Are you all ready for a night of magic and music with Auburn?

Plush starts the show that magical 29th April of 2007 at KL Jamasia.

Melina. Check out her voodoo magic shit she got double neck guitar whoa.

Green with envy? She got a flying V.

Hot bassist.

They played Tool – Schism again, much to my delight, and Smashing Pumpkins – Ava Adore.

I swayed my shoulders side to side drunkenly like Billy Corgan does. No wonder he does that; he doesn’t have any hair to headbang with!

Savy?

Steph sees the light.

Ashley Ang! Cute rocker daughter of Alex Ang, mad mad drummer.

She has magical powers, too! She can banish evil emcees with The Force!

Ojie of Stonebay, for a few ditties.

Then came the magicians!

They strolled table to table. The funky lighting is because the flash was pointed at the white wall on my left since the ceiling is painted black. Wireless Pre-flash TTL flash is magic, I tell you.

This, kids, is what happens when you consume too much junk food.

WHOAAA random ASCII characters! (Sorry, as a programmer I’ll be anal and tell you that this is not binary code.)

It was an ASCII representation of this very cool Auburn logo. Rotated 180 degrees, it would look the same!

Ashley’s mom is particularly proud of her young Jedi daughter.

Eddy looks like a schoolboy enthralled by the card tricks.

And now, for the headliners.

Pardon me while I catch a giggle, this picture reminds me of a scene in This Is Spinal Tap when they play Rock And Roll Creation.

Progressive alternative rock. Heavy riffs and mellow melodies.

Then there’s the tender ballad. Damn, these guys grow on you. Go get their album Karya. It has inklings of epicness, most reminiscent of The Smashing Pumpkins. (Think A Killer In Me).

Izuan Shah with his tender voice keeps the music anchored, despite changing tempo and intensity often. A similiar concept can be seen with Reza Salleh, whose voice keeps driving forward amongst all the rock dynamics behind him.

Guitar effects part one with Hanafi, who seems to be running out of magic green ooze.

Hashir, newest member, and effects part two. Necessary for more layers of atmosphere.

Izzat, skinny dude on bass.

Alvin on drums. I think I’ve finally figured out how to capture drummers creatively; with a wide-angle converter reversed in front of my lens!

Crowd, with wireless flash popped. See I wasn’t kidding about them damn black ceilings. And yes, that’s what Jamasia looks like.

Closing time.

File pic.

28th April 2007, the Guitar Artistic Series at KL Jamasia!

Crosstown Traffic, classic rockers! This is funnyman N. Rama Lohan.

Wong Lip Kee, guitar hero number #1! They played a cover of Cream – White Room. Those were the days when Eric Clapton just shredded.

Bounce flash from the left, with some flash coming back from the right white wall. No exposure compensation needed! Amazing!

Rizal Johan on bass. I shot with the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens at F8 to get this razor-shave sharpness.

Reuben on drums. As the youngest member, he is always spotted at uncool and untrue-to-rock events. Of course, this also means he spotted me at such an uncool and untrue-to-rock event. Uh, yeah.

Velvet Tones has Jack Lian guitar hero #2 doing crazy, crazy jazz scales at Yngwie Malmsteen speed. I love his funk tone, and Red Funk never tires me.

Mr. bassman.

Alex Ang, super band slut and one of the most expressionful drummers to watch. Plus he’s got an ever changing groove.

This is how I bootleg. Okay, not really; my left hand holds it. This huge Sony bag only comes out during camera geekout sessions.

Ahmad Saiful with my Soligor 70-220mm F3.5 OM-mount lens, a Vivitar 2x OM-mount teleconverter, a OM-mount to Four-Thirds adapter, and an Olympus E-500 digital SLR. Manual focus, but bright and crispy.

Next up: Fadlly, guitar hero #3, and his band. Spot the floating head of band slut Alex Ang!

While at it, spot the hidden Mickey, too.

These guys superheated the crowd with Jimi Hendrix – Red House…

…and when the intro riff to Jimi Hendrix – Little Wing came on, a supernova happened. Alex sang the entire song. “When she’s walllkiiing! Thrrrooouuuughghgh the clouououds!”

