Somebody’s lurking in the distance…

Hard rockin’ REVENGE!

Beware his armpits of fury!

They were so grand they managed to get our classic Rock The World 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 and now 8 emcee, Mr. Haaa-rooon!

There were double guitar harmonies… (insert Rock Band Star Power)

…and there were gentle arpeggiated solos.

I have to say, they really took to the stage with a mix of everything that is true and is metal. No life till leather!

Facepaint for guitarists and bassists!

Every song gets a shrieking solo.

It was commonplace to be slightly deaf after.

Drum solo!

These guys were undoubtedly the band with the best showmanship that night.

Oh, but you know who everybody paid to see – Butterfingers!

Greg Henderson, producer, was also filling in for Loque.

“Eh, you can shred ah!”

They performed a most diplomatic set, doing a song from every album…

…and going back in time when grunge was in.

I could see that Greg could not be happier to have the honor of belting the intro of The Chemistry (Between Us).

Wondered what the Butterfingers looked like back at Rock The World 1?

Yeah, totally grunge and so young and scrawny!

Kadak’s got a pimpin’ outfit.

Emmett goes electric. “Hey where’d you get that old guitar from?”

…and he tosses it straight up and it lands on its headstock!

Now that is a rock show!

I bet he knew it would survive.

This is the cue for everyone to put their hands up…

…so he can go to the crowd…

…and surf!

And that ends my Rock The World 8 series. Now back to regular programming!

More here:
Rock The World 8: Part 3
Rock The World 8: Part 2
Rock The Crowd 8

Here’s more from Rock The World 8, back on the 20th of December 2008!

Bittersweet…

…they bring a dancy indie treat.

“Who wants a guitar?”

I know Hanafi of Estranged does – both his guitars got stolen!

AFUNDI<JARAK>RICH

Azwin Andy. I used the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 with a 2x teleconverter and APS-C mode on the A900 to get 420mm equivalent focal length.

Din and the artificial sun.

The Times bring britpop.

Koffin Kanser and their tribe of nu-metal!

You’d think Aru’s dreadlocks were heavy but here they are flying like a shampoo commercial.

These dreads defy gravity.

Izal of One Buck Short does a Lion-O.

These guys have been doing punk at least since Blue Planet, if I remember. Mooky was reading from a lyrics sheet then! Yes, I feel the need to assert my otai-ness from time to time.

But despite seeing the scene so long I haven’t crowd-surfed before.

(And yes, there is one band that is not included in this sequence – they’re so photogenic I’ll put them first in the last set!)

More here:
Rock The World 8: Part 2
Rock The Crowd 8

And now, for another set of pictures from Rock The World 8!

Dance To The Radio asserts that they are not the Arctic Monkeys of Malaya. They even have a song for it!

Emcee Fadhil, on stage!

Hmmm, I got the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 so I could get a shot that doesn’t always look like I’m upskirting the performers. This was, of course, before I found the spot…

Every now and then, a lucky fella would step inside and try to collect as many coupons in exchange for money, while a fan blew from below.

Sharpshooter, whose genre is self-explanatory.

Ayu!

Harvesting Space Sounds, who didn’t quite get the crowd. I got their music, though. There were dark influences of electronica ala Depeche Mode.

Upon Arrival, whose genre is self-explanatory.

Then it was Zip Zieller, with kickass hard rock riffs. Here, it was time to say goodbye to the guitar…

No, he did not set it on fire. I can’t tell if he tried…

…and so, he threw it to the crowd!

There was still much sound to be worked out from the effects pedals alone.

We now break from all this rock star action with some sweet singing from Liyana of Estrella!

This Dutch/Chinese/Malay mix is a crowd favorite. The same crowd which was skanking to reggae and moshing to hardcore was now singing along!

It was then time for Republic Of Brickfields…

…whose genre is self-explanatory.

Bunkface, a fresh revival of young punk the way Billy Joe Armstrong intended it!

Komplot ramps up the disco!

AAARRRGGGHHH! They Will Kill Us All!

They do indie.

At this point, the stage lights started kicking in…

Purevibracion, which makes the third reggae act.

Rock stars should wear sunglasses, if only to look extra photogenic.

Fadhil gets ready to enter the portal to riches!

Radhi of OAG is enthralled by the crowd.

Same ol, same ol…

Somewhere halfway he forgets to button up his shirt. Perhaps he was parodying a certain Superman-underwear-wearing star. Only Radhi could pull off this, yo!

The barricades were far stronger this year, compared to previous Rock The Worlds where OAG had a record for making barricades break.

The Otherside Orchestra…

…with a touch of disco and indie.

More to come soon!

More here:
Rock The Crowd 8

Xfresh X-Gig, 23rd August 2008, at Zouk – the finale for the first round of the X-Gig series! This is Emir of Throne Away, making an appearance with Stereo Socket.

