TROUBADOURS

Yes, this is abit overdue, but ...hehehe, here it goes..


The crowd for April’s Troubadours / Open Doors was way better than last month despite the rain. Though we had a really good performances by The Rhapsody, Jerome kugan and others, as well the really cool short films by Tan Hui Koon, Nasim Esa, Liew Seng Tat etc, we didnt get enough audiences (mainly due to the heavy downpour). For that we do apologise to the film makers and performers.
 
This time around, the show got off bit late as we had to wait for (more) people to slowly trickle in! So remember peeps,, please come in on time as a sign of courtesy to the performers and film makers as well as to the other audiences who were punctual.
We started with an open mic session (a first for TOD), with Kevin a.k.a Broken Scar kicking things off. Kevin even managed to slip in a simple contest giving out three copies of his recently released debut album titled “Midnight in St. Kilda”. As usual Kevin delivered an energetic set, though we were abit disappointed he didnt sang material from the new album. For those who missed his set, do catch Broken scar at Troubaganger next month ok? He might even give away some cds!!
 
Imam, a young singer songwriter from Indonesia who is currently studying here is the second act for the open mic session. A mixture of Indo pop and British alternative rock (?), this newcomer is an act to look out for. Don't believe us? Catch him at the next Troubaganger show at La Bodega!
 
In this series, 4 short films by Jimmy Choong, Nik Haslinda, Jeffrey Loh and Chawirat Tan titled “Ada Bola”, “Cermin”, “3 Months Later” and “Burning Sensation” respectively were featured. This time round, all the 4 filmmakers were present at the event to give short commentaries on their film and answered questions that were fielded by the audience. Some of the questiones revolves around the creative aspects behind the films, others were more about logistics. whatever it is, there's seems to be no stopping them from making the kind of films that are intelligent, witty, cheeky and wholly entertaining!!!
 
As for the featured singer songwriters, first up was Ferns, a 5 piece pop band, who brought the audience into a dreamy mood with their mind haunting music arrangement and unique vocal style which incorporates a lot of falsetto. For fans of Travis, etc good news!! they'll be releasing their debut album soon. Watch this space!
 
Next was Pak Pandir, a veteran performer singing a mixture of favourite old and new tunes. Most of the audiences, even the younger generation, seem to recall Pak Pandir’s award winning hit back in the 90s, “Yang Remeh-Temeh” when he sang it. Being a veteran, Pak Pandir definitely knows how to woo the crowd and got the audience singing along and laughing at his witty lyrics.

Paul Lau, one of the founders and spokesperson for Tugu, went on stage to explained the collective's philosophy and history .A jamming session by Tugu Drum Circle at the main lobby area brought the gig to a grand finale. The whole building reverberated with the sometimes frenzied and catchy beats of the percussions. The session also involved members of the audience playing various percussion instruments, which lasted for about an hour.The dedication and passion for drumming is visible from the not so young to the youngest member (7 year old!!) as they relentlessly attack the skins. Paul and another prominent young singersongwriter Reza even went around enticing the audience with the universal language of the rhythm to get everyone into the groove. WHOA!!! was that a cool ending to a great show or what?!!

Kudos and thanks to all who came made it a success. Special thanks to Norman Teh and ChanWAn@ Tendouji for designing those really extra cool poster/ flyers, To Albert and friends for past photos, To Yue May for the latest pics (coming soon!!) and to the audiences, thank you very much, hope to see y'all soon!!


Ian Chow, SH, AY and JK