band back in year 2002, became really active when I started taking part in the performing team for state level competition one year later. That also marked the starting of my journey to have most of my time occupied by the band activities and have my skin tanned and burned all the time. Despite that, I would say that I’ve found my second home, constituted of the legendary mother Pn Susan Soh and all my accomplices in band. Here, I grew and flourished. It was my gateway to explore the outside worlds, my getaway to calamities at home and my clandestine base to escape classes at school. We endured the most demanding and lengthy practices under the ruthless sun buy also enjoyed the greatest fun of fooling around and dreaming high in the band. This time, I went back with absolutely no idea of how much can I still contribute and how well will I be received, after one year of my absence. Still, I decided to signed up for the trip and went on Bus A at 2.30am in the morning :D.

Bus A

Choosing Sibu to host the competition was the worst decision of the incompetent ministry of education after all. The committee could not even provide a proper site and fair arrangement to promote the local band scene. We ended up performing at a tarred car park with terrible acoustic settings; I bet Mr Kong Yu Zai was behind the whole thing. The hotel stay was superb tho, very comfortable room, delicious food and very considerate roommates? Haha, the youngsters didn’t give me any trouble at all.

Morning

The final result was somewhat hurtful, but not disheartening, because they knew that they had already offered their best in the 12 minutes. The champion took a gamble by playing safe while being creative. Being a fan of Sjs all these years, I must agree that I enjoyed the new concept and their ever wonderful execution on the field. However, they ought to know my honest opinion that their show was appallingly boring. The music and drill were plainly neat and tidy, I didn’t see much challenges put into their show, they just kept everything well within their safety wall. On contrary, CH was slightly flawed in execution, but everything seemed and sounded beautiful. Despite the difficulty, the music was well balanced and heartwarming. I might be bias in this but the kinds never failed to amaze me with each repeated show. At the end of the day, both teams did a good job. But I guess the judges-in-training were awed and surprised by the innovative winning show at first sight. Plus, they are football fans who are deceived by the football themed show.

Drummers

To finish up, let me share a few things that I’ve learned during the trip. Charity - do ourselves a favor by knitting an immaculate plan carefully and making full preparation early on. Rest - get enough sleep to keep a cool head. Responsiblity - know our roles, be appreciative and be positive. Innocence - bad things happen for many reasons, no one should be pointed the finger at, everyone is to be blamed. Caring - crying is not a sign of weakness, but an indicator of deep concern, what’s more important is to recover and come back stronger. Angel - miracle is a blessing to the sincere ones. Persistance - always be there, the situation may be awkward, but if you don’t get on the bus, you will never get the entanglements straighten up, I’m glad we did.

Cheers to friendship and all the bandits. All the best for the coming years.

Bandits in action