Warning: Major Malachi-Gushing Up Ahead (P.S. Irish Guys Rock)

I just got back from the Malachi Cush Meet-and-Greet session:

Me: Dia duit.
Malachi: (a huge grin immediately spreads across his face) Ohhh, bless you, love! We have us an Irish-speaker here. (promptly reaches forth and takes both of my hands into his and gently shakes them up and down with each proceeding syllable) Cead. Mile. Failte. (Girls at the front of the line begin emitting tiny little shrieks.)
Me: (in a rather flustered voice) Er, ah, a hundred thousand welcomes to you, too.
Malachi: (stands up, reaches across the table and gives me a big hug. The girls in line start shrieking and my poor, dear heart's going pitter-patter-pat-pat.) May I please have your name, Irish-speaker?
Me: (my cheeks are aflame at this point) Err, Lynn.
Malachi: (signs my CD) You speak very good English, Lynn.
Me: Thank you. You gave a really great performance last night.
Malachi: (he gives this small, almost boyish little grin) Thank you so very much (except, with his Irish accent, it sounds more like "Tank ye so varry mooch"). I take it you enjoyed yourself?
Me: Yeah. (Gee, a wee bit more enthusiasm wouldn't have hurt.)
Malachi: (spots my camera in my hand) Would you like to take a picture?
Me: Huh? (I'd forgotten that I even had a camera) Oh, yeah, okay.
(A nice lady takes a picture for us.)
Me: I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in Thailand.
Malachi: Oh, o'course! Your people are so incredibly courteous and friendly, I truly wish I could stay longer, but unfortunately I must leave on Sunday.
Me: (Don't quite remember what I said, but probably "uh-huh" or something else equally clever.)
Malachi: Thank you so much for coming to see me perform last night, Lynn... and for coming today, too.
Me: (Again, I don't quite remember what I said. After that hug, I'm lucky I was able to say anything at all .)

He said "bless you, love". How wonderfully British/Irish is that? I noticed that he has these really, really clear blue eyes, and that he's also pretty darn tall (I'm guessing way over six feet). Oh, and when he took my hands into his, I realized that he has humongous hands. Um, and without going into much detail, you know what they say about guys with big hands (or was it feet??)...

I didn't have my digital cam with me today (only had my regular camera) and so I have to wait a while before I finish the roll of film and get my pics developed. Anyway, yesterday and today have both been pretty much filled to the brim with Malachi-isms, and although Caro and I were temporarily reduced to jabbering, Malachi-raving idiots after last night's showcase, I think we are now back to our normal old selves (or sort of at least).

After class yesterday, I took the skytrain to the BTS station at Tong Loh in Sukhumvit to meet up with Caro at her place. I took a tuk-tuk into her soi because they're quick and efficient and Caro suggested that they're a better alternative to a 30-minute walk in the hot afternoon sun.

Click on the pics to enlarge them.

Wheee!
(Holding on for dear life since the mad tuk-tuk driver liked making neck-breaking, sharp turns.)
As has been our customary tradition since seventh grade, I heckled Caro about this rag doll of hers that she's had since the day she was born. It's named Muay (an affectionate nickname Thais give to girls who look Chinese), and has undergone at least a zillion various forms of surgery over the years. Caroline's gonna kill me for saying this, but if you lift its skirt, you'll see nothing but these stringy little excuses for legs and a virtually non-existent trunk of a body.

Me: I'm gonna take a pic of Muay.
Caro: OK, let's let her pose.
Me: Err, can she? (lifts up her skirt) I mean, she doesn't really even have any legs.
Caro: Aghhh! Don't lift up her skirt like that! It's indecent!


Muay.
Eek. Horrifically frightening, isn't she?

Later, we walked out of her soi and towards the main road where we tossed around some random places where we could get some quick dinner before heading to RCA. We ended up deciding on some street food located a little further down the road. As a loyal Bangkokian, I may be somewhat biased, but sometimes I feel that in spite of all the various five-star, highly critiqued, super posh restaurants in the world, in the end, nothing can quite beat good ol' scrumptious Thai street food.


The best moo satay I've tasted in a while and some mouth-watering, spicy yum (sort of looks like a plate of worms, huh). Even though we aren't too shabby in the spicy food department, we still chickened out and decided to leave all the chili behind.

