28th May 2013: Feedback Open Mic @ The Bee Publika May Edition! This is Matt.

Amrita Soon.

Sam.

Reza Salleh, emcee and organizer.

Chris Bourge.

Ariff AB.

Aice.

She brought on stage Shane Tan!

Yasmin.

A smile and a wave.

Kaiyisha Zawawi.

Shane Tan, this time by himself, with Stevie Wonder – Superstition.

Faz on guitar.

For some reason I always thought it was a non-permanent henna tattoo; it’s been over 8 months now.

The Pinholes, the only featured act, from Singapore, playing a nice long 40 minute set of rock and roll, and a unique cover of Nirvana – Lithium.

Gotta love the swagger.

Gotta love the classic guitars – an Epiphone Dot ES-335 guitar!

Gotta love the classic bass – an Ibanez Jet King with the old Ibanez logo.

Gotta love the dance.

Gotta love the shoes.

Gotta love the shades.

Aida.

The Esther Ann Band (or just Esther Ann?)

Gotta dig the getup.

Later open mikes would have her with more band members, hence my doubt in the band name.

She’s got a consistent look, dressing similiarly in later gigs. Branding; it works!

I didn’t catch this band’s name. They played an awesome cover of Daft Punk – Something About Us!

Well, they did play Daft Punk – Get Lucky, that overplayed song, after.

Didn’t catch this guy’s name. He had a lot of pedals, making soundscapes with a loop pedal.

Razlan Shah.

Herman Ramanado helps out on vocals.

Nigel Tay on guitar.

I’m not sure what band this is…

…but it has some members of Quirky Qwerty with their usual instruments.

Tiah Ridhwani. They performed a cover of Michael Jackson – Pretty Young Thing.

Faz.

Celloist.

Sharon Chong and Melina William are happy.

Izzy…

…and guitar-playing friend.

20th May 2013: Open Mic @ The Venue #8 – Hosted by Az Samad! This is the first featured act, Bihzhu.

Contemplative Faz.

Tang Chun Cheuh, a fellow photo documentist of the scene.

Omar, a drummer.

Az Samad, the emcee and organizer, off stage in a observant pose.

Bling above.

The Vochale Project!

All-girl harmony septuplet.

Brendan Aloysius Adwien.

Bullet Murugan on kajon, djembe and cymbal! A fusion!

I like his hip hop style.

Josiah Tay.

Peter & Markiza Brown. Here’s Peter.

Markiza.

Peter, sporting a fresher hairstyle.

Su Fern (left) and Pin Pin (right).

A. Samad Said and wife.

Khaimano, second featured act! He played his classics like Eating Peaches, This Is So Hipster (a retooled This Is Black Metal, to fit with the times), Cannot Get It Up, and a cover of The Ramones – I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.

Bahir on bass.

Ariff Aris, stickman back then, drummer today.

Ayuni Wahab.

The T-shirt from This Year’s Final Threat, the Paul’s Place gig that got raided on New Year’s Eve (31st December 2005).

PinPin, Su Fern, Az Samad, A. Samad Said and his wife (clockwise from top-left).

Big & Small!

Krystal, a.k.a. Small.

Daryll, a.k.a. Big.

Ian, his brother.

They’d also gotten a drummer and guitarist, with Daryll shifting to bass.

Everybody get on up!

Idzwan.

Aice with Matthew McKelson on guitar.

Big & Small flanking Nicole Foo Bihzhu and Khai!

Folk rocker Kien Lim.

Boy Castro did The Eagles – Hotel California, tweaked to become Hotel Puduraya.

Sulaiman Azhar, a stand-up comedian to end the night.

18th May 2013: RAWR!!! The Gig: The Awesome Party, at Paradox Art Cafe. Here’s Son Of A Policeman, who did covers of Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication, The Beatles – Yesterday, and their own original song.

An Honest Mistake, stripped down.

Previous vocalist Sheryl Goh, now overseas to study.

OHNEO!, a portmanteau of the surnames of Stanley Oh and Neo Ann Na.

Stanley rocking an old-school combover.

Shaneil Devaser.

Past Times And Tragedies.

RAWR!!! has a recurring mascot, a cartoon T-Rex, which we can see on her T-shirt.

Cool guitar! Gotta love the mid and neck pickups, or what’s left of it.

Rapping like a boss.

Relent, old school rock.

Gritty vocals, the way it was meant to be.

Ray Cheong, all by himself, and yet having a full sound.

I Lost The Plot. Interestingly, the middle picture has a darker background, despite the background being the same for all three; this is because the spotlight is brighter there!

Sekumpulan Orang Gila.

2storeyheart.

He’s not so alone with a second guitarist this time around.

Choong Hou.

Hameer Zawawi gets surprise accompaniment by Darren Teh.

Moonshine: A Homemade Music Show May Edition Part 1, 9th May 2013.

Here’s the newly renovated Laundry Bar!

Note the bar has extended past the pillar, so you can’t walk through there as you could before.

The inside, with a very cool staircase.

Love the deco.

Some freaky-looking masks.

Love the retro sofas!

oh yes.

Kevin, emcee.

