Great time this weekend. Friday I got off work, bought new headphones for my iPhone, got to band practice, headed home by taxi, and had a nice night getting a few things done on the computer (mostly listening to Humpback Oak, actually, for my big monster review of the Oakbox, but that’s another story).
Supertzar Acid Eater
Saturday, after a 30-minute lunch hour struggle to get a cab (it was peak time, plus there were heavy rains and traffic jams all over Singapore), we went off for lunch at the funky middle-of-nowhere apartment of my colleague, a newlywed, and his lovely wife – the place had a great, breezy, relaxed atmosphere. We had Zen along, and there were times that he was bored, but he got along well with five adults an we listened to funky music while eating great food. Thanks! Headed off to Orchard Road to buy a toy for Zen, couldn’t find it, I then went off to my band’s concert, again at Chocolate Bar. Things weren’t looking so great – the programme had become backed up by over 60 minutes because the rains had delayed the start of the day, and bands had also been over-playing their sets. Sheesh. And when our set started we had some drum mishaps – one of the cymbals kept falling over (the drummer was calling out to me to fix it but I wasn’t cluing in), and the bass drum was moving across the floor. Our drummer is too vicious, he destroys drum kits!! (Not really, though) But we had a great time, and hung out afterwards a bit to see the next band, who were pretty good – they did a great cover of “For Whom The Bell Tolls” (Metallica) and “The Trooper” (Iron Maiden). Going home, I had some problems getting a cab, so I took a bus. Naoko and Zen, who were coming from downtown after Zen’s Japanese lesson, then also had some problems getting into the apartment because Naoko had forgotten her key. D’oh! I had a key, but was running behind them, so rather than wait in the stairwell they went off to a local hawker centre to hang out and eat, and I joined them there. An anti-climax to an active day, but not a problem – we enjoyed the meal together in the end anyway. I then went off by bicycle to another concert that was playing nearby, which had been scheduled from 4:00 to 11:00 at a jam studio in the entertainment complex next to the old fire station that had been turned over to small businesses. I hadn’t been there in a while and was looking forward to checking it out for the first time in ages. Got there at 10:00, just in time to hear the last band play, they’re called The Bloody Rejeks. The vocalist, guitarist and bassist were all women, and there was a male drummer. They were all great musicians, especially the drummer, and the vocalist really knew how to scream. Very cool. Left after a few minutes of chilling out with some people I knew there, and then headed home. Seems like all the shops in the area are being shut down, meaning that the wonderful Raw Fusion restaurant is gone. What a shame, it was the perfect chillout place, even if the food was a bit pricy and skimpy. I wonder what kind of a crappy den it’s going to be re-developed into.
Sunday we chilled out in the morning, and in the afternoon we went off to Zen’s softball practice. With a lot of kids graduating from the junior team to go to the senior team, Zen has this season become the sub-captain, being now one of the two oldest boys on the team (the other, who has been on the team longer, is the captain). The team is very small now, with two very young kids from last year returning, and three new kids trying out. One of the kids is Chinese/Australian and speaks English, and the two Japanese kids both go to the Canadian school, so suddenly there are quite a few English-speaking kids and parents around. The afternoon was brutally hot and I sweat buckets. When we got back home, we went for a swim (felt great!); soon our friend Peggy came over for dinner and we had some beer (felt great!) with our gyoza (tasted great!), salad and soup. Fantastic weekend!
Here are some videos of the gig, and some pictures below the videos:
Sweet Leaf
Iron Man
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
NIB
Singapore Sidewalk
Singapore Sidewalk 2
Pictures of pictures of Peggy
Crystal balls: Bahrain, Singapore, Angkor Wat