Here’s a whole bunch of pictures from events at the Pusat Rakyat Loyar Burok at Bangsar Utama!

11th December 2012: Lives on the Left: A History of the Malayan-Singaporean Left with Dr. Poh Soo Kai (founder of Barisan Sosialis/ political prisoner for 17 years).

But first, an introduction by Boon Kia Meng.

His English is many levels above even the English-educated of today. He spoke of Singaporean history – something I’d admit that I don’t know much about, about Operation Coldstore, the Singaporean Internal Security Act, how Barisan Sosialis formed out of PAP, and how the British gave independence to the party who would be friendly to them and allow them to continue trading (as after World War 2, the British had heavy financial losses and relied on the resources in British Malaya).

He also spoke of how Lim Kit Siang was a reporter, something I’d not been able to Google (though I might someday look for his memoirs.)

Then there was that interesting bit about how back then, Singapore was very much considered part of Malaya, and that a remerger was always considered. To today’s generation however this would be unthinkable, in how different we’ve become!

Fast-forward to 25th January 2013: Lives on the Left: The History & Experience of the Malaysian Left, with Dr. Syed Husin Ali (intellectual-activist/former ISA detainee/currently Senator for Selangor State).

Again, hosted by Boon Kia Meng, who did an excellent documentary about rising housing prices called M-C-M’: Utopia Milik Siapa?.

Some of the interesting snippets I got out of this, was that Tun Dr. Ismail (then the Home Minister) had Burhanuddin al-Helmy arrested (and Taman Tun Dr. Ismail fittingly has a road named Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi!) He was arrested under the Internal Security Act when Ghazali Shafiee was the Home Minister. He was also once the President of Parti Rakyat Malaysia (formed out of Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya, Angkatan Pemuda Insaf and Angkatan Wanita Sedar).

He also mentioned something about new parties attracting new members, and that we had a lot of sponsored capitalists who don’t understand the game. Very enlightening talk!

23rd February 2013: Hari Darwin 2013. Foong Jin and me take a selfie no wait, I don’t think that word had been invented yet. So we were just good ol’ camwhoring.

Pepper Lim emcees the event.

Cool T-shirt!

Post-event activity was a bunch of people jamming to The Beatles.

11th May 2013: #UndiMsiaChats 42: Whither The Future Of Democracy In Malaysia.

This UndiMsia chat was with Member Of Parliament for Lembah Pantai, Nurul Izzah Anwar, who was coincidentally the MP for the very venue this talk was in!

But first, emcee Hoe Jian You speaks of… aliens.

Nurul Izzah is a very affable personality, and the crowd found her very cool. Then again, I guess that’s what happens when the MP is young and humble!

18th May 2013: #UM! Chats 43: PRU13: Mengapa sokongan BN masih menjunam kali ini? & Apa yang anda boleh buat untuk PRU 14 – Kempen #198Actions was an UndiMsia chat with Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

Another down-to-earth cool chap.

22nd November 2014 Lot 36: Dotters’ Division with guest singer Faz Anam! Or at least that is what the poster says, never mind that Faz is actually a guitarist, and her name is actually Faz Aznam. Because of this poster, we’d been cajoling her in the days leading to this gig to sing (and we also lovingly called her Ah Nam, a running joke from when her name was misspelt the same way at No Black Tie!) Also, that’s a picture I took of Dotters’ Division, ever willing to strike a photogenic band pose!

The band, sans Audrey the saxophonist.

Rebecca has a new style and we dig it.

Jie Er/Joey gets to play a lot of bass lines.

Linet on keyboards leads the band.

To her left is Faz.

A birthday boy!

Melissa the powerful vocalist, who also does guitar duty.

They also covered Faz’s song, Hurt, with her on vocals. I’d normally hear a stripped-down version with her other band, Calico. Super glad to hear Faz sing it!

Fast-forward to 17th January 2015, also with Dotters’ Division! So I blogged about 2014 and 2015 in one post, making this span 2 years!

