Category Archives: Music

Zoom Zoom Ala Ka Moon

And so, on the 9th of November 2006, the indie gig known as Moonshine had its 1st year anniversary at Laundry Bar, The Curve.

It was also the perfect place to test my infrared-modded Fujifilm Digital Q1 with Seagull 50mm F1.8 lens! The spotlights were full of infrared, giving me 1/60th of a second at ISO 100, F1.8. (On my unmodded Canon Powershot A520, it was about 1/2th of a second at ISO 100, F2.8.)


Solsta* does the British 90’s wave. I remember them most for their excellent Supergrass cover during the second season of hitz.tv’s Blast Off (though a judge asked why they picked a song he had never heard before. Sir, have you not heard We Are Young?)


Reza Salleh has a showdown with sound engineer Leonard.


Reza Salleh and the Fumakillas; there he goes melting hearts again with his sexy voice, to 90’s modern rock.


Hanafi jangan tak solo!


Bittersweet from Ipoh was my favorite, playing very catchy British-tinged rock. You’ll point your fingers in the air and clap along, while stomping your feet.


I like how his sunglasses seem to vignette his face.


The crowd (okay, so I cheated and used my Canon. Look at the fans!)


When I first heard them, the following line came about my head: “Panic in the streets of London, panic in the streets of Birmingham… hang the deejay hang the deejay.” You know, that infectious Smiths stuff.


Force Vomit from Singapore also played Brit… rock? I’m not quite sure what genre, as they don’t sound like the current British revival but sound British anyway.


Rappers on the open mike.


Melodica was awesome! When you see a six-string green John Myung bass, you know you’ll be in for a treat. I swear I heard a Black Sabbath bassline somewhere in their soundcheck. They did instrumentals, ending with a cover of Deja Voodoo Spells – Arrhythmia! As it turns out, while the bassist was never with DVS, he did session with them. That does not account for the guitarist knowing the song note for note, double-tap for double-tap, though!


Never forget the next song with a setlist! (Taken from behind the glass behind the stage.)


Never forget your pedals, either!


Smek happy.


From like way, way out. The 300mm equivalent crop is fun.


There was an explosion outside, but all was calm soon.


The 300mm equivalent crop meant that I could take this from across a big room. Spot the Nicole who doesn’t look like her from first glance! (Eh, you don’t need glasses to look wise oh you enlightened-looking person.)


Others get up real close to the sound monitors; I’m glad I can shoot comfortably from such a distance.


Spot the Ivan.

I’d never had so much fun with my camera before, stuck at a 300mm equivalent (which is like 8x optical zoom for you point-and-shoot digicam owners) and manual focus. I could shoot people without them suspecting! Plus, the Q1 is deadly silent. It has no mechanical shutter (why do digital cameras have mechanical shutters anyway?), so the only sound you will hear when shooting is the shutter press. It does not have auto-focus so there’s no half-press either.

Also, despite it being 300mm equivalent, I didn’t get any motion blur at 1/30th of a second! It could be because the lens was really 50mm, with a 6x crop… or that there was no mechanical shutter or mirror to produce the slightest vibration, or that I was holding it mostly by the lens, where the Q1 was very light, thus shifting the center of gravity into the lens, reducing the effects of shake? I don’t know.

Conversely, you could add a lens hood, and perhaps a weight tied at the front of the lens, to counter the weight of the camera body!

Oh and there’s another show this Thursday!

What: Project Bazooka
Where: Laundry Bar, The Curve
When: Thursday 16th November 2006, 9:30pm
Who: Estranged, Frequency Cannon, Sizlomania
How much: FREE! But if you like a band’s music, go get their CD.

More details here.

Laundering Over October

October 19th, 2006: For once, Project Bazooka‘s gig had as many people as a Moonshine gig! Rock on.


Seven, funky jazz fusion band.


Edge Of Fire, featuring Dragon Red‘s Amil on bass.


Daniel rips out metal tonight.


Ivan, on Amil’s pointy James Hetfield ESP guitar!


Ian behind drums, and a… human drum stand.


They then do Whole Again, acoustic.

