TULANMEN - 4 UGAYMEN, WE R VERY TULAN

 
Welcome to AsianHeat Kedah / Perlis Finals 2006

P/S: To all bands, please visit the link below to download full size (over 1Mb each photo) individual band photos in Gallery page.

http://www.michael-one.com

If you are interested to know about the other Regional Finals, pls click below:

Johor Finals 2006 Part I

Johor Finals 2006 Part II

Johor Finals 2006 Part III

Penang Finals 2006

KL Finals 2006

KL Finals 2006 photos

And here goes the final round of Regional Finals in Kedah. It was a very warm night and I think changing from Asianbeat to Asian heat is not wrong at all. The atmosphere was very good, tension was high, and the bands were certainly kicking asses. I must say the overall performances of the 12 bands here definitely was the best compared to Johor, Penang, and KL (according to Shawn of Yamaha). So, let’s join me to the Yamaha Asian Heat Kedah / Perlis 2006 Finals!

Time: Tuesday noon 12.40pm

I was driving back from Penang BJ to Alor Setar, then approaching the Penang bridge, the %^&* police was mending two road blocks just about 1 km apart. What the tut? It was rush hour during lunch man, what a brilliant time to make me jam for more than 30 minutes. I was in a rush since I would be going to Jitra airport to pick up Shawn and Pop Shuvit drummer Rudy.

Time: Tuesday noon 2.15pm

Reached my house finally. Took a quick bath then drove to airport. Shawn and Rudy arrived at 2.55pm. At first sight, I recognised Rudy as I wacthed him play very often. Huh, you must be thinking how i watch. I watch football nearly every week, and the Celcom commercial features him banging the drum, woh oh oh oh, oh, woh oh oh oh…..

Rudy is really a cool and down-to-earth guy, we talked for a few minutes and in no time, we started to talk cock. Really humble guy in such a cool band

Our man in action

The Celcom Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSCmTPPEkqs

About Pop Shuvit:
One line sums it all, they sold MORE CDs then Linkin Park in Japan.
Official website: Pop Shuvit

So… off we went to the venue, and checked into Hotel Holiday Villa. It was still pretty early and Rudy did some tunings on the drum.

Since we have 4 hours more to kick-off time, we went to Telikom Tower for a clearer look of Alor Star

Shawn and Rudy couldnt resist to take a photo with this charming signboard (read the words guys)

The tallest buidling is Holiday Villa, which both of them put up at.
 

In the lift… coming down

Rudy and the tower, cool pic

After been tortured and burnt by the Alor Star heat, its Tom Yam time at Star Parade

And after food, we still had some time to shop for a while

Ok ok… i know, you must be wondering is this a report on Asianbeat or a journal on day out. Now let’s get to the serious stuff.

At 6.45pm. This is the display area at the venue (City Plaza, Ground Floor)

Before the show started, every contestant, yes, i mean EVERY contestant was treated to a free dinner at City One Cafe (one of the cool sponsors). Not eating rice box or nasi lemak, but full course dinner with soup, chicken, vege, curry, orange juice, rice, not enough? just take one more plate la. I bet NO other regional finals venue offered this. Big applause to City One Cafe. 

No need to ciak ka ki, all contestant ciak City One Cafe

All RIGHT!! Its 8.15pm tang tang… show about to start liao.

this is the main stage

Crowd increasing, temperature warming up, its the AsianHeat finals!

And introducing our honourable judges of the day Left to Right: me, Shawn, Rudy, Cikgu Badrul

Let’s Roll!

