Northern Music Festival 2012

Last weekend, after making a short trip down south to Kuala Lumpur, I decided to stop at Penang to check out the Northern Music Festival 2012 after being invited over by my bro and a couple of his friends. 

The name might be slightly misleading to the uninitiated. The festival has been described as 'Northern Music Festival 2012 is the next platform for local independent bands to showcase their music and talents. Featuring over 40 bands in two days, audiences will get to enjoy a mix of music from local indie bands from all over Malaysia'.  

Perhaps because the nature of these independent bands, majority of the bands belong in the metal/hardcore/hard rock/pop rock variety, with the odd dubstep and post-rock being thrown in. It certainly feel more like a rock festival more than anything... but hey, I'm cool with that.

My only complaint is the relatively little publication of the event. But I guess since I'm not so much into the local independent scene, then it's not so surprising that I didn't hear of this until I was informed of its existence. 

The path leading to the open stage - yes, that's a rock face you see behind there (this spot is called Quarry Park if I'm not mistaken) 

When we're out in the wilds, except to see some wildlife

Talk about irony...

As I've mentioned just now, I'm actually not very familiar with the independent music scene over here, so this is a good chance for me to see what they have to offer. And they're certainly not bad at all... and for some, impressive, even!

Out of the 40 bands, I manage to catch for only about half of them (20+), seeing that I had arrived late for the event on the first day, not to mention making frequent break in between the performance. Didn't take too much pictures, seeing that my camera's battery had died on me and I didn't bring along the charger with me

The Jespers  

I Lost The Plot

The Last Son

Carthreena. Probably my favourite out of the new acts off the lineup. 

The Eightyfour 

Caladrius 

Creamson (pronounced similar with crimson, strangely enough)

Rosevelt

Tres Empre. These guys definitely have that 'musician aura' going on.

Hello, Is This The Band?

Incarnation. This is the point where the crowd was really moshing.

Love Me Butch was certainly the band that I'm looking forward to, and they don't disappoint. Syarul is one crazy guy - he practically almost didn't stop for a breather between the songs.

The camera battery actually died during Love Me Butch's performance, but it magically had some juice in it for the next day:

Eustryll

Classmate 

Reset To Zilch. They're full-on instrumental band, and their sound is sort-of post-rock.

Dish. I had initially laughed at their name, but their music is good. 

Maddthelin. One of the most intense performance for the day, besides The Padangs and (from what I heard) Cassandra. 

[Not in picture: The Great Alex, Time And Tide, Damn Dirty Apes, I-Revival, Once Upon A Time There Was A Sausage Named Bob, The Padangs]

My hauls off the event

Overall it was a great weekend spent, although I'm somewhat ashamed that I didn't listen to most of the bands earlier. Well, there's always future gigs and concerts for me to catch, ahah!


A bit of epilogue: the security at the day were mostly butthurt looking. There was even one incident where one guy who jumped over the barricade (a young 'un, you could even say) was brought behind the stage for what looked like some serious interrogation). Well, that is what you get if you hire RELA (volunteer security force) I guess...

This is a metalhead in training we got here!