Inch Chua : The Cold, Conned & Conquered.

August 22, 2011

Baybeats

Baybeats Weekend!!!

Well you can hardly call it a baybeats weekend cause seriously, this weekend is probably the most event crowded weekend ever. We have the Singapore Theatre Festival at the Drama Centre, EDB’s Singapop! going on right opposite Baybeats at the Promontory & STGCC (Singapore Toy Game & Comic Convention) at Suntec. But oh well, its still the baybeats weekend, been blocking out my weekend for years.

Despite the many different events happening, baybeats this year still kept its buzz. A bit bummed that b-quartet didn’t play this year, but hey… i’m bias.

Anyways, some of the highlights were:

of course, Caracal’s set. Mark John played & sang for Caracal set on Charlatan. Gave me the chill. Then again, maybe its cause i’m bias. Very proud of the Caracal guys. As Leonard put it, Caracal was one classy act & beside the set backs, they played without complaining & played the show with class. Can’t wait for them to make more awesome tunes. My only complaint would be… WHY ARE THEY ON THE “CHILLOUT” STAGE!

Arajua was good as well. i like the stuff with samples & Fazly aka Wak Timer has a really really nice good voice. At certain points his voice reminds me of Bani Haykal. And i absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it. On another note, this is just a personal opinion, but i find good unique male vocalists to be of a starving shortage in Singapore. but hey, thats just my opinion. So i definitely see something special & am pretty excited to hear more stuff from Arajua or from Wak Timer. Check out Arajua on they’re facebook, http://www.facebook.com/arajua & Wak Timer’s stuff at http://soundcloud.com/wak-timer

We The Thousands was pretty cool too. Really TIGHT rhythm section. Danny Osman (Yup, AVA’s Rudi’s bro) & Bryan De Silva makes a killer killer combo.

Ossuary was bloody hell brutal. Its only my second time catching them & i remember being pretty dumbfound at how thick and big they sounded with just a modest set up of 4 members (drummer, guitar, bass, vox). After the first number, i was pretty sure my face & flesh was rocked off. By the third song, my ears probably lost a couple of major frequencies. They even asked for the wall of death & got one. i was pretty afraid someone was gonna get hurt but.. as far as i know, there wasn’t anyone. Which brings me to great relief that Singaporeans are responsible moshers. Phew.

All in all, baybeats was pretty kick ass. The Thunder Rock School booth looked great! It was a pretty tiring weekend but absolutely fun. It always feels like some kind of a reunion for musicians or like a huge gathering for the scene.

I’d also like to give huge props to the sound & lights guys at the stages. the production team that put in the many many many tiring hours of ground work. they were the real heros behind it all. THANK YOU FOR PUSHING KEEP THE VOLUMES NICE & LOUD! THANK YOU FOR MAKING THE BANDS SOUND GOOD. THANK YOU FOR BEING SUCH CHAMPIONS! :)