In Continuum.

Quik Tunes

'Quik Tunes!',exclaimed Richard,with a hand on the table,leaning forward towards me,shouting over the pounding of drums in the background and the horrendous singing of the officers.There,right before the atrocious voices of the officers and on a strange Tuesday afternoon with the cloud lingering above our heads and threatening the coming of an awfully delayed rainfall,our band name was born.And it was inspired by the name of my guitar's tuner.Like all the other bands in the world,most names dont make sense,and usually derive from the strangest and the most unexpected places(Coldplay derived their name from the title of a poetry book written for children,and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was inspired by a conversation between two old women in a cafe).

I was told of this band last Friday by Eddie,told me that if i did this performance i will be excused from the parade.I jumped at the chance,because any red-blooded army personnel will tell you that there is nothing they hate more than parades,and especially the rehearsals that lead up to them.They are usually time consuming,hot,tiring and most of all - boring.Anyway,so i jumped at the chance,and met up with the guys for the first time to discuss the songs to perform.Richard,Bo Sheng,and JianCong,my new temporary bandmates for the time being.We hit it off instantly,and we found ourselves discussing eagerly about the possible songs to send CO off with,behind the curtains in PC's office cubicle.

Anyway,on Monday we met for the first time for rehearsal.JianCong brought his cables and amps,i brought my Josephine and Bo Sheng brought his 'Grand' guitar,which doesnt really have a name,so it's 'Grand' for now.Anyway,the feeling of playing with an amp is amazing,and it is taking me steps closer to temptation,and that is to buy the Fender Stratocaster from Invis(Just to let you know,i STILL love your father).

So we practised the whole afternoon and did soundcheck at night with the officers around.They were,let's just say,horrible.You cant expect them to be perfectly-pitched of course,but Support 2IC's voice was so horrendous,i remember hearing their rehearsals from about a hundred metres away,and Perry(Whom I met along the way)asked me to give them tips on singing.It's not like i am a great singer or whatever,but that...that's probably the kind of punishment they have in concentration camps and Hell.

We did soundcheck on Monday night,and i admit it was a little rough around the edges.The microphones were working in a strange way,and my PC couldnt keep his bloody fingers off the knobs.The microphones couldnt catch voices from anywhere outside a 5cm radius,which meant that you'd have to kiss those microphones,literally.Anyway,we adjusted and played around with the volume controls and effects,and ended the day,for me,with a sore throat and the tune going on and on in my head forever.I dreamnt of that song that night,and running the lyrics and solo over and over in my head.Julian from the OM thought it was a great performance,but 'We'd see about that',i told him.

Tuesday was the big day for me,and let's just say i wasnt too pumped about performing to a bunch of officers,with crabs and stars on their shoulders.We did soundcheck again that afternoon,and that was way better than the night before,i was told.OC later revealed to us that we'd be playing for a bunch of stars,and that was rather petrifying,i must say.The stress level was further elevated at the sight of them later on in the night.Let's put it this way,seeing a 'star-red' General is like...striking lottery,though not even a quarter as satisfying.It is petrifying in a way,and i found out something about ranks in the army: The higher the ranks,the worse you are at singing.

In the OM(Officer's Mess)that evening,before anybody came,i took refuge at the bar counter,and there at the front of the room,a one-star General was singing Karaoke to a Bee-Gees song.Alone.The only reason for that is probably because anybody who dares to challenge him,will be better even if he or she decides to keep quiet throughout the song,and might just land him or herself in a pile of extra duties and stuff.It was sad and in a way,pathetic to see him sitting there,knocking himself out with the horrendous singing while everybody else watched,clapped,and forced smiles.

The crowds soon gathered,and i remember snaking through the crowd of crabs and stars,caring not too much about their existence because there was a void in my stomach to fill.I snatched food from the Colonels and Generals,and found myself swallowing a quick dinner in the corner,while the prizes were being given to the exiting CO.There were food and booze,and everybody was high,meeting old friends and getting high.It didnt matter that CO's caucasian wife was there either,everybody sort of went haywire,insulting CO of his height and stuff.

We came onto the stage and were introduced.I took my seat on the high chair,feeling nervous and excited at the same time.It didnt matter then,that not a lot of people took particular attention,because food and booze were around.It didnt matter either,that Bo Sheng had a little technical difficulties at the very beginning.We started playing,and it all went through rather well,messing up a word or two along the way.But the crowd was too drunk,too old,and too distracted to notice the difference.

I'm not a very confident player when it comes to solos,but i nailed Save Tonight's solo at the very end with a little improv,and i thought that did justice to everything.Like Richard said before the performance,"Just imagine those guys as a bunch of clowns".I wasnt afraid,since i have been doing stage performances ever since my Kindergarten days,once every year(No shit),but i was worried that nobody is going to take notice,that nobody is going to give a shit,that our efforts will come to waste because everybody cared more about their food and their drinks,and not of the four guys on the stage,trying their very best to please.

But that thought,in fact,made it easier for me to go through.I didnt look at the audience much,mostly over their heads and into the distance.I pretended that i was in my room jamming on my own and a couple of good friends,and there i was before the microphone,in my own world while the rest of them drowned under the strumming of the guitars,coming from the amplifiers,with their voices sinking deeper and deeper into the night's air,humid and uncomfortable.By the way,JianCong is such a brilliant Shaker-shaker.Hahaha.

We ended the song,and the applauses were probably out of courtesy.I think my PC twicked with the bloody knobs again,and the microphones were strange,as i sang and played along during the song.But who cares,i thought.It was over,and we packed up our equipments,left the stage and back to our rooms soon after.It didnt matter,and it doesnt matter anymore of those folks were too dumb and too stupid to realise the quality of the work,because in my opinion,for a band that was formed less than 48 hours ago,it was a great effort and already a decent job,and i am the perfectionist here.So those old bastards can kiss my ass if they chose to ignore our work,because in my books i think Quik Tunes thrashed the Officer band,and for a last minute band,we were the true heros of the night.