Moonshine: A Homemade Acoustic Show, The Apartment Downtown, Suria KLCC, 22nd November 2008.

Saxy time…

…with Ezam, who basically played his stuff from his band, Stoned Revivals.

I brought my Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5. What a surprisingly contrasty lens wide open!

And then there was Zalila Lee with the infectious funk guitar chops!

In the audience was a member of 98 Degrees. Don’t you think so?

Melina William, who basically played her stuff from her band, Tempered Mental.

“I usually don’t do this“, she said. As in, play all the riffs and progressions and fills and everything that makes her progressive uh… band kick ass.

Oh and I was trying out various levels of Dynamic Range Optimizer. To some extent it worked… previously the signboards and lights would’ve been blown out into whiteness!

You can see some uncontrasty artifacts like on the dude on the bottom-left of the picture, who obviously has been pulled out of the shadows by the DRO engine.

Then, Mia Palencia performed, with some guest appearances by Reza Salleh and beatbox man Darren Ashley.

Interestingly I could use a positive exposure compensation to ‘unflatten’ the DRO-ed shadows, at the slight expense of highlights. Of course, it would look much worse without it turned on.

D-Ash the multi-talented! He’s always seen in white, which I guess helped with the metering of this shot.

Sweet duo!

Mia then called Reza to the front to just… stand there while the lights turned off.

I wonder if people ever really, really get surprised on their birthday.

Well I guess I did, at work, when my colleagues brought a cake… I knew we always celebrated birthdays at the office at exactly 5pm, and I made a mental note of it, tried to finish my work before 5pm, but I still went, “whoa it’s here!”

Then, Melina, Mia and Zalila did a kickass medley of Reza’s songs! Their vocal harmonies were magical. Of course, Melina also plays in the electric incarnation of Reza Salleh (er, I mean, Reza Salleh in a band named Reza Salleh…)

A “This is going to go on Youtube” moment. Ooo, somebody in this picture has her birthday coming reaaal soon!

I would have to say that it was the highlight of the night, getting your song covered by an impromptu girl band! (I take it that Sheen Tse and Aidil don’t have cameraphones.)

Of course, Reza was asked to perform. Which he foresaw, seeing that he brought his guitar.

Izzy provides percussions from the back of the crowd (surround sound!)

Then the D-Ash pumps some beats.

What the hell just happened I’m not really sure.