[you name it]

2 days ago we went to the usual to do the usual. It was pretty much the same and we were listening to the usual. Everything was just as usual, and there was a couple of other guys over there watching some Metal documentary. I placed my cellphone on top of the table in front of the tv, and then suddenly my cellphone alarm rang. Well, being an avid fan of Maximum The Hormone, I set my alarm ringtone to What's Up People?! and when it rang I quickly turned it off. There was one guy sitting right in front of my table and when I turned the alarm off, He looked at my cellphone, looked at me, and then looked at the phone again. And looked at me. Then he sprayed "Hey, your ringtone just now is Maximum the Hormone right?"

 

OH MY GOSH I THOUGHT THAT I WOULD BE THE ONLY PERSON IN NEGRI JIRAN WHO ACTUALLY LOVE MTH!!!!!!!

and he was like "yeah! I thought so too!" Then we went on about their new singles, and new PVs that he missed out. Oh that reminds me! I gotta post the link on his fb page *runs*

Aaand so we continued on about how epic their shows are but then he was pretty disappointed because Japanese crowds don't mosh. He also stated that he haven't been listening to them for quite a while and the last album that he listened to was Rokkinpo Goroshi, but surprisingly he is familiar with Buiikikaesu which came out afterwards. He likes Enter Shikari as well. Wah. I finally met another  MTH fan (do MTH actually have a name for their fans? Hmm.)!! It's so nice that when you talk to people with similar taste of music you can just ramble on without being stared at or simply ignored :P

Last night, we went there again but then too bad Earth couldn't make it. There were a bunch of guys watching G.I. Joe when we arrived, including the BLANC" voc guy. He said that Earth was pretty busy and they didn't get enough sleep so he said that Earth might be dead tired. So it SEEMS like we came in vain, so we headed out after gave the fellas some buh-byes. We were about to go down the stairs when voc guy came out and asked "Hey, who played the keyboard for your song?" then Tmg and Oxymoron pointed at me. Kinda awkward, so I just smiled. Then he mentioned that they will have a gig on july and kinda implied an invitation to play with them for that gig. When "JULY" came out from his mouth I knew I wouldn't be able to make it because I'll be at dog-eating place by then. So, I explained my situation to him. 

The expected expression from me should be "OWHHH MAAAAAYYYNNNN *bang head to the wall*" or "*kneel down to the ground and scream* WHHHHHYYYY?!?!" But then at that time, I didn't feel any disappointment/regret/emo or anything of that sort, but I was pretty happy. Even I find it strange. When he said "july" this came to mind "If it's not meant to be, then IT IS not meant to be. It's not for me."

Then inside the car Tmg said "we went there and the fella is not around. It's like we went there just for you to get the invitation and just to found out that you can't go. It's like in vain." I said "Means the gig is not for me. Just like me and -this other band- that asked me to play keyboard for them." If I agreed to join -that other band-, probably now I won't even know Tmg at all and I'll never be in the same band with Oxymoron hence nobody will call her 'Oxymoron' xD. The fact that i was invited already brought me to cloud 9 so let's just leave it at that :)

...No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him...--1 Corinthians 2:9

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"--Jeremiah 29:11

an ok ok trip after the thunderstorm ;)

Hey hey! there's still some time to kill before office hour ends so lemme tell ya what happened last night :)

Last nite me, Oxymoron, Tmg, Wei2 and Jlt (a guitarist btw..) went to Earth's to check out stuff. Again. :) I was the last one who entered the door that leads to the stairs and when one of my feet was inside, I kinda catched a glimpse of a bunch of guys on my left. Of course la got bunch of ppl since the mamak stall is on the left but I felt like I know one of them.. So I put on my reverse gear to get a good look. And guess what, BLANC" BASSIST!!!!!!!! He smiled, I smiled then I continued walking towards the stairs that lead to Earth's hood silently hysterical xD 

FINALLY we meet again *dancedance*. So I was hoping that I'll meet the rest of them upstairs. I bet Oxymoron will be ecstatic to see their drummer :P

So we entered the hood and met a bunch of guys--apparently Earth's other band called 'V' a couple more guys, plus voc guy from BLANC". So without further ado we got down to beesknees and during that time V was jamming in the other room so Earth invited us in afterwards. YAY:D Oh! And guess what, the BLANC" bassist guy apparently plays for V too!! YESH!!

So we sat on a sofa and enjoyed the little "private" concert for free! I got a nice spot *again* which is right in front of the bassist (Oxymoron got a nice spot as well which is around Earth's 10 o'clock :P) hahah and here's some of my observations:

Last time Earth said "Let the stick bounce by itself". That theory is proven. It sounded amazing. I saw it with my own eyes. So far, there's only 2 drummers that I've ever seen play like this live. First one was the drummer in my first band (in this country), and second one was Earth. My frickin goodness. I was able to see his movements and seemed like he did minimal movements but yet the sound was complex and when I focused on his hands I can see shadows cuz the strokes were fast and he made it looked sooo easy. Oh. They played metal stuff btw. His facial expression was neither serious or excited. It was more like a blur. Y'know, the expression when somebody just woke up, sit on one side of the bed and just being idle until that person is fully loaded, he had the exact expression--only with the whole body moving xD. I didn't really pay attention to the tempo or styles or anything because the Guitars kinda stole the limelight.

