UGLYM3N = GAYM3N

Oh oh… From this point on, i really lost the orders of band appearing in the show…

I wanted to write this review much later, but coming Sunday will be Penang finals and another week will be Kedah final, guess i better spit out what i can before i mix up all the bands…

I try to recall everything by looking at the photos. All right, let’s move on.

Sorry, what’s the name of the band again? Most members painted their faces, this band has a turn-tablist and styled like Limp Bizkit, in fact, the guitarist (right) looked like Wes Borland. If he only had a teddy bear tied to his mike stand. The bassist painted his face like a pirate. Very cool. And he actually played left-handedly using a right hand Bass by turning the orders of string around. In fact, many left-handed bassist / guitarist were in the finals… and mostly played very cool, did I mention G-man is from Johor? haha…

Frankly, I could hardly hear what this band was singing. The effort was there, the balancing was gone. There is always this issue for judges, is there a problem on the stage, or is it the house spoiling the party? Well, we have to judge on what we hear though, and unfortunately, i heard almost nothing from this band. Dont angry with me ok, i am telling why certain bands were not selected and hope you can come back different next time.

Not bad the next band, the singer sang beautifully and looked quite relax (a good point, i always dont like to see vocalist or other instrumentalist looks like fighting with a beast on stage). However, the balancing was all wrong again. The bass was almost mute to me (you can blame my ears, but you cant blame the six ears of three judges) Ah huh… at this point, i want to talk about stage and house balancing, look, if some bands i can hear the bass, and some cant, then i dont think it was the problem from the house. It must be your bass amp setting not optimum, or your playing, your fingering, or even your bass pickups, or tone control. One of the bands have loads of slapping bass line, and each note he slapped was like puting needles in my ears.

At this point, i want to talk about our own Uglymen’s basist (ah hooi), not to show off here, but to share VALUABLE knowledge to everyone reading this. Ah Hooi won the Yamaha Asianbeat Asia Best Bassist award in 2004, Taiwan with our song “Si Ai Bin”. Everyone, yes i mean everyone in the competition hall were shocked to hear Ah Hooi’s name being annouced overy the PA as the winner. Why? Because the song “Si Ai Bin” has no slapping line, no speeding line, no hard to access bass chordings, ah, and to top it off, the whole song only utilized two of the four bass strings… The judge could be wrong, but at that fateful night, the bass judge was none other than world class bass supreme Billy Sheehan (Mr Big, Niacin), so, you think Billy is wrong?

P/S: However, Suan and me agreed Billy was dead wrong that night kekekek….

At the celebration party after the 2004 Asia Finals, Uglymen took the opportunity to talk to Billy the man. We asked Billy why he chose ah hooi as the best bassist. Billy answered us like we suddenly woke up from our dreams, “ah hooi was my choice because, it is always very hard to hear a clean bass sound, espeacially when performing in an indoor hall, and i heard every note he played clearly (compared to most bands which has ke-te-kak, ke-te-kok slapping, tapping basslines), his tone was clear”

Now, back to Johor. So, when i was picking the best bassist, i suddenly felt Billy was so so true, because, if your bass tone is cracko, no matter you play like Flea or Les Claypool also will hurt my ears badly, espeacially when i was forced to dig my ear drums out to hear what is being played. It was a tiring procedure and now i believe Billy was correct on that night. 

Next ~ V’sion Band

A tip to every aspiring band out there, when you join a band competition, it is very important to do something different to catch the attention of the judges. Different does not mean ask you to come out on a wheel-chair like Kurt Cobain, smash your expensive guitar like Nicholas Tse, or throw down your drums like Yoshiki. I have stated in my Part #1, attire is important, do not over look. Showmanship is another point which most of the 12 bands failed to impress. Talking about movement? You dont have to dance, turn like Britney Spears (wat? Britney is busy writing divorce papers?) ok, i mean dont have to dance like Aguilera. But a small movement, pacing the stage, or simple choreograph, will make HUGE impact in your songs. Remember this, if you want to jump, hop, in your band, make sure all other members get involved. You wont belive how awful it is if you alone in your band jump like monkey, but all the other members standing like lamp posts. You want to look “coherent”

Now, V’sion Band. After some earlier abysmal ear torturing, this band came at the right moment. From the calmness, and profound consistency and confidence they showed, they are surely veterans. The vocalist and guitarist did a ala Paul Gilbert + Eric Martin introduction. Guitarist played some bluesy scaling, vocalist sang his message to the crowd, like welcome to the show and hope you enjoy our song (all in singing form). And it was quite fresh to listen (that’s what i call the difference of that day) and the band started off the song. Nice balancing, i could hear all insturments (3-piece) and the vocal is damn good. Though still hit and missed some high notes. Should be in the top 3 for the day, I thought to myself at this point.

