How I Saw Mew and Explosions in the Sky for (Almost) Free

I know I bought my ticket ages ago, but when I see contests come up, I can't help it - I had to give it a go. Luckily, I won a free pair thanks to Clive magazine. 

1. Buy ticket
2. Win a pair of tickets in a contest
3. Sell off the ticket you bought at cost and throw in the other (free) ticket you're not using.
4. Win!

Was surprised that the drive down was pretty smooth, even after the heavy downpour in the afternoon. What I didn't expect when I got there was the CRAZY long line outside. Even contest winners collecting their tickets also had to line up, but after a while some of us thought to erm, jump queue instead because the long line ends on different streams for different categories of ticket holders. While in line, I met a tall white guy who flew in from Taiwan just for the show (whom I later saw was about three people deep in front of the stage - hard to miss the guy from upstairs, but I would hate to be behind him downstairs all the same).  

As I found out the hard way, there were no physical tickets per se (countermeasure for ticket scalping or touting?) - they just cross you off their master list and you get a wristband for entry. So I had to (awkwardly, I might add) wait for my buyer (who was the only person to reply with his phone number to deal after I tweeted that I had a ticket to sell) to go through the line (told him to jump the line) near the counters, pay for the ticket and then get his wrist banded as my erm, plus one (for all intents and purposes). Before that, he stuffed the ticket into his wallet and tossed it down to his (girl)friend who was in line downstairs. As it turned out, there was a separate entrance for the media/contest winners from paid ticketholders, so yay. 

Once inside, it was Tiger beer (duh, since they're a sponsor) for RM10, Coke for RM7 and bottled water for RM5. If I knew they weren't going to check bags I would've snuck something in but I also didn't want to go through another concert dehydrated, I thought water was the best choice under the circumstances. 

Mew finally came on around 8 something while people were still coming in. The setlist was pretty much a lot of older songs I recognised from the first few albums and there was a one-song encore: their first major song (that I saw on MTV way back when), Comforting Sounds. There was a couple of new ones that they're currently working on for their next album and all. I hadn't kept track, but I think they did about a dozen songs, so it was not too bad for the people that weren't sticking around for Explosions in the Sky (EITS) later.

Edit this setlist | More Mew setlists

"Best" photo I took from upstairs with crazy megazoom point and shoot :P

They finished closer to 10 p.m. (I think?) and the crew immediately started breaking down and setting up EITS's equipment. I took this time to go downstairs and use some free WiFi at Dr Cafe before going back up, hear a couple of songs and leave while I still could. Went a little cray cray and bought the last EITS tee shirt on sale that I could fit in. 

Now I can cross Mew off the concert bucket list - yay!