Feedback Open Mic, at The Bee, Publika, one 20th of March 2012. Here’s Raksasa.

Reza Salleh, organizer, is up on stage next.

Offroads.

These guys play blues rock and roll in the vein of Led Zeppelin and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

You gotta have at least two guitarists, one for the lead lines, and another for the rhythm.

Relent.

They did an awesome cover of Adele – Rolling In The Deep.

Markiza and Peter Hassan Brown, good ol’ folksters. They were joined by Wong Lip Kee on guitar.

Carpark does some hard-rocking rock kapak (80’s metal.)

Najwa joined last minute. Here’s the jazzy soulful singer with Faz on guitar. I’ve not heard her do acoustic, but she was awesome at it. She did a Erykah Badu cover as well.

Her brother joins her for a duet. Man can these siblings sing!

(Of course, this being impromptu, Farhan had to look up the lyrics.)

All shots with the Sony A900 with Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus. Yup, still workable in low light despite the T4.5, if you put your mind to it!

Here’s Reza Salleh at the Feedback Open Mic at The Bee, Publika, 6th March 2012.

Joe Loy has a thing for open chords.

James and the Mini Peaches. When I Googled their band name, I finally realized how they came to their name!

Free Loaders Inc., 90’s rock of the good kind.

Az Samad, fingerstyle and guitar tapping specialist.

N. Rama Lohan, guitar specialist. He reviews guitars for The Star!

He was playing with a bunch of music journalists (except Kevin Theseira on bass, I think). This was classic rock band Square Circles.

2side1BRAIN. Proper post-hardcore from Japan!

They made full use of the space.

Bassist with funky contact lenses.

That is one long cable.

One wonders how they monitor themselves.

Raksasa tends to end the show.

All shots with the Sony A77 with Opteka 85mm F1.4 and Carl Zeiss 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM.

21st February 2012: Feedback Open Mic at The Bee, Publika! Here’s Reza Salleh featuring a guest band from Japan. This is Akiyoshi Masashi on flourescent-stringed bass.

Badak, awesome proto-punk hard rock. Refreshing, in the wave of indie kids flooding the scene.

Barisan Mustafa. We were wondering what he was going to do, but I could guess this was a gimmick.

He was full on, proper PUNK! Vulgarities, ballsy anti-establishment attitude, it was all there!

Quite hilarious, plus it’s something I’d not seen at one of these open mics.

Free To Fall was, well, not punk.

PanPara, from Japan. These guys swam across the ocean and were marinated in the waves, giving them non-stop groove.

Julian and Marvin, I think, doing two Beatles covers – With A Little Help From My Friends and sweet ballad Something.

OJ Law, with just his laptop as backing track. He covered The Corrs – Dreams in his own delicate way.

Tama from Korea, with a coarse voice suited for rock.

Raksasa, intense acoustic with a backing track.

Bassment Syndicate featuring Japanese fusion today.

Mordo Blasters, a young rock-and-rollin’ band.

Darren Ashley was setting up, when his parents came up to express how much of fans they are to their son’s music. They also debated on stage, as to who he inherited the musical talent from. Fun uncle and aunty!

Then it was his set, this time a rock set…

…with the electropop coming in later.

We’re still waiting for an triple album by the way – first disc being electropop and delay loop experimentation, second disc being more rock, third disc being his older acoustic jazz ballads.

Velvet Peach Seven! The difference being Ike-chan, the guitarist, of course.

I’m sure we don’t recognize the drummer, Panten, who also played with Reza, PanPara, and Tama…

By then, The Bee had to close, and there were some acts that did not get to play. So, one of them was cajoled to play anyway outdoors, where a crowd listened intently…

Didn’t get her name, but she had a sweet song.

All shots with the Sony A77, Samyang 35mm F1.4 UMC and Opteka 85mm F1.4, both manually focused.