Cheap Prom...

Hmmm… so who said going to a prom cost a fortune?

I unfortunately, did not have the privilege to go for my high school prom night because it was right after church youth camp, and I was dead tired during that time, so okay, skip that one.

During the 1st half of college life, Suan Aik was kind enough to let me in his band to be a bassist (which consist of Darren, an incredible drummer; Eong Xien, I must say he’s a really really good guitarist; and Ben, his vocal totally rox; and not to forget Suan Aik, another talented guitarist… no idea how they do it, they say they don’t take lessons), and somehow we manage to get a spot to perform during ICPU’s prom night, yeah, I know I am a SAM student, but a job’s a job man.

Things seem to go on fine till this fat dude appeared, he’s some ICPU big guy I guess, and he just have some anti-thingy with bands. So, when he sees us he told us that if we wanted to perform we had to buy tickets, since we are all ICPU students and it would only be fair that way. Then Suan Aik said: “No sir, I am the only ICPU student, the rest aren’t…” Then the fatty goes saying about how it’s a PRIVILEDGE to perform for the ICPU prom blah blah blah… Goodness, we pay to perform? Not like is a contest or something right?

Basically, the whole band already knows that the fatty wants us to buy tickets because he did not meet his quota of people who needs to be at the prom and he’s losing money. But even with the obvious fact, he still goes blabbering about the fact that if we don’t buy the tickets the people working in Sheraton will count more heads, which would end up they having to fork out their own money and stuff, or somehow illegal immigrants would enter because we can enter. Then he asked some cool Indian dude who was their emcee last year and also this year: "Did we let you in free last year?" (I guess he’s hoping to hear a ‘no’) But to his horror the emcee said: “Sir, you paid us 300 ringgit to be your emcees” Buahaha, really kena him man that time, then he kind of switch topics about how emcees being more important and stuff like that… I mean, the point is, if someone performs for you, you’re suppose to pay them brother, not the other way round. It was super hard just to convince him that we are not there for the food, but just to perform and get some experience performing for a crowd. We could perform and leave, but noOO, he keeps changing the topic. As if we had some evil motives behind. Bah~

Somehow we manage to settle the problem and manage to get one table for free, yay! Well, there was this other Indian band that shared the table with us, since they were performing too, but weirdly during the fatty’s interrogation we were the one that got the most out of him though. Nevertheless, we were glad that we manage to get a free table.

Just when we thought that the fatty has a kind side, we were shocked to find out that he did not prepare any music equipment for us on the prom day itself. Aiyoh, just because we did not pay for the prom don’t need lah have your revenge like that. Because of that, all of us got to use our own equipment which was suppose to be our monitor amp when we perform to become the main speakers. Imagine using 15-25 watt amplifiers to allow a whole ballroom to hear what you are playing… we thought it was impossible, but after testing out, thank God that it was sufficient, don’t need to pack our bags and leave that means ha-ha.

So, off we performed that day! Not bad for few tiny amps and my 65 watt bass amp which was put on full blast till I think it kind of spoilt because of that. Our first two songs (or was it three?) had some good reception, could see people feeling the beat to our music. But our later two songs didn’t have much feedback from the crowd, mainly because most of the people went out to take photos of their beautiful selves in Cinderella dresses and cool suits, I guess, during the later part of the prom. And who in the world would want to sit down and listen to a band during prom anyways. So yeah, we were really disappointed during the second half, but then I realize, as a band we should enjoy ‘playing’ the music, and not enjoying the woo’s and ah’s from the crowd—the attention from the people. Reminds me that when we are serving God in church as musicians, song leaders or backup singers, we should always remember we are playing the music and singing to please our Lord, not to please the people and hope they award you with some medal for being so ‘geng’ in what you do. Glorify God, not men, something I must always try to remember.

Here’s a picture from Eong Xien during that night:












Yeah, I know… I know, why all not wearing suit one! Aiyoh, I have difficulties just playing my instrument standing up, if I was wearing a suit and play, the sound that comes out would be noise not music anymore. And it would be freaking weird if all of us wear suits to play, or cool if you’re errr weird I guess. Anyway, all in all, first prom didn’t cost me anything, but it did cost lots of energy (and some money for the jam sessions) preparing for the performance and convincing the fatty to allow us to perform, for free…

My second prom didn’t cost me much either… paid 80 bucks for the SAM prom ticket, and that was all.

Well, at first I really wanted to put up a show and all by buying my own tux and perhaps go for some killer hair-do and stuff like that, you know all the hype before the prom thingy when suddenly I realize that I don’t have a date (yeah, like as if I ever had one in my life) and there’s nothing to look forward to that day, accept perhaps the food. That in a way made me decide to maybe skip the prom night, since it may end up being super boring, but being the stingy me, the 80 bucks made me think otherwise.

And because of that, I lost the urge to go out and spend big bucks preparing all the gears for prom. It was only on the evening of the prom night which I decided that I should go, because well, it could be the last day where I could meet my college mates then. Then the problem came, what in the world am I suppose to where over there, I mean, I did not go shopping man. So the scavenger hunt began…

In the end, this was what I came up with (don’t ask me what brand is it, I have no idea) [Wei Qi, me and Wai Soon in the picture]:


















Coat: Borrowed from dad
White long sleeved shirt: Borrowed from elder brother
Pants: Borrowed from elder brother
Leather Belt: Borrowed from dad
Socks: Borrowed from dad
Shoes: Borrowed from dad

Basically I borrowed everything from my dad and brother, yeah, call me cheap, but I think this is cost saving ha-ha. And anyway, most people wear their prom attire once and never use it again, having the fear that people would criticize them for wearing the same thing twice, bah, peer pressure. And yeah, really thank God that I manage to whip up a hair style correctly for once that day in 10 minutes, that was the first and hopefully not the last time I could do something like that (well, you know, no hair now ha-ha). My hair was always a natural disaster, I could never get it to the way I want it… but I think the main reason would be because I am super lazy to prepare it right, prefer sleeping through it.

There you have it, how to reduce cost for your prom night so you can afford tickets for your date that day! Well, actually I almost managed to escape paying 80 bucks for the ticket if our band managed to enter to perform during my SAM prom night, but the principle only allowed one band to perform which unfortunately weren’t us. NOT because we were terrible, but because the principle thought that each band would need its own set of equipments, which would cost a fortune for them. Only later did we realize the misunderstanding but it was too late. So, the band which had a violinist manage to get the band spot, and they did a really good job that day, problem was people were taking photos during that time, and yeah, you know what happens next… no one listens and everyone leaves the ballroom to take pictures of their pretty selves. Yeah, me and my whole class were guilty of that, too, ha-ha. Didn’t regret going for the SAM prom night, it really was the last day to meet some of my college friends, and yeah, talked a lot of crap that day. One thing though, never eat with a class that consists of engineering students. Because most of the students in the pre-engineering class were guys, the food kind of finish off way too fast. We didn’t realize how fast we were eating till we saw that our food were different from that of the other tables, one order faster than all the others beside us, goodness.

So, yeah, who said going to prom cost a fortune?