IGNITE! Music Festival 2008

This is the only thing I was looking forward to this year. Frankly speaking, nothing else matters. Although the ride wasn’t smooth at all, but it was a dream come true. Thankfully, I did have a great team to work with. Myself, I jumped at the 1st chance to suit up in berms and workbelt, and get down right dirty! Hell yeah, bring it on!



During the planning stages, things looked damn plain on paper. The location sucked. A small little slope right next to a toxic lake for my ambitions, not evil enough. But after walking through the whole campus, it’s the only choice. Alternatives were either too far north into oblivion, or lacking in ‘fengshui’.


Now my preferred line-up would actually be one night of straight-up hardcore punk bands tearing up the stage and fans ripping the whole venue. Then second night will be set in the disaster area resulted from previous night, loud aggressive gothic-industrial stuffs with full theatrics and pyros. Too bad I had to cater to the mainstream to attract as much crowd as possible, to make this music festival a success. As some would say, I had to sell out. Oh well, since I’m not the one that’s paying 5-figures to do this music festival, I better do what I’m paid for.

Dreams aside, I had to sacrifice even during the planning stages. This includes drinking with one of the big boss man and ended up sending him home. Well, looking on the bright side, I didn’t pay for the drinks on all occasions. Woohoo!



Once CSP started on the tentage, the sense of excitement started to escalate. The tentage looks very promising. Although it has got its shortcomings, they were easily solved by alternatives. With the usual changes for Barco’s Mipix in terms of scale, since LED panels are the least of priority when compared to audio and lighting. Not before long, the stage was ready for audio and lighting to kick some ass.

Even with all preparations done, there’s nothing we can do to plan for weather. Since it’s a rain or shine event, this applies to setup as well. Rain caused us to lose 9 hours of effective work, spent some good time staring at the bare stage and some bonding with the mud and trusses. Thanks to the spirits of the setup crew, nothing’s stopping the event from going on.



Gritting through the teeth and mud, it was D-day and soundcheck began before I can remember how many times I’d stoned out. Bands came and went after soundcheck. Some didn’t even turn up. Oh well, at least we have more time to play with Soundcraft’s Vi4 which we loaned from E&E. Time was precious as we need to fine tune our d&b Q-series line array.
We were also fighting for time for troubleshooting the Coolux’s Pandora’s box. This media server kept giving us problems. Other than the usual displaying its usual PMS fits and refuse to communicate with Avolite’s Diamond 4, the media manager keeps hanging itself up. Damn windows. Damn Pandora’s box.

Quiz: How much coffee is needed to make your eyebags smaller than your eyes?

After all the rain
After all the sweat and mud
After all the truss climbing
After all the hype and tension

We cleared the grounds as if nothing happened there before.

Dismember Live at Substation '08

Yeah yeah. I’ve heard the same old story on repeat so many times I can hear the analog echo trailing behind it. Many think that this tiny island is just nothing but rules and restrictions. But with a punk attitude, I prefer the opposite perspective. Without rules and restrictions, then there’s nothing to fight against.
This is the beauty I see in aggressive music. Amidst the ‘No Smoking’ and ‘No Littering’ signs, hell rose over. Instead of sacrificing virgins and lusting for the imperial blood, Dismember treated the evening with no-bull Swedish death metal.

YOU WANT IT.

YOU GOT IT.

I don’t really listen to Dismember. I won’t try to bluff my way through either. But I’m starved for great old skool rock ‘n roll, substation-style, just like back in the late 90s. And hell yeah! It was like a trip down memory lane. The usual black attired gorillas loitering on the roadside, with the usual cans in plastic bags and ever-lingering smoke filling the air just 1 feet above everyone’s head.


When doors finally opened, Ah boy’s sidekick appeared as usual right at the back of the venue. Lounging comfortably behind his trusty Mackie setup. Now’s the time to choose the phrase that best describe this particular screenshot.

‘Can’t teach an old dog new tricks’
‘A leopard can’t change its spots’
‘ROCK NEVER DIE’

Dismember came on and did their jazz. But I was thrown off by the fact that I wasn’t blown away. Not my hair (or what’s left of it). Not my ears. No nothing. I came with the expectations to be deafened by huge wall of trash rhythms, pounding double speed drums and screeching guitars that kills pigeons. But all I got was just pretty dry drums and vocals. The FOH speakers looked like just 1 ‘Nexo PS15’ on each side, and they are really overworked, so much so that they are choking.


I guess the higher the expectations you have, the harder you’ll fall. Maybe I didn’t get any drinks before going for the gig. They would have butchered me alive after a few beers in my blood. But I enjoyed their stage performance nonetheless. One of the guitarist was using an Ibanez Prestige series. Yeah baby yeah.