Fadlly also sang Jimi Hendrix – Angel, but the crowd didn’t know it as well as I did. 🙁

Finally, they ended with a guitar duel triplel? ala G3; with Alda backing on bass and Alex as usual on drums. This was an extended blues jam, with all three guitars having distinctly different tones.

Oh and guess who I met there! Michelle Branch! (Man I love the look of bounced flash.)

You might be able to tell by now that I’m going thru stock-clearance crisis. Here, yet more gig shots!

Drummers’ Artistic Series at KL Jamasia, 21st April 2007.

Alex Ang the emcee was crazy! This picture does not show it but he was like a WWE commentator. “Are you all rrreaaadyyy to raaawwwk?”

Plush. Izwin looking a certain shade of green.

Steph-who-wants-more-pictures is one of the featured drummers that night.

They played a more alternative rock set this night, including covers of Smashing Pumpkins – Ava Adore…

…the most funky Incubus – Hilikus…

…and the looming bass intro of Tool – Schism got the crowd revering them. Such a dark, sexy song, I swear. What more when sung in chorus.

Martin was next, with some mad jazz drumming. Notice the big crowd just staring at his technique.

Usually, you’d get someone else do play the cowbell. He however, played a salsa beat on it while doing drum rolls all over.

The rest of the band played latino, salsa and other genres I am not familiar enough to speak of.

Jimmy of Tempered Mental. A quick glance at his neck showed his tattooed commitment to the band!

Tempered Mental rocks on while the rest of the world was at Good Charlotte.

Three drumsets and an extended jam session!

Fast-forward to 27th April 2007, the acoustic edition of Fireflies at KL Jamasia.

Now Everyone Can Play Radiohead! What a cute name. I was greeted with Karma Police. Wow, the first Radiohead song I’d ever heard! (And liked!)

Cutest door btch ever!

Lipei, singer-songwriter. I hope I got your name right this time.

This is also the first gig I’d ever shot with my new Sony HVL-F56AM.

Gracecars featuring Fergus Ong, who I’d seen ages ago at the Starbucks Music Series in Starbucks Plaza Damas. He did a cover of The Smiths – Ask! Oh, what unheard of joy to be one of the very few to sing along to such a catchy song.

Justin & Derek. This is Derek.

…and this is Justin (cue girls screaming). That handsome meh? CLEO Bachelor only what.

Ojie of Stonebay showing us what a sexy voice is.

Edwin, of Paolo Delfino.

Paolo Gomez, of Paolo Delfino. What, you thought his name was really Paolo Delfino?

Eu Gene, on bass.

Sweet-voiced Lezel!

These guys sound very John Mayer-esque. They know how to make the most of space in a song.

Azmyl Yunor hobbles on stage, obviously having had too much happy juice. Unintentionally funny was his rant. “You know, you see these kids on TV, and you think if you give them a guitar and a mike, do you think they can play? No way man. They ain’t got talent.”

This happened while he was struggling to put his guitar strap on. Hehe.

On a side note, that line sounds too reminiscent of something Bob Dylan would say. And Azmyl does sound like Bob.

He was totally wasted that night, having just enough concentration to pound out the first few chords of each song with good timing. Totally the opposite of his usual, solid musician self.

Ben of Ben’s Bitches joins on drums, minus the drumsticks. Finger power!

April 14th 2007: Bassists’ Artistic Series at KL Jamasia. The last time they had that was back in 2005, with AJ, Alda and Nakim.

This time around, with Zaim of Curtis Blues Review.

These guys were missing another guitarist, but they sounded solid and full as a trio.

Somebody wittily shouted, “BASS SOLO!”

While idling away, I popped a macro shot of a mike lying around.

Elements (Sujesh‘s band.) Kickass violin shredding. It was put to maximum use to such covers such as the excellent The Beatles – Norwegian Wood, and a slight tinge of the Mission Impossible Theme.

Featuring Wong, this was a sit-down fusion uh… world music band. I loved their melodies!

Sujesh himself, who does not suffer from Gadget Acquisition Syndrome, but rather, promotes it, by reviewing basses for The Star’s Audiofile.