While waiting for Dragon Red to come on, the deejay plays Pantera – Cemetery Gates. I go wild and headbang, frantically looking for Amil or Adam to headbang with. The rest of the crowd seems impervious to Dimebag Darrell (RIP) and gang. I was there that night to see the loudest music I’d ever see in Laundry Bar (well, I missed Love Me Butch…)


DJ Naz-T of Dragon Red is next.


They did an acoustic set, including a cover of Incubus – Drive. They also did not have a bassist; before their set I asked what happened. “Oh, we have a replacement bassist, so if you see a bassist around, you might know who it is.

I didn’t want to find out until they got on stage, but I spotted Melina of Tempered Mental holding a bass and hiding. Hot damn! But she was very fit for the role.


Mike stand head.


Amil, reunited with his ESP JH-2.


Dragon Red gets a birthday boy to sing along.


Jangan tak rock.


I caught this shot by accident.


Adam and the glove of fury.


Well hey, isn’t that Zarul the harmonica player and Alda the bassist? No, this was another gig – Isaac Entry And Friends at Laundry Bar as well, on the 26th of October 2006.


Isaac Entry’s last gig at Laundry. Semi-acoustic blues and light funk, which goes somewhere from John Mayer to B.B. King (but in a less dinky setting.)

I went up near the stage with Paul‘s camera because he didn’t bother to, to take some of them 50mm F1.8 shots in his Laundry Bar flickr gallery. (Though after seeing the results, I think F3.5 would’ve been better.)


I was trying to capture the motion traced by the disco ball lights, and caught a pensive Sarah instead.


Escalator at The Curve.


Sarah also propagated her new camwhoring ideas. She had been a willing subject before.

Oh, and of course, pimpage for the next Moonshine this very Thursday:

What: Moonshine: a homemade acoustic show
Where: Laundry Bar, The Curve
When: 10pm 9th November 2006 (corrected!)
Who: Force Vomit (from Singapore), Bittersweet, Reza Salleh, Solsta’ (from hitz.tv’s Blast Off Season 2)
How much: Free, but you’d get thirsty

More details here.

15 Seconds Of Exposure

What can you do in 15 seconds?


Use a flourescent table lamp as a lightsaber, that’s what.

How?


I used two lights for this; the lower lamp has a switch, and I turn it on and off with my toe. The flourescent lamp also has a switch.

  1. Turn on the lower lamp (tungsten lamps are instant).
  2. Run to camera on tripod.
  3. Turn on 10-second-timer.
  4. Press the shutter.
  5. Run back to lamps.
  6. Pick up flourescent lamp.
  7. Turn off tungsten lamp with toe.
  8. Turn on flourescent lamp and wait for it to start.
  9. Swing the flourescent lamp like a light saber (after the camera has opened its shutter).
  10. Turn off the flourescent lamp when you reach the end.
  11. Turn on the tungsten lamp with your toe (for about a second) and then turn it off.

The tungsten lamp should be pointed at your face.

Alternatively, if your camera has second-curtain flash/rear-sync flash (which means that the camera flashes after the 15 second exposure) you don’t need the tungsten lamp.


Swinging the flourescent lamp while it is starting has an interesting effect, too.

In other random linkage, there’s this awesome mash-up, where The Silence Xperiment has mixed 50 Cent‘s rapping with Queen songs. I’ve never been a fan of 50 Cent, but having Brian May shred in the background while 50 Cent raps has never sounded better. You get to download the entire album here:

Q-Unit

Do check out the label covers too, they’re hilarious!

Rocktober

Once again, pictures from the 12th October 2006 edition of Moonshine.


Tan Sei Hon, acoustic singer-songwriter.


Lightcraft, indie pop darlings.


Guess which band this is!


Yep, it’s Rhapsody, now with a funky soloing guitarist, funky-basslining-bassist, and Jimmy of Tempered Mental (not in picture).


Tragicomedy, singing songs from his album, Songs That Won’t Sell… which is ironically, (credible) pop rock songs that will sell.


My attempts to replicate the distortion of a wide 27mm lens, by doing the angle bit of it. (You can brag that your kit-lens-wearing Nikon d70s/Canon 350D does 18mm… but sir/maam, it’s 27mm after throwing in the crop factor.)


Stoned Revivals from Singapore plays funky jazz rock. Somewhat progressive, with very interesting chord progressions.


