eCentral

Tuesday December 19, 2006

For the masses

By WONG LIP KEE

Rock the World 7 as a festival has built the bridge to reflect the vast array of local rock talent, writes WONG LIP KEE.

Pop Shuvit frontman Moots entertaining the day-time crowd at the Rock the World Music Festival at Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur.
It came and it went, like every good thing that comes to an end. What am I rambling about? Rock the World 7 (RTW7) – the local rock event of the year that took place last Saturday at Stadium Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur. What had started out as just a car park gig in a shopping mall way back in 2000 has morphed into a major stadium event.

For this year’s affair, festival organisers Fat Boys Events introduced three stages to the annual event, giving a wider spread of bands and rock genres to the masses.

Stages were erected in the stadium grounds to accommodate 50 performing bands/artistes. At any one time, three bands could be seen performing simultaneously. The stages were arranged facing away from each other to avoid clashing of sounds.

Upon setting foot into the stadium, I was initially greeted with sonic chaos, as there was music from all the stages echoing and getting mixed up. However, once I started making my way towards one of the stages from the seating area, things started to get clear – somewhat like zeroing in to a certain frequency on a radio-tuning dial.

The sight of the stadium was really like what you’d expect to see at a music festival. There were hordes of rock fans walking around, choosing their favourite spots and just completely immersing themselves in the loud music. An estimated figure of 20,000 people turned up to catch the rock action.

The crowd was a diverse one, with the metal and punk scene regulars right up to trendy indie types and singer-songwriter enthusiasts represented. It was a sight of Malaysians coming out to support their own – and it was a good sign of rock festival culture steadily growing in these parts.

Apart from taking in the whole atmosphere of the event, the real excitement was happening on the stages. On the Indie Stage, we had bands like Auburn, which displayed an interesting blend of modern rock with progressive-like arrangements. Broken Scar also played to a fantastic crowd towards the evening, giving a rocking set and getting everyone to sing along.

Halfway through the performance, a slight drizzle set in but it did not dampen the already high-spirited crowd. Next up came Soft Touch delivering their brand of folk rock and reggae-informed tunes to a very responsive audience, which were grooving and dancing to the beat. Later on in the night, Dragon Red kicked off their set with a cover of a System Of A Down track and eventually songs from their debut album, Holocaust, which started the crowd surfing.

Moving over to the Discovery Stage, there were some interesting revelations to talk about. This particular area was set up under a smaller tent and was dimly lit to project a cozier feel. Bands like Brainhead were given an opportunity to strut their stuff. These guys have definitely come a long way in exposure. Slight technical difficulties crept up earlier in their set as there was something wrong with the vocal microphone but once that was settled, Brainhead gave a very tight performance, churning out pop rock tunes led by a good husky voiced vocalist.

Bittersweet adding a dose of indie-pop style to the festival.
Elsewhere, an act to watch out for was Isaac Entry. A blend of jazz, blues and funk reflected Entry’s set. His performance was cool and flawless. Backed by a very responsive band, Entry led them through the songs with his soulful vocals and sparse guitar playing. Keeping his musicians on their toes, they responded to every signal he gave to them quite like a conductor to an orchestra. He got the audience mesmerised and wanting more. Other acts sharing that stage were Sofa Sessions, Reza Salleh and Curtis Blues Review to name a few.

In the meantime, over at the Main Stage was where the “big boys” played. Bands such as Love Me Butch, Pop Shuvit, Lo and Koffin Kanser took turns to rock out in front of a packed audience. Trust the chilled out Republic of Brickfields – no strangers to the homegrown scene – to come up and deliver a dose of reggae to get the crowd “skanking”. Bringing back vibes of Bob Marley and The Wailers with bits of organ and odd time accented timbales hits by their percussionist, the band gave an added herbal flavour to the fest. Pop-punk band One Buck Short also gave a very energetic show with their bunch of urgent tunes. They got the crowd going bananas and it proved that accessible punk is still a popular draw. Hailing from Ipoh, the much talked about Bittersweet took to the stage dressed up mostly in slick jackets and had a new album to unleash. The lead singer donning a pair of Roy Orbison-like shades sang his way through their set of Britpop styled compositions with style and won over a lot of new fans.

One Buck Short main man Mooky (right) getting the pop-punk masses up on their feet.
In all its grandeur, Rock the World 7 was an ambitious event that was pulled off successfully. Despite some minor technical problems and the concert eventually running about an hour late, everything else went by quite smoothly and in an orderly manner.

The smiling faces of the rock masses and the euphoria of 50 local bands coming together was truly something to celebrate. Roll on the next installment ... with a hundred bands and an open field to the equation?

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