Bunaken Jazz Fest

heylou evribadeh!

I went to a "festival" on October 20th. *gee, why write now?!* right?

Been pretty busy working and stuff, thousands of records to be filled so I didn't really have time to write :(

Anyway, It wasn't really a "festival".. More like a 'show' because it doesn't have multiple stages for starters, the stage is small, and it had only 3 performers in which one of 'em is the guest performer. Not to mention it was dirt cheap!

For me, this so-called fest is historical. Told ma dad that I'll be home late, then I'm off. I look for the tickets on my own a couple of hours before it began, and then troll at the mall to kill time. This was the first time for me to attend a concert/show by myself. Normally I'd go with friends and we'd comment on the event while watching the performers, or make fun of them hahahh

But that day actually I felt pretty lonely. Heh. But nevermind. At least I get to experience how does it feel like to watch a concert solo :P

As I expected, the event began SUPER LATE. They said that the gate will be open at 5pm, but then when I asked the guy at the ticket booth, he said 8pm. I went there 7pm and I spotted a side door. So I went in.

Nobody stopped me from entering and they just stared at me. Then I got to see the guest performer doing soundcheck :) It was fun! I've learned some stuff, which is the continuation of the lesson from last time "trust the sound engineer".. In this case , I learned that the performer should be a little demanding. If the sound is still not good, then don't settle!!! Don't let the bad sound influence people's judgment towards your music. That's why it is important for the performer also to LISTEN to their own sound during the soundcheck. That time, Monita--the guest performer noticed that her mic was too 'reverb-y' so she asked the engineer to reduce the reverb level.. She also asked for one more round after they set the sound. When I was listening to them, I really wanted to go to the control table and then tell them what to increase and decrease.. Because at that time, they set it in such a way that she sounded like she was having a cold. Ugh.. I mean, why didn't the engineers do something about it?

I would recommend performers to have that wireless jack thingy... It would help when you can go off the stage and then stand at the audience's place to hear what kind of sound they might be listening to during the real show.

The opening bands were okayy. But each of their bassist and drummers were FREAKING AWESOME!!! I mean. Damn. So freaking solid. The bass lines were really irresistible and groovin'!! I've got to nail 'em ghost notes. The bassists used them a lot that time, and it sounded really good.

That guy with plaids put a small paper against his mouth and start blowing it. IT SOUNDED LIKE A MOTHERFRICKIN SAXOPHONE!!!!!!! Reaaaalllyy GOOD! Even better than the guy who played the actual saxophone that night! And that guy on the keys, He was really good as well. Reminds me of Dy. My jizzyjazzin' pal back at historical city. Dy would've kick his ass.

Howkay.

That night I've found a whole new respect toward jazz genre. I've never given it much thought or attention, because it isn't really my cup of tea, and I was too lazy to bother. :P

The main performer that night was Monita Tahalea, Indonesian Idol finalist a couple of years back. Back in the competition she was already given the label 'jazz singer' because of her vocal characteristic. Boy that was right. Because she's mainly doing jazz gigs now. Jazz is what suited her best.

Her performance was mind blowing. Damn. I never really liked any female singer, but this one is different. Monita became my favorite instantly right after she sang a few lines. I don't know whether it was because the music or the voice. But I'm pretty sure it was the voice. Difficult to describe. It was like smooth-accurate-breathless. I mean, I CAN'T HEAR HER BREATHE IN BETWEEN THE LINES!! Madness. It was soooooo smoothhh I can just lay there and sleep. I felt high. I didn't even realize that I was standing for a long time because my head was floating when she sang. Seriously. Like I was on crack. I forgot how many songs she sang, but every single one of them was.. damn.. Really intoxicating. I don't know whether all slow - midtempo jazz have the same effect. That night was verrrryyyy relaxed, and Monita managed to create that friendly and relaxed atmosphere. That is a really good skill to have for a singer. I felt close with her because of the way she interact. She didn't go like "ARRREEE YOOUU REAAADDEEEHH?!?!" Instead, she started with a smile and a simple "Good Evening." The night went magical. I guess that's really appropriate thing to do.