So we finished eating, and later caught a taxi to The Forte, which is located at RCA (Royal City Avenue). Our taxi driver - let's call him Bob - liked playing big, bellowing love ballads from the eighties (think "Total Eclipse of the Heart"). Bob also had a sort of odd liquid substance on the seats of his taxi, some of which unfortunately got on Caro's hands. Yecch. Anyway, we finally arrived at The Forte where a swelling crowd was beginning to form.



The crowd outside The Forte.


Me and Caro outside of The Forte.
"Good thing you took the pic, because if I had taken it, you'd be missing the upper half of your face." - Caro, who's a wee bit vertically challenged.

They finally let us in and Caro and I managed to nab this great spot facing the center of the stage.



Samsung were the sponsors that night, and so everywhere we turned there were life-sized Samsung phones and stick-thin girls dressed in skimpy Samsung outfits. Samsung this, Samsung that - there was even a Samsung freaking spotlight that flashed the Samsung logo in different colors (a la the infamous Batman spotlight), and a bunch of big screened TVs that continued to play the same Samsung commercial over and over and over again.

Concerned that Samsung's latest cell phone model hadn't yet been ingrained into our brains, they sent P'Thum (this DJ from 95.5 Virgin Hitz) out on stage. His opening speech went a little something like this:

"In a few moments, Malachi will be ready to serenade you folks, but in the meantime, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung, samsung..."

He then launched into a series of insipidly inane games:
GAME #1: Play the first three seconds of various pop mainstream hits, and the first person to correctly guess the name of the artist and song wins a - GASP! - Samsung phone holder to place your Samsung phone in!!!!!
GAME #2: Call up random pairs of people and see if they can fit into a super-duper extra large Samsung shirt and win - GASP! - a Samsung shirt so that you can go around letting everyone know just how much you love Samsung!!!!!


Oh joy, more Samsung fun.

GAME #3: Anyone who brought the new Malachi album with them to the night's showcase wins - GASP! - a pen! (But no, sorry folks, it wasn't a Samsung pen.)
GAME #4: Randomly call out various years, and whoever can verify with their Thai ID card that they were born in that year wins - GASP! - I don't know, sorry, I lost interest at this point and was too busy talking with Caroline about how I never want to see another Samsung phone in my life, and, later, phoning Siri (with my Nokia phone, thankyouverymuch) to say hi.

P'Thum, who I personally think was paid extra hefty amounts of $$$ to talk about Samsung phones with such enthusiastic exuberance and flair, finally left the stage and left us with a ten minute-long promotional Samsung advertisement.

Just when I thought I couldn't take any more Samsung bombardment, P'Miew (this DJ from 88.0 Radio No Problem) finally came out on stage:

P'Miew: "Diew eek bap neung Malachi nuk rong chao Irish soot loh ja awk ma laew" ("In a few moments, the very handsome Irish singer, Malachi, will be here!")
(deafening scream from every single female present in the room.)
Farang guy standing next to me: Oh! Hey, over here! We're "chao Irish"!
Farang guy's farang friend: Chao Irish! (pointing to self and friend) Chao Irish!

Nobody seemed to care about the two poor Irish farangs, but nice try guys! Anyway, Malachi finally emerged, and all I can really say is that he is plain amazing. He seemed a little shy at times, but he has this sweet sort of humbleness that comes across in such a charismatic manner. His voice has that Midas touch, and even though a lot of the songs on his album are covers, I don't think there's a single song he can't sing well.

Of course, the accent was a plus, too. The Irish accent is very lyrical and sort of melodic-sounding. He sang "The Dance" and pronounced dance as "dohnce" and chance as "chonce" and Caro and I couldn't have been more thrilled.

The set list went a little like this:
Crazy Love
Fields of Gold
Brown-Eyed Girl
The Dance
Have I Told You Lately
Just Say You Love Me
Eyes of Blue (Encore)

I didn't know that he was going to perform Crazy Love (a personal long-time favorite of mine), and when he launched into that song with his trusty guitar in hand, I swear I heard every single woman in the room give a loud little siiiiiiigh. He did a gorgeous rendition of Crazy Love, and, man, that boy sure does know how to sing with his whole heart and soul.