First Band: The Beerz
Song: Its Black Too Bad (self composed)

First, i must again tell you that, among the Regional finals i have been this year, Alor Star was the best in terms of overall band quality and presentation (Shawn confirmed my statement). The Beerz played quite well with a brass section (keyboard), although they said it was their own song, but too bad there was an Extreme fan in the panel of judges. I would say they copied EXACTLY almost 50% of “Cupids Dead” music section. If i am not wrong, they did the same thing back in 2004 when they took part in Yamaha Asianbeat (Mutiara Karaoke). That time, they copied much of “Get The Funk Out” and “Suzie”. Gezzz… i know all of Extreme songs as i am a Nuno freak. Please dont do that again la, have already told you lads back in 2004. You wanna copy the style, not sebiji bulat-bulat la… Cikgu Badrul thought the chorus part was like Michael Jackson’s 1987 epic “Bad”, and i must agree he got a point.
Balancing was bad, the keyboard was way over the mountain, bass and guitar made to suffer from dynamic lost. Vocal and drummer was not bad. I picked the guitarist as the best among the contesting bands at the end of the show, but he has a long long way to catch the winner in Johor (The Blaze)

Second Band: Rampage
Song: Siapa Kamu (Self-composed)

I was really happy to see that most bands in Alor Star now started to compete with their own songs. Rampage was very loose and never really did any rampage at all. Guitar was very muddy and tone was like scratching your nail on the black board. As I said before, I cant really blame contestant completely on tone because it involved many factors, still, the tone is very bad. I lost count in the hit and miss high notes of the vocalist.

Third Band: The Xilens
Song: Lumrah (Self-composed)

The band consists of the only chick competing in the competition ~ the vocalist as you can see above. The band should be better without the vocal. She has abysmal picthing problem, and her key was always floating. The guitar was out tuned (a little) and the drummer was smacking the drum so hard like this was the last time he had a chance to play drum. Good thing about this band is the intro was nice and the build up to the song was quite smooth.

Forth Band: Red Series
Song: FLY (Self-composed)

This band is from Langkawi and they were also the champion in Kedah last term (with different band name). They have cool uniform with each member’s name printed on their shirt, with matching pants and serious hair do. I said many times before, dont overlook your attire, as appearance plays a part in your total marks too. Their style was part Slipknot, part rap-core type. Full of showmanship and corresponding vocals (two vocals). Balancing was ok. Every instrument could be heard and some good contrasting dynamic parts in the song (it could be better). They looked like heading to KL again this year. Now the bad side, the lead vocalist was not agressive in accordance to the song, way to feminine, infact, the rapper sounded more like the lead vocalist. Messy choreographing, some members was head-down, some went up, it did not look grand. They HAVE to practise infront of a mirror, some friends or record it to see. After the show, i had a lengthy talk with them and hope they become tigther, both in terms of music, and showmanship.

Fifth Band: The Line Is Engaged
Song: You Are The One (Self-composed)

Just formed not long ago, these lads drove from Kampar to compete the show, and, DROVE back to kampar the same night. Clap Clap Clap! Let’s get to the good points first: It was definitely very good for a debut band show performance. I was a little surprised to see they play quite well. Song styled like J-Rock with driven guitars. Well dressed (ah, i dont think the cowboy hat matched the song). Each member has this small little toy animals tied to their instruments. I saw a tortoise hanging from the bass, and Mr Bean’s bear was resting in the vocalist’s pocket. Balancing was good. Two guitarist backed the lead vocalist. The minus part: drum and bass needs polishing, esp drummer. Backing vocal should have been sung in harmony, not doubling (same pitch), or unison. As this was a commercial number, a 3-voicing harmony would have done a good trick on the song. They have a lot to learn to deliver a top-notch pop rock showing. Impressive at first take!

Sixth Band: Unicorn
Song: Perjuangan (cover)

“Halo, i cannot hear the bass”. This was my comment in the marking form. The tempo was so inconsistent and the double pedaling of the drummer sounded like flamming (correct spelling?) of the kick drum. Instead of four 16th notes in a beat, i heard 2 pair of grace notes (acciacatura) in a beat. Get what i mean? like he shuould have played “tng tng tng tng” but it sounded “tng-tng   tng-tng”. I cannot comment on the bass becuase i did not hear anything. Guitarist was one word: LOUD.

