concave scream @ baybeats 2005

Fuck. I got so carried away that i forgot the main cause for the post. I want to have a special mention for the very lovely compere of the chillout stage who requested Concave Scream for an encore due to the relentless demands of the crowd. She got screwed by the fat ah neh lady afterwards as the event had to stick to its strict timings for individual acts so as not to overstep into the timeslots of other bands. In this case, it was the festival's closing band Copeland from the US. Well girl, you did the right thing. I say screw the ah neh, screw Copeland.... this is rock n roll, give the people what they want. Concave Scream is the best there ever was. Oh ya, and once again, since i'm at it, screw the new bassist too.

Concave Scream

The ultimate band in my books. Once again Concave Scream blew away virtually everyone else at Baybeats 2005 just like how they overshadowed The Observatory despite being only the guest band for The Observatory's concert. Pann is so much our local Bono and Sean has still that charming nonchalance and humility. Since the release of their third album "three", they have moved away from performing any of their old repertoire which includes sleeper hits like "driven" and "fade" from their brilliant "erratic" album. They have chosen to sound more sonically experimental towards a more radiohead meets U2 flair with the percussive agression of the Foo Fighters with much credit to drummer Dean Aziz who came on board after "erratic".

"Three" is essentially a good record with strong songs which is unfortunately marred by poor sound production and hence the songs work much better live with the raw energy from the guitars and drums not being withheld. Speaking of Dean Aziz, I'm reminded of the times at 'Roomful of Blues' where Dean and Ray Aziz would usually performing acoustic numbers such as 'the drugs don't work' by The Verve. Dean and Ray look alike and yet are obviously very different characters in nature. And speaking of new members, as Alvin Low has crossed over to presumably greater creative heights in The Observatory, the new bassist, (Andy if i remembered correctly) was sticking out like a sore thumb the entire performance. Obviously basking in the overt popularity of the band, he was prancing around like a bloody ape and his shiny white head was in stark contrast to the long locks of Sean and Pann, destroying the overall mystic and cool feel of the band. Sound wise, Andy was never impressive either, the bassline for 'fiction' as did by Alvin Low had always mesmerized me whenever they played previously howerever no such thing happened this time despite Andy basically doing the same notes. He basically lacks the vibe and flair. Even for the new songs, he had never been more than mediocre at best.

With the recruitment of Dean Aziz, Concave Scream had had a dream lineup that not only looked good but sounded good as well. If Concave Scream were Pearl Jam, Dean was Matt Cameron only to a more effective result. So i keep my fingers crossed everyday that the current bassist be dropped soon enough or the band will gradually lose its cult following, marking its ultimate downfall.

Bumped my knee into some huge mushroom-like corals during diving at Pulau Dayang. After about a week, it has now developed into rash-like spots and one of the spots has a little bit of pus. Weird. The rash doesn't spread though, just itches where they are. Maybe i'm gonna have some corals sprouting out from there. Cool. And maybe nemo will come too. Crap.

About the trip,
Would have had some brilliant underwater pics if my buddy didn't lose the camera on first splash. A good thing too that eventually we had fun with a giant turtle cause i missed the first sighting as i was like 5 metres above the others watching some goon do stretching exercises. He would hear no end of me otherwise.

All in all, my audio websites on audiostreet.net and download.com are up, so check them out if u wanna download the crap i recorded last time. Hopefully i'll get some new stuff out soon. Don't bet on it but check back again.