Air Supply '08 Live at Max Pavillion

Had the opportunity to attend Electro-Voice’s launch of their PL series microphones. Nah… That’s just another way of saying I’ve got free tickets to catch Air Supply, front seats! :)
The pre-event party showcase microphones from the PL series, compared side-by-side with industry workshorses such as Shure’s SM58. This included performances from some Singapore Idol contestant and a very young drummer.

Well, the showcase was clearly unfair from a few factors.

1stly, the PA speakers weren’t properly calibrated to facilitate proper judgment of microphones. Not to mention the room of course!

2ndly, comparing EV’s favourite Neodymium capsule with SM58? Where’s the line between good and bad?

3rdly, what’s the objective? If flat frequency response is good for performance microphone. Do you need to all frequencies to translate into your FOH and stage monitors? Where’s the character that we all love?

Therefore, it is very clear that it was just a social gathering of industry friends, over some food and drinks before we put the ‘Air Supply’ back into old skool. :)

Air Supply’s gig was alright lah. Although I didn’t grow up in the same era, I was able to identify some classics, which I was too embarrassed to admit. And classic it was. The crowd was not only double my age, all of the male counterparts were just there to accompany their significant other. Sure it’s nice to enjoy a concert once in a while, but at least enjoy the music. And not look at your wife with the ‘Thank god I’m only doing this once a year’ eyes.


I’m guessing that the gig was supported by EV’s XLC line arrays, I could be wrong. Didn’t have the chance to walk around the place, but from the front fills, they sound pretty ok. I didn’t have to resort to ear plugs, nor did I suffer from ringing in my ears. But I was surprised to hear that they didn’t have any delay speakers for the folks right behind. Granted the venue sounds like sand-in-a-tin-can, shouldn’t they actually reinforced the value of the concert to paying audiences right at the back?
Lighting stole the show, in a bad way unfortunately. The rig looks quite promising at 1st. But 30 minutes into the gig, it was nothing but preset shape generators. Even the spots on the drummer and keyboardist looked a bit off. Considering that this could be a touring show, with the same crew, and designed back home, they could have done a lot better.


At last Tony couldn’t resist and did some ground work. Apparantly, the lighting designer/operator happened to be some trainee. Now would you pay 200 bucks to watch a trainee show? Luckily my ticket was complimentary. :)

Disclaimer: Sorry for the lousy pics. Camera phones don't work very well under poor lighting conditions. Maybe the New HTC Diamond might work better? Hehe...

Momentum 2008

Yes I know. It's been a long time since I've updated this blog. Well, it might be about time that this gets retired into blog-cemetary together with the passing of adolescent dreams and short-lived hype. Then again, I guess I'm still...

' 18 and life to go... '
~Sebastian Bach (Skid Row)

Pressure-tight datelines and high-speed chase began with this graceful dance festival. Momentum 2008 was Republic Polytechnic's 1st dance festival. Not that I love to dance, but when something needs to get done, just do it! For those who knows me, I'm more of a fist-in-the-air and vertical-head-bopping kind of guy. :) Spandex and contortions feels like diarrhea.

I didn't think much about doing technical production coordinator for this at 1st. What else can go wrong in a air-conditioned playground which I visit more than my 18-month-old cousin says 'mum mum' on any given day. But the danger strikes at the unexpecting... (Looking back, I kinda enjoyed the torture. Like scratching an itch.)


We got sponsored LED panels as backdrop for the whole festival. It was great man! Added a different dimension to our conventional Theatre setup with black drapes. And the video effects was just simply amazing. Mind you, they actually saved some of the lacklustre dancers by distracting the audiences from the clumsy jerks(both the movement and the dancers)

Problems surfaced during setup, as usual. After a few years, I still believe that there’s no such thing as a smooth production. Our in-house flybars can only handle a SWL of 500kg. And as my Lady-Black-Luck loves me so much, she told the contractors that the SWL indicated doesn’t include the weight of the bar itself! Therefore, I’m only left with a miserable 380kg to play with. Thanks dear. According to the LED panel design I got, the heaviest load is 560kg. Therefore I had no choice but to convince the lighting designer to scale down his design.


As we all know, just 1 climax in a movie doesn’t make it a blockbuster. The next to hit me is that our dear Sunbear (Mr-Know-It-All) misread lighting plan and before I can say, ‘This Mama’s getting his ass kick from the inside out’, we went into a 9-hour rescue. And to add toppings to milo dinosaur, Sunbear claimed that Lightwright can’t print his lighting notes. Now think about it, why would someone build a house and not able to house anything? Simple logic.


Well at the end of it all, it wasn't that bad, considering the audience turnout hit an average of 80% for 2 shows. And I became part of Republic Polytechnic’s history. :)