That’s all they needed for percussions. Wong’s guitar provided a steady chiming rhythm, while the percussionist on mridhamgam just jammed some funky beats away. Very interesting concept since usually percussions keep rhythm and guitars run melodies.

Ken Chung and his band. Yeah, the current bassist of Estranged… with the almost-deported Zack of Cosmic Funk Express.

…and Elliot, who was a drummer for CFE too. Anyone who knows that Alda has played in bands starting with the letters A all the way to M would know the irony of this lineup.

Chicks!

Ken’s band played mostly jazz standards, in a funky fusion way. I like that kind of jazz. Y’know, the one with the notes flying all over the place randomly, almost scat-like, with a strong syncopation. I remember seeing that in Sesame Street whenever they had those pinball animations.

Guest star Fly!

And so, they ended with a jam as promised. Instead of 3 bassists however, this was 4!

I felt it was shortlived compared to the previous instalment.

Syefri! I miss you and your fro, bro. He uses the original styrofoam casing as a camera pouch, so please head to his blog and click on his ads.

Fast forward to Laundry Bar’s Anniversary, 19th April 2007.

This post was not supposed to have pictures because I was not supposed to enter the VIP area of Laundry Bar’s Anniversary.

I came in time for frequent-computer-crasher and Indomee buddy Izzy. Jangan tak rock! She gone electric, yo. Rhapsody had a liberal doping of 80’s keyboards (sounds like Ywenna suddenly got a effects pedal) and had that whole grand funky sound.

At this point it was open to the public.

I saw a crowd surfer for the first time in Laundry! He came from the left speaker just beyond the stairs, signalling to the crowd beforehand to catch him.

It also rained heavily outside.

Wafi the soundman joins the percussive orgy.

An interesting specimen! 🙂

One fateful 6th of April 2007, I landed in Hartamas after a client shoot. Yes you hear me ma beetches you gotta pay me now!

It so happened to be Classic Rock night at KL Jamasia!

Indianapoli was playing, with the funkiest bass player with the funkiest headless bass guitar. A Steinberger! (Or broom, if you forget.)

Back in those days when rock was classic and true, drummers sang, too. If you’ve ever seen the video for The Eagles – Hotel California (the original 1970s version) you’d see total darkness… the 12-string starts playing… followed by lead guitar… and the lights slowly turn up on Don Henley‘s copper afro… and he starts drumming, and sings, “On a dark desert highway…”

AWESOME.

His neck was craned forwards, and we can see why it wasn’t the most practical thing.

These guys were all about funk. My hair poofed up ala the 1970s. I love funk rock!

Wild Cherry – Play That Funky Music? Check. Beatles – Come Together? Check.

Yeah they got the funky hits, but what if they played some uh… (hardcore?) funk and played Funky Meters – Africa?

They read my mind. “Take me back! To the motherrrland!”

I didn’t come that early, so I cannot attest to whether they did something for the Minister of The New New Super Heavy Funk.

Then there was Kamasutra and Famous Friends! This is Sujesh, best known as the Audiofile guy to all you guitar geeks who read The Star.

R.S. Murthi, for those who read the New Straits Times…

He is a crazy shredder. He seems to be shredding randomly with such tenacity and yet sounds coherent with wah pedal. His random jams reminded me of Jimi Hendrix. Plus he did All Along The Watchtower, yeah!

Paul of the place formerly known as Paul’s Place. The way I write this makes it sound like he was kicked out of his house in a black wifebeater with expression to match.

But hell yeah, when they played Cream – Sunshine Of Your Love, some dude came up dancing. Spot the Jeff Ooi who even blogged about the gig! It was his first time here. However, he is not a stranger to music, as he later was interv seen asking R.S. Murthi how he got such a hot sound out of his Fender Telecaster. He was quite the music geek then!

Natural light versus a borrowed Sony HVL-F56AM.

You may or may not have noticed mostly muted, unexaggerated colors; the look is inspired by the shoot-it-as-it-is newspaper look inspired by the newspaper-employed people I shot.

Fast forward to the 12th of April 2007, for Moonshine at Laundry Bar!