…though technically, he’s from Men Under Zero Effort, a Malaysian band, and he plays octave/fifth-ful basslines on guitar.


…so is this drummer, also from Men Under Zero Effort.


We (I always fail to identify who I went to a gig with but is it relevant?) were sitting inside, and were chased out at 2am as Laundry Bar was closing. Outside, we found this on a table. Seems like some people couldn’t wait. In case anyone wonders, it is not the prophylactic itself; it is a ring that clips on and vibrates for 20 minutes, with a sealed battery inside.

Just as soon as I thought I finished posting all the gig pictures, here comes another event:

What: Project Bazooka
Where: Laundry Bar, The Curve
Who: Dragon Red (my favorite Malaysian nu-metal band), Edge Of Fire (channels falsetto hard rock), Seven (funk/jazz fusion with saxophone)
When: 9:30pm, 19th October 2006
How Much: FREE ENTRY! Just buy me a drink. 😀

More details here.

Yes I’m going; I’ve never truly headbanged at Laundry Bar because there wasn’t anything really intense to mosh to, but Dragon Red is hard enough. *cracks neck*

Project Rock-it

Here’s to some oversaturated rock show pictures. Specifically that of Project Bazooka’s, at Laundry Bar, one 21st of September 2006.


Looong exposure, with someone walking past.


Seen a lash? SURE!


Check out the pickguard! Telebury and their jangly indie-pop. The sound does get repetitive after 3 songs featuring those cutesy single-note riffs.


Khai-Lee shows us how to enjoy a rock show; with ease… and slippers.


SingleTrackMind, doing quite a few rock ballad covers.


Solid band, but for some reason did not hit it with the audience.


One Buck Short, a punk rock band I saw the previous Thursday.


Count the frets!

I think I’ve finally honed the gamma levels to look nearly oversaturated, with (darker) dark mids on a CRT monitor at maximum brightness, while looking decently saturated with dark mids looking… dark on a minimum brightness LCD monitor. A compromise between both brightness levels, though technically, my CRT is calibrated properly, and I haven’t figured out how to calibrate correct gamma on the office’s Radeon X300 video cards connected to LCD monitors. Are these pictures too dark/bright for you? Leave a comment.

Rain Pours, Moon Shines

The rain dampened the spirits of many on the relatively low-turnout September 14th 2006 edition of Moonshine.


Kohl started slow and mellow acoustic stuff.


However, this pro bassist brought up the funk, and they were excellent at it.


Melina of Tempered Mental looking hotter than ever.


Jack goes wild, for the first time seen without his red Stratocaster; this time, an aggressive Ibanez. He was making full use of the humbuckers, doing shrieking harmonics. Kinda like Dimebag Darrell (R.I.P.) without the pointy-shaped guitars. Tempered Mental had never been that thrash metal-ish. I lapped up Jack’s every palm-muted chug and distorted solo.


Kluk Kluk Adventure.


Spot the Duan of Seven Collar T-Shirt in the background!


Pete Teo, in his first time performing at Laundry Bar. He played his earlier songs because the mood wasn’t tender enough. I tend to think of Laundry Bar as a younger version of Alexis Bistro, Great Eastern Mall though.


One Buck Short started with a very interesting, new, proper anarchistic punk rock song. In Malay.


Open mike.

And now, to somewhat unrelated business:


The Curve has plenty of trashcans just like this one.


I can’t pimp her because, while she did identify the exact location of the kiddie ride here, she did not identify the blogger it looked like.


Shaz, however, got it right, guessing Midvalley and Bryan Chin.

OBsession artSCENE

This following entry is copied from my Xfresh article. Without pictures, though.

What: Anak Bulan Di Kampong Wa’ Hassan
Where: Pentas 2, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center
When: 20-23 Sept @ 8.30pm and 23-24 Sept @ 3pm
How Much: RM25 and RM10 (students, disabled & senior citizens); you can get tickets at KLPac (03-4047 9000 / tickets@klpac.com) or The Actors Studio @ Bangsar Shopping Center (03-2094 9400 / tickets@theactorsstudio.com.my)
Who: Writer: Alfian bin Sa’at, Director & Performer: Gene Sha Rudyn

More details here.

