Moonshine - Acoustic Time

Another great day! And spent with parents too. Yippee!
So the day itself was rather uneventful, but at night, i managed to persuade my parents (*gasp* even my brother was shocked) to come out with me. By chance i was browsing the KLue website and they listed an acoustic gig at No Black Tie tonight. I said "Oooh.. it's the 5th! Tonight! We should go!" and mum goes, "Yeah"
And that, is how we ended up going. Had dinner at Selangor Club first, which was nice. And then, with my shaky driving, we found our way to No Black Tie, hidden in Jalan Mesui rather near Jalan Alor. Kind of dodgy looking area, but I think there are a lot of nice little places to hang!
What with U-turning to get around one way streets and with backside parallel parking, Jeannie's driving exp has just gone up 50 points! Woohoo! Somemore became the designated driver as mum and dad decided to have a bottle of wine...
So anyway, we settle down, and pay the rm 20 entrance, and order the rm 120 bottle of wine, get erm.. alright seats and the place starts slowly filling with people who are.. around their 20s. Mum and dad start feeling old, and i start feeling young, and suddenly wonder if bringing them here was such a great idea. While waiting for the place to fill (which it does, i'd really advise booking first) I took a few piccies... The place has a really nice feel to it. Kinda small (i think it was an old house) with a black cloth backdrop and completely wooden panelling. The floors, the walls, what brilliant acoustics! The positioning of some of the tables in the top half are erm.. inconvenient for actually watching the stage, but i guess if you're there for drinks then it's cool.

First up was Aminah. Erm, she's half Irish. She warms up the show excellently with her husky voice and really beaufiful self-written tunes. Her brother is in the pic on the right backing her up on the reggae like track. Well, she convinces me that the music is enough to keep mum and dad --- and me here.

Then Reza, the organiser who was already playing the guitar before that comes on. I didn't expect him to have such a smooth voice *swoon*. Especially loved the last song, For Her, unfortunately, he hasn't recorded yet and therefore i could not get his album. *pout* (oops.. no individual piccy) i'll throw in the other dudes:





This is a new double act, Plush Velvet. People were extremely noisy throughout their act, so i couldn't quite get into it. Their last song was very nice though, and the girl's voice is beautiful.





The other acts weren't that spectacular to me, except for Az Samad, who didn't sing, but wrote and played his only guitar tunes. That ReALLy impressed me.. With his celtic-inspired tunes, and quirky dodging on stage, he played the guitar just like a classical instrument. Like a violinist, who dips and raises his head while absorbed in his music, or moves the violin to get the resonant sound- that was exactly what Az did. And as strange as he looks performing, he is talented. Even dad, who is rather critical, thought that he was excellent.

i have only one gripe. Okay, come to think of it, two.
One: 95% of the place was smoking. There was an average of 2 ciggie packs a table, which made me, mum and dad a very tiny minority indeed. This is not so bad, if the smell doesn't get to you, but right now i still reek of the smoke. Also, there were also poser smokers. This group of fairly young girls seated right next to us were smoking ciggy after ciggy. Here's the thing - they were just taking half breaths and blowing it upwards like a chimney. (which means it drifts our way) But seriously, if you were really inhaling, you couldn't smoke that much. I think it was more for holding the cigarette than anything else. Jeannie thinks: it's stupid. you're wasting more money on ciggies AND no, it doesn't make you look cool. Heck, call me single minded but smoking is stupid anyway.
Second gripe: Malaysia is full of excellent raw musical talent. It's even got a brilliant place to host these music gigs (ala No Black Tie). What we DON'T have, is a respectful crowd. I got extremely annoyed at the crowd in the back that were constantly talking throughout the performance. I could barely get into the music listening to that high pitched voice of the girl behind me. Not to mention that fat aunty with her angmo friend laughing loudly. That's fine. You wanna laugh and drink, do it in a pub. You paid for a performance. People are performing for you, be decent enough to listen. Shut up and appreciate it. Or leave. (also so the rest of us can enjoy it)

Right, enough of gripes. I like No Black Tie. I need to get a bunch of artsy fartsy friends so we can go hang out in jazzy places like that. Arts student indeed. Oh well, I guess i always have my parents too. :)