1st February 2015: Raising The Funds + Mixtape GUA Vol. 2 Launch at Lust KL.

LS (half of YMY).

Loco, formerly of Poetic Ammo, auctions off the T-shirt he is wearing – a rare T-shirt indeed!

This vinyl of The Mighty Imperials – Thunder Chicken didn’t get much bidding, sadly.

Shame though, because it is a dope funk track!

Lions Of Shadow Moon.

Wait a minute. These aren’t rock stars. These guys look like they rap.

Yup that’s right – my first proper full-on hip-hop gig! I’d been meaning to check out this scene for a long time, but Raising The Bar, usually being on Sunday evening, clashed with either me being out somewhere or being lazy at home, or blogging.

Auctioning a snapback cap to raise funds for the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, badly affected by floods.

NtahSape2Ntah.

Gotta love their T-shirts!

These guys joget to their beats, too!

Karmal.

All stage shots with the Mitakon/ZhongYi Speedmaster 50mm F0.95 Dark Knight Pro edition.

The low light capabilities of the camera help me freeze everything no matter the aperture.

Vandal!

Jin Hackman, host and emcee, hops into the crowd.

Introducing Vandal properly…

…as Vandigital.

I didn’t get the right focus, but I still like these pictures.

The crowd bops!

The Bat Cave.

They had some serious metal riffage in one of the tracks, and the crowd started moshing! I like this scene already.

I don’t know what goes on here.

Members entering and exiting the stage…

…that the only way I can filter pictures for repeats…

…is to identify them by their caps.

I lost count, but there’s supposed to be 10 of them.

Jin is damn cute here.

It’s a bit of a sausagefest though, this scene, as the emcees would note.

Shame, because every act was top-notch in energy and showmanship.

It was also Jin’s birthday, where he turned 28!

The gig was nice and clean and safe and then boom! Drive-by with a NERF gun.

Ending the night: DJ Lethal Skillz.

29th January 2015: NBT PRESENTS: JUNK PROJECT + TALITHA TAN.

The boys of Junk Project are super excited to play at No Black Tie for the first time!

Junk Project is well, jazz and funk, instrumental.

Eizaz doing double duty.

Fascinating MIDI pickup.

Bass and drums.

And now, for some guest vocalists!

Farah Diyanah.

Sachie Amira.

Annatasha Saifol.

Powerhouse trio!

They brought the soul, sisters!

Saxophone break, always the star of the show.

A band picture taken from far back.

Second act, Talitha Tan.

All of them swept up in the emotion of Radiohead – Creep.

It was a dream of hers, too, to play at No Black Tie.

Who’d have thought I’d hear her wonder this at this very venue just last year!

They brought Eizaz up for some sax, too.

Long gone are the days when Talitha would have a recurring theme of having a different borrowed guitar, since this one has a jack!

It seems almost mandatory post-gig…

…to take unintentionally funny pictures.

Oh, and to photobomb deviously.

No photobombs, just bombs.

27th January 2015: Feedback Open Mic ft Four Leaf Clover & Lisa Spykers @ The Bee Publika / January 2015 Edition. Here’s Ungku!

Hameer Zawawi, emcee and performer.

Reza Salleh, host and organizer.

The Evening Play.

Jac & Simmy.

First time seeing Simmy on guitar and not singing!

Campus.

Fikri Azam.

Blund.

Natalie & Shareen.

Lisa Spykerman.

First featured act, from Australia! Her voice goes deep and her guitar goes from soft folk to strummy blues. Simply top-notch!

Four Leaf Clover.

They were the second featured act.

Also featuring Raja Farouque on bass!

Simmy brings the Celtic Wave on.

Ashley, the hard-hitter.

They play Celtic folk music.

Jon & Jon.

Tin whistle!

Lunaktics.

Sid.

Maha Jeffrey Band.

Jack Fuzzbeats.

Jason.

Tanisha. Her Ibanez TCY-10 Talman looks awesome!

Cheryl and gang.

Sara & Marissa.

Hot damn!

Ruben.

Somebody left their capo behind! Go pick it up from The Bee’s staff if it is yours.

13th January 2015: Feedback Open Mic @ The Bee Jaya One ft. Jes Ibrahim & Brendan de Cruz / January 2015 Edition. Here’s Reza Salleh, emcee and organizer!

