Moonshine: A Homemade Music Show, 13th November 2008, at Laundry Bar. This also happened to be the 3rd Anniversary of Moonshine, so more bright colorful lights were turned on!

This is Rendra Zanawi (featuring Alda the long-time-no-see-band-slut hehe.)

And this is Stephanie who played in 2 bands that night. Gotta love the translucent orange snare drum (and how it projects orange onto the carpet!)

Adil Johan saxing.

“I’ll play my part, and you’ll play yours.”

But really, this was an awesome, awesome battle between the sax and guitar.

Then it was Reza Salleh.

I love it whenever I catch the rare triangular light on cheekbones.

Melina also played for Tempered Mental, who was heavier than ever! Jack was let loose and yet sounded very composed ripping away metal solos.

At gigs I always bring my Minolta 50mm F1.4; the other lens is often a quandary. That night I picked the Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX and I love how it scales and distorts. This is a crop from my Sony A900!

Jimmy, who is probably the only drummer who is not a band slut around. Jack and Melina each play in other bands.

Why so serious?

Yeah, this was a severely underexposed F1.4 ISO6400 image which I attempted to pull up. It’s a severe crop, too.

And then the trumpets blared and the saxophones returned on stage – big ska band 40 Winks was on!

He’s not Adlin Rosli, he claims.

Feedback Open Mic at Cloth & Clef, a certain 8th November 2008.

R.I.P. (Rock In Peace) Gene Simmons!

Yes, they were still in the mood for Halloween. If you saw how much they decked out the place, you wouldn’t want to take them down, either.

This man waits, nevertheless.

The Theory Of Change. They had an angry song, Killing Anna. Wow.

George, meanwhile, was emo with a capital E.

Steph has been drumming for a very, very long time.

Reza Salleh, Melina William, and their FANS!

Oh look mom I can do diptychs too!

Boohoo, I used to do diptychs before I even knew they were called diptychs. Left, Nick Davis with some angry acoustica; right, Wani Ardy with some mellow acoustica.

Ferns, who has a really nifty CD cover. Go check it out.

Left, guitarist; right, his effects cheat sheet.

Left, Haziq; right, Anuar. Anuar asked us what we wanted – another sad song, or the blues. I voted for the blues and was the majority.

Left, Tom; right, his delay/loop pedal.

I love it when white singer-songwriter dudes come and they play with delay/loop pedals! A few examplary one-man-band bands I have witnessed and enjoyed were Jamie Woon, David Knight and Tom I-don’t-know-his-surname.

Videographers!

Petrina was doing a hilarious petwalk catwalk.

Darren Ashley rips out a soulful rockin’ tune and wakes everybody-the-f-up to get up and jive. He is that cool. Gotta dig the beat-boxing skills, yo!

He got some white people to dance to Sweet Home Alabama. I think. But then, white guys (and girls) dance to anything. That’s why they call it the white guy dance. Because they don’t have to listen to cool music to dance. Not that Lynyrd Skynyrd is not cool. After years of shouting FREEBIRD! at every performer who takes a pause between songs, I still have not seen it happen.

And whoa, he has long fingers. I tried to replicate the same position. What a stretch!

Ending the night were crowd-shakers The Ramanados. What a refreshing gig that was!

This is Wani Ardy. She looks very student-like, yes?

She’s a lecturer.

Moonshine: A Homemade Acoustic Show, October 18th 2008!

These are some camwhores.

Reza Salleh, organizer.

This time around, it was downstairs at The Apartment Downtown, KLCC.

Soft Touch, long time no see! Songs about peace and the polar bear never get old.

Man, was metering tricky! Gotta push DRO+ the next time; the frames behind keep getting blown out. But the lights look like wings.

The aforementioned polar bear.

Szetoo is the real gangster, yo!

Azmyl Yunor practices outside.

He’s a lecturer, too!

With Reza on one of his classic folk singalongs!

I just wish Azmyl would make his students come to see his shows, as he did back then. They were quite a bunch!

Szetoo doesn’t look as funny as some people do when she looks through the viewfinder and closes the other eye.

Apologies for the hiatus, I’ve been busy. Here’s Time Out KL’s On The Up, one 15th of October 2008 at No Black Tie.

