i will (according to he current time-zone, i have) miss my chance to catch tempered mental play live at laundry bar tonight. not a happy bunny.

nevertheless, last thursday i caught laundry’s planet bazooka event which showcased three bands. went with the neon and wong, although we were supposed to be joined by anuar (where the hell were you, dude?).

madhouse from masjid tanah, melaka kicked off the evening. can’t help to notice the creed-esque influence to their tunes, although i have to admit the singing was good (the demos on their myspace site don’t do their live performance any justice, in my humblest of opinions). theirs was a short 4 or 5-song set which lasted about a little under half an hour.

up next was auburn, which was one band that i was pretty much looking forward to check out live. i was given their karya EP a while back, and i loved the heaviness of it all. when i first listened to it, it took me a little while to adjust to izuan shah’s vocals. don’t get me wrong, but it was refreshingly unusual to note the juxtaposition of ‘light’ (if i could describe it as such) singing and heavy-as-hell riffing. they would exude tool’s complexity yet, in bits, displayed the majestic qualities of the pumpkins. auburn had estranged’s hanafi in tow for guitar duties and that night i had the pleasure to check out steph, their new drummer. and i was not disappointed – this girl got style, not to mention her chops (wong, please take note). they played androgyne and silhouettes from karya, together with new material (which i couldn’t remember – check out auburn’s myspace page, yo) and two covers, paramore’s emergency and neomedicus’ conteng. just like my pearl jam experience, it felt great being right up the front row listening to stuff that you really like. anyone in KL reading this, i’d recommend checking them out on 3.11.07 at the central market annexe.

and for the second time, i got to see they will kill us all. i did write a short schpiel on them back in april and it was unnerving to find amir from TWKUA dropping in a short comment, which included an offer to get one of their demos. if you’re reading this, is the offer still on? despite a short set (it felt short!), they kicked ass as they did when i checked them out last at jam asia. highlight of the evening for me? situational/separation‘s bingit pitch-shifted guitars! fizul could be malaysia’s answer to jagger, at the rate he’s swaggering, with a voice reminiscent of brett anderson’s. next gig to check ’em out will be at the channel V AMP stage at recharge revelation 5 in melaka this saturday.