From Heart to Crowd UNITY Gig @ MCPA Hall

Just like any other gig held at MCPA so far, the queue grew before the instruments were set up. From Heart to Crowd brought to us a triple mix of Metal, Screamo, Punk Rock unity. Hence the name being "UNITY". After a hot trip from home to KL Central to Maharajalela by monorail, I found myself sitting in the familiar mamak stall outside MCPA Hall with Moe and Nas P.O.H.

Headed in to the hall with the only two P.O.H members of the day and sat outside while they practiced. Bangga la Moe, dapat pegang guitar Nas! HAHA. Nas was evidently breaking into a sweat from the nerves; it was their first time ever putting on an acoustic show, and Plague of Happiness usually known to be a fun ska-punk band, one could not help but fret how changing ska-punk to acoustic might sound. Arul came down to meet us for a while - he was busy being part of the crew for the day - and Chaom arrived to MCPA as well. The group was growing.

It was a pity that I missed The Padangs, but my mood was not particular lifted enough to plunge myself into a heavycore gig yet. I headed in during the second performance (WHY PUT THE PADANGS FIRST, GEEZ) and met Kak Miela, friend and organizer of the gig. Also, I would like to say thanks to the guy who recognized me as KL.Mosher (a.k.a owner of these gig blogs). That's a first. :) Made me feel all warm inside. LOL.

Sat with Chaom, Moe and Arul for the first part of the gig, and checked out some T-shirts and CDs that were piled out on tables at the back of the hall, as usual. Headed to the front of the stage to check out some bands. I particularly enjoyed the third band, though I didn't quite catch their name. Gosh. Pathetic.

But this band was well equipped to become something good. Solid, and I mean solid drumming from the drummer, and there were snitches of Joe Green Day caught in the vocalist every now and then; maybe it was the mic, or maybe truly his voice. There was not a moment when I took my eyes off the drummer; even if I did, it was to look at Chaom, who had the same stunned expression as I did. Great, great job guys.

The rest of the bands went by in a tizz, I was mostly zooming in and out of the crowd, up and down the stairs, in and out of the hall. As I headed to the toilet in the middle of the performance before P.O.H's, I saw Jarrod walking into the hall. What a frikin' coincidence that was! Haha! Went to wash my hands and headed back to join him to head upstairs. Took him to where Arul, Moe and Chaom were all standing.

Next up. P.O.H!!! :) They played altogether 6 songs. Right? If I remember clearly. Five or six. But enough to send me dreamy. It was definitely a real honour to have been able to witness this actually, because I doubt there's going to be a POH Acoustic style in a very long time. Of course, I knew from the start that "Malam Ini" was going to work extremely well acoustic, which it did, and so did "Hasrat", Nas's song to his wife. :) He was always emphasizing on the apologies on boring the crowd with the acoustic set, but somehow he got the crowd hooked. Everybody was sitting about, or standing around, listening to the performance of just vocals, one guitar and one saxophone. I loved it.

After the performance, Moe complained again for the umpteenth time that he was hungry, so what to do? We headed back to the mamak, all 5 of us, and chilled around for close to an hour. It was fun. But Moe had to leave, sadly, to head to N9.

Went back to the hall and saw that the crowd was finally growing more. Moshi was on his way to MCPA, and I was amusing myself greatly with watching Jarrod fall asleep. Yes, indeed, he was falling asleep through a hardcore gig. Priceless.

Then the craziness started getting worse and Kids on the Move went up to the stage to perform. My gosh, I doubt I will ever get used to the "hardcore moshing"... ew, I can't even bring myself to say it. What they do is NOT moshing. If you want to know why, or argue against my point, tune in to my other blog (klmosher.blogspot.com) for a new post which I can hopefully get done by tomorrow regarding what mosh is all about. Hmph.

But frankly speaking, KOTM wowed me with their performance. It was obvious the majority of the guys were there for them, and I was absolutely thrilled to see the crowd participation and the way KOTM allowed everybody to just rampage the stage. It was cool. Great performance and stage presence.

But simply put; moshing isn't about synchronization, choreography and purposefully whacking and kicking other people, looking like you've got a cramp up your ass on on your shoulder. Moshing is freedom.

Moshi came after Kids on the Move while we sat down waiting for Dewata, the next band, from JB to set up their instruments. My mosh partner dah sampai. Haha. Dewata started playing and damn was I impressed. They were absolutely headbangable! And if the crowd was larger and I was in better health, I would've been moshing my bloody ass off. Moshi had me in the mood to start headbanging like crazy, and only when we started moshing did I tell him I had to pull out because I wasn't feeling well.

After Dewata, which pretty much was one of the best bands, we decided to end the gigging and headed downstairs. Said goodbye to Jarrod, Moshi and Chaom, who decided to leave, and went to chill with Arul by the fountain before he sent me home. All in all, one good show. A few more good hardcore bands would've boosted the crowd number though; say, Second Combat, Eleven and/or Restraint.

Celine wishes she can turn back time.