The two fellas on the guitar were AH MAY ZING. Well granted, they played typical metal style with lots of shreds but they both seem to blend especially during the parts where they need to harmonize. I liked it. I don't know which one is the lead guitar because in most of the songs they played both will share solos.. This fella with red flying V was epic. Not only his skill was MAD, but he played evil heavy and energetic metal songs with the facial expression sooooo peaceful and tranquil as if playing Enya's songs and reached enlightenment. Sometimes he looked at his fingers and had this little smile on his face as if watching his little daughters showing off their ballet skills. *even an image of Buddha with flying V on his lap came to mind* Both of them shredded a lot, and I could barely see their hands. I saw shadows. Too bad I forgot to charge my camera and I was too shy to take a pic with my phone >.<.. I'mma have to put a sticker over the flashlight.. 

Up next, the bassist. Hm.. Not much from him last night cuz he was playing metal. But it wasn't bad since I saw triplets and noticed his good fingering. One of the bass lines were pretty similar to Rolling1000toon's pre chorus (very fast double pedal+bass thingy) but then he used pick. Oh! I'm lovin that Hartke stack at Earth's :)

The vocalist has great voice! Very typical metal but still good. He had lack of expression as well. Even in high notes sometimes he closed his eyes. But many times seemed like he was just staring into the abyss xD

Oh. I got an i-don't-know-whether-this-is-really-important lesson. KEEP A SET OF ALLEN KEYS  WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES. During the jamming the drum pedal went loose and Earth didn't have one key with the right size so he felt uncomfortable while playing. Hmmm. Reminds me one time when we were practicing at church, the same thing happened hence Oxymoron was having a hard time. Thank goodness I had my bass with me and the keys were inside my bass' case that I could lend her one and fixed the problem. As a musician, you might not know that suddenly you might have an opportunity to jam and need to make some adjustments to the instruments. So, always keep a set in your pocket/wallet or maybe hang those together with your keys. Same goes to guitar picks. I've always keep some in my purse just in case me or my friend or anyone need it at that moment, and now I gotta put some allen keys to my purse :P

 

hey hey!

I had a pretty neat night! Well there's still some stuff not accomplished, but overall, it was a fruitful visit :)

Everybody was getting pretty cranky cuz maybe everybody's tired, and sleepy.

Last night we were doing some business when suddenly the vocalist of BLANC" step inside the room! I was so surprised! He shook hands with everyone and then he went to the back room to talk. And then there was this 2 ladies came inside. They were the ladies from a mamak stall next door. They came to look at what we were doing, and simply just talk. They both were friendly and have impeccable knowledge on Indonesian celebs LOL! We talked about some gigs and it was quite surprising that those 2 ladies know famous gigs in historical city!

After some talk with the ladies, they went off and then BLANC" guy came out but then he went off! Akh. Too bad. But then after a while, he came back! So me and Oxymoron talked to him. We got to know his name. He was like "I think I've seen you guys before.." and we reminded him that we actually took picture with him during the UG gig weeks ago. And then I asked him where are the other bandmates *cuz obviously i want to meet the bassist again so friggin badly* but then he said that some of them are working and the drummer is still studying. The drummer is his younger brother, but he is only their sessionist. The real member was only 3 of them. I got some info about the bassist as well :P Last time I only got to know his name and some other things, and now I got to know that he actually plays for other bands too as their sub or sessionist. I told him that last time I asked the bassist where did he get his Punk en Ciel bass but bass guy told me that it was a secret. Voc guy just laughed. Dang. I was hoping that he'd spill. I was too shy to ask either =.=

Then I asked them how come they play J-Rock since it's pretty rare to see senior bands playing J-rock. He said that at first they don't know about it but they had a friend that was so into Japanese stuff. From anime, drama, songs, etc. After they hang with him for quite a while, it started to get into them and they started feeling it. They thought that it was not bad so they decided to play J-rock style. They weren't purely J-rock and he also said that they have a particular task for each. One will be the arranger and others will do other stuff. He didn't specify. Man. I really do hope that I'll be able to watch BLANC" live again... I forgot to ask what are they doing these days. I'm so looking forward to their next artwork :)

The night still went on after he left but I think I'm just gonna end it here cuz I haven't done my 'homework' #$%^&*(*&^%$# dang.