Kokokaina spotted in the audience!

Tony Leo Selvaraj. Usually I do not fancy tilted pictures unless there is an element that is grounded to the 90 degree angles of the picture (in this case, the microphone.)

Crowd stalkin’.

Thing One, fantastic instrumental band. Expect no less from ICOM!

More crowd stalkin’!

Nish on keyboards with an expression pedal makes funky Keytar-like sounds!

The crowd is amused!

Four Letter Story, modern rock. The music sounds uncannily like Broken Scar‘s! The vocalist even sings like him and has the same slightly gruff voice!

They covered Mariah Carey – Always Be My Baby.

And finally, the amazing Adil Johan Quartet Quintet.

Oh well, I lost count. Here are guest vocalists Otam and Melissa Suciato.

Le fans.

Le drummer, a long missing Alex (who we hear has gone to his roots for a hiatus…)

One of…

Doze 2. Again, guest rapping. But Adil does good rapping himself!

I doze 2! (Or at least look emo.)

Sax-y.

I didn’t catch his name.

Moonshine September 11th 2008, Laundry Bar!

And that was the return of the Qings & Kueens, one of the most melodic hard rock bands out there.

Onto something brilliant and vastly technical – Tokyo Blue!

I would like to hereby declare them “dramatic jazz”. You heard it here first!

They are the shadows of other great bands before them, which each member came from.

Ywenna! I first knew her as one half of Rhapsody. What a classic duo that was.

Poova! Poova-ful voice. She brings the band into verse-chorus-verse sensibility.

So how do you make a post-rock band? First, you place a few pedals on the floor. Don’t bother connecting them, let the static jump between pedals, causing an ad hoc wireless connection. So you don’t have to go through all the trouble to make the white noise – it will all come to you naturally.

Then, you get a diverse drummer.

Oh and a prerequisite is a Fender Jaguar, Mustang or Jagstang. Those switches add to post-rockingness!

But seriously man, I like Furniture.

And then, there was the Stoned Revivals.

Vandal popped by to drop a line.

The answer to my question as to who is being watched, is of course Andrew Netto!

For some reason, I like this shot of him the most. It’s as if the stars fell into place.

Rewind to when he had shorter hair…

…and the college girl skit.

One staple is of course, the dance skit. Someday when he has all his stuff up on Youtube I’ll be able to reference it.

He is joined by the Ramanados for a song!

This is one of his many politician skits, I’m sure.

This is his rempit skit. Gotta love the voice he puts on for this!

As of late I find I am unable to ‘put on voices’. This saddens me.

Seeing the difference in tie and suit made me realize that I don’t actually have any suits. This also saddens me.

Don’t mind this shot, he’s actually generally acknowledged as Malaysia’s youngest stand-up comedian. (Does that mean that other stand-ups only get into stand-up later in their lives, as a sideline to their thespian activities? Perhaps. But Andrew wasn’t a thespian as far as I knew.)

Sometime 24th October 2008, I caught Latte@8 (you mean they still show this?)

Jason Lo himself does a stand-up routine before his show.

Audience impressions.

Well I laughed! So I must have an advanced sense of humor, as he does. Catch him on Actorlympics and his jokes are some of the sharper ones!

Al Jazeera reporters know how to cycle their face to different cameras every few seconds. I kid you not.

Then it was Mr. Netto’s turn to be on the show, giving a stand-up routine before that.

He uncovers what’s under his jacket…

…before his interview with Jason the Chelsea fan.

Gotcha!^TM

Interestingly, in an earlier part of the interview with the reporter, Jason blurted out his radio station affiliation, which is in a competitor company to the company which produces Latte@8… on live TV. I know if he did the reverse, the competitor company would freak out and go all out on damage control.

“Eh come back la.”

It’s no longer the Tak Nak guy or the Drummer Boy or the Estranged drummer Azwin Andy – it’s now DJ Nas-T, or Abu of KAMI. KAMI was a great movie, by the way…

It had been a long time since I’d seen him. I told him what I thought about the movie. He asked, “Did you cry when I died?”

“Oh shit, I don’t remember if I did.”