Fariz Salleh, bearing a striking resemblance to his brother!

Four Leaf Clover.

Guest bassist Raja Farouque!

Regular cajonist Ashley Choong!

Simmy brings the Celtic Wave.

Wait, you mean we played 3 songs by accident instead of the 2 normally given to open mic signups?

Jonathan Khor.

LunakTics.

Fuzzy.

I’m not sure who this was, either…

…though some of the members look like they are from The Evening Play.

Saturday Afternoon.

Didn’t catch this band’s name, either.

Jee!

First featured act, Jes Ibrahim.

Josiah Tay and some dude.

It was also Yvonne’s birthday, so we chipped in for a box that made her happy (to tears.)

Ian, who then called on Kirsten Long to sing.

Brendan de Cruz, second featured act.

Riyal is a beatboxer.

Red Panda, who also brought Riyal in for beats.

Blund.

12th January 2015: Melissa Sasa and her accompaniment, at Naked Restaurant & Bar, Plaza Damas.

Melissa, also known as the guitarist for Crinkle Cut and vocalist/guitarist for Dotters’ Division, is on her own this time. Well, almost.

Her accompaniment is Wei Ming, who tends to play in bands named “Wei Ming’s band” (this is not something he came up with.)

Melissa hooked her laptop up to the big screen for a hilariously positioned poster.

In between sets, she played with my camera and took a picture of me taking a nap.

You gotta beware taking naps with this gangster chick around; she’ll pluck your whiskers! (Fortunately, I just had a haircut and shave.)

The performers.

I used my phone to light up the scene, since the screen was overpowering. Could’ve been more imbalanced!

7th January 2015: URBAN SUNSET – 1st Edition 2015 @ Laundry The Curve.

It was also my first time at an Urban Sunset!

Why Urban Sunset? The gig started at sunset, around 7-something.

Plus it was in the urban area of Mutiara Damansara.

And so, here’s the second act of the night, Kelly Siew.

She is quite the expressive vocalist!

Vicky’s expression here is hilarious.

Then came the first act of the night, Talitha Tan. (I took the picture you see in the poster.)

Ha ha, she crops.

First act in the sense that she performed before Kelly, but I arrived late. She was also third act, with Kelly being fourth act. So they alternate for the night.

Her electric band!

Omar on drums!

The electrifying Raja Farouque on guitar!

Sometimes Talitha forgets her chords so Farouque has to show her.

Kelly, as fourth act. She had a leg injury during the second act but she continued to soldier on. Here’s guest vocalist Jude!

Talitha pays her band in slaps.

Here are some random pictures of buskers busking at Publika, mostly in collaboration with Merdekarya.

Francis Wolf, 22nd November 2014.

Vishnu setting up the amplifier and sound.

The man with the voice, Brendan de Cruz.

Telephoto goodness.

The Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 makes for such enlarged out-of-focus points.

A bench, seemingly arranged for an audience.

Shaneil standing by.

We call Vishnu Black Jesus because of his hair and his infinite wisdom.

23rd December 2014: The legendary Alfred Ho.

He recorded a few albums and was even a radio deejay!

He covered many of the hits back then, which we’d consider evergreen.

The older crowd was appreciative, but the young stopped too, because his voice was just well suited and timeless.

He played in front of a local artist’s interpretation of a Christmas tree, where it was localized to be made of rice stalks, like a paddy field in tree format!

Later the same evening, Francis Wolf again.

23rd December 2014: Feedback Open Mic ft Narmi & Ray Cheong @ The Bee Publika / December 2014 Edition.

Yup, The Bee has gotten a sweet mural!

Here’s The Evening Play.

Feedback at The Bee, Publika allows for the full band format.

They even have a drum set.

So I saw these guys at a guitar store earlier, where this conversation happened between one band member and a sales assistant:
Sales Assistant: Ko dengar ini. *strums guitar* Kreng. *presses distortion pedal* Sekarang ko dengar ini. KREEENNNGGG!!!
Band Member: Ooo, giler sedap! Berapa pedal ni?
Sales Assistant: RM350 sahaja!
Band Member: Alamak, kurang bajet lah bulan ini. Kurang sikit boleh?
Sales Assistant: Paling kurang pun, RM300 lah.
Band Member: Alamak, masih tak sampai. Trade-in boleh?
Sales Assistant: Boleh, mau trade-in apa?
Band Member: Hmmm skejap saya tengok ada apa. Ooo, ada ini. Tuner pedal. Boleh trade-in tuner?

