Rock The World 12

Rock The World 12, 29th December 2012, at Padang Merbok, Kuala Lumpur!

This is Time And Tide.

Emcee Rina Omar!

I Revival.

Damn I love the look of this Jackson Rhoads Matt Tuck signature model. Reversed headstock, string-through bridge, V-shaped inlays, and bolder guitar bindings compared to the Randy Rhoads guitar it is based on.

The crowd wants a piece of him.

Maximus. I don’t know if you can tell, but I selected which pictures to post partially because of the attractiveness of the guitars/basses and the rocking poses.

In some cases, I am biased towards reflective shades.

Upon Revival.

There is something about a very polished bass, clean of stickers and duct tape, that appeals to me.

The Eightyfour. There is a certain look from the way the vocalist sings to the crowd, that you will know they sing post-hardcore.

Dish, meanwhile, has a theme…

…and it certainly isn’t hardcore. They play alternative rock.

Meanwhile, in the air-conditioned Elevate booth, photos are taken!

Cassandra, another post-hardcore band.

Gotta dig the bindings and the pearl maple top.

Oh Chentaku.

Hidden message behind the headstock!

Jimmy, most known for being the drummer for Tempered Mental…

…and his band member, who is proud to wear this shirt.

Diandra Arjunaidi brings sunshine to the traditionally rainy Rock The World.

I later saw this guitarist backing her up in a singer-songwriter session. He had awesome improvised licks.

Red shirt, like the drums.

Meanwhile, there was a little Icons Music Booth, where they were selling Epiphones…

I don’t know where this band came from, but this guy was rocking a Epiphone Thunderbird bass.

I think they were jamming to Metallica. Rightfully so, since a Explorer body was in use, one of James Hetfield’s favorites!

Melodisaster and the good ol’ free shirt.

I tend to get this whenever I point my camera back at the audience.

Sekumpulan Orang Gila. No, that’s the name of the band.

Classic rock-and-roll, from Couple. The old bassist is in the middle.

The band is always smiley and happy.

Meanwhile, promoter girls stroll through the field. I like the expression on the silhoutted people in the foreground!

Hey, it’s Go Gerila with Aizat Amdan!

The infectious Amir Jahari plays for him.

Emcee Big, of Endzeil, a moshpit buddy and bouncer.

Pitahati has that older Pink Floyd-ish sound that I enjoy. They keep it catchy.

Hey this bassist is familiar!

This guitar bag is damn cool.

This T-shirt is damn cool.

Azure For Janne, post-hardcore.

Now, for a nu-metal sound – Pop Shuvit with more rappers becomes Project E.A.R.!

A minor difference being that Ryan Lee Bhaskaran was on drums instead.

Otherwise it’s still AJ on bass…

…and JD on guitar (without the bug-eyed glasses, but still with Yamaha guitars.)

Khottal, bigger than the average big band, with a lot of instruments.

I cannot say I understand their music though. Then again, that happens for some bands that I treasure now.

Funky mohawk. As foretold, the rain would come.

And so, I retreated to one of the game booths. Behind, of course, is the scoreboard and a drum challenge.

The excellent Tres Empre.

I love their At The Drive-In/Glassjaw-ish sound. Perhaps I’m much more able to get into its groove than post-hardcore.

This is what the photographer’s pit looks like. The barricades have looked the same.

Reset To Zilch, shoegazing.

50-Cent lookalike.

Restraint, hardcore.

Someday, I shall dissect the difference.

That tickles!

Incarnation, thrash/hardcore. Another pretty ESP guitar!

This is what the Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM is for – close-range wide shots. (The telephoto shots were with my trusty Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA, all on the Sony Alpha 99.)

You never know who you’ll get in the crowd.

B-rock, deejaying, and playing non-Malaysian-band music.

The sun was setting.

The Malayan, with Andy of Flop Poppy!

Very cool shirt.

However, my favourite never-seen before band was this.

Nuclear Strikes!

This is undoubtedly heavy metal. Even her callsign is – Steelgirl Ladyana!

Two guitars, galloping rhythm and plenty of twin guitar lead licks. Add one more and you’d have Iron Maiden.

Gotta dig the kicks, too, despite me being a one-pair-of-sneakers kinda guy. Interestingly, following up on this band, she was replaced by another female vocalist with an equally metal name, Tasya Blade (making it their third female vocalist!)

Yeah, traditional Jackson Randy Rhoads!

Robot Asmara plays new wave rock.

Meanwhile, on another stage, a Guitar Hero showdown takes place. I know this rockstar on the left!

Salam Musik is a big band.

Darren Ashley, facing technical difficulty. I just like this picture because of the Rembrandt lighting.

The crowd awaits a fix.

And he’s back with electropop rock!

The Darren Ashley Band, as it was known then, was already color-coordinated.

Unfortunately – and I was hoping this would not happen – due to technical difficulties, it ended up overlapping with this other band that I’d wanted to see very much.

Damn Dirty Apes! They were the first post-rock band I’d ever heard. When I heard them I felt chills and a slow, subzero wind whizzed past. To this day, I can’t find any post-rock band to like more. Perhaps it’s a preference thing, that post-rock is a very acquired taste, that you may like one and not the other.

Anyway, I managed to catch 3 songs from Ape Kill Ape and Kilometrico, not in any release. That is also a very cool T-shirt.

Too bad Bob is not in a spacesuit.

Somebody won a guitar, I think.

The good ol’ Radhi-O, of OAG! He sang a cover of Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger…

…and then he got bored and started exploring the space. The bouncers returned him to stage.

It was hilarious to see him running across speakers and getting caught. I’m not quite sure why they need to catch him and return him on stage, though…