They play shoegazer music. Though I think this guitar isn’t post-rock enough, it needs to be pimped with a few switches!

The crowd.

Robot Asmara. Ya saya ingin berasmara!

For some reason, when there is a big band with a keyboardist and female singer, it tends to be disco-type indie. Which it was!

Then, it was Brit-type indie, with The Times. It was also the time to start pushing barricades!

The vocalist hopped on above the barricades anyway, and surfed away…

Then it was time for Duan of Seven Collar T-Shirt to break out classic singalongs like Faith.

Ham, Xfresh DJ and effects master (Summary is always fun to watch.)

Smek, with Killer Calculateur, delivers many many more songs, but each song is short – it could only be hardcore. Bang bang double bass double bass riff riff shout shout next song.

Minority Against Radio Oppression. At least they can get on radio, as MARO!

Meng of Love Me Butch got on top of a gig hard case to do this.

I love how they position themselves all over the stage – the bassist is gaining elevation by stepping on the monitor.

It’s almost as if Syahrul knew where to stand, to get the backlight.

Did somebody say Barricade? Yep, the metal joints broke…

Another elevated shot. Gotta love their attention to performance details; they are easily the most photogenic band I’ve seen! (Besides their solid nu-metal/emo tendencies.)

“Psst… we’re back.” whispers Loque to Emmett. The Butterfingers then rip out some classics (the violin tells you exactly what song he is going to play.)

Dude, come back and rock alright?

I finally met Kenchill and discovered that he had the same beard I had, which grew towards my right no matter what I did.

28th December 2008 was the first time I stepped into Marketplace, a quaint venue off Jalan Yap Kwan Seng.

It was Doppelganger Open Mic night, and George Wong was headlining!

He pulls off the emo voice perfectly. Emo glasses? Check. Songs about breakup? Check.

Pick a guitar!

Vei comes up for some stand-up comedy. I think he could’ve warmed up the crowd a fair bit more as there were only a select few tuned in.

Come to think of it, a vital part of stand-up comedy is getting the audience’s attention – after all, we’ve all paid cover charge and redeemed our free beer. We should be able to laugh at anything, so it doesn’t matter if your joke are funny or not.

Speaking of beer, I think the tables are really cool! They have barriers to prevent drinks from falling off the table and spilling.

Then, there was the excellent, excellent Sparanormal!

For lack of better classification, I remember them as indie. Well not a very typical Brit indie, though.

Jasmine Low, who had earlier read poems, then interviews the entertaining Freda DragonStar!

And then, it was George’s friend Rina. She has catchy tunes, so catchy that I’d only heard them once before many many years ago, and yet I remember the songs when she performed them!

Then came the unforgettable Rafique Rashid. This guy is hilarious!

He played songs about being caught on video like a certain health minister, among other local commentary. He even changed the lyrics of The Kinks – Lola to go “Yoga, Y-O-G-A Yoga, yo yo yo yo yogaaa…”

Then, Freda DragonStar came on stage to recount funny stories and perform a duet with Rafique Rashid. Amazing stuff!

Christmas Eve, 24th December 2008, at Schokolart, a chocolatey heaven.

On the bill, finger-tapping extraordinaire Az Samad…

…and jazzy Shelley Leong! (Oh, and of course Zalila Lee in the background…)

She can kompang too!

There were a few remixes and style changes.

Often, there are songs that we are used to hearing in a sombre, melancholic way, best stripped down to just vocals and one instrument, that lose potency when spruced with fills and riffs. She did do a Berkley on Innocent Girl, I think… I told her later about this, which she had also realized.

Imagine Extreme playing their trademark funk metal over More Than Words, or Red Hot Chili Peppers freaky-stylin’ Under The Bridge. That doesn’t quite work…

Hot chick photographer!

Shelley has the amazing capability to hold completely still for… 1/6th of a second. 135mm F1.8 1/6s ISO3200 yo!

Meanwhile, Az has the amazing capability to never hold completely still for the camera.

Fear of the tuner.

I honestly have a slight fear of detuning my first string (the high E) because it has snapped twice while downtuning. Downtuning! Not tuning up!

“Why are you guys arguing whether I am a chocolate ganache or not?”

Az breaks out his new toy, the SoloEtte! This takes “reversed headstock” to another level.

Zalila stares out the Solaris.

The amusing Rafique Rashid on sound. He looks diabolical mixing sound sometimes. He also has a diabolical laugh.

Three shots here were taken with the Minolta 50mm F1.4 – the rest used the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8. A prize for you if you can figure out which ones!

Ask Az, “Who’s your daddy?” Our National Laureate with luminescent hair, but of course!

I had blue hair once. Here it looks like I have blue hair again.

You have to plug earphones in to hear what you’re playing! I realized that the form of the SoloEtte makes it look like a music-making stick.