KL GIGS

It's all about smoke & sweat.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Gundu Talent Night @ Gloria Jeans, Sunway Pyramid & Doppelganger Open Mic @ Palms Grill, Skypark Airport

24th April 2010: Gundu Talent Night @ Gloria Jeans, Sunway Pyramid

Moe and I arrived damn early to Sunway Pyramid to avoid the traffic jam and parking issues. Met up with Ruzi, his brother, who in my opinion, looked almost similar to Moe and chilled at a mamak waiting for Haziq to come. Headed to Gloria Jeans at around 8pm to catch the first band inclusive of an awesome lead vocalist, Farah, who lent us her guitar later on in the night and didn't mind when Moe broke a string. HAHA. You rawk.


The first band was absolutely chilled, with nice lyrics and nice tunes, some quite country sounding. I enjoyed the one song called "She's Like Daggers", I remember getting goosebumps at some of the words. Nice stuff.


Then my band members, Aron, Nik and Gas arrived before Orkeska, who are a ska band (which I will be catching in Skafest!). I was entertained by these guys for more than just their performance, which obviously was toned down due to the equipments provided. When they sang "Monkeyman", I was laughing at the little boys who were climbing around and under their father's chair, and couldn't help smiling at the skinhead supporters of Orkeska enjoying away at the back. :) Nice stuff.


A few other bands like The Woo Hoo went on stage to perform too, and we were placed last set of the night. Freaking out because we had to spontaneously pull a last minute acoustic set, we just went on stage and slowed all our songs down. Ended up pretty alright with more positive then negative feedback. I still laugh when I think about how DANGDUT 'Insomnia' sounded because Gas tweaked the drums. HAHA. Cheers everyone for the support :)

I apologize for no pictures of our set, for Haziq is taking his time editing the pictures -_- NGUH! However, we do have one which Lufti kindly tagged us on. Yay.


Spent most of our time there fooling around and catching up with each other. T'was a nicely chilled out session. OH and I met Biggie a.k.a Big Show at Sunway! LOL! I had no idea he worked here. HAHAHAHA. Agak terkejut. Haha shank you for watching us, Biggayyy :)


Then headed to Hartamas and chilled with Ezzart and his friends before catching Ezzart jam at Black Widow, with conversations of mints, food and girly hair.




May not have been a perfect day, but Celine enjoyed it nonetheless.

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25th April 2010: Doppelganger Open Mic @ Palms Grill, Skypark Airport

Moe the dayrider.

A simple day, not much to talk about. Headed to Subang Airport where I met up with Azza and Gas, followed later on by Azam, who was our photographer for the night, but like Haziq, is taking AGES WITH THE PICTURES, therefore we also do not have pictures for this show yet. GRRR.


Laughed as Azza totally kicked her boyfriend's ass at playing pool, and was surprised to see Kenet UxF and Pali at the venue too. They were there for Cynosure (who are awesome). Just had fun chilling, listening to Izzy Mohamed play a lovely acoustic set as Beatburns set up their instruments to play.


Our set was a short one, which we tried our best to keep sweet and soft; even Jasmine could sense we were restraining a lot from sounding as loud as we usually are. She's a cool lady, I like her. :) We played 3 songs, less Dangdut-ey this time round, and just had our fun on the teensy stage. Saw a long lost friend, John outside the area, with his band, Handle With Care, who were performing too.

Next up was Cynosure who never, ever fail to impress me with their songs like "Mimpi" and "Infunktuation". Nguh. Love them. And they were also nice enough to lend us their equipments when we realized a guitar amp was missing haha! I am always awed by their harmonies and the melodies. Gah. Nice show guys. :) Headed out to plummet Scott in the head for arriving late. Standard la, kot? xD


Chilled outside, laughed around, took pictures, and headed off to SS2 to have dinner with Ezzart, and Iddin and gang. Nice night. :)



Celine is proud to be part of Beatburns.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Caliban LIVE in KL @ One Cafe, KL


For the first time ever, I went to a gig without having to wait over two hours for it to begin. Left my house at around 2.30pm, and joined the guys (Rath, Gjie, Jijol, Alip, Faez, Bob, Moshi, etc) at One Cafe. Chilled around for a bit and dissed the policemen that hogged the back of the place for their lunch. The looks they were giving everyone. Pffffft.


Lined up to go inside, when Alip and Moshi finally revealed that they were lying about not going in (assholes haha!), and made conversation with the French band Nine Eleven, who Pali and Kenet told I could speak French. LOL. Went inside and checked out the merchandise, hid my bag in the usual spot, before grabbing a picture with Nine Eleven and heading to the front of the stage with the guys to prepare for Daarchlea.


Daarchlea: exciting, vigorous and heavyheavyheavy in your eardrums. Macam biasa ah.. :) A typical furious and fast-paced set by them that always leaves you aching but is never really enough. Standing right in the front and not missing one bit of the fun except when I was taking pictures, Daarchlea really played a set that was tight and solid, no doubt. Woohoo so much easier to headbang now with short hair... Light and easyyyy. :P Really, Daarchlea is becoming one of the KL favs.


