Not My Cup of Tea: Beatburns/BeforeAfters EP Launching @ MAPKL Solaris Dutamas

So finally, after a month of preparation, we arrived at MAP with nervous hearts and eyebags from lack of sleep and fatigue from the days leading up to our EP Launching, split between Beforeafters and Beatburns.

Me, being the one arriving the latest - my mom refused to wake me up because I slept only at 6am - I had to rush in to help out with lighting with Nindy and led the guys settle the heavy loadings of the amps onto the stage.

Spent some time chilling and talking with friends, before the real work began.




It was an amazing touch as we sat for hours waiting for crowd to turn up when Xes Xes Loveseat and George Wielgus along with their poet-slamming friend came along and opened up a busking area for their vinyls. They were going to do a poetry busking. Epic. Rad. Anything goes with these guys. Really enjoyed myself watching them speak out their minds as the bands rolled in and out for soundcheck. Friends started coming around and we were busy preparing the last minute DIY cuttings for our EP as Hello Is This The Band prepared to open the show.



And I am proud to say HITTB made a good opening for the crowd. A good set by a talented young band, friends of ours, and we were glad we had them be part of our show. We were starting to panic because I had received calls of bands coming a bit later, and Moms on Strike were lost in Solaris, whilst Zip Zieller had met with an accident. But luck turned upwards as Moms on Strike entered the venue, and were immediately ushered up on stage after Hello's set. And sure enough, Mom's On Strike were a blast, probably one of my favourite sets of the night. Jasmine really knows how to manipulate her screams into her songs and the whole set was filled with a brilliant energy that brought in almost everybody who attended to stand and watch their performance. Loved it!







Was dashing in and out meeting people, sorting out bands, helping Nin with the lighting, getting water from Gas's car, making sure other bands were on the way, etc etc, and still managed to find time to sneak out for a smoke and spend some time chatting with my friends who had come to support us.




Next up was Pesawat, a band I greatly appreciate for being able to find time to perform for our show. And a good set it was indeed, with a lot of fans cheering for them, though I had to cut through their extremely long intro to state Jipi was having a toilet moment, HAHA. A good, steady set from them, got the crowd moving, including Nindy's father (her whole family had attended to watch her performance). Great stuff! And a happy birthday to their keyboardist, Danial! :)




Following swiftly was Zip Zieller, who had managed to arrive on time and requested to play only three songs - they were fatigued, poor them - but a show's a show, and they sure as hell pulled on a great one! Was tampering with the lighting board upstairs whilst bobbing my head and tapping my feet to their pure blues and rock n roll music. A great set, really proving the twist and blend of different genres we had for the audience that day. They then cleared the stage and made way for the first band of the day - Beforeafters! :)




Beforeafters: I couldn't stand staying in the lighting board the entire time, so I had to go down and join my clan of friends to support Nindy and sing along to all her songs (well roughly all!). All in all, it was a good set and probably one of their best shows I've seen so far aside from the one in Laundry. Rashid pulled a good job covering for Afiq's untimely and unfortunate absence and I had a great deal of fun watching them perform. Couldn't stay to catch Intimidation, sadly, because by then my mom had arrived and I had to go and fetch her from the carpark!






Introduced my mother to all my friends and then went in just in time for Stonebay's commencing of their set! A great acoustic set (they do had to do without Afiq) by the Stoners :) really, truly enjoyed their performance and their presence in our event, they've been supporting us a lot the few months since they found out about us, and we're really glad to have been able to share the stage with them for the second time!






Next up, Auburn. A band I rarely see live, but love their tunes and their lyrics. Izuan being a deep poet - like me, but much more dreamier - I respected their presence on stage and enjoyed their dark and vivid set. A good show, I was panicking because no one was at the lightbox whilst I was with my mother, meaning they had been playing one song in the dim lights. Didn't really matter though because their music was suiting :) Really happy they too were part of the show, and thank you so much Izuan for your kind words and ultimate support for us! :)




Then it was finally our turn. Honestly speaking, this was definitely one of our best shows ever played. We played a set of 7 songs (6 songs + 1 encore) and were blessed to have a quintet of strings to accompany during our slow number "Horizons". Had a lovely moment with Nindy as she came up to me and sang one line of the song. I am truly proud of Beatburns, we played a great show and we put all our remaining strength into the set. Literally. We were dead after. HAHA.








Then it was time to send my mom back to her car and then accompany Nindy to send Alice back home. This resulted into us missing Couple and Tilu's performances but thank god my friends caught Couple for me and snapped a few pictures! THANK YOU BOTH BANDS FOR BEING ABLE TO PLAY WITH US, we appreciate it with all our hearts.



When everyone left, we cleared out the place and dragged ourselved into our jampacked cars, drove around and did some last minute errands before finally sitting down for a meal and going back home and collapsing into bed. I couldn't sleep til later, but when I did sleep, it was a sleep black and dense. Too exhausted even for dreams! All in all, one heck of a show!


Celine felt overwhelmed by the support from everyone.

Big hugs to all involved: Aron, Moe, Gas, Nik, Nindy and Ezzart.
Bigger hugs to everybody who helped along the way and attended the event! :)