Recently a well-respected San-Francisco based dikir barat outfit, NOFX (for those not familiar: short bio, myspace) came to KL as part of their Asian Tour. Their dates include stops at Beijing, Manila, Singapore, Bali and Jakarta (you can checkout the flyer collage).
They coming to town is a huge deal for me since I’ve been listening to them post-SPM days along with Operation Ivy, Rancid and Goldfinger to name a few. Believe it or not but in the spirit of punkrock they somehow managed to sell over 6 million records worldwide, which is an unprecedented feat for an independent band since their formation back in the ‘83(!)..done without much publicity, radio airplays or MTV bullshit.. or Mangga
So during the day of the show, after a glass of drink with Sir Nizam Lester we went to the venue (Rumms Club at LifeCentre). A large crowd had gathered... punkrock/hardcore kids, emo, metalheads, wannanbees and even awex manis (with and without tudung!)…u name it...all of em are there. Meet up with Jos, Scott, Adib and Reza…and apparently one of my hi-skool best mate ‘Ted Bundy’ was the organiser’s official pixman of the day (the source of majority of the pix her..u can checkout his crisp and crystal clear photography via his flickr page here ).
Contrary to popular belief, no punkrock show is on-time….so after 2 hours delay two opening acts geared the stage for some appetizer. Local band ‘Y2K’ performed a short set followed by a chaotic moshpit scene from Hong Kong Hardcore heroes ‘King LyChee’. Siti Nurhaliza was also invited as a guest-act, but she sportingly decline due to ‘creative differences’ (yea rite). Mawi was also nowhere to be seen to the dismay of the Akademi Fkn Fantasial faithful. After the dust has been settled by the opening acts, NOFX roadies came out for some last minute equipment and gear soundcheck…and out come the NOFX wolves…
(by the way, u can read the gig review by mainstream media here: The Star)