Oh shit, I just gave out a spoiler.

But now that I think about it, yes I did cry. And ironically Winamp’s randomizer picked Johnny Cash – Cry Cry Cry.

And then, it was Laila’s Lounge to end the set.

These boys will be up on Fat Boys Records’ annual (well, almost, forgoing 2007) rock festival, Rock The World 8.

Say what?

What: Rock The World 8
When: 12 noon to 12 midnight, 20th December 2008
Where: The Secret Garden, Merdeka Stadium (in other words, the parking lot)
How Much: RM25. Tickets are available at Extreme outlets, Music Valley, Rock Corner, Maju Junction Mall and at the event itself.
Who: Butterfingers, Estranged, One Buck Short, OAG, Koffin Kanser, Pure Vibracions, The Times, Bunkface, Republic Of Brickfields, They Will Kill Us All, Zip Zieller, Upon Arrival, Komplot, Laila’s Lounge, The Otherside Orchestra, Revenge

Yes you’re probably thinking the same thing, haven’t we seen most of these bands before? Heck who cares man, it’s the one festival to bump into all your rocker buddies and have a good headbang!

Oh and then there’s Moonshine: A Homemade Acoustic Show this weekend.

What: Moonshine: A Homemade Acoustic Show
When: 9:30pm to 12:30am, 22nd November 2008
Where: The Apartment Downtown, KLCC
How Much: Free, but buy one of them funky drinks
Who: Mia Palencia (jazz/soul diva!), Melina William, Zalila Lee and Slowjaxx

Melina on acoustic! This is a rare show, where this progressive guitar hero plays tunes meant for an entire band with all the riffs and parts all crammed into one guitar while she sings.

One of many nights at No Black Tie.

The new one, that is… the old one was located nearer to Jalan Nagasari.

Oh, and the old one didn’t have two floors. I think.

I love these photos. Especially the one in the middle, lower row.

Attentive crowd.

Yup, somebody’s got their attention alright.

This makes for easy shots with the Minolta 50mm F1.4.

So, who are they all watching?

Any guesses?

Some of them seem to be… amused.

And some of them seem to be amused all the time.

But anyway, onto more clues…

This band, the Ramanados, play before and after the show. Whose show?

They rock out!

Rock is not a challenge to them. (Well except that one time I expected to hear the solo for School Of Rock when it came, but didn’t.)

Doesn’t Greg look a little bit Memphis?

These guys have outfitted better since the first few times I’d seen them.

These black-and-white shots were of course processed with my
How to make low-contrast black-and-white from digital color photos tutorial.

There’s a big gig!

What: Moonshine 3rd Anniversary
Where: Laundry Bar, The Curve, Mutiara Damansara
When: 9:30pm Thursday, 13th November 2008
Who: Tempered Mental, Reza Salleh, Rendra Zawawi, 40 Winks
How Much: Free but hey, buy one of them funky Laundry Bar drinks!

Yes I’m going.

Now on to more gig pictures!

20th August 2008 – Timeout KL: On The Up at No Black Tie!

Touchess, for some smooth R&B.

Silent Scenery, for the exact opposite – spacy interludes and post-rock.

This just looks like the hypnotic, delicate bit before it goes into destructive mayhem. And boy, can these boys go into destructive mayhem!

Sundae, a joyful interlude of acoustica.

Then there was Tokyo Blue. Sorry Ywenna this has to be the best angle I can get which has any light on you!

“Haha you guys set me up to do a drum solo again!”

But drum solos are only expected of a band full of accomplished virtuosos who have played with local legends like Jerry Felix, the Longest Playing Drummer in the Malaysian music industry. Here’s Hiro!

I knew him only as the bassist of Throne Away. Who’d have known!

Poova was the vocalist after Jaclyn Victor left Jerry’s band.

She has incredible vocal power and stage presence!

Interestingly, Tokyo Blue is kinda… bipolar. On songs with Poova they take on a soulful sound, but during the instrumentals you get dramatic jazz.

So, after which, we took some band shots.

A700 with Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX on tripod, long exposure, and I popped the flash two times for each shot, to expose the front two and the back two band members.

Most of these shots are combined from two or more shots.