June 2005 Archives

Will be snipping off my locks this weekend and exchanging my 'rock outfit' for a set of Civil Defense uniform...all for a 4-day training course :(

Please don't come for our subsequent gigs until I grow my hair back, yah?

(pics will come when they're available)

The weekend passed really quickly. I remember having my Friday off and suddenly, it's Monday again and back at work.

I'd attribute it to the good times I had over the last few days. Hopped down to the Rock On Singapore gig at Orchard Green with emi on Friday evening to 'recce' the stage area and to check out the crowd. Then Seto reached the area after a few bands performed...followed by chOO. Knocked into a few other friends as well. It put a smile on my face to see caucasians dancing and grooving to the chinese music played by CPJ :)

Saturday was our big day as my band, LGF, was one of the bands playing in the second day of the Rock On Singapore, sharing the stage with the big boys and gals like The Observatory, Ugly in the morning, Throb, Electrico, Ronin, etc.

Started the day in early afternoon. The tone of communication used on us during soundcheck wasn't really encouraging. Though we may be amateurs in this circuit, we'd never want to screw things up and make things difficult for others. But we'd definitely be more appreciative if a nicer tone is used instead of sudden outbursts of frustrated mumblings. Perhaps it was some miscommunication. Nevertheless, the dampening mood magically faded away as our set grew nearer.

The gig kicked off with The Observatory and it was pure joy witnessing the veterans play. They're self indulging, but in a meticulous manner...Pedals everywhere...wonderful, weird electronic gadgets too. I likened their songs to soundtracks on Dolby 5 surround sound *lol*

Throb played next and they equally amazed me. Some of the members of The Observatory played for the band too. These are the people with years of experienced and solid foundation...and it showed.

Next up was the funk-rock experts, Ugly in the morning, who played ultra catchy riffs and grooves in their songs. Can't forget their kick-ass opening with a rendition a Sesame Street song.

By that time, we got pretty psyched up after watching the bands...and came our turn. No doubt on the amount of pressure piling on us but we had to shake it off and focus on our parts instead of letting it distract us. And so, we played to a crowd we couldn't see (due to the moving lights shining on us) *lol* It was quite a surreal feeling when you know there's a huge audience down there, yet you can't see them...so, you're left with the freedom to be self-indulgent and not care about anything else. Those were the times I could only remember staring into the canvas ceiling bathed by the coloured lighting.

Of course there were times we almost came crashing down. It happened when I skipped across the stage and accidentally tripped my bassist's cable. No booming bass for a good 10 secs I guess *lol* Despite the 'chaos', I kept on playing, knowing that SOCP would have no problem taking care of that glitch...heh. Thumbs up for him for not dissing me.

After 7 songs and buckets of sweat, we ended our set and handed the stage over to Electrico which the audiences endearingly waited for :)

Perhaps if I were in a band playing english songs, they'd be what I wanna do...in terms of direction. Their incorporation of influences are what my heart would be after. Needless to say, the audiences were so familiar with them that it didn't take long for them to display their enthusiasm.

Another much anticipated band that the audience was eagerly waiting was Ronin. The moment they got up stage, the tried-and-tested formula of catchy lyrics, rock passages, cool-looking members and a wild and prominent frontman reacted so violently well with the crowd. I was much awe-struck by how passionate Singaporean audience could get. I was like, whoa...these people are actually crazy over our own local talents! It felt pretty assuring during those moments.

Then an interesting group of artistes who called themselves, Fireflys, lit up the stage (almost literally *lol*) with their uncanny acrobatic-fire-welding skills. Boy, their acts ranged from hypnotic to scary (kinda reminds me of zombies and the Ring) to simply breathtaking as they manipulated pendulums/sticks of fire with dexterous grace and precision.

I guess I was at my most 'distracted' state during Tiet's performance as I was strolling around and catching up with friends, etc. Wasn't really paying much attention. Was it me or is everyone's act becoming more progressive? The keyboards used, the buildup of mood in the bits and pieces of songs I caught, all pointed to that direction. At that point, I remember telling someone...can't remember who...'whoa...every band there has got their own fans!'

Finally, B-Quartet closed the event. It had to be them. The energy they gave was like a supernova of sorts. Their interesting setup intrigued me. The guitarist utilized a laptop which had pre-recorded beats/sound effects (I think). Their stuff are amazing...unpredictable, and even funny! One song had some funny swing parts morphed into it and another simplified song had the drummer prancing around playing bass..hahah! But goofing aside, their sound was damn robust. The tightness and musical acrobat showcased by each of them convinced me they're a prodigy of their own. The guitarists played equally with emotions and techniques while the bassist/vocalist is already a phenomenon, fusing vocal prowess AND fantastic bass-playing at the same time...the keyboard man was tasteful in his parts and the super-explosive drummer nailed all the fills with both precision and power. Nuff said.

