This time around, I celebrate the coming of broadband by writing less and uploading more.

Groove Junction, 26th May 2007, with Juwita Suwito.

Her voice is so powerful, it charms her band members, too.

Drums.

She sang quite a few covers, with some singalongs…

…and some originals of the pop variety.

Cuuute keyboardist!

She was handpicked by Jose Thomas to play that Friday and Saturday, and it was obvious why…

…he only wanted solid acts.

Jose joins on guitar, and her bandmates are enthralled.

Jamasia, 25th May 2007, was the electric Fireflies gig, titled Someone At Junk Says Our Gig Titles Are Too Long. SULK. We can all thank Ching for the catchy gig titles. 😀

Today, I’d also like to celebrate the conservation of bandwidth, since someone in my family just got dial-up. Pictures will be smaller.

Flow plays reggae rock. They did an excellent cover of 311 – Creatures.

Frequency Cannon. Jangan tak rock. Long time no see these boys.

This was the first gig I brought my Minolta Dynax 7 to.

One of the three drummer brothers.

Ching and Kuachee the singer in a divine cosmic moment.

Siva.

Have you seen my pick?

Couple. Rock and roll, rock and roll. The best of the classic Britpop sound.

“Chinese People” Chak of Superbar.

Superbar did a cover of Huey Lewis And The News – The Power Of Love. Old school! This was from the soundtrack of Back To The Future.

Guess which shots were from the Dynax 7, and which were from the Sony A100. Here’s a hint: The Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye becomes a diagonal fisheye on the Sony A100.

Plush. All-girl band.

Rhapsody played their farewell gig on the 23rd of May, 2007, at Groove Junction.

Nicole, with all the vocals of a jazz diva.

Ywenna makes the second half of the original Rhapsody duo. Sometimes I prefer their songs that way, like on the soulful So Scared.

Faz on scorching electric guitar.

Jimmy on groovy drums.

Loon/Kevin on bass.

So Scared.

They did a cover of India Arie – I Am Not My Hair and Incubus – Summer Romance (which doesn’t seem quite right without a saxophone, really.)

Thanks guys for playing one last gig!

It’s that time of the year again. Singer Songwriters’ Round at Alexis, Great Eastern Mall, 18th May 2007!

Featuring lounge lizard Shanon Shah…

And (from left) Pete Teo the folker, Mei Chern the uh… singer songwriter, and Ariff Akhir the acoustic uh… crooner.

It was then that I found out that The Sofa Sessions were no more! I will miss their superb, groovy bass player.

The next day, I ended up there accidentally again. This time around, was Jerome Kugan (who sounds every bit like Morrissey, but they can’t do covers at Singer Songwriters’ Round so I can’t ask for Ask or something.)

Then there was Reza Salleh (who stole my shot for his Myspace and now Channel V’s AMP), Pete Teo the sombre, Azmyl Yunor the folk rocker.

(Yeah, this one. Click.)

It’s alright, I’ve only made like 23 copies of your CD for my friends.

I swear, everyone was trying to outdo themselves in sounding sombre. Yin! notes that Pete was playing the slower version of his songs. His vocal vibrato (please correct me if I use the wrong musical term) wasn’t as obvious this time.

Thank goodness the performers were relatively still; I used the beercan lens on these, and the softie combo later.

Only Azmyl had a smile on his face. I think he looked rather… Kermit-like.

OPEN MIKE NOW, YEAH! No more sad songs!

Rina and her happening Rooftop song. She had the most kickass woman voice. I loved how the softie lens made their jeans glow!

Good voice, rather soft though.

Izzy and her Pelan-G. Heehee!

George Wong the emo punk rocker gets all acoustic with his Friendster Song, which was a hit with the older-looking crowd.

Mia Palencia, powerhouse of jazz vocals.

Zalila Lee, who tried to sneak in a cover song. Clever.

More links:
Singer Songwriters Round 2006
Singer Songwriters Round 2004

22nd April 2007: My day was filled with percussion, before and after Screwed.

Ghrana! Performed by the Sikandar Arts Academy.

Hey!

This is Sufi Culture. This is the KL Performing Arts Centre.

Modern Qawali. Ghazals and Ragas.

Clap that.

Yeah, I’m just paraphrasing their site. They were in The Actors Studio for a stint.

And after Screwed, I landed in Tugu Negara, for the Tugu Drum Circle!

Bought a djembe and wondered why it didn’t sound so nice on its own? Bring it out to the drum circle! They meet every Sunday from 5:30pm onwards.

Dhol, baby.

The interesting specimen! So this is where you come from. For bringing me to your turf, thanks babe!

Goes on into the wee evening where the mosquitoes come out to play. Them mosquitoes, they love a good rhythm. No wonder they come for me, I shake my legs a lot.

Look for Paul or Shady; those guys will teach you basic rhythms.

Reeewind to the hitz.fm 10th Birthday Bash, 7th April 2007, One Utama new wing open car park.

Adam C lost a bet and lost his hair.

Gerhana Ska Cinta is horny.

Balls.

Bittersweet! Happy jumpy britrock goodness. Sadly, the crowd wasn’t pointing their hands up in the air like fans do.

Natalie, hitz.fm jock.

Clap that.

A red sea of balloons.

So you think you can dance?

Bobo of funk jazz rock band Seven.

Watch out for flying freebies that the emcees throw!

“Oh, and yeah, I got one fishnet sock and got another one for free so I gave it to her!”

Normally, it’s woman on top.

Ipoh Mali, Ipoh Ipoh Mali, Point Blanc of Poetic Ammo.

“Man it’s hot out here!” Moots of Pop Shuvit. (Which, once upon a time, Point Blanc rapped for…)

A moshpit started, and people pushed and shoved, and the crew forcefully threw somebody across the fences like they’d never seen a moshpit before.

Hot chick singing for Sasi The Don! (Spot the dhol behind.)

Dragon Red! On the left, head unseen, is Landslyde, formerly of Poetic Ammo.

Uncle with two Canon bodies; a Canon EF 16-35mm F2.8L USM and the Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM. I don’t know why he flashed, though; stage photography often has enough light, and direct flash is only usable to flash their eyes white, but robs the stage lighting color.

Of course, the flash being on the wide-angle-equipped camera makes sense when taking darker crowds.

Amil, ever the nu-metal poser.

DJ Pietro’s shirt reads, “JJ and Rudy Gotcha’ed me“.

K-Town Clan and their hard, hard crunk.

C. Loco guest rapped for Dragon Red and K-Town Clan, also formerly of Poetic Ammo.

If Yogi B. was there, it would be a reunion of sorts.

Dhols for the taking. I know somebody with a car who’d steal this.

One Buck Short. Panku rokku!

Dancers.

Reshmonu.

More dhol, baby.

Jason Lo has a sparkling Fender Stratocaster.

John Boy! They brought a few of the original jocks to show up. I remember winning my first CD from him!

DJ Cheapshot of Fort Minor was up (after Jakeman). He was awesome! He could transition songs so effortlessly, you wouldn’t even sense the song trying to transition. In fact, it was more like “Eh, this isn’t the same song anymore!”

Yes, there were fireworks in the background.

Malaysians. They came, they saw, they littered.