November 2005 was a month full of gigs, so I’ll cram as many pictures as possible in under 600 KB, baby.

11th November: The Low Enders, or the bassists’ gig, part two (part one was the guitar shredders’.)

Clockwise from top-left: Daphne and Alda look merry; Alda doesn’t know how to turn off the video camera’s demo mode; Adam of Dragon Red enters a air-guitar competition and does a parody of Amil, his bandmate, complete with his expressions; he also shredded and threw in the Dimebag Darrell spider walk.

Clockwise from top-left: Serious business with AJ of Pop Shuvit, playing alone with his loop effect, major coolness as he builds a drum beat, adds basslines, then solos over it; Nakim and his secret weapon (the band); his bandmate, also on bass; Alda, representing Cosmic Funk Express. A joke: How do we get Cosmic Funk Express’ basslines to overpower Zack‘s guitar shredding? Hand Zack the bass.

After all that, the three bassists (and Jimmy of Tempered Mental) come together, to play… Come Together. The audience sings along, but they never got to the chorus. AJ and Nakim stole the limelight, with AJ doing jazzy lines as well as the melody, while Alda tried cutting in with his bass overdrive but failed.

12th November: Tracy‘s This Is Acoustics! Part II gig was at the same place as Part I, with about the same people, and about the same songs. Sorry! They did sound familiar despite only hearing them once. Well, at least they were memorable!

Clockwise from top-left: Christie King; Tony Leo the soulful church boy; Max Lim the guy who wrote a song about a broken guitar; Tracy Wong the piano player who turned Alicia Keys in half a year; Ian Chow the guy with the booming voice who doesn’t need a mike, Suk Yin.

17th November: Tempered Mental (featuring Zack on guitar) played at Backyard Pub, Sri Hartamas. I don’t quite fancy my camera’s night mode, but it does give cool effects when used appropriately, like these ghosts. 😀

Left: Before them was a macho tattooed man… on a Yamaha EZ-AG! Yup, the stringless beginner’s guitar, which lights up to show you where to fret. Middle: Zack on Cosmic Funk Express plays so fast he traverses time. Right: Zack shows us how to tap.

20th November, La Bodega KL: Top: Rhapsody, a jazzy R&B band, uh… jazzes the place. Powerful vocals with a strangely familiar but not overused tonal quality. Middle: Lucy In The Loo, on stage. Bottom: The Sofa Sessions; you gotta love the bassist’s lines. Plus they played a cover of Red Hot Chili Peppers – Soul To Squeeze, which in my opinion was the ultimate RHCP bassline song. Ariff nailed the solo (minus guitar slide) and the vocals.

Left: Billy Corgan meets Kurt Cobain, in this dude’s Nirvana cover. Right: Kevin strums to a happy acoustic-loving audience.

23rd November: KLue Upfront at Zouk promised free flow for VIPs. No free flow. No VIP area either. Noone stopped me from going upstairs, where I took a picture of Architecture In Helsinki, described by many as an avant garde rock band with 8 members and countless instruments.

The closest I could liken it to anything I knew was probably an emo-voiced Mr. Bungle. They had catchy, dancy hooks, but they changed it too often for us to enjoy it. So boohoo, to you progressive wannabes. Only when they turned the tables over to Twilight Action Girl did I feel the party started.

A privileged few would have ever seen me dance, but this one dude took the cake.

“Dude, are you on pills? You gotta stop that shit man.”
“Dude, I’m clean. I don’t smoke or pop pills… heck, I’ve never smoked weed!”
“WHAAA? DUDE! You are missing out on some good sheeet man!”

No, I do not look like a druggie when I dance. I look like a druggie all the time, dammit. 🙁 His friend calls me the crazy dancing dude.

25th November: The Stickman’s Blitz ends the artistic series, which had the guitar shredders and bass players before. Here, John Thomas is called up from the audience for a drum solo.

Drinking games! Jimmy: “I’ll just have my beer while waiting for you guys to start, okay?”

Left to right: Alex Ang of Velvet Tones; Ainol of Deja Voodoo Spells; Jimmy of Tempered Mental. All three bands played before this, but Ainol couldn’t help but burst into drum solo when Deja Voodoo Spells played Jimi Hendrix – Fire. A bit too early.

They jumped about in their seats and danced, swapping drum thrones on the way. Jimmy rapped. Ainol did a tribal beat ala Safri Duo, reggae and lion dance, among other things – it was clear he was the uber-entertainer.

26th November: I don’t even know the name of this gig, but Khai was in it, and he heard that girls dig faceless guys, so he went on stage blind for Y2K.

Clockwise from top-left: Warve gets a rapper; Dragon Red featuring Roshan of K-Town Clan (before that, they did a cover of One Buck Short, with Adam making a parody of Mooky, hilarious!); Throne Away, superb emo band with new Jagger-swagger vocalist and tapping-solo, chord-playing bass player; Milla, some kind of emo metal.

What, you’ve got broadband and expect December pictures as well?