Rebecca’s got a ponytail now!

Yes we’re all excited to see the return of…

…Audrey the saxophonist and occasional bearer of shaky things that make noise!

The band showed her how much they missed her…

…by caringly placing her sneakers in appropriate locations.

I did, too, with this. (She didn’t know until she got home – had I owned up then, she might not have introduced me to her mom!)

12th February 2015: An Honest Mistake Records Presents: Discovery Thursday (Feb 2015) at Laundry Bar, The Curve.

A usual soundcheck scene involves a musician pointing at the sound monitor asking to crank it up.

First act: Saturday Afternoon.

This isn’t Deo but Ashley!

This is still Dianne.

The girls make awesome artwork, whether it’s temporary tattoos, cards or nuts in a jar. Okay so that’s not exactly artwork. Nutwork perhaps.

Didn’t notice this door from Italiannies’ next door before!

Meliha Faisal.

I brought my Sony Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm F1.4 ZA SSM this time for a change, mounting it on the LA-EA4 which allows for speedy autofocus on the Sony Alpha 7S.

Then came KissKillMary.

Jenn is off the hook!

She has a Stage Presence pedal, and she cranks it to 11.

Sani just stands on top of a speaker and hopes to bask in whatever leftover glory.

Sultry Jenn touches Talitha who I didn’t see later, probably because she melted into a puddle.

This is why this year’s Chinese New Year is so hot.

Dance/indie/disco rock, with an awesome keyboard sound. Her KORG makes me want to buy one just to make new-wave sounds just like hers!

So, I wondered how anybody could perform after them…

…but The Fridays could.

Indiepop of the finest!

The song titles are catchy, with stuff like In The Wilderness The Bear Does Not Reply Text Messages.

Nice looking cherry red Epiphone SG bass!

That’s some crazy stage energy! The vocalist is particularly fun to watch, with him going off his rocker in every song.

Darren Teh of An Honest Mistake Records, as emcee and organizer, closes the night.

Swag night for these boys, Eizhan and Lucian.

14th January 2015: Urban Sunset with Crinkle Cut and The Maha Jeffery Band.

Urban Sunset starts at sunset…

…with two bands, performing two alternating 45 minute sets.

First act: acoustic loungey Crinkle Cut!

Ashley’s cute bunny tail.

Second band…

The Maha Jeffery Band!

Malcolm starts on cajon.

What a lovely finish on the guitar!

During the second set for Crinkle Cut, Kelly Siew was invited to sing along. Here she is saying “no no no no no” to Melissa (who is fond of that phrase.)

Frances with Kelly.

Not sure who is taller!

In previous gigs, they’d cover Musiq Soulchild – Sunny (Just Friends) and I noticed that the chord progression was very much like Sly & The Family Stone – If You Want Me To Stay. I’d been bugging them to hear that song and cover it… and they finally did! So here’s their medley… with a twist! It not only included both songs but started with Bobby Hebb – Sunny. I liked how Frances further broke up the rhythm of Sly’s already broken up funk vocals.

Then came The Maha Jeffery Band’s second set, with Malcolm now on drums.

Meanwhile, outside, a tug of war was happening.

These guys are old-school blues rockers!

Fast-forward to the 28th of January 2015.

Yup, same lineup!

This is how a sound engineer gets in the mix.

Diggin’ Ashley’s new hair.

Crinkle Cut takes their themes seriously.

Foreground becomes bokeh, seriously.

Sound engineers, imbalanced.

I worry about other things, like picking the right white balance for pictures. I shoot RAW so I can deliberate on this, but I usually end up picking an in-between that shows the most color tones e.g. I will dial it so there is an equal amount of blue and orange on the primary subject.

Sometimes though, I may keep a bit of warmth or crop more.

This picture had a fair amount of green versus magenta in the background. Picking the middle allows both parts to appear separate.

