Rock N Roll @ KL Jam Asia

Okay, so tonight wasn't the best gig I've been to, I can start off with that. But again, it was a chance to spit out bits of random indie talent we can find stuffed in between every crack in the big mix of a Malaysian boulder. And you can always find entertainment when that happens.So yes, this time the spitting out occurred in KL Jam Asia @ Hartamas, which I had initially gone to support ENRAI anyway.

I arrived there half an hour late, with my cousin Kenny, to meet up with Jarrod, ija, San, Mus and Dela, but I walked into a sea of black shirts and "I will eat you" expressions, choked by a sudden wave of cigarette smoke, only to realize none of my friends were in KL Jam... er... awkward. I called Jarrod (YEAH HE'S FINALLY BACK!) and he said they were in Spicy Kitchen so yes we walked all the way across the street to Spicy to have some drinks and to chill. Finally met San's gay partner KANESH! xD hahah! And I met Dave as well as Nick, Ija's "future brother-in-law", along with Helena (San's Girlfriend) and later on I met FARAH, Mus's girlfriend. Like... finally. -_-

9something pm. Went to KL Jam to check out the bands performing. We entered to a band, Human Actually, fronted by a girl, who I felt was a little too still. She didn't move and even though I had complimented her voice to sound a little like Lan from Meet Uncle Hussain, her movements were no where near the energetic twirls and jumps he does. Pity though, that band had pretty good potential.

Next up was Deumuseth, which caused Dela pain in her ears after their performance. A hardcore death metal band, I felt they totally kicked asss, despite the extremely long (and unnessecary) audio intro of some recital... Nah.. it ruined it. But that was forgotten when the singer punched in with a sharp, high scream that pierced everyone straight into the heart. A tight performance by these guys. Ija was going nuts for the guitarist (he was his ex band-member), while I was going nuts when Jarrod told me the guy at the technical booth was Faiz from Forty Winks. Heehee. Wait, I just went completely off track... Oops. xD

SO. Deumuseth, a good performance, I suppose. But once again, it was a little too much metal for one night... Probably because the amps kept screwing up and all that, and the crowd was kind of dead (I was pretty dead meself) so the atmosphere for METAL just wasn't there.
Next up after them was Stereo Sakit. I heard a lot about them from Ija who's close to the bassist (Hadi Lizard, ex-Komplot bassist), so I guess my expectations from them were pretty high. But they turned out to be... just alright. The music was friking nice, I have to admit but the vocalist was shadowed down by the loudness of the music, though I feel his voice could have sounded amazing.The band members were slightly...er... well partially, probably because they were high on something, and the vocalist admitted he was keeping his pee in. The drummer just dropped his sticks and stumbled off stage after their last song which I found rather... ungraceful. haha. Yeah.

Midway through their performance, Dela had to leave, which she was so pissed about as she had wanted to stay to watch Enrai perform, but oh well, Dela, I recorded vids for you! :)It was rather lucky she didn't stay anyway, Enrai only performed at one something, and trust me my momma was pissed shitless.
After Stereo Sakit, it was time for Kujo! The name sounds cool, so what about the band? Kind of ambient/rock, sounding like they worship Radiohead (with all the vocal influences as well), they sounded rather alright. Jarrod and I got bored after a bit as the vocalist kept going "Whooo~" for the majority of their songs... Yeah. Then the vocalist tried to speak Malay which was pretty amusing for us, but we gave him support for at least trying xD HAHAHA this part of the night was funny, I turned to my left and gawped as I saw some middle aged and oldER white people standing around looking at the bands. Okay, I know you get a lot of Caucasians here but at that time in KL Jam... WHAT!?Nick was as awed as I was. I went "They must be ex-rockers." Turns out a lady's brother (caucasian sister, malay brother... adopted/remarried perhaps) was the drummer for Y2K. Wait was it Y2K or Kujo? Can't really remember...

