A little Genting Gig

Have you been to Little Genting ? No , not the real Genting @ Pahang . The one at Cheras Ampang area..

breath taking view , the perfect place to bring your chick for a date

Little Genting is a hill that has shitloads of makans and cafes ..oh yea , it felt a lil colder too . (maybe because it was night time)

THE GIG

At a nice little Cafe called Haven . Basically it is those typical Hong Kong Style Cafe , Think Halo cafe , Wong Kok etc ..But i must admit , the place has some style , it felt very very high class , absolutely love the concept ..check this out ..

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cool eh?

Okay , straight to the point ..

The cafe doesn’t want a live band . They wanted a 2 piece ..

1) Singer

2) Guitarist

This kinda performance is totally different from a live band . You’re not a part of the program . You’re just a background music . You are NOT suppose to be loud . You are NOT performing .

It is also easier for the singer , since he/she doesn’t need to stress his/her voice ..

The truth is  , I barely play for this kinda 2 man show gig . Normally,  I am a full band performance kinda guy.

random facts :

Here are the average market rates for a performing guitarist per night  ( for those who don’t know )

Musician (KL Area) are classify into 4 types ..

1) Professional / Session / Event performer -   RM300 and above / per night

2) High Class Pub Musician ( Blues / Jazz / RNB ) - from RM150-RM250 / per night

3) Pub Musician ( Rock / Top 40 / Pop ) - from RM100-RM200 / per night

4) 1 singer , 1 guitarist , 1 keyboardist ( Think Halo Cafe , Pop Chinese songs) from RM20-RM50 / per night

Yeah , as you can see , this gig falls under the category number 4 , which is also lowest paid musician in the market .

Don’t get me wrong . I am not saying those who play for cafes are absolute noobie shit . It is just the effort is ALOT lesser than the rest .

Here are my reasons :

1) Require less skill , no solos . Basically , you go up  , strum the Chords , go home . Thats about it .

2) All you need is an Acoustic Guitar and you’re up . No multieffects power supply expensive gear crap .

3) Simple and easy . You are not PERFORMING . Just play some soft backing music and let the customers have their stimulating conversation.

4) You don’t practice with a BAND . You practice with your singer ONLY. Practicing with a band eats up more time and money .

the hardest part of the gig was carrying my guitar up the stairs .

Anyway , Dickson (singer) gave me a call on friday , and told me about the gig .

At first , i was like ..err..malas lah wanna do this kinda thing…until he told me the pay ..

My reaction was like ..“whoa , that is wayyyy above average , nice ! “

(it is not a proud thing to say , i kinda felt like a prostitute ,  motivated by money! )

..and i have no idea why the high pay ? maybe because of the distance ? maybe because my singer is overrated ? don’t care lah..

So Dickson came on Saturday noon , we did some preparation for about an hour and a half (for 30 songs) ..and thats it ! Simple and easy  ! no practice ! no arrangement ~!

*Dickson and me used to be in the same band , so things were ALOT easier for both of us .

where we performed .

Dickson & Me

guest performer singing KAU ILHAMKU !

…got my rockstar treatment ! complimentary tomyam fried rice and a drink of my choice .

me .

The songs we played include :

From All time favorite Hotel California , Jazzy Fly me to the moon , Oldies Stand by me , Canto ROCK Beyond , poppy When you said nothing at all to Classic Rock Aerosmith .

My Guitar ?

Interesting , i wanted try my new baby , custom made gapnap guitar !

“g” head stock for gapnap  !  What y’all think ?

Overall , i had fun . Crowd response was great . We were super lucky we manage to cover 90% of the requested songs . ( It is like the game of battle ship , the 30 songs we chosed were requested by the crowd ..WOOHOO! WE HIT THE TARGET ! )

Oh yeah , we sang happy birthday like 6 times . 9th of August seems to be a popular day for birthdays .

random question of the day :

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a picture , taken by Sam . real or fake ?