Next up ~ The Blaze
This band covered Metalasia’s numbers, incase you dont know Metalasia, Metalasia is Malaysia famous metal band consists of the legendary King Shah, and my friend Muik, is the lead singer (Cikgu Azhar played too in the first album) Suddenly I remember a quote from King Shah “making and playing music is fun, is about all the excitement, if money or glamour is involved, you will die fast”. This band almost have the same fate with Night Cinema. I couldnt hear what the vocalist sang, oh dear (just like Nightmare Cinema, the other judges told me he sang very well in the previous round). The charming bassist plucking the bass strings at fast speed but, i am really sorry, I could not hear what she played. The notes were fast and correct me if i am wrong, your right hand (plucking) and left hand (shaping the notes) do not synth well, probably pushing too hard. You need to pluck deep down the strings to produce the tone. The bass notes i heard was like produced by a MIDI software, flashless. It is a big shame because she must have practised a lot to play this number but the result is calamitous. Slow down your playing, practise with a metronome, always do that, record what you play, and listen them, try to find a precise angle and pressure you should apply on your bass, and off course, do some home work on bass amp settings. In case all the bassist wonder what bass ah hooi used in the Yamaha Asianbeat Asia Final that landed him the award, it’s not a Musicman, not a Warwick, not a Fender, its a medium range YAMAHA, you dont have to buy expensive bass, with special function, double output, stereo split, blah blah blah to get a good tone (yamaha did not pay me to write this, i am telling you the truth)

Billy Sheehan autographing Ah Hooi’s Yamaha winning bass guitar.

True nice bass tones mainly come from YOUR FINGER, then your bass guitar.

Meanwhile, the drummer was ok but for some reason, the dynamic of rim-shots were so contrasting, even in the same musical phrase, some loud, some sounded like miss-hit. Finally, the guitarist was certainly the best of the day. He has some kick-ass techniques which he executed flawlessly, clearly defined his string-skipping skills and he had these little LEDs inserted in his guitar. He looked calm and steady. Set back was however, he over-shadowed his own band, which is a BAD thing. The drummer, bassist, vocalist were almost invisible… just like Nuno Bettencourt said in this song “Too muach of a good thing spoil the whole thing”. Off course i am not saying you are wrong at being good, but you need to find a balance point in your band, so that every member can showcast his/her role. It was almost like watching Malmsteen’s live concert, which is always boring after a few songs, because he certainly would shoot down other members with some explosive as powerful as the material some powerful people used to bomb a Mongodian young lady.

Next up ~ Creative Soul

If i did not forget, they played a cover, “She’s Gone”. Another candidate for Best Vocalist, how did i single him out from other vocalist, he sang with feel. You see, singing flawlessly, hitting high pitch, consistant vibrato are not enough to bring the best out of a good singer. You have to sing with your soul, understand the lyrics of what you are singing, and let your expression contribute more to your vocals, small movements, sad or happy faces at the correct time in the song, in accordance with what you are singing at that time. Well, this vocalist have it all. All other members also blended the song well, so, were they worth a place in the top 3? we will find out at the end of my long long review.

the Simple 7

this band was some what playing a different genre from the mostly metal bands, soft listening and relaxing. They rendered a self-composed number which was written by their band leader (far left, guitarist), however, the most outstanding member was their keyboardist, which brought two keyboards on stage and played fantasticly. Sayang the Best Keyboardist award was being scraped because there were only 2 bands with keyboardist. Still, i am not satisfied with the balancing of the band (arg…. i know i am fussy, ok)

Last act ~ Houdinix

Have you ever seen a Flying “V” Stevie Ray Vaughan style? If you know what i mean, Stevie’s signature SRV model has its tremolo mounted on the upper side of the bridge instead of near to your volume control. This left-handed brother (left) used a guitar manufactured for right-hand use, thus the tremolo was hanging down from the upper bridge just like SRV’s
These UTM (heard where they were from) boys was playing some creative music, relaxing melody lines with some riffing at the background. Oh, and i like the way the lead guitarist sings the backing vocals and his James Hatfield style standing pose, check it out guys:

I love this band, above average balancing (compared to most bands), creative arrangement, but from the way they showcase themselves, it is clearly they are still “new legs”, is it a negative or positive thing? That depend on what kind of judge you are, if you see them as inexperience, then you might have negative remarks; If you see them as daring and brave enough to try new things, then they might get extra points from you. So are they in the top 3? Its nearing the end now…

No no nope…. its not result time yet. We stil have the guest item coming up…

WOW!, its 3.01am! I spent the last 3.5 hours writing and uploading photos. man! I am calling off a break, make sure you read Part # 3 for results…

Yawn yawn….. Zzzzz…