Dear Tamil Concert Organisers in Malaysia...

This is an open letter to all the organisers of Tamil concerts in Malaysia.

Dear Tamil concert organisers,

You guys are a growing family, aren’t you! This year alone, we have seen Tamil concert organisers mushroom like there is no tomorrow. It must be an extremely lucrative industry to be in. Yes, we suckers are willing to fork out hundreds of ringgit to catch a four hour show of an established Indian singer. We’ll even bring our parents and older family members if it is a singer that appeals to them, multiply that by a few hundred and.. wow!

Instead of us writing honest reviews and receiving horrid backlash, we have come up with a list of areas you could focus on. After all, there’s really no point in investing heavily on social media marketing when even the basics are overlooked, is there?

Sound system needs to be on point.

The sound system can make or break a concert, as we have seen. One of the concerts held in the nation’s capital recently had an impeccable sound system. There was no fault whatsoever, in spite of having a whopping 17 musicians on stage with two singers at any one point.

So it perplexes us when we comment on the faulty sound system, only to hear the organisers say things like, “This is a live show, the sound system can be unpredictable,” The weather may be unpredictable, but isn’t there a dedicated team working towards a smooth sound system in every show? We wonder if the likes of Beyonce or Ed Sheeran will tolerate this kind of statement from the concert organiser.

“This is a live show, the sound system can be unpredictable,” The weather may be unpredictable, but shouldn’t there be a dedicated team working towards a smooth sound system in a every show?

Be upfront about the performers

This may seem obvious, but some organisers appear to have overlooked it this year. It isn’t fair to lash out at concert goers who wished there was more of the star singer, when the show itself was named after the him.

Of course, we certainly cannot expect a septuagenarian to perform for four hours straight, but perhaps the other singers of his or her troop could have been mentioned in the promotional flyer. Or at least, pictures of them featured on the social media advertisement. We would have managed our expectations.

While we are on this, it would be wonderful if the opening act of the concert does not exceed 30 minutes. I mean, it is a little preposterous for 25% of the show to be of the opening act alone, right?

It isn’t fair to lash out at concert goers who wished there was more of the singer, when the show itself was named after the him.

Please don’t choose a venue based on cost alone

While we do understand that you need to make a profit at the end of the day, choosing a cheap venue only gives your company a bad name. There were numerous complaints about one of the venues an established concert organiser chose this year. What do they do about it? Hold another concert in the EXACT SAME VENUE.

No food or drinks allowed inside, no problem, but..

Again, we understand that you confiscate our water bottles and snacks at the start of the concert because you want your food items to be sold. Fair enough. Just a reminder that if you choose to implement these rules, then every group of people need to be accommodated. This includes vegetarians and vegans.

As for alcohol, our community obviously hasn’t arrived at a stage where we are able to hold out alcohol. While this is sad, it would be wise not to keep testing the water. The last thing we concert goers need is to be seated next to a person creating a ruckus simply because they are pissed drunk. One concert goer even reported having an inebriated chap next to him vomit at his seat, with nobody coming to clean it up until the end of the show.

We Tamil music lovers adore alcohol, but maybe we just aren’t ready for it to be sold at concerts

A security hotline, perhaps?

It would be very helpful if the concert organisers provided a security hotline number for any audience member to call if they needed help.

Picture this, you are seated in the middle of a long row of seats, and there is a person seated behind you who keeps shouting at the stage, to the point of being disruptive. Or there is a group of friends at the far end of your row that are obviously intoxicated, and are about to break into a physical altercation.

Security has been a rising concern for concert goers this year, with numerous messages on social media about troublemakers (inebriated or not) in the audience.

More Malaysian talent, please

While it is fantastic to see all these big names from India on our shores, it would be wonderful to have our homegrown singers perform alongside them. It may be only for a song or two, but it will go far in building our Malaysian Tamil singers’ profiles.

This year, there was a charity concert with a complete Malaysian line up. Kudos to the organisers. We hope this has set the stage for our local singers. Perhaps 2020 will bring us more concerts by Malaysian Tamil singers.

We are allowed to voice our displeasure

As attendees, we have a right to voice our opinion. Ticket holders have spent their hard earned money to watch these big names perform. When we tell you what went wrong on Facebook, it isn’t because we want to put you out of business, we are just voicing out our opinion, which as patrons we have an absolute right to.

As for concert reviewers like the Varnam team, we cannot pretend to be a couple of bootlicker bloggers and gloss over the numerous faults on the organiser’s part. We have an obligation to our readers, and we need to be honest. Scare tactics, angry messages and boycott threats will only leave us amused.

As for concert reviewers like the Varnam team, we cannot pretend to be a couple of bootlicker bloggers and gloss over the numerous faults on the organiser’s part.

We are not against you!

Ultimately, we concert goers and reviewers are not against you. We want you to do better so we can keep watching these international singers perform here. Whatever that is said about your show, please take it as constructive criticism and try to improve on those points.

Whatever that is said about your show, please take it as constructive criticism and try to improve on those points.

Contrary to popular belief, we have absolutely nothing to gain from intentionally writing a bad review of your concert. And no, it is never because we women are on our period, you misogynist.

Sincerely,

A Malaysian Tamil concert fan.