As always, gigs are not just about performing and conveying messages or expressiing ourselves. It's always the full whole experience that made me wanna keep doing it for as long as I can. One of them is about meeting people and making friends. Daniel (of Electrico) spoke the first few magic words* and we clicked as if we knew each other. I got the pleasure to chat with him for a while, touching on music, gear, etc and SOCP managed to find his own share of conversation with their bassist, Desmond *lol* A friendly bunch, I must say.

Got to know a couple more strangers who gave us supportive words and friendly handshakes. Despite not having the commanding power of the big boys and gals, we readily appreciate every single friend and stranger who'd give us a chance to present our music to them. Even though we know there'd be people out there who has biased views on either genre, skills, or just not being open-minded about things, we can only be resilient...and hopefully see a change in things.

Digressing a bit, it's little sad to say that I'm not really satisfied with my playing for this gig. Could've played cleaner notes, better timing/locking with the rhythm, and better pedals management. Yup, gigs provide learning experiences too.

As always, special thanks goes out to (I know, I know...it's the long list I always repeat here *lol*):

First and foremost, Anthony (of the Heartrock fame) and the rest of the organisers (check the website if you're curious), the soundcrew, the helpers, Alfe, Jun, the friendly crew of Podeejay (for filming us), friends who came down and sat throughout our performance...hahha...you know who you are, and all the bands who played for both days. It's indeed a pleasure knowing some of you out there...as well as an inspiration :)

P.s *I think it went along the lines like 'cool guitar' or something...hahha

P.p.s The only common thing the gig had with Woodstock was that my there were mud all over my guitar bag and parts of my guitar after the gig...

Ladies and gentlemen...I'm damn pleased and honoured to announce that LGF will be taking part in one of our biggest gig so far, Rock On Singapore, alongside the big boys and gals in the local scene :)

Get ready Singapore...brace yourself for one of the biggest rock/music fest this Friday and Saturday (17th and 18th June)!! That's right guys, this 2-day event at the Orchard Green (opp. Borders) will showcase the hottest local bands and talents like The Observatory, Electrico, Ronin, Ugly in the Morning, Bhumiband, etc...definitely not to be missed! Our slot is 8.00pm - 8.40pm on the 18th June (Saturday), but do check out the other bands as well :) For more information, you can go to the website above. Admission for both shows is free.

This gig is all I think about these days...hahah...can't help but feel the collision of all the mixed feelings like excitement, anticipation, a whinny bit of nervousness, etc... And to those I've spammed through email, friendster, msn, etc...I do hope you can pardon me if it irritated you *lol* It's not often we can get to perform on such big scale, yah? Heh. And if you do happen to drop by to watch, please say hi to us if you're able to spot us, yah? :)

P.s Thanks to all those who helped us promote the event through word of mouth or displaying the ad in your webspaces. Heartfelt appreciation to you :)

I have the habit of slowly savouring the memories/thoughts of events in my mind before I begin to mark them down in words...often losing the essence of it by the time I scribe them.

Yesterday, my colleagues pulled a fast one on me and before I knew it, they came to my cubicle singing a birthday song with a plate of candle-lit chocolate balls (or whatever you call that) Ah, it's been years since I've heard a birthday song and seeing lit candles for my birthday. Nice touch from them, even though it's pretty belated *lol*

I've yet written my thoughts for Saturday's D'J party gig. So here they are (careful, I'm longwinded):

The D'J party can be said to be a familiar and nostalgic event for my band, LGF, as we've taken part in it for the past few years. Perhaps even more so for me, since the first gig of my life took place in a similar setting ages ago.

This year, I think it had the record number of bands performing...11 I think. The day started with soundcheck at 11.30am and I was pretty glad to see the good o' Roland Jazz Chorus guitar amps on the stage (strangely, there's a slight preference to this amp than Marshall Stacks cos the Marshalls didn't manage to bring out my guitar's tone somehow).

After clearing up the uncertainty of the equipment (which is one of my concerns during gigs), we headed out to Cineleisure where we grabbed some food. This time round, I've decided take the opportunity to try something different with my dressing and took the 'punk-rock-goth-whatever' look (after seeing My Chemical Romance *lol*) since I wouldn't be that out of place with the cosplayers and other dressed-up bands around...heh. So, emi decided to help me with the makeup and we scouted for a secluded area, only to find the handicap washroom an ideal place (with apologies to the people it's meant for ^^) It was funny as we were like, trying not to make too much noise and all, and acting like we were up to no good, etc...hahah. so, minutes later, I emerged as a 'guy with serious panda eyes' (as one of the anonymous person comment)

Thinking back, it's kinda 'Green Day', as some others pointed out...oh well.

