3rd March 2016: Unplugged Vol. 6 at Laundry Bar, The Curve! Here’s emcee and host Darren Teh.

First up: Jon Liddell! Apparently he played drums in a band that used to open for Dragon Red. Strangely I never got to see them!

Hameer Zawawi. Trying out something new, by accident.

Dragon Red. Bossman Landslyde.

Screamer and singer Adam Lobo.

Brandon does many things. This time around, he drums.

Camero. I still take time to recognize him with his new hairstyle.

“Professor” Amil has looked pretty much the same. We didn’t get to hear him rap, though.

Shot with the Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA.

Here’s their tribute to the late Scott Weiland, an acoustic version of Stone Temple Pilots – Plush, with a groove.

Replacing The Last One Awake was Annatasha.

Wei-Ming on guitar.

Isaac also on guitar.

I quite like how the backlight turned out.

Interestingly, Annatasha performed with Estranged a month later, which was a big deal to her when she was 14. This makes me feel old, given that the very first gig I went to was at the original No Black Tie (No. 27, Jalan Mesui, where Rainforest Bed And Breakfast is now) and I first saw Estranged there. I was very impressed by the bassist, who was then slapping and popping on Chocolate Syrup. I went up to him after the gig and praised his dancy bass playing. That bassist was the late Alda Tan, and he played guitar in a band with Adam back in secondary school. I became a fan and came for about almost every Estranged show I could, learning of other underground bands while catching them perform at Paul’s Place, Jam Asia, and Laundry Bar, among others.

Adam would sometimes join Richael, Estranged’s vocalist, to scream along on Velocity. Alda later left Estranged to play bass for Dragon Red, reuniting with his schoolmate. Richael then joined Akademi Fantasia and became known as Rich AF (teehee) and the band exploded into the Malay mainstream with Itu Kamu. It makes me sad though that I don’t see their other songs get covered, as if they were a one-hit wonder. It also makes me wonder how I’ve not seen other underground bands really hit the mainstream the way they did – and yet, I still can’t put them in my mainstream bucket, due to my underground memories of them. Then again, does a band have to put itself (or be put) in a bucket? They did, after all, start in a music college, ICOM, and none of them are unapproachable rock stars. Heck, Landslyde and his brother C. Loco are friendly dudes despite formerly being part of the massive Poetic Ammo.