Batu Pahat's Illegal Operation



Johor state again! this time it was Batu Pahat, a quiet town with great vibes and friendly people. Batu Pahat is around four hours from Kuala Lumpur and two hours drive from Johor Baru, the place we played a few weeks earlier.
It was quite a special occasion for us and the two other KL bands which played there as well (Cashmere and Love Me Butch) since its the first time we had the luck of having transportation sponsorship! It was a cool deal; Octopus.com provides transportation and accomodation in exchange for some exposure on the road (with their 2 blue octobuses!), so fair enough, right? Read the news section to find out why we know the people from Octopus! :)
When we got to Batu Pahat, we checked in the hotel and hung out by a mamak restaurant (no, we didnt hang out in coffee bean. hehe). The next morning we left early for soundcheck, and found the place of the gig on the third carpark floor of the city's bus terminal! It was great, lots of space and a pretty good sound system. After having lunch, the bands started playing, with lots of grindcore acts calling the attention of the passerby people down in the street..! Love me Butch's set was great, getting most of the people (which were say, 150 maybe) to dance in front of the stage! Yeah, the gig wasnt exactly packed, but it had nice people in it.
The turnout was a lot less than what the organiser expected (around 200 max came, i think) so we got paid 170 Ringgits. (its still good money though, and we understand the low turnout made things hard). We know the reasons as well, and its a real shame, which Ill share with you guys here in a while.
Anyways, our turn came up later on, and we started our set softly with Size does matter and Entenderas, to get people acquainted with our happy music. Right after, the songs got heavier, with Jungle Mech starting the vibe, then increasingly jumpy with Keropok and ending with Purda Kurda. (I had forgotten my swimming goggles in my bag so I had to ask my friend to throw them to me from far behind the people in the moshpit!). There was also a cool shy encore, and we played Something. The sound was pretty good, with the usual difficulty to listen to our own stuff onstage, but better than other occasions, really.
Everything went on nicely and everyone was happy. There even was a moon eclipse that same night and our compilation was hitting the stores the next day! (we brought lots of posters to promote it!)
We all had a big dinner together and went on to the bus around midnight to head back to KL. Then something bad happened. We learned of something which spoiled the entire journey, and most of us were left quiet and sad all the way back to KL, and the days after. We read a zine that was published in Batu Pahat a few days before the gig calling for a boycott. Using unfair and ridiculous words, the writer managed to bluff his way through to fame by calling the bands playing that day as "religious-fundamentalists, unethical, anti-revolutionary yuppies" and other things which are simply revolting and false. Its so sad, man. That sucked big time. Its not fair. Its just not true.


picture of the gig. Wah, metal terus, brader!

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