UGLYM3N = GAYM3N

It was certainly more entertaining in Penang compared to the Johor version of this years’ finals.

This time, I have all the band details, (thanks to Miss Lim and Shawn, who allowed me to capture some band documents on my camera) so, no messing up with names and positions like what i screwed up in Johor.

I will keep this shorter than the Johor report as I noticed i talked too much in the previous 27 pages report, you dont believe it? Try copy all the 3 reports from Johor including the photos and paste them in your Microsoft Word, you will get 27 pages, thats the total number of pages i submitted to Yamaha.

in terms of excitement, Johor still offered more, but in terms of entertainment and comedy, Penang certainly stood out.

OK, let me start my engine… 2 of the 3 Uglyboyz followed me to Penang

In my CLK at 4.15pm, was going to be late

Reached Bukit Jambul just in time at 6pm, attended briefing and went straight to choose my Yamaha acoustic guitar for the openning act.

Introducing the 3 judges for the big showdown, (L-R) me, Jerry Felix, Michael Kay.

Jerry Felix is one of the best drummer in Malaysia and also holds several records on the drums. We knew each other some time ago and he has his own drum solo album, and played and recorded for countless artistes. Did i mention he support Manchester United? ha, I brought a MU key chain gift for him too.

Michael Kay, is very well known for his contributions in the keyboard instruments, music publishing, and also music education. He is from Malaysia’s biggest music press publisher Rhythm Music Publishing.

Crowds feeling up the venue fast

Even sitting on the floor, can you spot some guys wearing Uglymen T-shirts?

I was first up and the Yamaha i picked certainly sounded very nice to me on stage, and the neck profile just glued to my fingers, must get this model!

And here comes the heavyweights!

It was so nice jemming with them!

Our MC for the day Chia, well-versed in English, Malay, Mandarin and can joke some more, where else you can find this type of MC, and he is good looking too.

Before and during the show, i also met Leow, Bobby, James, Ah Soon, Suan and family, and off course the Uglyboyz and my friend Bong Sze Rin tagged along. During the first few bands, Gnap suddenly pop up and say hi to me. Nice to finally meet you Gnap!

First Band ~ Ocean of Fire

They played a self-composed number called “Control Alternate Delete”, the guitarist Kelvyn (ah you know him already, he is every where in Uglymen.net now) He told me they have some new songs coming up, one is about having safe sex called “Safe Mode”, another about positioning called “Shift + Enter”, and a global song about help in Africa called “F1″.
Ocean sounded times better than what i heard in Alor Setar few weeks back. The song was fine with intentional stoppages for individual solos (which i not quite like) because that will break the feel of the band. The drum solos was way too long (thanks to some big head), bass solo already shortened, but i still felt too long. Rhythm guitarist was almost annoymous (i later found out most bands using the amp he was using also no sound one, so cant blame fully on him la). Kelvyn was no longer a mirror of Yngwie, where he used to fry the notes from beginning to the end. I suggest they put in more gimmicks in the song. The gimmick when the drummer came out to hit everything he could reach actually did not work well. The ending where the three front players saling-goreng on one another’s guitar was also needless. Still, after just watching the first band, i had a feel they were already in the top 3. They were clearly clean and listenable but not too impressive. Some simple routines in the songs could be modified and they could sound easily twice better than tonight. Another thing i want to stress is Oceans dressed well, not too glaring and nice to watch, you can see the effort was there. Good job Oceans.

2nd band ~ Reaching Horizon

In a band competition, sometimes you are unlucky to be placed at the first to perform, some judges may reserve marks to see how the later bands perform, and normally if you are the first, you probably will have that feeling of the atmosphere not “warmed-up” yet, or not settled down yet, very floating, and you may perform below par. But for tonight, this theory went the other way, because Reaching Horizon was surely unfortunate to be placed after Ocean. The class between this two were miles apart. Balancing bad, almost zero showmanship, and the vocal’s picthing was bad, and t shirts and jeans.
After just watching the 2nd band, I thought they were heading for the last 3 (sorry for that, i am just trying to be frank so that you guys dont repeat the same mistakes. Hope to see these guys do better other times) They played a cover.

