Hillsong United in Malaysia

Hillsong United, the youth ministry of Hillsong church, paid a visit to Kuala Lumpur last week 24th Nov. It was the first time the team, consisting of Joel Houston, Jonathan Douglas, Michelle, Matty, Jad etc. (can’t remember who else) came to KL for a concert at SIBKL. Needless to say, the RM20 a piece ticket was sell-out a couple of weeks before the concert. Kids from all over must have forced their parents to buy them the tickets…or just got them themselves. Anyways, I went with my carecell and had a blast there.

I went early and made it to the RM15 workshop, which was well worth the small fee. We heard from Ps Chrishan, one of the United pastors, and then from the band. Well, it was mostly Joel and JD and Matty talking, in a Q & A session, which was alright. We did learn quite a bit of stuff, but most of all about the heart and passion these people put into what they do. I must say some participants asked some weird questions, which the pastor couldn’t understand…but apart from that, all was well. The poor guys just got in from Jakarta and had to rush to rehearsal before the well anticipated concert that nite.

We grabbed a quick bite and thought we’d head up to the main entrance early enough, but boy were we wrong. Though we were early, the line was already going from the 5th floor to the 3rd floor, lining down the staircase, the stuff staircase. We probably stood in line for well over an hour. sweating away. Thank God for SIB’s really nice comfy chairs in the sanctuary, and possibly good air flow, there wasn’t any stench of sweat in there.

As the concert was about to begin, the place became overcontained with people, young and old. Looked like the organisers oversold the tickets…as usual. MTV VJ finalist, Bernard Hiew took the stage with another lady, working the crowd, throwing Tshirts from United, worth RM60 to the crowd, flinging CDs and albums… they wanted to get the more senior people to go to another room with live streaming, using the excuse that it was going to be loud. If I was a senior, I probably will feel rather annoyed at the repetitions of that announcement. But as I was not, what most annoyed me was the banning of photography! I had hoped to take some great concert pics…and my hopes were dashed, especially since I had seen people taking pics in their other concerts around Asia, in Philliphines, Japan elsewhere. But here, in Malaysia, it was not allowed, and the MC VJ threatened that any sight of a recording device may be snatched away by their bouncers. My, now they have bouncers in church eh….

And then the much awaited concert finally started, with a spectacular multimedia presentation that took the attention away from the guys trying to set up in darkness on stage…and it all started with a bang…the signature united opening, followed by fast uptempo and then slow worship songs….the presence of God was heavy and people started worshipping no doubt. The crowd’s singing was really loud, and their jumping just shook the whole auditorium, until the projector screens starting shaking as well.

JD’s crazy dance moves got everyone screaming at the end…and as the night ended, the people shouted for more. The band had to come back on stage, standard encore protocol I guess, did a couple more numbers and called it a night. There was a call of hands for those who wanted to accept Christ as well, apparently a number of people did.

After 2 hours of non stop singing, dancing, praying, worshipping, it was finished. We proceeded outside to take a look at merchandise, and found the exhorbitant pricing on the Tshirts too much to bear, I didn’t get it in Hillsong, might as well not get it now.That’s the last of Aussie we have of this year.