The band accompanying her, hat's off. It was a really balanced flow, and the upright bass sounded mighty sexy hahahahah OH! no electric guitar, but a classic one instead, and the guitar guy's really good. Wait. They were all awesome. I realized that I don't like jazz songs with solos. 30 seconds, I still can bear. But more than that... Urgh. Please. Don't. For every other genre, I never liked any band with female vocalist. Well I do like some songs, but they won't be my favorite. 2 songs I can bear, but more than that.. *vomit* EXCEPT jazz. That night I doubted that I won't be able to bear listening to her all night but boy I was wrong. Maybe because It's her singing. Other jazz female singer, erm, I can't guarantee.

Well, soon after the fest, a friend gave me a hashtag to read on and I've found out that LOTS of people were disappointed with how it turned out -- including the MC for that night, and they were all bashing the one-man organizer. But heck I couldn't care less. Monita & band brought me to cloud nine and that's all there's to it :)

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

 

Sanguine Charity Concert

Hey Hey!

2 days ago Rubbers got a gig in campus :) It was a charity concert and we performed as one of the guest bands. This was pretty fun cuz this is my first time giggin in 3-piece, y'know, 182 style :P

We played Blink182 - Not Now and Kutless - What Faith Can Do. Oh this is also my first time playing 2 instruments at the same song. Quite a lot of things to remember and verrry troublesome to set up. But then thank God they used the curtain so nobody knows what we're doing back there during setup, and also, there were a couple of awesome friends helping us out :D

During the sound check several hours before the gig, it was pretty disappointing because we couldn't get decent sound. On stage it sounded ok, but down there... Ugh.. During the setup, the one who's in charge of the PA changed his mind and instead of putting mics in front of the amps like it used to be, he combined all through DIs. Akh. The sound become different (my bass' sound went from ok to fugly T.T) and we need to readjust . But then time was running out because there were still several people haven't done the sound check. So we went down unsatisfied and just hope that things will sound nice during the real thing.

I don't know why, out of all gigs that I've been to, I never experience good and balanced sound. I think one of the reason is that we are not superstars so we gotta be content with whatever sound we have since the amps and some gears are used by several bands so there will be only 1 default setting. I find it hard to accept because I think that those are the responsibility of the PA guy to help the band achieve the sound that they want. So, 10 bands, 10 settings!  Because that's what we paid them for right?! Also, the vocal mic.. Oh man. It was ear piercing. When a singer exert his power, it sounded like his voice's cracking when actually it doesn't. But oh well this is only my noob opinion because I don't really know how things work back there. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I got 1 really important lesson.

BE A GOOD SAMARITAN !!

Here's the situation: We are transport-less so we have no idea on how to bring the keyboard to the hall. That morning, after the worship service I was talking to an auntie and her son-- Massi-- about the concert and her son just sprayed "I can drive you guys. You just show me the place or I can google it". Man. Really grateful.. So.. Transport [checked]. 

Second problem. After the sound check, we can't just leave our stuff in the hall. We need to bring 'em to Oxy's place and then pick 'em up later before the performance. So, Massi helped us drop the stuff to Oxy's place. But then he won't be coming on time for the performance. So once again, we are transport-less. Tmg was there with us and he told us that he can pick up Oxymoron along with the stuff. Man. Again. Really grateful.

Third problem. I only have 2 hands. I have no idea on  how to bring the bass + keyboard + keyboard stand + cables up the stage by myself. Rubber's vox and Oxymoron were already occupied with their own gears. So I asked Mashi to help me out with the stuff and he agreed. After I explained to him on what are the stuff to bring, it was time for us to go on stage so we went up and Tmg came and help us set up on stage as well. 

We got help 3 times on the same day! Thank God who sent us these Samaritans to help us that day *They didn't even ask us to buy 'em dinner in return, y'know*. I want to continue the chain.

Therefore dear readers [ahem], I encourage you to help each other as well. Simple help matters.

Do to others what you would have them do to you.

Oh! Btw, Happy Belated Easter!! JESUS HAS PWNED THE DEATH THAT WE MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE!!