We could've gone nearer to the stage, but I was afraid the boys would not appreciate us bugging their soundcheck - and we didn't have the pass cards needed to stay there so we tried not to attract too much attention with our presence! But, at one point when Mat sat down and had a drink, I waved at him and he waved back! We got to watch the whole soundcheck, maybe almost 2 hours [like a private concert!].

Songs and bits of songs played in the soundcheck: Beautiful Loser, The Wild Ones, Positivity, She's in Fashion, Astro Girl, Everything Will Flow, Lost in TV, and then the band left Brett alone on stage and he played a bit of Indian Strings with his acoustic guitar.

Awesome! As Brett stood up and left, some promoter's personnel chucked us out. Bugger. We were leaving anyway.

But it was raining very hard outside. We saw no one queuing by the gate, everyone was trying to avoid the rain by standing under the opposite building's roof just across the gate. The promoter's staff let us stay for a while, and as the rain got harder and the gate got flooded they tore our tickets and sent us back in without having to queue. Heehee.

We didn't enter the hall, but we went straight to the deposit room to attend the meet and greet session. I'd been pestering the promoter's office since early December just to attend this session, but they wouldn't let me!! In the end we managed to get our pass cards from manager Charlie Charlton, so ha-ha to you promoters. We waited for about an hour before they finally led us to Suede. They divided us according to where we got our pass cards [there were some competitions to win these], me and my sister were hailed as 'the ones from Suede'. Awesome, but some of the promoter's staff were far from friendly [some were really friendly, though, cheers to you guys]. Not to mention we weren't allowed to take pics or ask for autographs and were treated rather nastily by those 'oh-we-are-the-ever-so-important-promoter's-staff' twats.

"Well well, what is this? essentialsuede.com?" Brett asked as he read my t-shirt. "It's my website. Have you been there?" I asked. "Hm, I might have," he hesitated. Then he paused and went "Oh, I think I have! So, it's you!" he pointed at me. "Yeah, I did it!" I grinned. Then he turned to Simon and asked, "Simon, have you been to essentialsuede.com?" Simon read my t-shirt and went, "Oh yeah!" Then my sister told Brett he's taller than she thought, Brett said "He's taller," pointing at Mat by his side. As I turned away Mat said in a recognition tone, "Ah, Suede Online forum!" which URL I printed on the back of my t-shirt, and where I'm a moderator of.

Then, happy because we just got so close to the great ones, we entered the hall. It was already crowded. I called everyone who I promised to meet up with, and managed to see them all, awesome [cheers to you all!] except Irvan who was late due to heavy traffic and Andaru whose cellphone number I didn't have. Sorry I missed you guys. Thanks to my friend Anna I managed to nudge my way to the second row, just behind Sophie who had to bear my singing and screaming and and jumping and crushing all through the gig [sorry, girl!]. We took Alex's side of the stage. We chatted a bit while waiting for the gig to start, people cheered while Kimble and all the other technicians prepare the stage.

When the hall lights went out, the crowd went mad. The band entered and kicked off with Beautiful Loser instantly. Brett wore his cool leather jacket [which he took off during second song], looking really energetic, he was giving it all. We all sang [I sang to EVERY song, anyway] and Brett gave signs with his fingers while he's singing "1-6-1". The whole band were in top performance, they gave 110%. Brett's voice, which was lost the previous day, was OK. Charlie told me earlier it's still not 100% yet, which I noticed during the soundcheck, but we heard no notable flaws during the gig. But I promised to sing along and I sure did.

As I stood in front of Alex, I could see him quite clearly, I waved at him 4-5 times and everytime I did he smiled back at me! Eventually all the girls around me ended up eyeing him and calling him, trying to get his attention, saying to each other about how sweet he was. And he was really cute, beside his amazing musicianship - I was amazed to see him play, he was really awesome and was really in the music, he rocks! I bet he had become a new favourite member for a lot of us that night.

Then, it was all dream coming true - or dejavu - to me. You know how many gigs I have read about, how many pics I have seen, how many times I've watched Suede 'live' on telly. So I knew it all. I dreamt about it all. And, I could hardly believe that I finally experienced it all for the first time.

I had always dreamt to pogo on Trash, and it seems that the whole crowd had too, we all did it. Pogoing left to right, right to left, singing and screaming, I was out of breath! We also got to singalong to She's in Fashion, another dream of mine, and Brett held the microphone just above my head. He jumped around like a mad insect, swayed his hip a lot, swinging around his microphone... it was magic, I got to see everything I knew so well about.

He also sat on the brink of the stage, just in front of me - the crowd went hysterical and tried to reach him but it was too far, Brett tried to be as close to us as possible, but he's still too far to reach, everyone moved forward crushing everybody in front of them!

While I took some pictures, suddenly the twat that was being rude to me at the meet and greet session appeared and threatened to take my camera if I went on. Damn it, he ruined my mood for a while [a pocket camera was NOT against the rules anyway, f**king wanker!] but hey it was Suede up there so I got my mood going again after not long. And my sister managed to go on taking pictures anyway despite she was being crushed by taller people around her and could only see Alex clearly during the show. All we see and believe is Alex Lee!

