Monthly Archives: January 2009

You Owe X


Celcom UOX Play, 13th December 2008.


A stranger, no wait, hmmm…


Szetoo says I see you too!


Stonebay!


The stage was on top of Sungei Wang Plaza, on the fourth floor. What an interesting rooftop stage! I’ve always thought rooftop stages were cool since The Beatles Rooftop Concert.


Security.


Emcee. Utterly every teenage girl’s dream.


Drum slut. And I had just posted how I’d never seen Jimmy drum for other bands and today he drummed for Stonebay and 40 Winks and Tempered Mental!


Do not step on broken glass(es)!


Bus Company. Finally, I got to see this band hailing from Klang after bumping into their members in so many occasions!


When I can’t think of a caption, I usually take the oppurtunity to insert some technical data. Like how all the stage shots were with the Sony A900 and Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan. 210mm was long enough, but I gotta love the 70mm end of it, too!


40 Winks with Adlin Faiz Rosli.


Ska gets the crowd going!


Dude, what does mine say?!?


According to the timetable, Tempered Mental was to play at 8:30pm. I came on time and found them leaving the stage already, to be followed by funk/jazz rock Seven, who had quite a confusing crowd – some were absolutely lapping up the songs and singing along, and some were booing them off stage.


Ken gets a light shone on him.


Another reason to love my beercan and the bokeh it produces.


While Laila’s Lounge jammed on stage, their vocalist sat in a jam. This guitarist also sang vocals.

Laila’s Lounge didn’t make it to Rock The World 8. They had disbanded by then.

It was then Bittersweet‘s turn, with their vocalist again stuck in a jam, or missing.

There was a couple who had brought their toddlers to the show. Right smack in front of the barricades! They tried to put the kids to sit on the barricades. The kids in the crowd shouted, “Kak, jangan kak! Bahaya kak!” The mother was oblivious to that and insisted on putting their kids up front. The bouncers also advised the parents to bring their kids back down (they were crying then) but they persisted.

Dumb breeders.

Meanwhile, a drunk punk bodysurfed over to where this scene happened, nearly hitting them toddlers in the head. Somehow, I wonder if a lesson should’ve been taught to the parents.

And there I was, in a massive sandwich, unable to change out of my beercan to a wide-angle lens to document this in pictures.

I left the insane front-row crowd upon Bittersweet’s arrival, cradling my lens as I travelled through the mosh pits (following the flow helped). I was just there casually so I didn’t go get myself a media pass.


Then, I found good ol’ rocker Sarah and we formed an impromptu Guitar Hero band!


Yeah, I thought it was a pity that the band did not collectively know any harder, faster songs.

After what was like our world tour and 3 encores, looked at my watch – 11:30pm! I had just missed Butterfingers!


At least there was The Super Insurgent Group Of Intemperence Talent. Hard-rockin’ rock and rolling!


I’d heard of them on the first Junk CD. Awesome stuff!

Introducing My New Year’s Resolution


No Black Tie Music Countdown 2008, 29th December 2008.


With Reza Salleh the soulful…


Paolo Delfino Gomez the humorous…


+1 entertainment points to you dude for telling stories between songs!


And Rendra Zawawi the theatrical, featuring a trimmed down lineup consisting only of his brother.

Being a singer-songwriter’s round, the stage was set for all three of them, taking turns to sing songs in a round-robin fashion.


Next trio – Shanon Shah, singing songs from the soundtrack of Karaoke!

Well I’d be happy with the Bananarama song or that geeky engineer song but what the heck. 😀


Az Samad the amazing wood-knocking fingerstyle guitarist!


And, of course, this excellent, excellent, excellent Jerome Kugan.

A benefit of being in a singer-songwriter’s round is that your round mates often chip in with guitar solos and vocal harmonies. Such moments are magical.


Christmas season was not over. Baubles!


Next up – Peter Hassan Brown! He is often the angsty, opinionated folk singer. Some may not find his stuff with his band Soft Touch addictive, but when he sings one of his new songs with a load of gust and opinion, everybody sits up and takes notice. Who else could sing “because singer-songwriters are playing for free” and get away with it?


Only one of the respected otai (old-timers) in the scene.

It’s a real pity though, when I hear such biting lyrics, I never get to hear the same song again. I still remember when he sang a random freestyle rap with guitar. He was fired up! That performance stuck in my head.


Markiza, his wife, took a back seat as she was sick.


Then came Zalila Lee, hitting it up with some funk-blues mix. Rare it is to see her without her hat (which makes it a lot easier to photograph her eyes!)


Sharidir and Nizam P playing the blues like we were in a real juke joint and not the classy No Black Tie. I had been looking forward to seeing him since hearing his tune, Sighyoung, from the Voices From Next Door album. Of course, he went by the name Sherry back then.


Zalila, as always, pulled out a shaker out of nowhere to accompany.


When else can you sit on your instrument?


Zalila called Az up again for more accompaniment. Note his awesome Soloette (which almost looks like Az is playing it upside-down, seeing where the headstock is, but I bet Az could play a guitar any way he wanted to anyway.)


Ohai Cindy! Shot at 135mm F1.8 1/2s ISO3200 – good job standing still for half a second!

So what’s with the increase in image dimensions? It’s my New Year’s Resolution!

I wanted to celebrate the first gig I’d post with the Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA. I sat at a table near the base of the staircase. That’s how far I was from the stage! I like the new perspective and angle it gives as opposed to using my Minolta 50mm F1.4 and cramping my knees crouched in front of the stage while getting shots from their chin.

Oh, and of course, I cannot get any more excited about how crazy sharp this lens is. Peter Hassan Brown never looked so grand! Add to the fact that the increased distance increases depth of field and I get more depth of field on the subject. It’s contrasty wide open (I can’t say the same about the 50mm F1.4.)

Meanwhile, the 50mm F1.4 captures crowd ambience well. The lower contrast and small diminutive size makes it a great crowd-grabber.