stasis 10: curtain call

First off, apologies to You and Whose Army? and Freefallers for having to miss their sets. I’ve been meaning to catch YaWA for the longest time, and didn’t manage to.

There were some familiar faces around, including people from Postbox, Trella, A Vacant Affair, Kevin Matthews, Syed from WGB, Soo Wei from 98.7fm and others.

I caught the second half of Ivy’s Vendetta’s set and they were fun, catchy and had a nice feel-good vibe with a slight bit of darker, alternative edge tastefully thrown in here and there. The drummer blazed through a blistering and impressive drum solo that the crowd really loved!

Next was Peepshow! For those of you who were there but didn’t know, most of the equipment used for the show was provided by the guys from Peepshow, who were also doing the sound for most of the show.

It wasn’t the absolute tightest I’ve caught them yet (the poor fellas barely got any sleep, having to set up the equipment and everything from 8am in the morning), yet it was still very, very entertaining and enjoyable. I loved The Funky Song and Come Back To Me, very fun, very refreshing. SK’s lead guitar playing is very tasteful, has great tone and is very original! Got to get their EP when it comes out in April.

Fishtank was a fun ska-punk act, very tight from years of playing. This was perhaps my first real introduction to ska-punk and I was able to appreciate the fellas talent- I learnt a few things from watching their bass player! The last song really got the entire crowd up on their feet and dancing/skanking away! It was quite fun!

Next up was Leeson! I last caught Leeson at Deafcon 7 and I was blown away, and they were just as entertaining this time around. Their onstage persona and charisma is wonderful, and you can tell from the way they talk to each other that they’re really genuine about what they do and are really enjoying themselves (which shows through, and is what really matters!) Their songs are catchy with great pop sensibility and I enjoyed the vocal harmonies they had.

Next I believe was Vertical Rush! I caught these veterans only once before, at a Confessions show at *scape Labs and I was completely blown away. They still delivered a brilliant set! I love watching how drummer Daren really throws himself into his playing, he looks like he’s in euphoria. I was wondering why he kept that cute little drumstick pouch on his bag until i saw the sticks flying from his hands when he pummelled the hi-hat. Very emotional and very entertaining. Guitarist Marcus was a pleasure to watch too, his lead playing was awesome and the way he threw his whole being into what he was doing was amazing. I’m not sure what effects he uses but there’s some sort of delay thing that gives this really haunting vibe, it’s brilliant. I loved the song Angels or something like that, the buildup and the vibe was really powerful and emotional for me and I could really feel it from the band. Awesome song.

It was my first time catching Amateur Takes Control and it was really great stuff. The textures and emotional buildups in their music was really enjoyable and touching. I particularly enjoyed the last song, which had Bong from Trella joining in at the climax of the song with screamo vocals, which were actually quite tasteful and added to the song.

B-Quartet was very refreshing and awesome. I hadn’t caught these guys in 2 years or so (though we did run into them once at Wee Lee Aljuned jamming) and they’ve changed alot in a good way. Their experimental sound and Bani Haykal’s eccentric stage persona is really something special, and ORIGINAL. They don’t fall into the trap of trying to be deep and sophisticated and “cheem” for the sake of it- it really adds to the vibe and it really does feel like they’re doing what they’re doing because it’s the way it’s supposed to be. Had to love the little jokes like “since we’ve got an encore, we’ll play you The Teardown Song which involves us packing up our equipment for 10 minutes while The Great Spy Experiment sets up”. Their set was as long as every other bands but it felt way too short. Their EP launch will be at The Arts House in February, looking forward to it!

If it was your first time catching The Great Spy Experiment (it was for a new friend I met at the show), you’d know something was up when you saw the huge crowd standing up and filling out the entire venue until it became impossible to see anything. After playing on big stages like Lime Sonic Bang and ZoukOut, Saiful and gang resoundingly proved that they could still play a cosy, intimate set with the audience less than an arm’s length away and blow everybody’s minds. Everybody was dancing and singing along at the top of their lungs and it was really a magical experience. It’s become clear that GSE’s music has reached iconic status in the local scene and will be remembered for a long time to come.

And talking about icons, who else but the legendary Plainsunset comes to mind? They played a brilliant set next and the crowd was wonderful. Friendly moshing and crowdsurfing ensued, and I managed to catch a couple of waves myself! Their catchy and memorable songs had everybody singing along, and even those who were new to the band learnt the lyrics along the way. Jon Chan took a moment of technical difficulty to have the crowd chant “Skinny jeans are bad for your balls” and announced that the album will be finished up and sent for mastering soon!

All in all, Stasis 10 was an amazing gig and a great exprience, and a great (albiet sorry) end to a powerful series. Thank you, Stasis committee. =)