Gig Hopping!: Indie Goodness @ MCPA & Dancepunk Party 2009 @ Noisy Studio

What a day. What a fucking day. Haha! So exhausted and overwhelmed and relaxed all at once after spending the day traveling around KL, gig-hopping and trying to meet ten different people at the same time. 15th of March was probably a date everybody was looking forward to since last month, a date which one would say "I can't wait til 15th" and others would nod in agreement.

After wasting an hour waiting around at home, knowing I should've just stuck to meeting Arul at 12pm and not 11am, I arrived at Bukit Bintang and met up with the boyfie at Pavilion where I exchanged a book at The Times Bookshop (stupid enough of me to buy a book I already had -_-). I got refunds! WHOO!

Went to have a McD lunch - typical - and headed to MCPA with McShaker Fries, to the delight of Aifa, who munched on them the moment we sat ourselves down at the mamak outside MCPA Hall.

Yes, MCPA Hall - once again. Monorails and car parks were once again full as everybody snailed their way to the multi-purpose MCPA Hall, infamous for its endless line-up of gigs. This time, the hype was Indie Goodness, a gig organized by SoundMachine STAGE, and with the flyers and tickets being advertised over and over months before (nonstop bugging from Aifa!) there’s no doubt the crowd would soon overflow the suffocating hall on the second floor of the old building in Maharajalela. LOL it's actually pretty ironic to have a gig in a Chinese Assembly Hall - for the majority who attend are Malays. Seriously, the look on this old Chinese couple's face when they saw all the giggers crowding around the place could easily have passed as heart attack. Psht. Let's hope the next generation is wiped out of all the discriminations and racial tensions, ey?

So, the gig finally kickstarted at around 2pm, officially (and typically) an hour late and first up was Batubintang, whom everybody relied on to kick off with a blast of energy surging through the halls – which they did! Familiar and crowd-pleasing tunes were performed and got everybody pogoing and jumping in a matter of minutes. Great work guys. Tight, solid performance – we can’t say much on the technical side (we all know the limits of MCPA instruments’ qualities).

Up next? The much anticipated Selamat Pagi Gadis, a band that needed no introducing. The vocalist, Tatyana, was known to every pair of eyes in the room – especially the horny Malaysian guys (damn sangap asses), who probably love her looks (and body) more than her voice. It’s a pity though, because the big voice that protruded from such a small body is worth much more appreciation than ‘how hot she was’. It was quite a concern when I depicted some inappropriate words shouted at her - like, "Bogel je, ah!"... What the fuck? Sexual harassment-much! Aside from that, SPG performed 4 funky, upbeat songs, including the favourite “Panahan Electro” that whirled the crowd into a crazy finish of their set. So far so good.

For the next two bands, I missed about half of each of their sets, coming back in time for the beginning and ends, for this was when Haziq and all arrived, and we went to chill at the mamak - again. It was funny because I went to sit with Caer, Ken, Arul, Aifa, etc etc and suddenly we heard a large scraping of tables and turned to see Chaom, Kodyb, Azam, Atin, Ayen all shifting their table to join with ours HAHAHA. That was such a hilarious sight.

The next in line was a band that had just released their new EP; Wasted Room. With mellow tunes, their performance was not the typical upbeat you’d find in MCPA, but they managed to calm the kids down for another round of moshing that loomed over from Manis’s side. It took people a while to know who actually was on stage – I erratically heard someone say “Apa ‘room’, Mushroom... tak sure la.” LOL. I found that funny, sorry guys, but I have a sort of reason to like any dissing that goes towards this band... particularly one of the members. -_-

But hey, no hard feelings; just make sure you speak clearer next time you introduce the band name.

*PFFT*

Manis. A misleading name; sweet sounding, but electrifyingly spicy! The duo vocals and enthusiastic band members really kicked the day off of everybody’s feet as the crowd jerkily moved and moshed to the energetic grooves by this fresh band, who had also recently released their new EP (this brings me back to MIIM Carnival at Titiwangsa where they sold free cupcakes and other sweet delicacies along with their EP). All in all, a yummy band, and was definitely the Red Bull into the stomach of MCPA.

Romancesa – an up and rising band - was greeted enthusiastically by fans, repeatedly thanking everybody who had been supporting them through Myspace comments and attending their shows. For someone who did not know them, listening to the mic handler, Acap, give this speech might have us believe that they are some real good shit, but when they plunged into the first song, it was actually a little less than was expected. The first song was just an ‘alright’ attempt and the energy all started to creep up slowly only as Romancesa hit the third song or so. Though they were well accepted and heartily welcomed by the warm crowd us KLettes are, Romancesa was pretty much a slow set, that never really hit the high peak this long anticipated-for event should’ve had. And I wasn't really paying much attention by then because I realized I had to now rush to Noisy Studio, Ampang for the Dancepunk Party 2009 gig!

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Organized by my close buddy Jarrod, this gig was much more underground and raw. Held in the green, alienic neon-lit studio near the LRT station, I thought I was already two hours late when I arrived, only to realize the gig hadn't even started at all! HAHA. Typical of Jarrod.

The only thing different this time was that I would be performing that night as well. Silly Mus had some job appointment thing therefore I had to replace him for the day as Enrai's drummer... My muscles still ACHE LIKE SHIT right now. Hahaha

Ija: This is why JocMod(Mus) is JocMod *mocks muscular arms*

Some really great highlights of the night was defiiinitely Daily Metro (now called Chaos Beat, though I personally prefer Daily Metro) and their song Black Diamonds. GWARRR! Was dancing all the wayyyy with Ayen and Jarrod and Ija haha! They performed about 4-5 songs, can't remember much now. They had everybody standing up and grooving to their mind-churning tunes. For a moment, I really thought I was going a bit high with their music.

Also, The Voks were a pretty kickass number too! Loved the whole Joy Division vocals and music kind of thing. Whoo!

Other bands that made the show as awesome as it was were The Fridays and Round Robin. Round Robin being the last act really had everybody headbanging and singing along to their songs - similarly with The Fridays, who seemed to have their small bunch of groupies rocking out to their songs with enthusiasm. Their song on 'safe sex' caught people's attention, though I wished the sound system was a little more efficient so I could actually make out what he was singing. xD

Enrai. Oh what can I say, they were superb. HAHA perasan. Nah, we were good, I felt it was a solid performance; I made some mistakes with the drum beats but the guitars, the vox and the bassline were all pretty spot on! Funniest bit was when we just finished performing Realiti Fantasi and Ija goes "That was our first song" and my mind turned spasmic for a while because I thought it was just a frigging sound check! HAHA! Geez.

And San! You wanted me to hit the drumsticks, but when I do, you didn't even respond to it! Cheh! xD

Had to accompany my cousin, Yunhong to meet his mom as she came to pick him up after our performance, and hahaha his look was so hilarious it was so difficult for me to keep a straight face. Obviously the idea of him having his mom there was not exactly what he imagined in his mind.

The place is cool, a little dinghy and creepy - and my eyes hurt when I saw colours after spending hours flooded with green light! - and though the sound system reallllyyy sucked balls, I feel it was all in all a cool place to hangout with friends. With a mamak beside it, it was like a more hidden and less known MCPA.

The train ride home was hilarious, with Ija, Jarrod, ShuLing, Haziq and Arul. Oh yeah and Azam, who was really, oddly, strangely quiet the whole day. Arul freaked me out by playing a video - which I KNEW was going to be scary - and I almost screamed out loud on the LRT! GRR. xD HAHAH HAZIQ! Your message really cracked me up. "Look at that emo behind me" HAHA. Asshole. xD

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Gig-hopping is fun when Celine is with friends :)