KC on bass (Caracal)

A 2 day free-for-all music festival held at *scape, 3 stages are setup for this event, “The Main Stage @ *scape Youth Park”, “The Confessions Stage @ *scape The LAB”, and “Plug & Play Stage @ Cathay Cineleisure Orchard”.
This time round WeekendTRIP is collaborating with Noise Singapore to showcase music talents of various genres, and also bringing in 2 foreign bands, namely Sandwich from Philippines, and Bittersweet from Malaysia.

I am mainly covering bands performing at the main stage, except for a band which is performing at the confessions stage.

Band list:

Day 1:

S.P.O.N.G.E (Noise Artiste)
Quasimodo (Noise Artiste)
Monochrome (Noise Artiste)
Silhouette
Sandwich (Philippines)

Day 2:

Duxton Plains (Noise Artiste)
EN-X (Noise Artiste)
King Kong Jane (Noise Artiste)
Caracal
Bittersweet (Malaysia)

Day 1 - Friday

Reached the main stage, didn’t see much of a crowd other than event organizers, band members, and technical crew.
Probably due to being a Friday evening, some might still be working or tired from work.

Right up, the first band of the night, S.P.O.N.G.E!

Kenneth on guitar

Qader on drums

Still not much of an audience after the band finish their set, although a lot of people was eating at Botak Jones beside the stage.

Awaiting for the next band to be ready and announced by the emcee.
Let’s welcome Quasimodo!

Azmie Dan on vocals

An easy listening rock-ish tunes from the band.
They also covered 1 song from The Killers, if I remember correctly it was “When You Were Young”, well I maybe wrong, I have bad memory.

Finally a band that have female members, 1 as the lead vocalist, the other for keyboards and backing vocals.
Up next, Monochrome (灰色天)!

Alia on lead vocals

Rel on bass

First thing that comes to my mind, feels like English counterpart of F.I.R, especially their slower songs.
They played a song by Muse, called “Time Is Running Out” on that night too.
Do also check out their Chinese (yes, they sing in Chinese too) songs at their MySpace.

The audience starts to pack up the area, can probably see a few rows of people at the front of the stage.
Probably camping there for the best position for the remaining 2 bands of the night.
Not to waste anymore time (or words), Silhouette going first!

Mahfuz on bass

Shah Rizal on vocals

A great show from the Silhouette guys, playing high-tempo aggressive rock, that will keep your feet tapping to it.
Showing the stage/audience presence throughout their set, I believe those who were there will agree to it.

After all the good performance from the previous bands, now it’s finally time for the last band to perform.
Coming all the way from Philippines, let’s welcome Sandwich!

Raimund Marasigan on vocals and guitar

Mong Alcaraz on guitar and keyboards

Raimund Marasigan on vocals and guitar

Diego Castillo on guitar and backup vocals

Awesome show from the Philippines’ friends, old school rock and energetic music from them.
The crowd packed almost of the whole stage area by then, and they went wild when Raimund jump to the crowd a couple of times to bodysurf.
A band which is good technically, have the stage presence and also entertain the crowds.

My favorite band of the night will be Sandwich, followed by Silhouette.
Although Silhouette and Monochrome are pretty close fight, but the stage presence and crowd drawing of Silhouette wins it for me.
With this, ends the first day of the festival.

Day 2: Saturday

When I reached there, The Lion Story had already finish their set, so awaiting for the next band to be ready.
With all the instruments setup properly, emcee of the day announced the next band, Duxton Plains!

Zan on guitar, Sulaiman on vocals and guitar, and Iman on bass

As like the first day, not much crowd at all around the early time of the event.
But the band still show us their best, playing rock with catchy tunes.

During the interval, I went to the confessions stage, which is a small indoor venue, with initimate lights.
EN-X just started playing when I reached there.

Alvin on lead vocals and piano

The intimate venue, the band, and their music really feel close to you.
Most of their songs are on the slower side, but Alvin sang with soul and passion.
The venue settings and their music matched great.

Went back to the main stage after the EN-X set, and King Kong Jane had already started rocking out.

Colin on vocals

Jianping on drums

A fun, energetic and rocking show from the boys of King Kong Jane!
Especially so from Colin, expressive and very energetic showmanship, you’ll never get tired to see him performing on stage.

The crowds are coming in gradually during King Kong Jane set, but it was packed to the brim during the interval.
This can mean one thing, Caracal is performing next, one of the locals favorite.
Without further ado, Caracal!

Chris on vocals

KC on bass

Guest appearance of Matt (A Vacant Affair) on vocals

Chris on vocals

Awesome performance by them as usual, and with guest vocalist of Matt from A Vacant Affair, double the fun!
I for sure, was rocking out to their explosive music, powerful vocals, catchy riffs, thumping bass, hard not to in my opinion.

The last band of the festival, all dressed in black leather jackets outfit and coming from Malaysia, Bittersweet!

A great show by Bittersweet, definitely rocking out the house, but at a slower tempo in compared to the high octane performance by Caracal before this.
Bittersweet is good, just a different kind of music, more of an old school rock feeling with catchy and groovy tunes.

My favorite band of the night will be Caracal, followed by Bittersweet.
Very close fight for me to rank them, just that I prefer Caracal stuffs more.
(But I definitely like the photos I taken of Bittersweet more, you can see from the amount of Bittersweet photos I posted up.)

Final words, do support local music!
If we don’t, who will?
Do give a chance to local music if you have not, they are quite a number of free gigs all year round, like WeekendTRIP, or one of the biggest local annual music festival Baybeats.
You can always find out information on upcoming gigs over at Soft.

ps: Most probably will be doing up a review of May’n - Act, and Aya Hirano - 1st Riot Tour Live 2008.
So stay tune till then.

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Equipment used:

Nikon D300
Nikon 85mm f/1.4
Nikon 50mm f/1.4
Sigma 30mm f/1.4
Nikon SB800

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