It was quite a sight to move around the vicinity seeing people dressed in various-themed costumes/clothes...It was like Halloween or something...kinda cool actually. Yeah I know it's cosplay, but I'm thinking along the lines of seeing a colourful, vibrant culture on the boring streets of Singapore :)

Onto the bands!

Frankly, even though I recognise a handful of the band members in the various bands, I'm at most, a mere acquaintance with them, thus, I'm not able to give specifics to their performance, but rather, I'm writing my personal take on them...besides, I don't really listen to much jrock these days, so pardon my lack of details

The gig kicked off with a female fronted band, Trysts (not sure about the name) which played some Pierrot cover songs (which I found out). Not sure about how the originals sound, but I was pretty pleased with their rendition...kinda punkish in a way...though they could use more showmanship and energy :) They're quite tight however.

Quavis, the Glay-influenced band was up next and played some more familiar Glay tunes. Quite amazed that they actually use the Glay/Hisashi-signature guitar and bass! They had quite a full setup like us, with a keyboardist...not bad sounding.

LGF went up after them. Seemed like the crowd hadn't built up yet, but it was not unexpected. The early slot, coupled with our relatively 'unknown' song list meant that not many people will appreciate our stuff readily. Anyway, we kickstarted the set with a little snippet of a song featured in Beck (the anime) and linked into 'Smash', our original. But the end of this song, I was already 3/4 wasted due to my running around *lol* 'Tsumi to batsu (Shiina Ringo)' was next and it got a little embaressing when I forgot to turn up the volume knob, thus ruining a little of the impactful entry of the song ^^

(click to enlarge)

'Hourglass' was quite alright but 'Memory Game' was too fast! Boy, I bet everyone panted after that song *lol* 'Wo Men Chu Fa' got on pretty well and the last song, Keikoku (Shiina Ringo) was fun, despite all of us being physically drained by the song. All in all, we did quite alright but there's always room for improvement. Oh, forgot to mention about this weird Indian 'guru' man who sprinkled flower petals onto the stage floor just before we start our set...came up to give emi a pot of flowers, and threw more flower petals at emi! *lol* I hope that means we're blessed with good karma now...heh... And not forgetting, the twins actually threw a froggie plush toy onto the stage as a gift for us! *Touched!*

Rise, the female dancing/singing trio went up after us. I can't judge/comment much since dancing is not my forte but they seemed pretty experienced in performing already :)

Qi Er Luo, aka Cherock took the stage with all original compositions. Our drummer, Mel is sessioning in that band and I'm quite amazed that those who played in multiple bands can really have the stamina to play another set. Rui (vocalist) managed to get the crowd to participate in yelling with them...which is quite a nice move...Their songs are slightly techincally inclined with change in timings and long intervals...definitely something of their own style.

By this halfway mark, slight exhaustion had creep in and I could hardly pay full attention to the subsequent bands, though there are things that I could remember about them:

Ecliptica - I like their rendition of Skid Row's '18 and life'...the vocalist is pretty good and can hit some high notes. The energy is there...and he can sing those jrock songs real well. Edmund's (not sure about the guitarist's name) guitar tone is good...

Elysium - Formerly known as 'Mayfair'. They played some MUCC stuff amongst the miscellaneous jrock songs...which is quite refreshing after listening to commonly played favourites like DEG, L'arc en Ciel songs, etc in such events. Tabe (vocalist) was as corny and entertaining as before *lol* and if I'm not wrong, drummer Vics played in Ecliptica in the earlier set...so, I'm quite impressed with his stamina as well...

Defuse - With the temp lineup of Alfe as drummer and Jun on bass, they continued their signature renditions of popular hits from Bon Jovi to Hoobastank and some blues stuff (sorry, can't remember everything they played). Guitarist Shern has a nice tone as well...he nailed it the right settings on his multi-effects and techniques I guess.

By this time, my senses were half functioning with the blasts of amplified sounds...so, my impression of the following bands are based purely on my distant and feeble recollection of images and sounds.

Marionette - Fronted by Ivan, the famous 'SG Kyo' (as what many of his fans coined), this band continued to heat up the crowd with their stage antics and showmanship. If I recalled correctly, guitarist Brian, told me before his set that it was his first time playing or something...and it's pretty good that he pulled off things nicely. I'm sure the experience would be awesome for him...hope he'd grow to love the stage :)

Eden of Rebirth - Oooh. Interesting band...Their stage getup of all black leather made them looked hardcore *lol* Very intense stuff they played there...X-Japan...not easy. I think I got most of the thumping sensation from their double-pedalling and 12-notes per bar bassnotes...much like those of the construction piledriver nearby *lol* They got the crowd going wild man...