Paolo Delfino, first act of the night.

His brother on drums.

Ian on a tiny keyboard.

Paolo’s guitar. Its Floyd Rose floating bridge is really shiny!

The boys.

You can get an idea woody Laundry Bar looks.

How the main audience area looks now.

Paolo, refreshingly electric.

Next up: Paladin, cello band.

Of course, they had one drummer to keep rhythm.

Florian Antler, band leader and celloist who plays many of the lead lines.

They played songs like Muse – Hysteria, Iron Maiden – The Trooper, Search – Fantasia Bulan Madu and Metallica – Welcome Home (Sanitarium), with the help of multi-effects pedals.

My favorite was Fantasia Bulan Madu. I guess that if I had to prove my Malaysian citizenship, I’d do it by singing the solo.

Melina William of Tempered Mental came up, to play bass and sing for a song of Tempered Mental’s that they were covering…

Automata!

Pitahati, spacey and upbeat.

I’ve to admit that the lights behind don’t help my case unless I can get it when it looks like this.

The awesome folk-playing folk, Shahridir & Nizam P. This is Shahridir. They played favorites like Sighyoung (when he went by the name Sherry) and Babi.

The multi-tasking Nizam P. I wonder if P stands for Percussion.

Shaneil Devaser: The EP Launch Party, 20th April 2013.

At Merdekarya, with the funniest artwork around.

Riz, hardened rocker.

Shaneil Devaser, in a more professorly look.

Krist Novoselic Chong on bass.

Rashaad on djembe and bleeps.

Cake or death? Cake!

Y’know, because it was also Shaneil’s 25th Birthday Surprise.

That’s a lot of candles.

The Infernal Conundrum (TiC)! Here’s Angelo, my cousin.

Phang on keyboard.

Rashaad with more bleeps.

Brendan on guitar and bleeps.

Julian on a very cool-looking ESP Ltd bass.

Kaya (The Band).

They did an awesome cover of Jimi Hendrix – Red House!

Gregory Ramanado joined later to jam along.

An old-school playground, made of concrete, next to the newfangled plastic and metal one, in Petaling Garden, the area where Merdekarya is in.

In other news, as of this post, my backlog is now just 9 months, yay!

Layan Fest 2013, 7th April 2013, at KL Performing Arts Center! In the foyer, there was a djembe jam going on.

Emcee.

In Pentas 2, Brian was emceeing. Also, when I hear Layan Fest I think of his old band, Layan Sound System.

Sufiz.

Christian Palencia.

Darren Ashley.

A rare lens makes its appearance at this gig – the Sigma 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 EX DG!

All red with an Elmo snowcap.

Darren shows us the turn.

He then brings up a member of the audience to contribute to his loop pedal jam.

Outside, So I’m Jenn. She’s fun to watch, with a unique sense of humor!

Zalila Lee, strumming outside.

Ann Na and I, selfie-ing through the widest ultra-wide angle lens there is. I prefer the word “camwhore” as it fits the context better, e.g. camwhoring.

Zalila Lee and Ariff Akhir.

At the foyer, Jumero brings on the classic vocal harmonies of the Bee Gees and other propagators of disco.

As I look at this, I wonder if kajons will overtake djembes…

Keeping it funky.

Inside Pentas 2, +2dB, awesome dark electronica.

KIV.

The djembe jam moved outside!

Bihzhu will connect you to the gentle flow of the river that runs inside you.

Although focused on Faz, I have to say I love Bihzhu’s hair here.

Hameer joins, and finds the lyrics stand to be rather low.

BACA.

Meanwhile, a bunch of us played POLITIKO.

Inside, An Honest Mistake!

This was back in the days of the vocalist who fits in your pocket, Sheryl Goh.

Grab your friends and let us sing-along!

It has always been my aim to get that shot of An Honest Mistake, when they do the song breakdown where the 2 guitarists and bassist shred together. At this gig, it was yet to be fulfilled, because of my own bad timing. So here’s a cool shot that has nothing to do with me outlining my objectives.

Leonard Chua (left) and Darren Teh (right).

Brian Tan was doing stand up rather dryly, but we gave face and laughed at his attempts to tell jokes. (Thanks Nicole/Bihzhu for the name!)

Prakash Daniel, experienced comedian, asking for people’s names to sing in his song.

The Metaphor, post-rock.

Dark side of the guitarist.

Outside, Phoon Chi Ho, one of my favorite stand-up comedians.

Shamaine Othman, who gets to tell all the I’m-a-female-comedian jokes.

Nick Davis.

Michael Leaner, on guitar, himself a rock vocalist.

AI:IA (Artificially Intelligent: Improvholics Anonymous).

Tempered Mental, darlings of the rock scene for their progressive, innovative style. Melina on bass!

Jimmy on drums!

Jack on guitar!

The show ended early compared to other shows, at 9pm or so. Here’s Darren Teh chilling on the piano, post-show.

Awesome poster for an awesome-sounding show. I didn’t get around to following up and catching it!

26th March 2013: Feedback Open Mic @ The Bee Publika March Edition! I’ve seen this guy, Nabilah’s brother, in Minotaur & The Labyrinth, but I’m not sure if he’s up as that.

