17th October 2015: Silent Angel – Descent Of Angels EP Launch at Drum-Asia, Desa Sri Hartamas. But first, opening act Adam’s Eve!

Rock N Roll!

Gotta have the sleeveless.

The Sony Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm F1.4 ZA SSM really shines here.

Rony Neo, the guy who sold me my Cort SJB6FX FL NAT acoustic fretless bass!

Then came the main act…

Silent Angel!

Two guitarists needed for maximum shredding.

Regina Neoh on vocals and power stance.

Eric Poon on sweep tapping, lead lines and a most beautiful marble-like guitar.

They play power/speed metal!

The drummer, who also played for Adam’s Eve.

Eric’s beautiful Caparison Horus-M3 EF Black Rose guitar – note the clock inlays and 27 frets! I told him that its shape and inlays reminded me of Uli Jon Roth’s Sky Guitar.

16th October 2015: BullsEye KL presents Rockfest 2015! at BullsEye, Solaris Dutamas, Publika. That’s a new menu!

But first, I walked around as the gig had not started yet, and stumbled upon Azmyl Yunor busking in Publika.

First up: Afterdays.

These guys keeping it grunge.

A familiar face!

Another, a former member of local grunge band Stonebay.

Next up, my first time catching Fist Of Pain.

Spot a few familiar faces!

Camero…

…Adam Lobo…

…and Brandon Gomez, all from Dragon Red.

Adel on guitar.

Christian Dufour on drums.

The most metal-looking drummer I’ve ever seen!

These guys play metalcore.

Adam is always awesome to photograph.

Infiltrate!

Them guns.

They keep that Deftones sound going.

It’s Paul Stewart again!

A wider shot.

They invited Sara G. to scream along.

They framed the Epiphone SG, an icon from the days where it was in JamAsia Desa Sri Hartamas, the precursor to BullsEye.

Last band of the night.

Deumuseth!

Cool T-shirt.

8-string mayhem.

All about that growl.

Lars Ulrich in the background approves.

15th October 2015: AHM Records Presents: Discovery Thursday (October) at Laundry Bar, The Curve. First up: Ryan Deedat!

Drummer behind a new glass panel.

Kent Sim, emcee.

2storeyheart.

Broken Scar!

This sound engineer/singer-songwriter who was known in the KL scene was back in town for a few days.

He’d been in Melbourne, trying to suppress his accent, but it eventually bubbled up.

Some new stuff, and a classic Ozzy-like grin.

His real name is Kevin Teh, and his brother is the organizer, Darren Teh, of An Honest Mistake Records. Darren joins him on stage.

Last act of the night.

MTA!

Much feeling.

Much screaming.

Later, after the gig, Joe Loy was being schooled on the Rubik’s Cube. This is the new plastic-capped version, costing more than twice the price of the stickered version. It apparently performs better, but I can’t say I am any faster on this. I do love that I’ll never have to worry about peeling and discoloring stickers – especially in tungsten light, where you can mix up yellow and orange.

I don’t remember her first name, but Ms. Wong here did a good job of explaining the methodology of solving the cube.

13th October 2015: Feedback Open Mic @ The Bee Jaya One ft. Beverly Rachel & A Virtuous Cycle / October 2015 Edition. Here’s emcee and organizer Reza Salleh!

Amrita Soon!

Shaun.

Isaac Ho.

Happy Fingers.

The Red Panda.

Jessie & The Red Panda.

Kahlil Hanafi.

Riana Adams.

Two hair icons – Prakash Daniel of Beards Of Malaysia, and Bihzhu who brought Paddle Pop from the rainbow and weaved it in her hair.

First featured act, A Virtuous Cycle.

Megat.

With him, Isaac on guitar.

Second featured act, Beverly Rachel.

She brought on Melissa Toh to play guitar.

Liyana Fizi in the audience, just poking around the corner.

Raja Farouque all by himself. Shot on Tang Chun Cheuh’s Nikkor 50mm F1.2.

Rizwan.

Sharon.

Isaac & Laura. Isaac sang a derp-pop song about Billy a fishy who was dead.

Laura.

Tan Soon Tiong.

David Soh.

Mizion?

Opera!

Liyana Fizi and her cute LINE phone casing!

Azim Azili?

Jude Macson Bensing.

Melissa Toh (whose cover of Death Cab For Cutie – A Lack Of Color was amazing!)

Yasser Shafi?

10th October 2015: Groove With The Social Charity Carnival at The Square, Publika.

First band: Dotters’ Division. Here’s Rebecca on drums!

Audrey the untaggable on saxophone and percussion!

Jie Er on bass, was previously untaggable but can be tagged on Facebook now by non-Chinese literate folk like myself.

Linet on keys!

Melissa on vocals and guitar!

She likes bokeh so I’m going to give that to her.

They harmonize well.

Linet leads the band and coordinates their wardrobe.

Barang baru, bass banyak cantik!

I haven’t actually shot them at such a big stage where I can get a fair bit of space.

I also don’t usually climb the stairs to get high wide-angle shots like these.

Funky shoes.

Funky music.

The Big Band! They covered Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam, among other not-commonly-covered rock classics!

Another band where I don’t recognize Jared Cheow yet again due to his changing style.

A band I finally got to see – Hydra!

They take turns to sing.

High energy unit.

Crowd gets down to groove!

Uptown Funk was playing, I think.

