29th November 2007 – Juke Joint Jupiter, Laundry Bar! This was Eddy’s blues-rocking gig.

Triple6Poser featuring the multi-talented Khai and his Danelectro.

Then, there’s Henry who plays for the fans.

And, of course, footstompin’ harp-blowin’ Eddy.

Yeah there’s a bassist and drummer hidden from pictures.

Good ol’ blues jam with Majesty. Yes the familiar dude is cousin to Rithan (of Deja Voodoo Spells).

Spot the bass slut!

I smelt an unorthodox Jimi Hendrix-like jam. A band to look out for!

They also did The Doors – Love Me Two Times. Fortunately, no naked Red Indian man made a cameo.

Yummy fans.

Then, there was Curtis Blues Review, who I finally saw after a long time with a new lineup. This picture shows Eddy making a guest vocalist appearance.

Plus, they finally have a second guitarist again. This was great because Russell could finally have his chunky rhythm chops and buttery leads. There was a slight Stevie Wonder tinge to his cover of Eric Clapton – Change The World. Then, there was a rockabilly The Police – Every Breath You Take. Awesome!

I shouted FREEEBIIIRDDD!

They played Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama. Close enough. “We just need three guitarists” is what every blues shreddin’ band says. Every blues band must have a 12-bar blues jam, and they did just that.

Deja Voodoo Spells! That’s the insane shredder Rithan.

He crooned Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Chile Blues (not to be confused with Voodoo Child). He then sequed into the golden Stevie Ray Vaughn version of Jimi Hendrix – Little Wing (with his own insane double-tapping bits added in)!

Of course, much much later, the actual Voodoo Child intro made its way in between this awesome oriental song.

Singalong dude.

There was the staple Hendrix cover, Fire, as well.

Then there was this new punk song which sounded somewhere between The Cranberries and Nirvana, and Queen – Stone Cold Crazy.

Blues rock chicks are the best. No funky dressing, just straight up woman.

And that dear sir is the blues.

Fly FM’s 2nd Flynniversary, 24th November 2007.

I got a call from a producer/ex-colleague (funny, most of them are ex-colleagues) and I was to pretend to be a mechanic from Jinjang who has a crush on Jules. Uh, right. Jules? C’mon. Her sister, maybe. At least I got VIP tickets!

So much for that. All we got was a tent with free food, far behind from the stage. The stage is lit in pink here.

But nothing could Barricade me from Love Me Butch! And so I ran up front. Okay, the first picture should come here in sequence but it’s so cool it should be up first.

Altimet!

James Baum and Dina of Malaysian Idol!

Ahli Fiqir gets their angguk-ing and geleng-ing. Not my cup of tea; their beats annoy me the same way Black Eyed Peas do.

Gimme the mike, gimme the mike yo. Most shots stalked with the great Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan.

She went off stage to have a singalong. Those up there above Delicious had a better view without having to get tickets!

Next up, venerable shredder rock band Deja Voodoo Spells!

By then, it was evident that each band was allocated only 2 songs or less, so they hacked it into a long, long jam with a bass solo (playing the Doraemon theme!)

Rithan knows the guitar like the back of his head.

Tremblin’ tremolo!

Melissa Indot.

MUSE-like Meet Uncle Hussain.

It’s Superman!

The insane crowd, sadly, came mostly for Hujan. Fortunately Hujan was at the end of the live bands so the crowd wouldn’t leave until then.

Transcient Vortex, Jungle Jerry and Bass Agents played after that but I didn’t stay.

Oh, and of course, fireworks! Which big concert doesn’t have them these days? I know the hitz.fm 10th Birthday Bash did!

Rainin’ fireworks.

15th November 2007 – the Singer Songwriters Round in No Black Tie!

Pete Teo, folk singer/indie movie star who founded the round.

Melina William, who played her Tempered Mental progressive-rock stuff all on acoustic, because she wrote all the bits and riffs and chord changes and can thus superhumanly play them all at once. This was why I came, really; to see her infuse basslines, riffs and licks from her band’s songs. Oh, and sing atop all these complex rhythm changes, too!

Reta is transfixed.

“Hold… still… hold… still…”

Knowing that most people look hilarious or have something stuck up their nose when they look through a viewfinder, I don’t close my other eye unless I’m manually focusing on darker lenses.

Azmyl Yunor, ever the solid folk singin’ busker dude.

Mia Palencia, superb jazz and soulful voice.

And then it was open mike, with Raffique Rashid dragged up (according to him, from his grave) and he played somewhat uh… dramatic folk? His storytelling voice was haunting, and yet had immense machoness. Songs like Dylan (and some other thing about a woman scorned) were hilarious!

Reza Salleh and his alternacoustic rock.

27th October 2007 – Heaven And Hell! Unlike the Megadeth concert I went for the night before, I brought my Canon Powershot A520 this time.

It was at Fort Canning Park, Singapore.

Yes, the famous second lineup of Black Sabbath, after Ozzy Osbourne was out of the band. Of course, Black Sabbath is now back with the original lineup, so this second lineup is now called Heaven And Hell, after their first album with that lineup.

Replacing Ozzy is Ronnie James Dio, metal rock god, who popularized the devil’s horns as a hand sign for rockers everywhere.

“Hey wait a minute you’re not Ozzy!” I shouted. Heh.

