A musical evening @ Book Xcess

On the 4th and 5th March 2011, the Book Xcess bookstore organized what I call a mini live gig at their store in Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya. They call it Music Appreciation Night. The place is just a stone's throw from my office and about 15 minutes drive from home so I thought of paying it a visit and tried to see what was it all about. The bonus was that if we RSVP for attending the event through their Facebook, we'd get a free membership and a book thong that night and if we're already a member, we'd get a free gift of pre-selected books. The free membership is rather cool, isn't it? So, why not? Furthermore, I was intrigued as who would be the local young talents whom they brought out to the spotlight in the first ever event of its kind for the bookstore.

The gig started off a little after 8.00pm after sound checks and equipments testing. It all happened in that little, cute space that they have in the middle of the bookstore where they had gracefully put the newly acquired piano. The opening band was The 'A' Band which consists of 6 young guys who I assumed as friends of each other. They had 2 female back up singers with them that night. They sang several songs; Baik Baik Sayang (Wali Band) and Kau Ilhamku (Man Bai), just to name a few.

The 'A' Band

The second talent to perform was probably my favourite of the night, a 17-year-old kid named Herman Ramanado. Oh, he belted out cool songs like Fix You by Coldplay and Wonderwall (Oasis) so effortlessly while playing his guitar. He has a really nice voice and successfully spiced up the tunes in his own way which I enjoyed. His taste, I think, was well suited with various groups of listeners as he also chose to do a classic Frank Sinatra number, In Other Words (Fly Me To The Moon). Interesting choice of songs. And preferring genres like funk, soul, reggae and real R&B for a young kid like him is interesting, in my opinion.

Herman Ramanado

Another talent worth rooting for is the young band hailing from Klang, How Should I Know. The band captured my heart with their cover of Taylor Swift's Back To December, which is my current favourite song right now. They performed several more songs afterwards including a Malay song. These guys might probably be no more than 18 years old as in the introduction the MC said that they were friends since 4 years ago when they were merely 14-year-olds. And yet they have already won several competitions around Klang. They can go further up if things going on good.

How Should I Know

The final act of the day would be my first encounter with Mr. Azmyl Yunor. I've never heard of him before and yet when I read the introduction of him that night, I had a feeling that he's going to be fun to watch. And indeed he was. Equipped with a guitar and harmonica, Azmyl performed five of his self-written English and Malay songs with great energy, yet he maintained a modest, laid-back presence, with occasional playful, good-natured remarks. Perhaps dear readers can find him in the internet domain well enough as he has his own website, Myspace and Facebook, and also featured in Wikipedia to know who he is. He promoted his latest independent cd that night and I got the chance to meet him in person, had a small conversation and bought the cd with his autograph on it. Yeah, I could say that I was quite stoked in a way. A really nice guy.

Azmyl Yunor

In the end, it was really a night of appreciation of good music. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend the second night for some reason, headache and fatigue being two of it. Therefore I cannot make a review of it here. However, I was glad to attend this event. Good music brings good vibes. Haha...me and my vibes!    

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p/s: I'm thinking of uploading the videos I recorded, so until I've finished figuring it out, keep yourself posted to this blog if you are interested in watching.. :)