Another two-tone white balance (you can tell from the face.)

This picture is just here for the pretty guitar!

Fast-forward to 11th February 2015.

Melissa and sexy hair!

Alright, who played a wrong note?

Their on-stage camaderie is always amusing. They have fun!

Guess the theme this time.

I thought this was Darren Teh at first! What a doppelganger.

Simmy watches intently.

The Maha Jeffery Band’s lineup is a bit different today. A few musicians in the audience, had their eyes lit up when the KORG SP-280 appeared!

I’m liking the “Protect saturated colors” slider in DxO Optics Pro; it makes for a consistent color tone even as luminance varies.

Same here.

This band plays quite a few Jimi Hendrix covers with a few tweaks.

I discovered a Sony E-mount lens cap/ashtray!

Grace Cho (left) and Adrienne.

How should the poster communicate that two bands play on an Urban Sunset night? Interesting question. Meanwhile I’m just posting this to say that I took that picture of Talitha!

Raja Farouque’s sister was in town and she got an assortment of cake!

Grace Foo models the before part of a shampoo ad…

…and the after.

Those two pictures above, and this GIF, were taken by Simmy.

Yes, this Simmy. Picture taken by Melissa ‘bokeh’ Wong!

10th February 2015: Feedback Open Mic @ The Bee Jaya One ft. Lisa Spykers & Amrita Soon / February 2015 Edition. Here’s emcee and organizer Reza Salleh starting the show!

Isaac.

Ann with Isaac on guitar.

Fariz Salleh.

This next band had an interesting name…

SXS.

Tanisha.

Amrita Soon, first featured act.

At this point, I managed to play with 3 classic lenses – the Contax G Carl Zeiss Biogon T* 21mm F2.8, the Contax G Carl Zeiss Planar T* 45mm F2.0, and the Contax G Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 90mm F2.8…

…all thanks to this dude who I hadn’t seen in 2 years. He also brought an adapter which had its own dial to turn the screw-drive focus on the Contax G lenses, since they were auto-focus lenses when on a Contax G body. The perspective hints that this was the 45mm F2.0.

Sam Soon, Amrita’s sister, with a very nice-looking Ibanez SA160 Quilted-Maple Top in Transparent Grey.

I wanted to get the Ibanez Gio SA370 Quilted-Maple Top in Butterscotch (Amber officially, but I thought it was lickable butterscotch) until I discovered that it had 22 frets only.

The 90mm F2.8.

Jason.

Lisa Spykerman, second featured act.

Anatasha.

Eman, I think? Better beatboxer than most I’d seen.

Reza played again, since it was only 10:30PM or so when the last sign-up performed.

2nd February 2015: BALLSY! An Open Mic Show #22 feat. Armand Tanzarian & Lisa Spykers. I arrived later, catching the tail end of featured act Armand Tanzarian.

Ian Tai.

Wan Watari.

Lisa Spykers, second featured act.

Melissa (Toh) played with my Sony Alpha 7S and Mitakon/ZhongYi Speedmaster 50mm F0.95 Dark Knight Pro edition lens, and snapped a few shots.

This one, for example, of emcee and organizer Shaneil.

This one, with the Sony E 16mm F2.8 pancake lens.

And now, for a selfie!

Nicolas Ritom. Awesome stuff – something new, and something real old. I sadly don’t remember because I didn’t write it down.

Shaneil Devaser (joined later by Ian Tai.)

This would be the last BALLSY! at Page 2, sadly. The next BALLSY! was supposed to be here, too, but Page 2 suddenly moved to Ipoh, so it was relocated to Merdekarya 2 days before the event. This is what Page 2 looked like on the night the next BALLSY! was supposed to happen!

1st February 2015: Raising The Funds + Mixtape GUA Vol. 2 Launch at Lust KL.

LS (half of YMY).

Loco, formerly of Poetic Ammo, auctions off the T-shirt he is wearing – a rare T-shirt indeed!