I prefer Ozzy, though, for his more weathered voice. Dio was too perfect a singer.

The great Tony Iommi! A factory accident left him wearing prosthetic right fingertips although this picture does not show it. Yes, I didn’t know he played leftie guitar either.

The accident caused him to have to downtune his guitar to invent the sound of heavy metal.

Geezer Butler on bass, who wrote most of the original Black Sabbath lyrics.

Vinny Appice, replacing Bill Ward of the original lineup.

Vinny and Tony. Tony used only them Gibson SGs, my favorite guitar design of all time.

Yes, it came with a tremolo bar!

So what did they play? E5150, Mob Rules, Children Of The Sea, I, The Sign Of The Southern Cross, Voodoo…

And then came Vinny with the drum solo. Check out the encaging drumset!

Then there was Computer God, Falling Off The Edge Of The World, Die Young…

…and of course, Heaven And Hell! We all sang along, and there was an extended live solo from Mr. Iommi, who never quite played solos the same way even when recording. Megadeth the night before, however, played everything by the book, with 2 exceptions for super hit songs.

Of course, as I wasn’t very familiar with the Dio-era stuff I couldn’t tell if the other solos were different. Iommi did most certainly rock, though. Oh, and they looked as old and prehistoric like the grandfathers of heavy metal should be. Dio and Vinny however look strangely younger…

“Heh, should we throw them some sticks?”

Fort Canning was accepting.

18th October 2007 – Project Bazooka, Laundry Bar. My first gig shot with the Sony Alpha 700.

Madhouse, grunge rockers.

When previously I could get such a shot with a good ol’ 18-70mm, the newly erected barricades at Laundry Bar stop photographers and drunkards from getting at the performers. (This shot was with the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan at 200mm.)

And yes I hadn’t been to a gig at Laundry since the last Project Bazooka, 19th July 2007.

You may notice watermarks; this is for those artistes who copy my pictures to their Facebook/Myspace/Friendster and totally forget to credit me. Hey man it’s already free to take if it’s a picture of you, but at least tell me you’ve taken it, yo!

Photographer with Gary Fong lightsphere pointed forward. That’s a flash sucker for sure. The lightsphere is only meant to be used as a fill light, pointed upwards. This picture was intentionally made out-of-focus to hide the camera brand. Hint: it rhymes with xenon.

It’s random-chick-in-the-crowd time!

…perverts.

Sound effect time.

The interesting specimen, now upgraded to a hot chick emcee! (Yes, this is a stitch of two shots at 17mm.)

Auburn! One reason why I came, to see this Smashing(ish) rock band.

Stephanie on drums looks like she is burning.

Three heads, better than one.

I’m not the only one stalking her.

Izwin guests!

They Will Kill Us All, indie rock.

I don’t even remember what sound this makes.

Bassman.

“Yeah let’s tear these barricades down!”

19th September 2007 – One Night Stand, live at No Black Tie. Here’s Jeremy, tuning up his custom Godin.

While waiting for the crowd to trickle in, a good timekiller is to shoot the place.

I like how the Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye gave the interior a church-like arch.

Jeremy played acoustic folk in the key of John Mayer.

Girls love that.

Most shots shot with the Minolta 50mm F1.4 with a Pro Tama 0.7x wide-angle converter to give it a film-like 50mm normal view.

One Night Stand is two people – the other being stand-up comedian (and ex-colleague) Andrew Netto.

“Hahaha dude you’re funny!”

He explains how to do a Bollywood dance.

One Night Stand, one night only. One full house.

Next up, they pulled up a member of the audience to sing her a song.

“You want more?”

Random chick. Oh hi blurred Olivia!

I could not help but stare at the stairs.

I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m on a roll. 5th September 2007, a private hannah t showcase.

Cyndi-wtf! (Note that the usage of wtf at the end of sentences first started at Compulsive WTF, and was further propagated over local blogs written by not-so-old people. I am proud to say this because my blood first cousin (or is it first blood cousin?) was one of these pioneers. I hope he gets paid for his trend via some keyword detection system, then he can buy me some Autobots and he can buy himself some Decepticons, because that’s what we collected as kids (and me now, to some extent.)

So wait, where is she? You know, hannah t, formerly known as Hannah Tan?

There, on the mike!

A bright lens is a must for performances in clubs – all shots used my Minolta 50mm F1.4.

Vince, who won Akademi Fantasia Season 1, joined her for a duet.

Alda the bass man, who got me on the list.

Crazy ass shredder. You gotta have a great band to go big, and she can’t go wrong with him, Alda the bass slut (everybody wants him in their band) and Alex the drum slut (who everybody wants, too!)

Hannah must not be feeding him well though, as he was so hungry he decided to have his guitar for breakfast.

Of course, I’d rather have her for breakfast.

She alternated between a healthy mix of cover songs and originals – doing Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Eurhythmics (or rather, Marilyn Manson’s cover of Sweet Dreams) among others.

Cyndi blows her a kiss.

What does Hannah Tan do with funky socks?

On a side note, some doubted her vocals. I could see her struggling because she could not hear herself sing (as seen by her signalling upwards to boost mike levels on the stage monitors) and so I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Yes, she could sing, and I heard it in the softer moments.

The backup vocalist on the right was amazing.

Sorry I don’t have very catchy captions this time. These pictures are distracting!