This guy is from another band with a coordinated wardrobe.

8th October 2015: The Barlai Open Mic #11 at Barlai, Jalan Sin Chew Kee. Here’s Ruben Kelvin!

Random crowd sampling.

Happyfingers, who made the Tagalog-fluent staff happy!

Jon Oi, who did a cover of Jimi Hendrix – The Wind Cries Mary. This open mic is a bit different from the others you’ll see around.

Sounds Of Kites.

Samuel Lopez.

Nick Davis.

Rozella joins him on stage.

Ian Tai.

Dark prince, Hameer Zawawi.

Emcee and organizer, Shaneil Devaser.

1st October 2015: Moonshine: Spotlight ft Cats In Love, Liyana Fizi, Jumero & The Metaphor / October 2015 Edition at The Bee, Publika! Here’s a picture that Melissa Toh took of Rozelle and Beverly Rachel.

This shot by Melissa, too.

First act of the night, Jumero.

Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya.

Ryan and the mike.

Reza Salleh, emcee and organizer, explains how he first saw this act behind him, at a Moonshine when there was an open mic after. Could it have been this one, the sixth Moonshine, 1st June 2006?

Liyana Fizi!

The dashing Jude on guitar.

Ruvi on drums.

Pito on bass.

Liyana was known for her previous band, Estrella, where in an earlier iteration of the band, an acoustic version of Take It Slow appeared on the Voices From Next Door CD in 2006. This was a vocal duet between her and her guitarist, a call and response between boy and girl. (I have to admit I one day figured out the chords to this and tried the same thing with my then girlfriend over the phone.)

And so, in trying to look for older pictures of them, I found this video I recorded of the song, in the duet version! 7th May 2006, at Troubadours, La Bodega. The potato camera in question was my old Canon Powershot A520.

Next band: Cats In Love!

Wong Lip Kee on keys and 70s synth sounds.

Reuben on rock and roll rhythm.

N. Rama Lohan on guitar-tar-tar!

Last band of the night…

…The Metaphor!

So heavy, they broke a snare!

One of the few post-rock bands.

Talitha asked to take a picture, and it so happened Liyana was in the background. How convenient!

Darn my Sony 16mm F2.8 decided to misfocus.

A post-gig birthday!

15th September 2015: AZMYL YUNOR & ORKES PADU – “WAS WAS” album launch! at No Black Tie.

But first, one of two opening acts – Froya!

In the back, upstairs, Zee was practicing his basslines.

Froya was joined on stage this time by Kim Lim on guitar.

Second opening act, Cats In Love.

Reuben on drums.

Wong Lip Kee, keyboard whiz.

N. Rama Lohan rocking out to the blues.

The crowd downstairs, all visible at 1/25s 24mm F2.0 at ISO25600 thanks to the Sony Alpha 7S.

Yup, all visible.

I finally found out what lied behind the curtains!

Azmyl Yunor & Orkes Padu.

Ammar on percussion.

A whole lot of musicians on stage compared to his The Sigarettes band.

Not one electric guitar…

…but two.

Producer and drummer Raje, also of The Sigarettes.

The folk busker himself, Azmyl Yunor.

A couple dances.

N. Rama Lohan joins for a few songs.

Clap along!

10th September 2015: The Barlai Open Mic #9 at Barlai, Jalan Sin Chew Kee.

Jules Tang.

Samuel Lopez.

Peter Hassan Brown.

Mini percussion from the crowd! (Or a really tall glass of beer.)

This folk singer always has his trusty harmonica.

Markiza Brown, his wife, doing djembe in the crowd.

She joined him to sing…

…and clap.

Shaneil Devaser, emcee and organizer.

The Last One Awake.

Joined by Jermaine.

Ruben Kelvin.

Shaneil Devaser.

5th September 2015: A night around KL in places I hadn’t brought my camera to before! Here’s Blue Elephant, a speakeasy.

I really was there for Gaslight Cafe.

Cool entrance. A lot of old decor.

Yup, this place is something.

Diner booths!

All this built by the owner.

Old-school fridge! (There’s a working double bass next to it.)

Old-school microphone!

A nice, cosy gig venue.

Power switches.

All this, in the neighborhood of Bukit Damansara.

Real cosy.

Music was played on vinyl.

Not sure who took this picture of Tanmay, a photographer I just met that night.

Sudar pimping a Jeffrey Lewis & The Jrams gig.

Tonight: Kuning Pening, or Ibrahim!

This insanely random and amusing performance artiste read out of a motorcycle rider’s curriculum.

Sudar provided more sound effects.

A moment of silence… not. They were thinking hard to figure out where the buzzing sound was coming from, to exaggerated comic effect.

It’s okay man, it’s okay.

More mainstream instruments.

Sudar is electronic.

Ibrahim is organic.

I see an act this crazy on average, once a year.

Crazy screams. Like Mike Patton but random and funny.

Kimberley, who was in town for a short while, led me down the evening’s itinerary.

Polaroids of the many who performed at this new venue.

Then, we took an Uber to downtown KL.

Another speakeasy! Omakase + Appreciate. I always assumed the secret entrance was somewhere else for some reason.

Then, a true underground hidden club.

They have rules.

Under9 has cool brickwork!

A test for my Sony Alpha 7S indeed, with the Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM.

This, with the Sony Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm F1.4 ZA SSM.