Last Night Poptart Saved My Life...Again!!

And the life of one of my honours classmates too. His first time at the indie disco event, he was instantly converted to the church of Pop. All through the supper that followed, he couldn't stop grinning and raving about it. He was a man reduced to a slobbering boy; any happier and he'd have to whack himself off to calm down. Knowing him, he probably did. What a great guy, and what a great night!



It was Poptart's 1st Birthday bash to ostensibly celebrate a year of "group hugs, wet kisses, body surfing, silly poses, and pure drunken unadulterated raw-as-fuck dancefloor madness". It was just like any other Poptart, except much better. The mania began with a free flow of beer and poorly-poured housepours from 10 to 11. Popsluts and opportunistic newbies alike thronged around the bar as if it Zaidi, Jah and wee.like.me were serving their tunes on tap.



The Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" got things off to a rousing start, and in surprisingly little time guest DJ Joe Ng (The Padres, Mee Pok Man, Localbarboy etc) took to the decks. True to his diehard local-loving heart, he played a set consisting almost entirely of local music. It did two things: (1) reminded everyone what these songs sound like (Joe covers many of them with Localbarboy), (2) showed that Singapore indie stands up damn well against UK and US stuff.

In an unexpected turn he even spun The Padres' November '91! Having sworn off covering his former band with Localbarboy because of the self-indulgence factor, this was quite a treat. Since I am not above a little self-indulgence myself, let me show off my knowledge of his playlist:

1. Force Vomit - Siti
2. Serenaide - The Girl from Katong (listen)
3. Stoned Revivals - Goodil
4. Humpback Oak - Lower Girl
5. Concave Scream - Driven
6. The Padres - November '91
7. The Flaming Lips - Race for the Prize
8. The Observatory - This Sad Song (a remix!!! a friggin' remix!!!)
9. (didn't recognise this one)
10. Astreal - Snowflake
11. The Boredphucks - Ai Sio Kan Mai?
12. Sugarflies - Yoshiki



wee.like.me took over, and again the music went from one high to the next. I swear this Poptart saw the highest bodysurfing count in its one-year history. And continuing a night of firsts, wee.like.me stopped his set to speak to his congregation to thank us for being "fucking awesome". He got us to sing birthday songs for both Poptart and Jah, who was next to spin. My honours mates and I pogo-ed and sang our hearts out, climaxing with a five-song burst of Morrissey's "First of the Gang to Die", Manic Street Preachers' "Motorcycle Emptiness", The Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", Green Day's "Basket Case" and The Killers' "Mr Brightside". (Screw all who say this is populist drivel; the middle three songs transported us to the days of way back when, and that alone was worth the admission and midnight cab fare home.)

Thus we were spent, and headed out for supper. This brings me back to the start of my post, where the Poptart initiate among us kept gushing as if he'd seen the face of God. Then, in true faux-manly fashion, we began talking about manly things like bukkake in front of our female classmate, grossing her out. But more importantly, we made a pact to return to every Poptart in the forseeable future. And that was the sweetest end to a night which began rather awkwardly, with me turning up alone as I did the last time, not expecting to meet anyone. My posse is back, and December 24th couldn't come sooner.