Seventh band: Karisma
Song: Telaga (cover)

This pub-band played beautifully ~ a Zainal Abidin number. Clearly veterans. Song genre was R&B with some light fusion. Overall was very good, bassist full of showmanship, he jumped down the stage long before the song ended and i was thinking how the hell he would go up again (eventually he stayed on the ground til the end of song). They have a good backing vocalist hitting a cow bell too. Keyboardist was good and drummer was the most consistent through out the night. Guitarist played well, but the solo he improvised does not fit the song. It seemed he intentionally tapped, dived-bomb to gain marks for guitar section, however, that also pulled down the overall marks because it spoilt the mood and flow of the song. Very nice to watch though the whole band. The lead and backing vocalist danced at some point. Entertaining.

Eight band: Contra
Song: Seruan (cover)

 

The vocalist was shocking but entertaining to watch. First he was always off pitch, his stage ethnic was very funny, at one point he removed his vest and threw to the floor, eh… he was like half William Hung half ?????? I certainly enjoyed watching him though. Guitar again too loud and bass has flat tone (please refer to my Johor 1, 2, 3 reviews for my definition of good bass tone) They performed a “Lefthanded” number and overall was just average. It seemed most guitarist like to turn guitar way loud over brokeback mountain and then everything else start to feel they sounded too soft and would eventually cracking up thier instruments too. At the end, you hear nothing but noice. Balancing is the most most most important thing you have to be sure of even before you start your song. That’s why sound-check is so IMPORTANT!

Have a read on what one of my friends says about the band:

“their vocalist really made me roll on the floor. He was singing heavy metal style(i wonder why 90% of them can just sing like they have sorethroat and can’t sing like normal, any idea?), and then he went “wao wao miaomiao mao mao”, i couldnt hear any human language in the lyric…..he could just ask anybody to replace him n just shout mao mao mao miaomiaomiao if u know what i mean.”  Wen Hen

Ninth Band: Klosa
Song: Mimpi (Self-composed)

Same story, band not tight, guitar too loud, bass too soft… good attemp thought. And i alwyas respect those band who can really come out with their own GOOD seld-composed song. I wish Klosa all the best for next time.

Tenth Band: Eleventh Hour
Song: Fist In The Air (Self-composed)

Performed a song in rap-core style with melodus chorus part, sounded like limp bizkit and post linkin park stuff. Guitar overpowered the band (Again!!) or else it should have been so much better for the band. The turn-tablist was almost muted the whole song until about the last section of the song when guitar slowed down and i could really hear him then. Vocalist was the most in-pitch (not really impressive), still miss some high-notes, but I could see he tried his best and his effort later paid off. Tempo overall was ok. Good band!

Eleventh Band: The Dreadful Ardent
Song: Lake Bodom (cover)

Good intro (but this is a cover song) and they did not change much. There was some good dynamic change in the song but the band was too loose. Drum and bass could not coordinate well and guitar was too loud (Again again!!)

Phew… there goes all the 11 bands (band number 12 pulled out)

While all judges went on for discussions and calculations, here comes the guest band POSEIDON!!!!

Loud and Tight, no doubt about it!

Poseidon Rawwks!

The cool bassist!

They played Audio Slave

Poseidon heat up the atmosphere just before the result announcement

The MC for tonight was sponsored by DIGI

Proud moment for individual musicians winners:
Best Drummer / Bassist : Karisma
Best Guitarist: The Beerz
Best Vocalist: Eleventh Hour

Third place goes to “Eleventh Hour”

Second place goes to “Karisma”

and the new champion from Kedah / Perlis: “Red Series”
 

Congratulations to all winners, great thank-you to all sponsors, organisers, contestants, audience and all staff in making one of the most happenning regional finals this year, and to Yamaha Music, for making sleepy Alor Star town alive again with music!

After the show, Poseidon, Rudy, Shawn, Cikgu Badrul, and all staff went to have supper. It was a night to be remembered, we talked all the way beyond 1.30am, i was drainned out as i have been going here there every where for the past weeks. I certainly hope you enjoyed reading this report as i did in more than 3 hours writing it. All band photos courteosy of Silver_Isle.

See you guys in Malaysia Finals 3rd December 2006

Zzzzzzzzzzz…..