Brett also kept asking us to sing and scream, and "Bounce! Bounce!" He was really driving us mad, we did everything he asked us to do. Such a performer, we salute you Sir Brett! He asked several times if we had songs we wanted to hear, and this loser behind me kept shouting for Metal Mickey which was already played earlier. Embarrassing! Brett also said "Terima kasih" ['thank you' in Indonesian] several times, well done!

At one point he threw his maracas high and bowed, tried to catch them behind his back without looking, but he missed. We cheered nevertheless, Mat was the only one grinning while the maracas hit the stagefloor.

Such a shame that most of the crowd didn't react warmly to old gems such as So Young, Animal Nitrate, and New Generation. I sang to the top of my lungs but it was obvious that the crowd weren't familiar with these classics.

After smash hit Positivity, they played a slow version of Animal Nitrate, I was almost hysterical hearing such classic from their own hands. Too bad only a part of us really went hysterical, others unfamiliar with the epic song. After first verse and chorus, which a part of us sang along really well, they kicked off the normal version of the song.

I went crazy during Can't Get Enough, shouting the lyrics out instead of singing it, I'd dreamt about seeing the song live since 1999! Then Brett dared us to sing along to their last song, saying "If you can sing this right, we'll come back!" I couldn't believe it's already the last song, I felt as if it was only 10 minutes since the show started! Alex grabbed his harmonica [he's a FABULOUS harmonica player!] and they kicked off a groovy tune. The crowd went quiet, trying to recognise the song, in my head I knew it was a lounge version of Obsessions but I was trying to listen to it carefully. Finally they all recognised the song and we sang along really well. "Here comes the tricky part," teased Brett just before the line "It's connected to the hip sounds..." Just after we finished singing the chorus, he said "Let's do it!" And they played the rocking version of the song. Fantastic!

The band left, but we shouted "We want more!" And Brett came back with a glass of tea in his hand. He sat with his acoustic guitar, I wanted to shout for The Living Dead but I ran out of voice. In my head I already knew it's going to be Oceans, I don't know why. And it was. I stood there, not moving, humming along the lyrics to myself, it was so magical seeing Brett, there, performing Oceans. I was almost in tears! It was the second sentimental moment of the night, apart of The Wild Ones which was utterly romantic [and reminded me of a personal memory].

Then the band re-entered the stage, receiving cheers from the crowd. "Now here's a song from our new album A New Morning..." He paused, and looked funny at us, expecting some cheers. I screamed on top of my lungs but most of the crowd didn't. "A song from A New Morning!" he repeated, raising his arms trying to raise our cheers, and the crowd cheered. "Seventh track I think," said Brett, and Astro Girl kicked off. After well-received Saturday Night and Electricity, Brett said "This is really going to be the last song now..." Again I couldn't believe how time flew. When Beautiful Ones - the most popular Suede song in Indonesia - started, all the sudden the crowd went MAD. Everyone forgot their sore throat and exhaustion, it's a magical rejuvenation! Everyone went crazy and sang as loud as they could. I was literally crushed by everyone from every side of my body, I had to grab the barrier in order not to lose my balance on my feet! But it was really fun to finally have 100% of the crowd lost inside the song. We jumped, jumped, jumped, sang, and screamed!

Then the band bowed and left, I couldn't believe it. Alex smiled and nodded to our part of the crowd which kept calling and waving at him during the gig, and everyone went hysterical. I knew if we screamed enough we might get another encore, but I was shouting "We want more!" alone while the audience was getting ready to leave. I was heart broken as the crew went onstage and the closing music [Moon River] played. I hung around for a while, trying to persuede the security people on the other side of the barrier to grab me one of the setlists on the stage, but they were reluctant. I begged, almost in tears, but they wouldn't! Then some setlists being thrown to the other side of the crowd, so I ran across but it was too late. By the time I got to that side of the crowd, he was throwing drumsticks but I refrained from trying to get them because the fight was harsh. One of the sticks landed about 2 metres in front of me, and even before I realised what happened, some boys crazily fought for that. I had no chance to win. I had no chance on the water bottles either. Nor the setlists. I was frustrated! But then my sister came and handed me a setlist! Yay! Turns out the security guy I begged to got one and gave it to her. Thanks Mr. Security Guy!

Then I hung around with my Suedehead friends, chatting [though I could hardly speak, lost my voice] and taking pictures, it was amazing meeting you guys. And what a night we had. I know I'm going to remember this night for the rest of my life - and hope for the next one REAL SOON! Thanks Suede, and thanks Charlie for everything!

Opening: A little riff from Campfire Song, nice, I'd been wanting to hear this song!
Beautiful Loser
Trash
Metal Mickey
Filmstar
Everything Will Flow
The Wild Ones
So Young
She's in Fashion
New Generation
Lost in TV
Positivity
Animal Nitrate
Can't Get Enough
Obsessions

encore:
Oceans
Astro Girl
Saturday Night
Electricity
Beautiful Ones