Gene Sha Rudyn plays all the characters in this play; various people seen in a Kampung. The kampung is slowly being destroyed, but the play does not talk too much about that; instead, he paints a colorful picture of a merry kampung, with all its characters.

I’ve never lived in a kampung, yet from what I’ve seen on TV, read in Lat cartoons, I could relate. He effortlessly alternates between an Indian ice-cream seller and a Chinese minimart owner in a heated argument. He pokes fun of stereotypes (for example, in that scene, he points at a Malay guy, who is just looking and not doing anything.)

Gene also switches from characters instantaneously and effortlessly. I wondered how the lighting director could keep up with it. He also had very consistent voice imitations. There was also trademark Malay humor; for example, in one scene he puts on a most serious face and goes “Aku menangis, tapi dia tak nampak, pasal hujan lebat.

Despite the easily accessible entertainment value, there were deeper themes and messages; one gripping scene has him crying, playing a homosexual man who was kicked out of his village because of his sexual preference.

Rating: 9/10

And now, for other pimpage!

What: A Malaysian Affair: A Tapestry Of Malaysian Songs
Where: The Actors Studio, Bangsar Shopping Center
When: 6th-7th October (8:30pm) and 8th October (3:00pm)
How Much: RM30 and RM40 (adult); RM25 and RM35 (12 years and below) + RM2 (Axcess Charge)
Who: The Young KL Singers

Oh, and there are lucky draw prizes on all 3 shows; holiday packages for 2 sponsored by Berjaya Hotels & Resorts worth up to RM4

Rocking 4 Hope


And on the 9th of September 2006, I went for Yvonne Foong‘s Rock 4 Hope charity concert.


Pinky Khoo and another emcee.


A Day At The Zoo, from Yvonne’s church, played a few pop rock covers…


…a few hard rock originals…


…but they seemed most at home with anything funky.


Projector! This was last seen at the Shout! Frequency Cannon And Friends gig, also held at the Sunway Multipurpose Hall.


God forbid that A Day At The Zoo play after hard-rocking A-list Malaysian virtuoso rock band, Deja Voodoo Spells.


Mie holds the fort on bass…


…and waits for Ainol to be done with his bass solo.


Double-tappers! Mie did Rasa Sayang, Doraemon and the Super Mario theme. Like a Zack on bass.


Finally, Rithan played the song I’d been bugging Edge Of Fire to play for ages – Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody! Of course, they cut out the choral bits to fully rock out, following it with Queen – Stone Cold Crazy.

Moonshaped

What: Moonshine, a homemade acoustic show
Who: Tempered Mental, Kluk Kluk Adventure, One Buck Short, Pete Teo, Kohl
When: 9:30pm, 14th September 2006
Where: Laundry Bar, The Curve
How much: Free, but you’ll get thirsty cheering for the hard-rocking bands and drooling at the chicks

More details here.

I also went for The Shape Of Things, as a reviewer for Xfresh.


I’ve already written about it here, so let the pictures do the talking.


Proper drama in a play, for once! After all those philosophical meaningful thought-provoking plays come this, a play whose meanings do not need a toilet seating to understand. Do you go to plays to watch them orate puzzles… or perform and be entertained? A lot of meaning was obvious, though deeper thoughts might reveal more. Was the surprise twist at the end out of spite?


Eve plans to deface a painting, and the nerdy security guard Adam tries to stop her. While the play was about love, there was a underlining parallel reference to art, like in lines like:
When Picasso took a shit, he didn’t call it art. He knew the difference. That’s what made him Picasso.


Maybe he’d be able to, with such a rifle (shown outside, in set designer Jia Wei’s garage clearance.


Meanwhile, Eve breaks Adam in. Conversation is natural and not staged, with proper dynamics and pacing. Phew. Some of the other plays I’d seen were like 10-minute grindcore songs. (Grindcore songs are under 2 minutes for good reason.)


Kinky with cameras.


However, while she managed to shape him into a good-looking, confident man, she failed to control his loyalty. On the plus side, she successfully changed a man… while on the minus side, he went to the woods with his roommate’s fiancee.


While the drama may seem exaggerated, we probably know someone who has gone through that.


Some, myself included, may be able to relate to some of the characters in the play at any one time. There was also Two Inch Paperheart, who played U2-like background music in between scenes.