WPFD @ CM: Day 1 – Post mortem

Image courtesy of Lainie

Post Mortem

I was late this morning. Got there at 8.30am but the equipment was just being unloaded. Setting up took a longer than anticipated and we could only start soundcheck at 11.30am.

Thanks to Nao, ASNA, Lurks, Fathullistiwa Soundscapes and Skyjuicecoffee for keeping their soundchecks short. The rest of the bands didn’t soundcheck.

Grape, kicked off at 12.30pm after a short speech by Sonia. 30 minutes behind schedule but we managed to catch up (thanks to the bands). By the time Carburetor Dung came on at 5pm, we were ahead of schedule, which gave Joe Kidd & Co. time for a longer set.

The gig ended at 5.45pm.

Foul-ups & Blunders

We did have some minor hiccups during the show. Overall the sound was good but:

• The right crash on the drumkit came off a few times (missing the lock which broke during soundcheck). Once during Skyjuicecoffee’s set and lots of times during Carburetor Dung’s set.
• The kick drum also kept shifting forward. My apologies to the drummers.
• We lost power once during Fathullistiwa’s set.

The crowd got a little rowdy during Carburetor Dung’s set and the Special Branch officers in attendance got a little itchy so we had to deploy security (me) to the front of the stage. I saw 2 people carrying crash helmets in that crowd but no injuries were reported. I didn’t want anything untoward happening because we still have one more day to go and I didn’t want the permits being cancelled on us.

Then again, rock music is not supposed to be safe, is it? It’s supposed to be controversial and world changing.

My Gig Review

The first band Grape kicked off the gig at 12.30pm. Very polished for a young band. Radio friendly rock, hints of funk and some jazzy progressions. Very incubus-y, safe for mainstream consumption.

Next up was ASNA, a 4 piece band (siblings). First thing that caught my eye were the vintage guitars, a Gibson Les Paul, a Fender Strat and a Tele (all from 70s). They dedicated their first song, “Smile”, to their grandad who had just passed away 3 days ago. Sweet. They played 2 originals and 1 cover (I’m with you – Avril Lavigne), so I hope we don’t get into trouble with MACP. Radio friendly rock.

Fathullistiwa Soundscapes came on next. This was my first time seeing them on stage. Wow. Fathul gets very worked up on stage eh? They played 3 songs from the Romantikarat CD.

Peter Brown and Markiza provided some (unintentional?) laughs with their antics during their set but it was good. Markiza touched on the black metal and “bangsa asing” issues and only after that asked me if the gig was being recorded.

..continue to conducts your experiments on kambing.

- Peter Brown, CIJMalaysia WPFD Gig.

Nao! Very weird timings. The timing for their songs sound very dillinger escape plan to me. Very very passionate on stage. Their frontman tat was quite vocal about their stand on state of press freedom in malaysia. Quite brave for mentioning the oil hike protests at KLCC on May 28th and the acts of police brutality that took place there. The first overtly political band on stage for the day.

Skyjuicecoffee came up next. Punk-emoish-y. Very energetic set. Lots of support from the crowd. MTV-consuming crowd would love them.

Lurks? ipod+drum machine+guitars = layan. I can’t think of an equivalent word in English.

Next, Farasu. Attracted a fair sized crowd at the front of the stage. Lots of black shirts with writing in fonts you can’t read. Hopefully no one from the MACP noticed their Iron Maiden cover. No goats in sight. I made them tie up their livestock behind the stage. Metal! Metal! Metal!

Mushbuttons. First time I’ve seen them with a second guitar. Did a mixed set of English and Malay originals. The Smashing Pumpkins influence shows.

Project Ei8ht was a pleasant suprise. A BC Rich Mockingbird? Guitar hero! Their material is quite good, blues-rock. The vocalist sounded a bit Vedderesque, but hey, if that’s your thing..

Image courtesy of Lainie

Last band for the day was Carburetor Dung. This was the band everyone was waiting for. Central Market born and bred, they were an apt choice to close Day 1. Joe even called Central Market their “spiritual home”.

First thing that caught my eye was the anti-ISA sticker on Joe’s guitar, then I saw the guitar that the sticker was attached to.

I. Want. A. Gibson. Les. Paul.

Image courtesy of Nizang

From the first song “Potong Nama”, Carburetor Dung didn’t let up. At one point, I thought Alak was going to moon the audience while singing “Mari Nyanyi Menjilat”. Good thing he didn’t, because later Sonia told me that DBKL were on the scene. They seemed disappointed that we had permits for the gig.

And yeah, it didn’t rain.

Anyway, good luck to the bands performing tomorrow. And thanks to all the bands who performed today.

More reviews with pictures on:
Joe Kidd’s Ricecooker
Lainie’s Artword Addict
Carburetor Dung @ Ricecooker
Kakiseni

More images on:
Cubicles-’s Fotopages
Rocket_Monkey aka Nizang’s Photobucket (Day 1 & 2)
Broken Scar’s Blog