Well, that conversation didn’t happen. I made it up, when hearing the band play out of tune! Geez guys it wasn’t bad enough that you guys were tuning up on stage (one of the members had a battery-operated tuner, which could be shared) and after that whole wait, the band was off-tune!

Nevermind the bollocks, here’s the Sex Pistol, Danielle, and a friend.

The Abangs, I think?

Kim Lim, stylish fingerstylist.

First featured act, Narmi.

Jeremy (note the well-tuned guitar, and a guitar tuner hiding behind the headstock, for best aesthetics.)

The bassist also with a tuner! (Eh wait, this is the first time I’m seeing Narmi with a bassist!)

Meanwhile, my latte looked like a biscotti. Yummy!

Monica was playing with my camera. This could be the PlayMemories Mobile remote app.

This is her TED Talk profile picture.

This, I do not know.

Ray Cheong, second featured act.

A new lineup! Grace-ious.

Reuben, in irony, as Ashwin would sometimes drum for Ray, and Ashwin replaced Reuben in Cats In Love. So it’s a reverse switch.

Another oddity – Ray on electric sitting down.

An unrelated Ruben.

Nat & Mel.

Spooky Wet Dreams.

This vocalist has a lot of punk presence!

I am entertained.

Jack Fuzzbeats.

Nazrin.

Kevin.

Premium Sea. I think they were rocking out well, but I don’t remember what genre of rock because I forgot to record a video to help me remember.

Fikri Azam.

Blund.

Took two open mikes for me to get their name right! (By then, I had heard them spell it enough.)

4th December.

On one hand, the utilitarian Yamaha folk guitar…

…and a similiar one, just flipped and played upside-down.

Yvonne Chong.

I don’t remember if her bandmates were the elves or merry whatever.

You get the idea though, because it was two days to Christmas!

A parting shot.

21st December 2014: Nabilah and Adil get married!

The throne, king and queen for a day!

The dining table where they may oversee the crowd.

The wedding band, with Dazsha Lockgan! (I’ll probably regret tagging her this way, as that name would not be as searchable as Dasha Logan.)

Some familiar Fazes!

This guy has always been all about the bass.

Ashwin, from far, said that there was one token Indian drummer there. It wasn’t until I looked at the picture when editing that I realized it was Steve Nanda!

Adil is very much a band man, with years of sexy saxophone. Here he’s posing for currency to be made with his face on it!

The TV announcer face. (If only I nailed focus on this one!)

Various speakers.

One in landscape orientation.

The uncle who could joget.

19th December 2014: HUES Art Exhibition at Avenue K Rooftop.

But first, on the way up, metrosexual Santa and his metrosexual pink-nosed reindeer!

Upstairs, even more of a climb.

Well, at least it didn’t say you cannot be smoking grass…

Spectacular view of the Petronas Twin Towers. Well, at least one of them anyway.

Fake grass.

Fake wooden frame.

I tried Kendama for the first time. Took quite some time to get the ball in the cup!

Jeremy Choy fiddled with the Mitakon/ZhongYi Speedmaster 50mm F0.95 Dark Knight Pro edition while I played with his Kendama. The subject of this photo claims she is from a school where Rubik’s Cubes were played casually and if you didn’t, you weren’t hip. Strange, but I’d have liked to be part of that school then!

Across the road, what was once a famous bowling alley whose name escapes me, was then a parking lot, that held Rock The World 4!

A strange beam rising from the side of Wisma Central.

Jon Liddell.

Graffiti artwork.

Emcees.

Close to the top!

Talitha Tan and her ever-changing band of merry men!

Went with a less merry exposure to accentuate the shadows.

Sonny boy.

Smiley girl.

Bremen Wong, Malaysia’s only milliner (hat-maker).

Dae Kim on the turntable.

This was the same day I didn’t tell anybody that it was my birthday… except Talitha, who was the first to know directly, as captured on this video.