By then, my bum was sore from sitting on the ground for so long, and really, I was yawning more than I was headbanging... I guess I enjoyed the night, yeah, but it could've been much more energetic. I left without a sweat on my back. And that's not good if it's coming to gigs.
Back on the topic of Y2K, whom I have heard a lot about, they turned out to not be as WOW as I expected. It's kind of like... expecting gold and getting bronze. Yeah. They had some funky punk music going on which kept my head moving and feet tapping, and they entertained us with their masks, but other than that, their performance didn't blow me away like I usually want punk bands to. The vocalists were too soft (the mic's fault), and one of them actually didn't have a very in-tune voice either... and they just decided to put a girl up on stage to sing which I didn't really see the point in...Jarrod: Maybe they're trying to up their sex appeal.

Then.. then... it was... Infiltrated! Yeah! I think...? Yeah! The band before Enrai. Again they were a metal band, and that almost made me punch the floor. I mean, it's not because they were BAD it's just... there was just too much already! It was hilarious when they introduced their last song as "This Is Not The End" or something like that... Them: This is our last song.. it's called "This is not the end"...
Me: NO!
Nick: Argh....
Jarrod: O-M-G!

I think I saw some of their friends/fans glaring at us. Hey we weren't insulting them so chillaxxx...
And finally... ENRAI!!!! A twist to the many metal bands before. Dancedancedance. But it sucked because it was so late so most of the crowd had left by then, and like Kenny said, they deserved more crowd than what we were left with.Ija was half-drunk/exhausted by the time they were supposed to perform, so you can guess how it was. xD The music was tight, per usual, with a flare of energy coming from each of the band members, dancing, bobbing and moving around, using the stage space well.

Ija was CRAZYYY, he was everywhere, but he seemed to have exert so much energy in his first song, he had no breath for the last three. But he pulled it off with a good performance, though in the end, I have to admit I didn't feel like the wait from 9pm to 1am was 100% worth it... maybe 70%. :P
My camera died halfway through recording Wrong, but I did manage to record the full version of Realiti Fantasia, which I'm happy for. :)

Overall, an OK night, it could've been much much better. But the bands that performed weren't BAD, they were actually all good in their own ways, but maybe with better amps, better crowds and better atmosphere... they can kick ass. Yeah. And less booze, Ija. xD

Celine wishes she hadn't left her chocolates at KL Jam :(

KL Indie Fest '08

The biggest indie festival in KL to date (so they said). A hot day, an outdoor stage, indie clothing booths lined up beneath KL tower, it was definitely a bubbling day. After being ditched (not on purpose) by the friends I had asked to go with me, I resulted into going to the Festival alone, feeling slightly nerve-wrecked and not in the mood.

Walking past all the clothing booths after buying my ticket, two voices went "Hey Celine!" and I found two guys (Saufi and Jufry) of the same gang I was chilling with at MCPA during Escape the Flock in June walking towards me. Phwoar, you have no idea of the relief I felt when I finally met someone I knew. I mean, I knew I was definitely going to bump into familiar faces, but hey these guys were my gig buddies! So there it was, a start of a strong friendship. So I went to the DurjanaDesign booth, apparently it is owned by Rezza himself and was greeted by everyone heehee. Felt so... wanted. HAHA! Just finally got to know most of their names (Kolep, Kodyp, Bobo, Eno!) and bought two t-shirts (One "KL INdie Fest" shirt and a "We Love Indie" shirt from SukaHatiClothing).

I blurred out at one point when I didn't realize the bands were already playing, and I thought the music was coming from some radio speakers or something. HAHAHA. That was retarded. So we went to check out some bands, we weren't impressed, just ended up fooling around with some others in the crowd, taking lame pictures, slowdancing; It was funny when Jufry and I danced and everyone was like "Move back, move back!" and formed a circle. xD Went back down, went back to Durjana's booth, which was our main lepak spot. Oh, this bit was the best. Somehow one of the dudes got hold of a guitar, and we put an empty box on the floor and did a choir/guitar thing with Hujan songs. Hahahaha!
Us: Waktu dukaaaa dulu kita lalui bersamaaaaaaa...

And we also forgot the words to some parts....

half of us: (end of first chorus)... Jika ku berik - DI BAWAH ANGIN!! BAHAHAHA

the other half of us:Senyuman manis.. what?- DI BAWAH ANGIN!! BAHAHAHAAh,

that was fun stuff, and we asked some girls for song requests. Sang Bila Aku Sudah Tiada and forgot the words as well. Sigh.