Fields of Gold was also impeccably done. He sang every note with such warmth and vigor, the room literally stilled throughout the entire duration of that song.



Just before starting the next song, he commented on Thai women and how "gorgeous you all are" (or, as he says, "gar-jus"). In tribute of all the gar-jus Thai women, he performed a song especially for all the brown-eyed Thai ladies - Van Morrison's Brown-Eyed Girl (another personal fave of mine). Poor Malachi, while singing Brown-Eyed Girl, he tried to get the crowd to sing along with him during the "sha la la la la la la la la la la te da" part:

Malachi: (singing) Do you remember when we used to sing? (holds out microphone to the audience)
(silence)
Caro: Oh God, I feel so bad for him.
Me: Maybe some Thai people don't know this song.
Malachi: (looks a little embarrassed, but nevertheless resumes singing. When he later reaches the "sha la la la la la la la la la la te da" part again, the crowd - who have now caught on - suddenly hollers out.)
Crowd: Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da!!!
Malachi: Oh! (gives this delightful little surprised look and then chuckles) Better!


Trying to get us to "sha la la la la la la la la la la te da" along with him.

Garth Brook's "The Dance" was next, followed by another Van Morrison song - "Have I Told You Lately".



"Just Say You Love Me" (his debut single) was next and the crowd went berzerk. Afterwards, he gave a "wai" to the audience and thanked them for their support in helping his first single make it to the #1 slot in the Thai charts. More screaming and cheering ensued and he just stood there with this huge smile on his face. Awww.


"Khob khun mak mak krub."

The encore song was Eyes of Blue, and at this one part, instead of singing "your eyes of blue", he sang "your eyes of brown". Again - yup, you guessed it - the crowd went wild.



Later, P'Miew came out to interview him a bit.
P'Miew: Would you ever consider doing more up-tempo music, like rock, pop, or dance?
Malachi: Oh no, I can't dance! I'm the worst dancer in the world.
P'Miew: Won't you do a little dance for your fans?
Malachi: Won't you do a little dance for your fans?


Malachi trying to get P'Miew to dance.
Ahh, cheeky l'il fella.



Talking about how he wrote his "Just Say You Love Me" song when he was feeling a little heart-broken. Aw.

P'Miew: So, before you were a singer, what did you do for a living?
Malachi: (leans in and whispers) I worked at a petrol station and was a part-time plumber.


Australian woman behind me: He can fix my toilet any day! (I second that.)


P'Miew: So, how do you like Thailand so far?
Malachi: Oh, it's been absolutely lovely. The Thai people are very much like the Irish - they like to have fun, are family-oriented, and are such friendly, friendly folk.
(more cheering, shrieking and wailing... I'm surprised there wasn't any fainting involved.)


P'Miew: So the big question on everyone's mind is, what's your ideal girl like?
Malachi: I like dark-haired girls. (crowd emits deafening roar.) In fact, the girl in my first music video is half-Thai. (said roar is raised a dozen decibels). But truly, Thai girls are absolutely gar-jus and now I know why they're known for their beauty. I have only been here a few days, but I can already tell that Thailand is truly deserving of being known as the land of smiles. Everyone has been so friendly and accommodating and has made me feel so very welcome.
P'Miew: (in Thai) What a smooth talker! (telling from the responsive cheer, I think the crowd agreed with her.)


P'Miew: Any last words for your Thai fans?
Malachi: (in that Irish accent again) Tank ye, tank ye so mooch far sa-part'n me. Khob khun krub, khob khun mak mak.



Some post-show thoughts:
(enter Malachi-raving idiots)
Me: Irish guys rock.
Caro: Yesssss!
Me: His voice is so ahhh!
Caro: I knooooow!
Me: And he's so charismatic!
Caro: And cute in this cheeky, boyish sort of way!
Me: And incredibly witty!
Caro: sigh
Me: Now you really have to get his album.
Caro: I hate you. First Jay Chou and now this. I'm wasting all my money and it's all because of you.

Hahaha.

Malachi is such a genuinely warm and gracious person - both onstage and in person. And as for that wonderful voice - wow.

Hooray for Malachi Cush.



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