There are few things people do at January 26th this year, for people around East Asia they went for St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, but for Australian, not only the day they celebrate their Australia day but also the time for Hottest 100 day!

What’s about this Hottest 100? This is an annual music poll conducted by one of the biggest radio station in Australia, Triple J, in which to determine their favourite song of the year by votes two weeks prior to Australia Day and will be played on the weekend of the big day. The radio itself  has recently released their compilation double – CD featuring selection of songs from the countdown. From Joy Division to Nirvana, Powderfinger to Foo Fighters, The Cure to Crystal Castles, there are lots of good music and bands being chosen on the list, which proved that Ozzie have some taste in music, and believe me, if it counted inside the list, it must’ve been a good music to listened to.

So, this year we took part at this annual vote, lots of bands we wanted to win, but nevertheless with the result Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have lived up to everyone’s expectations as this super independent hip hop crowned on the top of the list, with their hit Thrift Shop.

It wasn’t surprising when we knew that Number 2 on the list was six-pieces Keflavik’s band Of Monsters and Men, with Little Talks, their single which taken from their debut studio album, My Head Is an Animal. As we saw them yesterday at Laneway, we couldn’t doubt more that they deserve that position.

Followed on the third place, was this Cambridge young indie rock quartet form  ∆ (alt-J) with their Breezeblocks which taken from their debut album, An Awesome Wave. With the catchy, eclectic sound no wonder, beside receiving gold in the UK, they also won UK Mercury Prize this year.

And the list goes on to Flume with Holdin On, Mumford & Sons with I Will Wait, Major Lazer feat. Amber Coffman with Get Free, Tame Impala with Elephant, Frank Ocean with Lost, and another Tame Impala‘s song Feels Like We Only Go Backwards, and The Rubens with My Gun.

Check out all the complete list on Triple J’ website or listen to their spotify list.

Entering the venue, the place reeked of four perfectly combined symbioses: excitement, nicotine, cheap liquor and pure youth. The mob was definitely ready to party on a gorgeous Friday night with the highly anticipated The Vaccines live concert. Chosen to be the opening act for Upfront’s yet another exhilarating show, The Rubens succeeded on heating up the stage for the crowd to cheer tremendously despite the fact that most of the people were singing along incoherently not knowing the words, but in the end it’s the enthusiasm that counts. The Rubens fascinated the crowd with eight songs from their self-titled album, including Best We Got, Be Gone, My Gun, Never Be The Same and Lay It Down. It is without a doubt that the newly formed band was about to gain new fans with their retro-indie sound.

After The Rubens’ exit, followed by a huge applaud, the night paused, leaving the crowd restless for The Vaccines to start. The thrill continued, and exploded after Árni Arnason (bass) entered the stage, followed by Pete Robertson (drums), Freddie Cowan (guitar) and Justin Young (vocals). Our four favorite Brit guys jump-started their arrival with No Hope, followed by Wreckin’ Bar Ra Ra, I Always Knew, Tiger Bloodand Under Ur Thumb. The night starts to unravel in sheer madness when they played Lack Of Understanding, the venue was echoed by the screams and chants from the hyped-up mass. The madness didn’t stop there; it escalated even greater when their infamous song Wet suit and Teenage Icon started playing, which has victoriously defined the theme of the night: a coming of age chapter.

Speaking of coming of age, The Vaccines also brought up some new songs from their new album, Come of Age, which was Aftershave Ocean and GhostTown. Though the pace of the gig was getting a tad bit predictable, Justin, none other but the delirious lead vocals, seems to have the flair to capitalize the crowd’s attention by maximizing the band’s performance, with Freddie’s fascination, Pete’s invigorating beats and Árni’s flawlessness. It was all about the energy with The Vaccines, the resurgence of guitar music era was felt in the air.

The lead singer then took a short interval by expressing the band’s sincerest excitement for being in Kuala Lumpur for the first time, described it, in his words, as “weird and f—ing amazing”, which got the mass even more electrified. Continuing with the music, Post-Breakup Sex was next in the setlist, and seemed to be a lot of people’s favorite that night since the screaming and the singing along was at its climax. After the band’s insane performance along with the stage’s seizure-like lightings, All In White and Blow It Up was brought by the band, concluded with the renowned and first single, If You Wanna.

Even though it was getting close to the end of the show, the crowd was not even close to getting tired from listening to the authentic audio played by the band. As an encore, The Vaccines performed three of their songs, Badmood, Wolfpack and Norgaard as the final song of the utterly fitted one-and-a-half-hour set. The Vaccine’s exit off the stage was tailed by a massive applaud, and with a hint of grief, knowing that the show was over. All in all, Upfront and The Bee has thriven on The Vaccine’s spectacular show, bringing the sound of 50’s rock and roll alive in Kuala Lumpur and leaving the crowd in a state of trance.

So, if you ask do The Vaccines wanna come back here to Malaysia, needless to say that it is definitely alright with us.