Amethyst Le Craft - One of the few bands who played some original stuff I think, though I don't much impression of what they played (can't blame me...8 hrs of jrock can kill!)...all I could recall was it was one of the members' birthday and they dedicated a little stage time for him *lol*

Closing band - I can remember this one better. Since it was reaching the end of the event. The all-star band sounded good. Vocalist Zhiwei's ever powerful and charming voice never fail to impress. They played 3 Japanese songs (which all of it weren't familiar to me...so, sue me! Heh). I really like the ultra clean yet surreal tone of Alan (guitarist) on one of the songs where he plugged some Japanese-sounding appeggios. Wenjie (guitarist) played well too, though his bee-like buzzing distortion sounded a little weird...maybe he didn't get the setting right? It sounded quite obvious when he played alone but when the band came in, it was sorta lost in the mix. And I enjoyed Alfe's grooving behind the drumset...and his mouthing of the lyrics ;)

Whew! I've finally covered all the bands though most of the comments are quite general/vague and might not be an accurate portrayal of their abilities/direction/style...but like I mentioned, these are just my personal opinions.

Not sure about the others but I've learnt not to be dependant on the crowd/audience for motivation. Throughout the gigs we had, we've seen both appreciative audiences and the absence of them...and I realised that we can't depend on them solely to give us the morale boost since crowd has always been the concern for local gigs...so, I've learnt to enjoy the playing the gigs and grooving with the band members despite poor turnout.

Bands performance aside, this event felt a little like a gathering of sorts as I came across familiar faces. I'm really glad that it has sparked some lost 'friendship' while igniting new ones. Just like I was pretty surprised that Wenjie (whom I got to know only on that day!), recognised me from the *cough*Lune Saphir days and could even tell me the details of my very first gig around 3 or 4 years ago! Oh, there's also this Melissa whom she introduced herself to me and chatted with me occasionally *lol*

I met another fella (I think his name is Sebastian) whom I couldn't recognise until he called out to me and helped me recall that single jamming session we had years ago...

Of course, there were more...like Min (Toshi), a long-time cosplayer enthusiast-cum-blogger whom I've met several years ago as well...

...an another lovely Min, whom I've never got the chance to meet in real life despite chatting on msn and knowing her from Friendster. She got me so ackward when she shouted out my name while I was onstage and when she mouthed her name to me, I was sorta in a daze *lol* Thanks for coming down to support us! :)

I've got the chance to meet Agnes for the first time as well...tall lovely girl who plays bass in a newly formed melodic death metal band!

Not forgetting, Ariel, from the old days of Hello Singapore mailing list, who gave me a 'bearhug' upon seeing me *lol*

I think I've probably missed out on a few more people, but I'm happy to have knocked into them again. I wished I've brought along my camera to capture these moments, but alas, my tonnes of gear forbade that :(

I might as well as take this opportunity to thank some people who supported us all these while, as well as helped us in ways we couldn't have achieved ourselves:

Firstly, my band members, emi, SOCP, chOO, Seto, Mel. Friends..Gigi, Roger, Ming, Juanita, Anna, the Twins, Chunyi, Yeeling, the group from Hiro fanclub (sorry, always can't seem to recall your names ^^), the organisers and coordinators like Jun and Alfe, all the bands who gave us a rocking time, everyone we knew...and for those who we don't, thanks for checking us out :)

Damn...I think this entry's turned into some Oscar thank-you speech already >_< It's high time for eye candy...savour them:

Chun

Kinho aka SOCP

Mel

Seto

chOO

emi

Yikes! Come midnight and I'm 27!!

Someone quick give me the number to mail order brides or hook me up with your bachelorette galfrens :|

*derived from the song, "I want a boy for my birthday" by The Cookies

The upcoming event that gets me excited is LGF's performance at the D'J Party (Singapore Street Festival) this Saturday.

As usual, here's a shameless plug:

Date: 4th June (Saturday), 2.40pm - 3.15pm (LGF)
Venue: Youth Park

There are other bands playing as well, do check out the Singapore Street Festival site for more details.

One of the reasons for my excitment is that we're covering one of my favourite songs that I thought I'd never have the chance to play. Also, I'll probably get to do certain wacky stuff I guess. I'm not telling what yet *lol*

Even though I'm not expecting much attendance or whatsoever, every gig is a new avenue to express ourselves, so expect nothing less than 101% of effort from us :)

Please please please do say hi to us if you're there so that we'd know who those kind souls are. It's a good chance to catch up times with us if you've not seen us for a while ;) (applies to long lost friends of mine as well! *lol*)

*with a Darth Vader voice* YOU WILL BE THERE