3rd band ~ Masterpiece

This band was cool at first sight. Vocalist, guitarist, bassist wore vests, looks cooler like a band, and they were squarting down before the song starts (hmm…. its becoming a norm for bands in Asianbeat always squart down before the song start..keke) Masterpiece played their own song called “Penaklukan”. The eerie intro certainly sounded like alien invading earth ala War of the World. (I thought Tom Cruise wore a vest too in the beginning of the movie). Then, all hell broke loose. It was a heavy-metal song, but Jerry and I were certainly going heavy-mental, we turned our heads looking at each other and open mouth big big… The musicians were below average but a big chunk of blame must go to the vocals. He was daring, i like that a lot, but he was singing on-off pitch, was that a song or a scream, he tried to woo the crowd by saying welcome blah blah… 1,2,3,4! Which ended up nothing. Normally if you wanna do something to get respond from the crowd, you should do according to your song, like have a break from the melody, only the drum groove moving on, then u shout 1,2,3,4 then the band jem in…. but this one after 1,2,3,4… then nothing happen. Still, I am happy to see a band playing their own songs, and very daring. This band has potential, only if they do it the correct way. They had fans holding a Maxis banner (wrting Masterpiece, You are the Champion! or something)  That was cool though. The guitarist’s solo was like muted, either the balancing was bad or he already being kidnapped by the aliens (other members over-powering him). The judges were shaking banging their heads at the end.

4th Band ~ Paradise

Just before Paradise went on stage, Jerry was asking me, hey, tonight’s band no chick one ah? and there you go, here comes the eye-satisfying band. For your information, some of my friends went there asked me after the show, hey mike, you got take a photo for the keyboardist ah, let me see la, i want see (no need to click the above photo, its not a thumbnail dude, cannot enlarge, kwa kwa kwa…) but you can browse michael-one few days later when i have time to upload some of the over 100 photos taken during this trip. Suan told me Paradise sang an FIR’s number, i am not sure, because lately i did not have chance to listen many songs (song name is Between You and The Sky) The song started slow and quiet, and I could hardly hear what the vocal was singing, because the monkeys crowd behind me shouting turun la! we want rock!, apa le! and making monkey chants, they shouted louder than the vocalist’s microphone. The song slowly build up and it was an average showing from each member. Vocal slightly better than the others. Bassist off tempo, drummer poor strokes and timing, guitarist trying to impress (good) but can you explain why you play a mid-tempo melodious guitar solo with all down strokes? You spoil the flowing feel of the melody, spoil your notes, spoil your articulations. Keyboardist brought a full-length Yamaha digital Keyboard… to play a few notes and chords ?? I think the keyboard supplied on stage was more powerful than the one she brought along, unless there were certain voices in your keyboard which you need to use in your songs, else i dont see the necessity. In addition, the large kayboard blocked most part of you (dismay to many of my friends…. kekeke…) This band is young, dressed well, suited the song but a lot of home work need to be done. Kesimpulannya: A little better than band number two and three.

5th Band ~ Soo Zone Red

Well, here’s the first of the Soo Zone trilogy on stage. They played a song called Janji. I promised to write all the details I remembered, but unfortunately, this was another average band that I could not recall any special or x factors which can make me write something. They played 3-piece and not really bad but nothing special really. Once again, from what i have stressed so many times in my previous reivews for Johor, judges want to see somthing that make them say “WOW”, not watching a band practising or jem on stage. Better luck next time Soo Zone Red

6th Band ~ Soo Zone Green
For some reason, i missed the photo for this band, really sorry. Finally, a good band to watch after some misadventures, some what funny for the passed 45 minutes. Soo Zone Green had the best vocals for tonight no doubt, the vocal was better (not perfect) but still better than all vocalist before. He was backed up by two backing voclist, nice harmony. All other members also played well and with nice arrangment (it was a cover song though). It was quite pleasing to watch Soo Zone Green, but nothing really stood out from the song. Since there were only just two bands to go, i also thought there was also high possibility Soo Zone Green was closing in on a place in the top 3.

