KL GIGS

It's all about smoke & sweat.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

ARA Fest KLIBR09 @ Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club

Love Ride Not War

Okay, let's go by day yeah, paling senang.

Day 1:

Rainy, grey, and empty. If you arrive at a gig late and realize there's still nobody, it's not good news. Perhaps it was due to the rain, but the failure to promote the festival to it's best potential was probbaly the reason for the lack of humans. Went with Haziq, and spent the day just sitting by the stands, ordering Pasta from BigBoys (seriously best doh) and Otai burgers....

Left to Shah Alam when the stage started playing extremely cringeworthy tunes (come on, they covered Matta's "Ketahuan"... WHO COVERS THAT!?). Haziq had to pick his dad up for a meeting, walked to his house and realized his dad was gone, so took a car and drove back to Ara, hoping we didn't miss Republic of Brickfields.



We didn't! Well... sort of. Went back in time to catch their last three songs, including the favourite 'Emansipasi'. By this time, there were actually a satisfactory amount of crowd, and as always, Republic pulled off a spectacularly chilled out performance that sent fans fantasizing their cigarettes as ganja.... Shhh...



Next up: Purevibracion.



It's amazing when you have reggae bands one after the other, and nothing beats putting both RoB and PV together. Playing songs like "Ms. Kinky" and "Love", they really got the crowd skanking to ultimate orgasm. Okay, that's an exaggeration. :P
All in all, despite the not-so-awesome start to the fest, the night ended with an upturn, except for the cancellation of Job 2 Do's performance.

Walked towards the car and were stopped by the trancing music from the buskers playing near the entrance. I've seen them in Bukit Bintang before, it was like a percussionist group. Played extremely awesome tunes, almost starting joget-ing to it. LOL.



Day 2:

Day 2, and it's Ara Fest with MOE! Waiting tanpa kesabaran for him to come with The Bum (more commonly known as a MyVi), which he JUST GOT!!! :D - we went early to Ara Fest and searched for Moe's dad to lepak with. Best gila, his advices. Anyway, walked back to the field where all the bikes were already parked, MORE than there were the day before and got some food to eat, while awaiting the start of the band performances. Awal2 pun dah dapat a call from Ein Second Combat saying he's lost, LOL. Walked around and looked at all the booths of all the bikers, and of course, oggling at the bikes. Sumpah sexy, the wheels, the engines, the handles. WAARGH.




Kolep made a surprise arrival with his friend, and we grabbed a drink just as the bands started to play. The first band up was a reggae band - continuation from the yesternight, perhaps - of whom I forgot the name... All I remember were the awesome tunes they played :)



Tapi. Tetiba, Tuhan nak berseronokkan situasi kot, nak bagi sikit hujan. Aduhhhh.

Rushed under the tents, couldn't meet Second Combat when they arrived because of the rain... yerr. But luckily, as Kolep predicted, the rain stopped soon and we headed to SxC's merchandise booth. Met Ein alone, tak tahu where the rest of the band was, stole a CD hehehe. No lah, courtesy of Ein. :)

Went back to check out the bands, and we were given the surprise of having The Times performing with us. After the reggae band, Bottlecap were introduced to us. All-girl band, rock n roll, and a typical cliche of having "I hate myself for loving you" as part of the set list. Next up was Second Combattttt. Whoooo. They had to cut out a lot of songs due to the small time span allowed, but despite the dead crowd, they still managed to play with enough energy and got some people singing along (bikers standing next to me were singing along LOL). I think a night slot for them would've benefitted a lot more, because the heavier sounds got louder and louder towards the night, featuring Silkhanaz and whatnot.

Bottlecap
Second Combat


The Times were next and as always, they played "Tunjuk Perasaan". The usual la for them, not much I can describe, this blog post kan isn't a copy-paste from my reviews I write for magazines so tak yah rajin sangat... :P HAHAHA.


Then followed by them, were some band called The Radius, covered songs from other groups, and we decided to walk back to SxC's booth singing along to Creedence Clearwater's Have You Ever Seen The Rain... haha.
Vocalist: "Lagu ni lagu hujan..."
Us: ....Huh???


Cheh... Moe left to go back to Selayang to do some recording for a band, and I chilled with Ein and watched the sky go dark. Had a nice conversation about SxC's tour in France, and their lifestyle... We got bored, decided to walk around and found his group of friends and band members, as Ohchentaku was performing. Lepak'd, chilled with Ein and got introduced to Pali (malu jugak, tak ingat nama dia time jumpa xD). Sat down, and watched Khottal come on. Sumpah best gila. From where I sat, I could see a group of bikers from KapChai watching the performance and totally enjoying it. Ala, bangga :) Singing along to the 'Woo Song' was fun, sang along and made Pali & Ein think I was probably retarded. xD



After Khottal was a band called Bau, tak best sangat, the vocalist tried to pull a Faizal Tahir by stripping to his jeans, showing off his body, and getting people like me going 'ergh'. LOL. No pictures, sorry, my battery was dying, had to save. After them was a break followed by a fashion show selling off Harley Davidson merchandise, followed by Silkhanaz. One of the otais in the oldschool metal scene in Malaysia, they rocked the tyre off bikes and got some crowds moving. Following up was Silent Scenery, possibly one of my favourite performances of the night. Like the vocalist had said, while Silkhanaz played music for the bikers to ride to, Silent Scenery played tunes for the bikers to rest to. Ambient, instrumental post-rock. What else do you think can make me love music more? :)

Silkhanaz

Following them was the arrival of Moe and a presentation for all the bikers to come on stage and receive their KLIBR09 participation certificate/logo thing... I dunno, probably something to stick on their bikes. After a loooooong monotonous shake of hands and muttering of thanks, the performances were back on.


Lan and the Typewriter. The comeback of Meet Uncle Hussain's ex-vocalist, a well loved voice amongst the local indie scene. Looking forward to this performance since this afternoon, I was not disappointed by the sounds I heard. With even more opportunities for him to show of his voice, Lan showed us new songs like "Lipstik Plastik Cosmetik". Good on you, man, I'm glad you've not been lost completely.


Then the time arrives, and the stage lights are dimmed, for the one and only... Search. Hell yeah, we were plunged into the atmosphere with an entre of a drum solo, followed by an instrumental from the guitarists when the lights came on. Topped with a beret, Amy Search wins the heart of the audience by acknowledging them with the trophy of the mic stand in his hands. Playing only 4 songs, they still managed to rock up the night to an awesome end, by giving us the two ultimate favs "Isabella" and "Fantasia Bulan Madu"... Kickass stuff yo... Oh not to mention the cute moments when his kids came running on stage. Haha.




Went to BB after this but left early because a few kids pissed me off. Ngeh.

Celine loves good endings.

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