Almost immediately after, Nine Eleven took onto the stage, the first international act of the day. Isn't it weird that the band names sound so.... controversial? (Caliban, replace the 'C' with a 'T'... 9/11.... HAHAHAHA) Bodoh ah. Saje je nak sound smart. Anyway, the energetic band as dynamic as Coca Cola gas with Mentos took onto the stage and plunged through a very liberal and vast set of the vocalist jumping around and roaring into the crowd.


The crowd actually did turn out to ALMOST be the craziest crowd I had seen in One Cafe so far, we even had a guy almost air-walking through the crowds during Nine Eleven's set. The raw and naked sound of Nine Eleven left your body pounding and heart raging for more.


Needed a breather from the chokingly hot and stuffy room One Cafe quickly became - including an annoying flooding caused by a dripping air-conditioning. GOSH. Had no choice but to tell the workers to turn the A/C off because it was way too dangerous for the crowd to mosh around the the slippery floor. Went out of the area into the open air thinking it was time for Mouthfull of Air, but almost just, almost, missed Restraint's performance. Rushing in when I heard the familiar sounds of Restraint, I was shaking with glee to find I had no missed their performance, thanks fcking god.


Always powerful and never letting the energy fade from when it was previously heightened, Restraint is always ready to project what a 'hardcore celebration' (as Ijam puts it) should really be like. From start until end, I could not stop moving or singing along, to favourites like "Pure from Blood" and "Until The End". God. Love them, sumpah. I was glad when they played a new tune, which sounded awesome, by the way, and cannot wait until their next show.


Restraint made us sweat like a waterfall, and we were obliged to go outside again, and we entertained ourselves by making sweat patches around the monorail pillars with our shirts lol! Couldn't resist but to invite Ruiner to take a picture with us by the bikes (saje je nak jadi rempit) and had our load of fun posing around the bike. I liked Ruiner for taking pictures with silly faces. Haha :)


Went back in when it started raining and entered the venue to Mouthfull of Air performing, but didn't really move much to the band. Okay, fair enough, I didn't move at all, suddenly exhausted like shit, and sitting with my back leaning against the One Cafe bar, next to Alip and Moshi, who was busy complaining away about his broken zip. LOL. Paralyzed man.


After a long enough rest, Ezzart arrived and all of us dragged ourselves back to our typical spot near the stage to await Ruiner's presence on stage. All the way from U.S, they were pretty fucking good, with, like Moshi said, a little bit of Underoath-like sounds, and influences from many other bands. At first I agreed I wouldn't move much to them, wanting to have my rest for Caliban, but... resistance in low when you're in gigs and next thing you know, you're fucking moshing your way through the crowd. Only thing I regretted was not joining in on the Wall of Deaths... Should've practised for L.O.G - shit. -_-


Ruiner's vocalist was pretty comical, talking constantly about himself being sick and maybe throwing up on the audience. That would be pretty rad, but hey... don't pull an Ozzy on us. XD


Homegrown otais, Cassandra, was up next, and despite the few technical problems, they pulled off an expected performance of talent and pure hardcore soulllll, sister. :P Haha. Forever maintaining their reputation as still one of the best in KL (hence the reason why they played on this day), they were not disappointing and definitely a real pleasure to watch. So far, to all those who had missed this show... terlepas sialllll!


And then, there it is, the time for Caliban to take the stage and the place goes mental as everyone started chanting for the guys who had blasted the roof off MCPA Hall last year. Told to move further back, the crowd shifted for lights to be attached at the front of the stage for a "prettier" effect. Which my camera actually caught in one of my pictures. Managed to do those silhouette-y camera tricks, completely by accident HAHA.


Caliban. It was clear KL did not get sick of this band, and were hungry, yearning for more. I personally felt they could've.. SHOULD'VE.. played a longer set considering the amount of albums they have and the number of times they can actually play here in Malaysia. They played favourites like 'Forsaken Horizons' and 'I Will Never Let You Down', both from former albums and brought out the best from the crowds. The vox recorded a video of our Wall of Death, and from where I stood, it looked pretty awesome :)


Best moment of my choice? Definitely during their last song, I think it was 'No One is Safe' or 'Liar'... I was in the middle of a breakdown, got pushed aside, looked up to the stage and saw Moshi climb up to the top of the speakers and amps and fucking FRONT FLIPPED into the crowds. I was absolutely stunned. And went Big Show stage-dived? HHAHAHA! :P God. But Moshi's move definitely made it almost Hellfest material man... Good one mate. Pity I couldn't snap a picture.


Overall, the show was explosive, with Caliban polishing off the show as considerably one of the best held at One Cafe so far, out of the many that have been attended and scrutinized by me. Haha. Had some picture taking and all that sort of stuff, before chilling with all the friends (Sumpah, Kadok......... LOL) and finally leaving with Ezzart as he sent me home.




Celine would keep the day on replay.