7th Band ~ Soo Zone Blue

The last of the Soo Zone brothers to appear on stage. I must say this is the first time i saw a drummer hammering the drums with no sound. He hit or banged the hi-hat using the neck of his drum sticks (not head) and crashed it on the snare, toms, and cymbals like the only chance he could play drum on stage was tonight, after tonight, no more, but no matter how hard he hammered (wrong strokes) so light sound came out.. In fact, i was wondering how he did that, so much energy with so little output. The guitarist was too loud, the other was too soft, bassist and vocals also below par. Jerry was saying the drummer looked like he just took lessons for few weeks. Well, that summed up the band. Better luck next time.

8th Band ~ Susnine

How could i forget this band, the vocal shook like eh… …. (no idea what to write), he was very brave in doing some feminine movements, so soft and loose and at one point, he flipped open his pouch cover (located in front of his eh… look photo above). The guitarist was not bad, and his tone was nice. Bassist and drums gelled well and keyboardist I wouldnt say he was really impressive, but he certainly played more notes, and more complexity than the other previous bands, the best bet for Best Keyboardist award.

all bands perfromed and off we go….

Calculations and discussions… I should not disclose the details here but the top two and the bottom two were like miles planets apart. This really summed up the contrast of quality and standards between the bands for tonight. It was much closer in Johor.

Well, as i told you, i am not gonna write too long this time. Here are the results, with no surprise. The best team won and each best musicians won their individual awards, the winners were almost obvious.

Best Guitarist: Kelvyn Yeang (Oceans of Fire)
Best Bassist: Jonathan Chen (Oceans of Fire)
Best Drummer: Jonathan Scully (Oceans of Fire)
Best Vocalist: Arman Md Isa (Soo Zone Green)
Best Keyboardist: Mohd Nurshuhairie (Susnine)

Best of the lot (L-R) Poly Shoe (sponsor) Ms Ooi, Kelvyn, Jonathan Scully, Mohd, Arman, Jonathan Chen, Mr Lim

Champions: Oceans of Fire
2nd place: Soo Zone Green
3rd place: Susnine

Oceans of Happiness

All winners  Hooray……………

Its a happy ending, a great show from Music World Penang, (L-R: me, Mr Lim, Miss Lim)

Misc photos 花絮:

my good pal ~ Shawn Wong from Yamaha

Jerry Felix, the first Malaysian drummer to use the double pedal, 42 years as a drummer and still going strong stronger

Happy for now, tougher challenges ahead in the national finals.

Paradise. Work harder and come back stronger. (are you guys zooming in on the keyboardist)

Its dinner / supper time. I had some good nice chats with Shawn, Mr Lim, Miss Lim, Oceans, Bong, Uglyboyz, Beh, Leow, Tai Suan & Mrs, Yang Yang the cute noti girl and staff of Music World. 

Where to get free room, bath, food, watch DVD (many movies to choose from) in Penang?
Suan: my place la..

I wonder what will you think if i did not put a caption here. Left is me, right is yoyo koay. Because of him, you guys get to see so many charming photos above, he lended his digi cam to me, at midnight 1.30am, he brought his laptop down from his apartment and trasnferred the photos to my MMC card. Thank you very much yoyo.

Taking the BOyz to breakfast Monday morning

joining us was ah Beh

The Boyz insisted me to take a shot of them wearing the coolest T-Shirts

We had some expensive coffee at Coffee Bean in Gurney Plaza with Miss Lim for an hour. I have to used the word expensive because this was the first time I spent over RM65 for coffees for 5 (including beh, not in photo) but worth the feeling there la, very relaxing, not a single chance in Band Raya alor setak

Beh went to pay parking tickets to the Penang Council workers, so they have more money to install CCTV at “strategic” places during meeting with reporters.

Night time 11.30pm Monday, after Ugly weekly jem…. i wanted to stay longer but had to drive another 2 hours.

good bye and off went home….

Thank you Yamaha Asianbeat Penang. And Thanks to Mr Lim for his hospitality and the Hot Link MusicWorld T Shirts.

See you in Yamaha Asianbeat Kedah Finals 28th November Tuesday, 6pm, City Plaza (Setak Walk)