Went up to the Observation Deck in KL Tower and looked around trying to find Selayang and Mont Kiara. Jufry and Saufi told me how they were friends since they were five years old, which I found SO ADORABLE. Argh. Anyway. Went back down, went to the gig area, and went to find the other guys... Again, the bands still weren't that impressive, and I started to feel extremely exhausted, no idea why, so Jufry accompanied me to the black platform where the big screen would be set at night for people who didn't want to sweat in the audience to sit and watch. I laid down and just chilled there for about an hour, talking with Jufry about school, studies, life, family, music, posers, idiots.... Was a relaxing moment there. I soooo wanted to fall asleep.

Dragged myself up to leave and we went to grab some bites to eat. Me, Eno, Jufry and Saufi went to some "mamak", and had sandwiches which was a pathetic dinner, but honestly I wasn't really hungry anyway. We had taken a picture of the KL Tower which Jufry posed in front of before we went to eat and it was really funny because the flash was really bright so he looked so much fairer.

Me: Wow, Jufry... fair!....
Jufry: yeahhhh
Me: Tak. Mungkin!
Saufi&Eno: Hahah!
Jufry: You wait.... *glares at me*

I did wait, but nothing happened.

We went to get our spots in the moshpit, and waited for the bands to begin. I was getting so extremely annoyed at the hosts because they kept speaking for SO LONG... I was like... MOVE ALREADY! Haha. So the line-up that I managed to see before I went home was OAG, The Pilgrims, One Buck Short, Republic of Brickfields and Meet Uncle Hussain.

*before one buck short's performance*

Host: Anyone can pinjam saya seringgit?

Other host: why?

Host: Coz' I'm... One Buck Short... can you all guess which band is next?

Er..... no, I can't. -_-

*after their performance*

Host: I need one buck to go to Brickfields.

Me: Republic of Brickfields!!!!!!!!!! *ignores the hosts as they speak on and on

Hosts: Yes, the next band is Republic of Brickfields!

Er........ no shit. LAME!

I managed to record one video from every band in that lineup except for Meet Uncle Hussain, because I was too busy moshing. -_- I was like... "OH MY GOD I LEFT THEM OUT"... cheh. OAG were of course always the best energizers to kickstart a gig, and were absolutely funky. They did a great cover for "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis after an instrumental intro of "Beautifool" which was like a karaoke for the audience because Radhi wasn't on stage yet. Then they sang their "Merdeka" song... about independent music or something. And finally, Generasiku and Slumberrrr. Whee.

The Pilgrims were alright, nothing great, nothing bad, just alright. They had a new singer, and they haven't been gigging since the 90s... so... it was some fresh moment for them. One Buck Short. I crowdsurfed to them, but I didn't feel comfortable at all, because I could feel hands creeping up to my chest, and I was like "No, not good, I should fall now." So I did. Sigh. I should've worn my hoodie. Argh! Other than that, it was just pure, good, energetic moshing, which was the highlight for me, because I didn't get grabbed or anything while moshing... Was amazing.

Republic of Brickfields... hell... they were... HEAVEN. Haha. I was so into the singing, the dancing, the zoning out and the listening to the guitars and drums fill my whole body thing. Foooo.... I was blown away. And also by Aru's hair. Hee. They performed a song I didn't know the title to, then Ganjaran, Emansipasi and Orang Planet. They tried a few times to start "Bila Aku Sudah Tiada" just to hear the crowd's reaction, and it was probably something they expected when people didn't want them to play it. Anyway, they ended with a cover of "Sweat (Alalalong)" by Inner Circle. Haha! They were MY best band of the night. Definitely.

Meet Uncle Hussain, almost equally good. I guess they were equally good, but it's just the fact that raggae to me, beat MUH for the night yo. :) MUH performed a small demo to their new song, then Lalala kerjalah, Pari Pari, and finally Lagu Untukmu, which was CRAZY. Everyone was moshing, headbanging, singing along... Just great. I loved loved loved the night.
As I walked out I saw Dayang also from Escape the Flock, and she asked me to stay for Bittersweet, but...oh well, I had to leave. Waved goodbye to another MCPA-recognizable face and ended my KL Indie Fest night. Ahh...

Enthusiactically reminisced by Celine