Otomet Warrior Vol.2

hm. How to begin this one.. Umm..The past few days has been hectic. Well it's been like that since I started  my internship. Memorable moments happened almost everyday and I am really grateful :)

I just came back from another dora-the-explorer-esque adventure. We went to watch this show organized by Earth. It was at Muar, about 1 hour from our place. We were given a map but we lost it, so while me and the drummer--let's just call her 'Oxymoron' from now on hehhe (*i have my reason calling her that and she knows why) wait for 'Tmg' *let's call him that from now on* to come and pick us up from church :P, we borrowed a friend's iPhone to look for the map. We finally got it and had it written down. The direction was frickin 3 pages! But then in the end we didn't use it because Tmg used another route. When we arrived in that town, we stopped a lot of times to ask local people about the building where the event was held. And after being pwned by the roundabout a lot of times, we finally arrived. But then when we got there, Earth's band just finished their performance. Dang. We actually came to see him play.. We were almost bailed when we knew that but then in the end we chose to watch because there were 4 bands haven't play. We got 6 bucks rebate! Not bad :)  When we went to his place about 2 weeks ago, he gave us an invitation. Hence the rebate :p

Guess what, it was an UNDERGROUND event.\m/. When we went in, people gave the STARE. For a moment I felt like we don't belong. Hahah. Almost everybody wore black graphic tees, band tees, some with leather jacket and skinny jeans. Tmg wore PASTEL PINK shirt, and I wore red blouse with a GIGANTIC donald duck on it. Hence the stare. Well maybe. Oxymoron fitted in quite nicely since she wore gray tees hahah. Oh! We were also the only chinese *or in my case-- looks like chinese* there, and our faces are of those kind whose the possibility of being UG fan is highly unlikely Hahah.

This was my first experience to the underground scene! So I was frickin excited. True enough, when the song started, people started moshing. The overall mosh act was pretty noob BUT the moshers were very considerate and humane which I respect (e.g they picked up fellas who fell down and protect the head of those who stage-dived when they fell to the floor). This was a pretty clean gig. No drugs, people didn't spit, no alcohol, and no fights. People were cooperative as well because they obeyed those rules. People went outside to smoke although towards the end of the show there were 1 or 2 guys came in and smoke =.="

There were various genre--metal, punk, 80's rock, aaaaand... *drumrolls* J-ROCK!!! Each band played about 5-7 songs. Oh! There was this band called Second Combat, not bad, and the voc always started each song with a short 'sermon'. They spread good messages through their songs. There was stuff about respecting other music genres, respecting other races, unity, and stuff about themselves. They are pretty well known. The crowd seemed to be familiar with their original songs.

 

The 2nd band we watched were a punk band with really unique vocalist. The fella wore checked shirt tucked in to his high waisted short jeans, and a high top boots. The guy from Second Combat called him Justin Bieber *somebody actually shouted 'never say never'. The word 'Bieber' in an UG event without followed by swear words or insults? Unbelievable. Lol*. He was the most happening and brutal mosher. He joined the moshing crowd while singing. The fella didn't hold back. Where did he get all those stamina?! The band's name's The Giel. Punk-ish.

3rd one was Conflicity. Their guitarist was wicked awesome! He played with his teeth a lot of times! Mad skills. Can't really tell from his appearance. He seemed like an ordinary guy. Well he wore leather jacket but there were several other guys wearing that, so it  was a fiasco. Dang. Too bad I couldn't get near them for some close-ups because the moshing was brutal at that time. They played covers.

Last and the nicest out of the last 4-- BLANC". Earth introduced them on stage, and he said "this band is special. They are J-ROCK." So I was like, SAY WHAATT??!! I instantly marched to the front row even though it means that I have the possibility to go back home with black and blue all over. I didn't care. I looked back and there was Oxymoron joined me! Yay~ also the people stopped moshing coz their songs weren't mosh-friendly. Most of the crowd bailed. But then I could take lots of their pics and Oxymoron could take videos freely  :D. I got a friggin good spot-- right in front of the bassist!! *and the speaker =.=*

When the voc started singing.. Dang. Frickin J-rock! Y'know, all the vibrato followed by falsetto and stuff.. Hyde's style. He brought his 1 year old daughter to the event. Such an early exposure to the UG world! Lol~. The guitarist is left handed but skillful, the drummer wore leather jacket with faux fur collar. THE BASSIST HAS THE FRICKIN "PUNK EN CIEL" WRITTEN ON HIS BASS' HEAD! Oh dang right he must be a fan! Oh! Not to mention his playing style is VERRRRY J-Rock! Riffs-all-the-way yet complimenting-the-bass-drum kind of thing. Awesomeness! I've gained lots of knowledge from him tonight :D People's eyes were glued to his hands when he played.. All the songs they played were original. They were the tightest of all 4 and very enjoyable.

When they were finished, the voc gave away their EPs and I got one :D afterwards we talked to them. I put aside all the shyness in me, and with 15cm face thickness I braced myself to talk to the bassist. His name is Firdaus and when I asked where did he get that Punk En Ciel bass, he said "it's a secret." Dang. Then he asked me do I listen to L'arc and I said that I listen to Maximum The Hormone. They are actually from historical city as well. They were pretty old compared to us and it is really rare to see older people play J-rock.  I really hope that I can meet them again cuz I got a lot of questions i forgot to ask. Lol.

Oh! Earth gave us souvenirs and thank God we got home safe and sound :D

My hair smells funky tho.. *smells hair....*  Ugh +.+

*oh! I'll post pics later.