Singapore Band Challenge Semi-finals and 3 Strikeforce Gigs! What a weekend!

What an awesome weekend! Simply one my best weekends so far in 2008!

First up, the enjoyable performances of the local bands at the Singapore Band Challenge! Though we only caught the last 5-6 bands, almost all the bands which I liked got in! Yeah! Well, there was one band which wasn't really that good but got in anyway, but still the other 6 were totally rocking awesome! Here's the bands that I support that got into semis:

Shoe Size Nine (though I missed their prelim performance, I caught their auditions n thought they were simply great! good old rock music!)

Street Sights (when the announcer said their name, I thought it was street sex! hahaha! these 3 guys sound really good and they have excellent audience engagement, although they didn't have any personal friends or supporters, they really wowed the crowd and the judges. the only reason why they won't win is becos they lack a lead guitarist and some parts sound a bit empty. sure, they sound full for a 3 piece band, but a lead guitar with a bit of rifts would be good.)

Just A Pose (I thought their name was Just a toe, and by the way they're Julia's choice for winning the competition. they did a jason mraz song, and to me, any vocalist who dares to do Jason mraz must either be looking for a deathwish or is a really good singer. it was the later n it really surprised me. they were really tight n crowd engaging as well, although it was not really a song which shows off their music skills, it was very professional.)

Sonafa (this 7 piece band is out of this world, they're really in a league of their own. no other band comes close to this awesome group, with 2 laptops, a weird big flute, a keyoard, a percussionist, a bass n a drmmer. a mixture of rave, dance, new age n funk, they totally blew away the competition. the only minus point, they have no singer. they can realy have their own show, like nigel said. this band alone made the trip down to *scape worth it!)

One more band, i can't remeber the name, had this awesome electric guitar soloist, i think he must be one of the best guitarists in singapore! he looked a little big size for his guitar, but the sound was awesome, his playing superb, no fancy play-with-the-tongue gimmicks, but plenty of soul n attitude in the shredding n playing! I'm not sure of the band's name, maybe Damage Control or something.

ANyway all of these bands made it to the semi finals, and I'm definitely going to catch them perform! I was really inspired to take part in the competition next year! Now all I need to do is form a band, hahahah.. my brother eletric lead, me on keyboard or rythm guitar. I need a bass n a drummer n a good singer. Anyone care to join? ?? Hahaha...

But seriously what nigel said is true, there are lots of good musicians at the competition, but very few good vocalists. i think cos all the vocalists are mando-pop super band kind, n thats quite sad for the music scene. so much good music n no singer to sing the lyrics to tell the story of the song!

***

Besides the band challenge, there were 3 gigs we played this weekend, MTV gigs for sat n sun, and one for LTA this morning at about 9.30 am. why was it memorable?

for the sat gig, it was playing UDM in the day time, when i can actually see the audience appreciate the UDM n enjoying the performance. it was exactly one of the best performances, esp the crazy army, which my cowbell REALLY sucks n screwed the ending up a bit, but overall it was good, it attracted attention of the crowd, n we have a lot of fun. Joan was playing, so I'm really happy she can master crazy army, and she played for sunday as well, so proud of her.

sunday gig was flightphesy which there were a few mistakes here n there which were quite funny, but at least the sequence was tighter than saturday, perhaps cos it was easier to play. i was cow bell all the way, and although i didn't play UDM, it felt just as good to be part of the support role, and for ONCE i can see how FHW looks like in a daytime performance! i never realised it but i've never seen FHW being played in day time cos i'm always playing UDM! i don't say this in haughtiness, but a revelation of how long i've been playing for the strikeforce and man oh man, how much i enjoy every single performance (that doesn't suck of cos!) and gig!

this morning's LTA gig was something of a challenge for me. i've never played cymbals for the Mediacorp sequence before, n for me it was stepping out of my comfort zone, n trying something new which to be honest i think i suck at.

the last time i played cymbals, i fell down after jumping off a bin n injured my knee, and worse of all, i almost crushed a girl who was standing in front of me, i leaned to my right so that she won't feel the full impact. Up till this day, I still don't know the name of the girl i fell on, because i was so embarrassed i didn't dare to speak to her.

yeah, so now you know why i fear the cymbals. i hurt someone n i fell down looking stupid. oh, n another reason is that the standard of cymbal players is pegged at arthur. who does push ups on the road after marching for 3 km, who kicks the cymbals in the air with splits, and who is good looking to boot. how do i match up to a standard like that? i simply can't.

but today i tried. i wasn't exactly happy with my performance, but i want to see it on video too, to see how i look playing the cymbals. honestly, playing cymbals is a lot of fun n strenous on the muscles, n a lot of dancing n body movement is involved. i admit, i do like of like it! really.. but after the fall, i never did have the courage to play cymbals for more than a year.. until today.

thank God for giving me the strength n courage to do it. nobody knows of cos, my fear of the cymbals, nobody except God. but i got through the gig with no injuries, n i hope i did well. haha.