This vinyl of The Mighty Imperials – Thunder Chicken didn’t get much bidding, sadly.

Shame though, because it is a dope funk track!

Lions Of Shadow Moon.

Wait a minute. These aren’t rock stars. These guys look like they rap.

Yup that’s right – my first proper full-on hip-hop gig! I’d been meaning to check out this scene for a long time, but Raising The Bar, usually being on Sunday evening, clashed with either me being out somewhere or being lazy at home, or blogging.

Auctioning a snapback cap to raise funds for the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, badly affected by floods.

NtahSape2Ntah.

Gotta love their T-shirts!

These guys joget to their beats, too!

Karmal.

All stage shots with the Mitakon/ZhongYi Speedmaster 50mm F0.95 Dark Knight Pro edition.

The low light capabilities of the camera help me freeze everything no matter the aperture.

Vandal!

Jin Hackman, host and emcee, hops into the crowd.

Introducing Vandal properly…

…as Vandigital.

I didn’t get the right focus, but I still like these pictures.

The crowd bops!

The Bat Cave.

They had some serious metal riffage in one of the tracks, and the crowd started moshing! I like this scene already.

I don’t know what goes on here.

Members entering and exiting the stage…

…that the only way I can filter pictures for repeats…

…is to identify them by their caps.

I lost count, but there’s supposed to be 10 of them.

Jin is damn cute here.

It’s a bit of a sausagefest though, this scene, as the emcees would note.

Shame, because every act was top-notch in energy and showmanship.

It was also Jin’s birthday, where he turned 28!

The gig was nice and clean and safe and then boom! Drive-by with a NERF gun.

Ending the night: DJ Lethal Skillz.

29th January 2015: NBT PRESENTS: JUNK PROJECT + TALITHA TAN.

The boys of Junk Project are super excited to play at No Black Tie for the first time!

Junk Project is well, jazz and funk, instrumental.

Eizaz doing double duty.

Fascinating MIDI pickup.

Bass and drums.

And now, for some guest vocalists!

Farah Diyanah.

Sachie Amira.

Annatasha Saifol.

Powerhouse trio!

They brought the soul, sisters!

Saxophone break, always the star of the show.

A band picture taken from far back.

Second act, Talitha Tan.

All of them swept up in the emotion of Radiohead – Creep.

It was a dream of hers, too, to play at No Black Tie.

Who’d have thought I’d hear her wonder this at this very venue just last year!

They brought Eizaz up for some sax, too.

Long gone are the days when Talitha would have a recurring theme of having a different borrowed guitar, since this one has a jack!

It seems almost mandatory post-gig…

…to take unintentionally funny pictures.

Oh, and to photobomb deviously.

No photobombs, just bombs.

27th January 2015: Feedback Open Mic ft Four Leaf Clover & Lisa Spykers @ The Bee Publika / January 2015 Edition. Here’s Ungku!

Hameer Zawawi, emcee and performer.

Reza Salleh, host and organizer.

The Evening Play.

Jac & Simmy.

First time seeing Simmy on guitar and not singing!

Campus.

Fikri Azam.

Blund.

Natalie & Shareen.

Lisa Spykerman.

First featured act, from Australia! Her voice goes deep and her guitar goes from soft folk to strummy blues. Simply top-notch!

Four Leaf Clover.

They were the second featured act.

Also featuring Raja Farouque on bass!

Simmy brings the Celtic Wave on.

Ashley, the hard-hitter.

They play Celtic folk music.

Jon & Jon.

Tin whistle!

Lunaktics.

Sid.

Maha Jeffrey Band.

Jack Fuzzbeats.

Jason.

Tanisha. Her Ibanez TCY-10 Talman looks awesome!

Cheryl and gang.

Sara & Marissa.

Hot damn!

Ruben.

Somebody left their capo behind! Go pick it up from The Bee’s staff if it is yours.