Neway Karaoke finally made its mark in Penang by opening their very first outlet at Queensbay Mall (auspiciously, the 8th in Malaysia). The Acconci bros (Julio and Dino), popularly known as SOLER, were the special guests for the official opening. Before the hunky duo took to the stage, I was subjected to a long and boring wait coz Neway took the chance to introduce their own new local talents. The final act (a band called "K & K", short for Kent and Kenny) really tested my patience. No complaints about their vocals but the dude with the Rainie Yang-mushroom-inspired hairdo really made me wanna drag his ass down the stage. He thought his answers were witty and tried to act cute but gave me the impression that he is too "syok sendiri" (a famous Malay phrase to describe people who are full of themselves). The emcees were too engrossed interviewing these two clowns that they didn't notice that Soler had arrived and waiting for their turn to shine.
Like a bunch of PTU (Police Tactical Unit), Soler's 3 band mates (btw, the drummer is cute !)stormed the stage and had all the musical instruments set-up in a jiffy. Royce and Wai Fan didn't even have time to formally welcome Dino and Julio and the boyz already made their grand entrance. The twins were all set to rock Queensbay Mall but...Neway failed to understand that Penangites are not into HK acts (TVB stars would be a different scenario though), especially when it comes to Canto rock although Beyond may have universal appeal.
However, those who deliberately attended the function to support Soler didn't let the boys down. Everyone sang along to the "woo" portion of Soler's song. I'm so glad they sang Paula Tsui's evergreen classic - "風的季節". The rock version is simply smashing ! Dino mentioned that one song which he lurved to croon during K session is homebred singer, Michael Guang Liang's played-to-death "童話". Still proves to be a crowd favourite, judging from the response. I guess Malaysians (except for moi) never gets tired of listening to this song. Anyway, Dino did a good job with the edgier version of "童話." Next up, Julio had to cajoled the audience non-stop for a duet. Finally, a gutsy, sporting lady volunteered ! As the saying goes, "Don't judge a cover by its book" coz this demure-looking woman showed off her mettle on stage when they performed Beyond's rock ballad -"喜歡妳"! LOL ! I noticed the guest-of- honour(one of Penang's municipal councilor) snapping away with his cell phone. Soler then headed to Neway Karaoke for the hands imprint ceremony.