Yu-Ri and Vostok 1 (his bandname was previously The Bodhi Tree. Keep up the trend of changing bandnames, it is fun.)

He also rocked out, which was funny because of his rather formal and unrocky shirt that made me think of Pete Teo rocking out. Of course, Pete Teo did rock out once upon a time; he was in a hair metal band!

We’re named after the spaceship which Yuri Gagarin first exited the Earth’s atmosphere in, exactly 46 years ago! Hehe what geeky joy!

Adrian’s like, whatever. Just play the song.

Plush. Hotness is a chick who plays bass guitar.

They played Incubus – Hilikus! What a great funk tune. I wouldn’t know how to describe Plush either, other than having some funk rock leanings.

All grrrl band.

Hana of Lucy In The Loo. The usual crowd was mysteriously gone. (So was a bandmate, whose other band Couple also is mysteriously missing Hana.)

Zubira Feature Night, KL Jamasia, 25th March 2007 was indeed classic rock heaven.

Cats In Love started the set with bouncy rock.

The very funny N. Rama Lohan of The Star’s Audiofile! (Yes, his dedicated guitar and amplifier reviews include *cough* field usage.)

The soft glow around him is spherical aberration from shooting wide open at F1.4.

I like what’s behind the bar.

Triple6Poser with Justin Guber and a very very cool T-shirt. NIIICE!

Eddy brings on the hard rocking blues.

Foot-stomping, too.

Henry shreds.

Henry slides. (This is most certainly an invitation to shout “FREEEBIRRRD!”)

Then, it was time for Zubira. A little spoiler, heh.

Shake it!

Zubira borrowed quite a few musicians from the scene.

Admittedly, them jamming every weekend wasn’t quite enough, as often, in between songs, they seemed quite lost.

Zubira had delicate phrasing and licks. He sung with his guitar.

…so did his guitarist, who had a scalloped fretboard Fender Stratocaster ala Yngwie Malmsteen.

When they did the cover of Pink Floyd – Shine On You Crazy Diamond (I-V), everybody sang along. The crowd looked like this each time we came to “Shiiine onnn you craaazy diiiamond!”

They didn’t have the saxophone bits, though. Still, the band pulled this off well, with the moody synth, and Zubira’s spot on guitar phrasing. It would be sacrilegious to tweak the song with the longest G minor chord in history.

I would upload a video, but well… I sang along too, and spoiled the video. 🙁

Zubira has a raspy voice which fitted every song he covered; be it Deep Purple, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. His voice seemed to be the averaged right-in-the-middle point of all these voices.

Encore! Wafi the soundman gets on stage…

And Justin Guber and Zubira play Led Zeppelin – Rock And Roll, complete with Eddy on vocals and blues harp, in an extended jam session.

KL Jamasia‘s Anniversary, 24th March 2007.

Ask Me Again to get a new guitar strap.

Strobes and a slow shutter speed and a fair bit of panning to make the most of it.

Stonebay, grunge revival at its best.

I’ve gotta shoot more like these.

Ojee!

N. Rama Lohan, charismatic frontman of Crosstown Traffic.

Wong Lip Kee shreds to the band’s classic rock/heavy metal tendencies.

Teeth solo!

Again, they played Cream – White Room. Classic rock headbanging goodness!

YEAH WE WANT GRINDMATHDEATH RAWR!

Indka packs a ferocious punch.

Featuring Natalie who is soon on her way to become a band slut!

Beat The System, nu-metal and proud of it.

Despite that, Sam is very much old-school; he does a fantastic windmill headbang.

Hot chick photographer!

V3, a new band whose guitarist teaches Alda a solo or two.

“Oh you mean like this?”

Featuring Jamasia’s very own owner, Velan! Ojee on vocals does a rocking cover of The Doors – Roadhouse Blues.

…who later gets fed a birthday cake by his proud father.

International Groove Collective, funk, soul, R&B and jazz. I think.

Cuuute keyboardist!

I know I’m growing older when I have an uncle-like urge to pinch people’s cheeks.

Carbolic Smokeballs end the set with heavy metal!