Very Grammatic - The World is Coming to an End Innit? Heh.
Yesterday evening, two storm brewed over Petaling Jaya, one near the PPUM (at the junction with the EPF office), and the other being inside UM itself. Quite surprisingly though to find that the shitstorm that took down a door made it into prime time news at 8, while the other one that took down several billboards, tree branches, and a signboard, and caused quite a traffic jam, didn't get any mention at all. That was what I came across while I was on my way to Laundry Bar, and by golly isn't that a much more interesting thing to talk about than to give some kind of a review of the show yesterday? I mean, the fracas between university students and the college guards at UM is pretty hot stuff because that's politics over there - and oh yes, we Malaysians love our politic stuff hot and flaming. So much so that a real storm that could have taken a life is not breaking news material worthy.
Oh, and because I was stuck in the crawl from Desa Waterpark (PLUS exit, from South) to the PPUM exit on the Fed, I arrived there at a very fashionable, very Malaysian time of 10 p.m. The gig that I was attending (as stipulated) kicks off at 8 p.m., so I did missed quite a number of performers for that night but still, it doesn't matter, because the three headlining acts for the night: Furniture (with a new album in tow), Akta Angkasa (the reason I drove all the way from Bangi), and PARTIMELOVERS (absolutely no idea who they were), has yet to perform. The first of the three to take stage was Akta Angkasa, and as expected they did not disappoint. They still deliver the same riotous, no frills, very technical set with meticulous precision, like some kind of a neurosurgeon post rock band. Which is to say that technically speaking, they are pretty impressive, but everything else they are very bland. The Akta Angkasa is more of a band for musicians, rather than a band for music listeners. They are the kind of people that you'd really don't want to spend an evening with, lest they started to furnish you on their wide, extensive knowledge of obscure musical gadgets. Furniture on the other hand was the final band for that night, and well, Furniture being Furniture (and they are a pretty seasoned act in Malaysia's underground/indie scene), they are, well, Furniture-ish.
The one that I'd really wanted to highlight from yesterday evening's gig however is this band called PARTIMELOVERS. They sounded like a cross between Joy Division and Ride; a very fine mixture of post punk and shoegazing and British psychedelia - the only downside being that they have decided to define their image as a hipster. Well-read modern-day Internet-age Renaissance man/woman will already know that the hipsters are universally reviled. But image matter aside, as the band kicks off their set, it was late 60's/early 70's in the air again - and the most wonderful thing is that, I can feel the vibe. There is a lot of love in this band, and it is pretty obvious where did this love comes from (hint: It's Ian Curtis). Their set moves rather beautifully from lengthy, melodic swirling psychedelia, to short and shouty punk rock number, my body only had to agree as my head starts to bop back and forth uncontrollably to the beat of the song. If only everyone in that small bar felt the same love as I did on that night, small things like politics and violent weather activity suddenly seems rather insignificant. Some religious people will come out and say it is a sign from God that we have strayed far from the correct path, which is why He brought that huge (from what I gather) storm and unleashed it at a time where people are all going back home from work. Yeah, stay classy God - stay classy.
Check out more on PARTIMELOVERS here.Labels: akta angkasa, furniture, malaysia, partimelovers, very grammatic
