back down kid. you ain't ready for this.

Good things come to those who wait. Or not.

What follows are impressions of the Heineken Green Room party at the helipad on Harbourfront tower, featuring hip-hop/jazz sensations, GangStarr. I first posted this over on The Slate forums, and I'm lazy to rewrite so here it is again.

So the tix say to turn up at 10, for they'll be turning away people once the place hits full house. We turn up around 10.15, and there's a huge crowd in the lobby, with the staff still putting up the banners and placards and what have you, and they tell us that oh, we haven't opened yet, so just hang around first... but that's fine, at least the staff are friendly and everything seems to be running smoothly (albeit a little late)

Finally we make our way up to the helipad at about 11, and we think we're in for a good party, cos the music's jamming and there's a sizable crowd beginning to fill the area. The venue's nice too - no surprise, Heineken parties usually tend to deliver on that- Except no one's dancing. At all. So we glance at the stage and realise that Gangstarr's not up yet... oh well, no problem! We're cool with great opening acts, and the fella who was playing knows his stuff, playing a funky mix of soul and hip-hop, but no one's really getting into the groove cos everyone's there for Gangstarrr. So anticipating a long night (we had no idea how right we were), we went to go and stock up on drink coupons, in case the queues got crazy later.

An hour and 5 drinks later, opening-act-guy (i get the feeling he's actually one of the Zouk residents, but I'm terrible at recognising DJ faces) is still spinning, but unfortunately he's probably the most energetic person in the house because everyone else is simply getting restless waiting for GS to turn up. To our credit, we did try to kick up a dancing storm for a couple of minutes but couldn't get into the mood... All credit to the DJ, but this wasn't what (or who, rather) we came here for! I proceed to the bar to pick up more drinks.

12.40am. No Gangstarr. On our first toilet break (you have to take the lift all the way back to the ground floor for toilets), everyone else in the lift was on their phones, telling their friends that they're off to Zouk/MOS/etc because "diz party suxxx! go zuk ah, go zuk better" We're starting to comtemplate doing the same. But we stubbornly convince ourselves to hang around for *just* a while more. The party's sure to pick up soon.

It's one in the morning. Even the DJ's starting to sweat bullets. They'd better pay him buckets of overtime for this. We decide to do what we should have done an hour ago. Finding a group of rather intoxicated looking (and apparently very patient) expats, we manage to sell off our remaining drink coupons.
Walking past the DJ console, we applaud him for his noble efforts, and trudge to the elevator lobby.

In the lift on the way down, an over-excitable fella looks around and asks aloud, "YOU ALL GOING TO PEE ALSO AH?" He is greeted with shaking heads and resigned sighs. We overhear the staff mumbling something about "I heard it might be 1.30 plus leh..." as we proceed to the carpark to head for greener (but not Heineken green) pastures.

posted by crapshoot @ 3:24:00 PM