Nazrin, soaking up all the experience points he can get.

Kent.

Tama.

Aice.

I’m not sure, since my notes don’t seem to align with chronological order, if this is Clifford…

…or if this is Nuhan.

Gavin.

Big, of Big & Small…

…and Small, with the big voice.

Halcony, first featured act, from Japan! (I unfortunately missed the second featured act, the awesome cello band, Paladin.)

I then moseyed over to Page 2, on the other end of Publika, to check out The Big Fish @MapFest.

Shaneil Devaser!

Elaine Foster, emcee, shows us that the spongemike is quite tasty.

Davina Goh!

She told us stories. I never knew she dated a very famous bassist!

This must be the story of her losing her mobile phone.

Thilaga Sulathireh. This picture should also tell you where exactly Page 2 is.

And now, back to The Bee! I didn’t catch her name.

Rizal.

Lai Yee & Ann Na! This is Lai Yee.

This is Ann Na.

Drunk bear.

Josiah Tay.

Azran, who did a cover of M. Nasir – Hati Emas.

Syamee Shamsul.

Looking very different back then! He did an excellent cover of Jack Johnson – Better Together.

Ghosts & Everything Beautiful.

Brandon.

25th March 2013: Open Mic @ The Venue #6 – Hosted by Az Samad! Here’s Kenneth Leow with a Nirvana-esque first song.

Az Samad, emcee and organizer!

First featured act, Isabell Jia Jia.

To her right…

…and her left.

Alloy And The Midgets, a beatboxer.

Ray Cheong, with an awesome harmonic double-tapping finger-style guitar song, and a funky cover of Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On.

Big & Small does the awesome James Brown – It’s A Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World and Blackstreet – No Diggity. This is Big…

…and Small.

Aice.

Transferring the rhythm!

Gavin, who played for Aice, also performed.

Second featured act, Kien Lim, a folk rocker.

Shaneil Devaser, a 90’s rocker.

Couch rockers.

Ariff AB.

Dhanea And The Boys.

One of the boys.

Drummer boy.

They did a cover of Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit…

…with Dhanea, violinist, playing the main vocal line.

Shafya joined to sing The Corrs – Only When I Sleep.

Shafya, from Maldives, then performed her own set.

Jia Ming, finger-style.

23rd March 2013: Twin Towers @Live 2013, Day 2! (I skipped Day 1.) That is a rather cool-looking building, looking a lot like a funky CPU casing.

I brought my Sony Alpha 99 and Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA this time, but only got into the free area. So here’s Mizz Nina, on screen.

Maybe it’s Maybelline! (Edit: Nope, it’s Cleo Lee; thanks Maybelline for the heads up!)

I came, really, to catch the Backstreet Boys. Here’s Nick Carter and Brian Littrell! It was my first time catching them. Although just as any other guy my age, I’d have denied the musicality of a boy band, I realized, after school, that their songs had their merit. They had a way of sticking in your head, such that you’d hear them on the radio and if one guy started singing along, the rest of you could chime in with all the vocal parts and harmonies.

The above picture is a 100% crop.

They started their set with Incomplete. They also accepted modern-day pop, by breaking into PSY – Gangnam Style in the breakdown of Larger Than Life!

They made full use of the live band to sound different than the record; We’ve Got It Goin’ On had a more piano-like sound instead of the synthesizer sound.

(Click image for full-resolution version)

They sat on stools for Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely and As Long As You Love Me, complete with the bit where Nick Carter gets off the stool for the first verse and does moves while singing, very much a reenactment of the music video!

They’ve probably done these moves a thousand times before, but it was still very cool to see it for the first time.

This picture is actually out-of-focus; otherwise I’d be linking it to the full-resolution crop.

I think this was either I’ll Never Break Your Heart or Shape Of My Heart. Every not-so-teenage-anymore girl’s dream come true.

100% crop of Alexander James “A.J.” McLean.

100% crop of Kevin Scott Richardson.

100% crop of Nickolas Gene “Nick” Carter.

(Click image for full-resolution version)
Here’s one that shows a bit of the stage.

From the above image, this is a 100% crop of Howard Dwaine “Howie D.” Dorough (sorry, I don’t have a clearer shot of him.)

A.J. and Kevin.

A fuller shot of the band.

They did Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) for the encore, complete with the signature dance! It was the Gangnam Style dance of its era… but cooler. They seemed to be in top form, compared to the last time they were down in Malaysia, where some said they weren’t as fit as before.

I couldn’t find my notes for this show, so I’d have to rely on the setlist found online:

1. Incomplete
2. Larger Than Life
3. We’ve Got It Goin’ On
4. Get Down (You’re the One for Me)
5. Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)
6. Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely
7. As Long As You Love Me
8. The One
9. All I Have to Give
10. Drowning
11. I’ll Never Break Your Heart
12. Shape of My Heart
13. I Want It That Way
14. The Call
15. Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)

By album:
Backstreet Boys (4)
Backstreet’s Back (3)
Millenium (4)
Black & Blue (2)
The Hits: Chapter One (1)
Never Gone (1)