ARTICLE: Review: Tokio Hotel in Malaysia

Let me be straight up with you, I am neither a fan nor a hater of Tokio Hotel as they've always kind a existed on the periphery of my musical net. And knowing that the crowd that would be present in front of One U waiting for the German pop rockers would mostly be pre-pubescent/tween/adolescent/whatever we're calling it these days, I was filled with a kind of trepidation as I drove to One U that sunny afternoon.

One look around the mall told me I was right in suspected I was going to be awash in a sea of blossoming pheromones awaiting the ridiculously beautiful Bill Kaulitz, peppered in between with black clad scene kids in Avenged Sevenfold t-shirts (further denying A7X any metal cred whatsoever). Stepping out of the mall however, yielded a far more impressive sight- a long line snaking to the entrance of the cordoned off performance area, will stalwart fans waiting in the spluttering fits of sporadic rain.

And finally at 6-ish, Pop Shuvit made their way onstage to a rather energetic crowd (give yourselves a round of applause!), playing a 5 song set that got people jumping around. They finished their set to 'Marabahaya', though we saw some hints that there was lip-synching going on (Shhh!). Half an hour later Bunkface got onstage to similar effect, plugging their latest album 'Phobia Phoney'. We then noticed people heading back in for a drink while crew started setting up Tokio Hotel's gear.

Soon enough, a heartbeat raced over the monitors, and the crowd went insane. True to my noob-ish knowledge of Tokio Hotel, I failed to recognize a few songs, but nonetheless I noticed the arrival of crowd favorite songs like breakout single 'Ready, Set, Go', 'Pain of Love', 'Human Connect To Human', 'World Behind My Walls', and of course their robot love song, 'Automatic'. I have to give Tokio Hotel this, as much as I am ambivalent to most of their musical output, they are a very, very tight band, with their guitars, bass and drums fully audible and played without a single hitch.

But most importantly to the adoring crowd, lead singer Bill Kaulitz stole the spotlight with his high flying faux hawk and arena sized gestures. His vocal performance was impeccable, as good as it is on the record itself, with backing vocals provided by bassist Georg and guitarist Tom. While tonight was only a showcase, Tokio Hotel definitely proved they're growing into a force to be reckoned with. Their tight musicianship definitely is proof of how long these boys have been playing together, and demonstrated a caliber that even a hardened skeptic had to concede to.

I still not a fan, but I for one enjoyed their show, even as Bill earnestly belted out closer 'Monsoon' to a crowd that was obviously screaming "Danke schön Tokio Hotel!"

Credit: @JunkOnline (Twitter)