BLAST OFF -
Friday 30th
December 2005
Comments or legal suits: lemang@tm.net.my
Compared to
last year's manically exciting shows, this years edition is
from the musican point of view a lacklustre affair. The music is
characterised by lack of
originality, lack of tunefulness, lack of practically everything that
makes music worth listening to. It also seems to be stuck in a
time
bubble - after all the Beastie Boys are more than 10 years old in
star-terms. But it's so easy to do that - you don't need to be
able
to
sing, or play an instrument - you can just get up on stage, cavort or
strut about, shout and declaim to the audience, so fast no-one can
understand a word. Either that or you do imitations of Hendrix,
the
Who or Led Zeppelin (more than 30 years old). The teenage girls,
probably weak on Rock and Pop History, who have obviously been
instructed to stand in front and smile sexilly, shreik and
wiggle around to get that testosterone going in the groups on stage
(almost all of which are male - about 95 per cent).
Even when the
lead singer sings grossly off key, the band is hailed and
cheered and the two judges don't even mention it (I suppose having
one's face decorated with macabre and hideous make-up, or having waist
length dreads or jumping about the stage like a monkey on amphetamines
is seen as fitting compensation for a woeful lack of musical ability or
taste or vocal skill). To cap it all hardly any of the
compositions
were original - just rather low-grade rehashes of tired and boring
material from - yes, you've guessed it - the Radio Top Forties.
And to
make matters worse the sound balance was uneven, so that guitars and
front line instruments were weak, while vocals were over-strong (I am
told it was the opposite inside the auditorium - the vocals could
hardly be heard).
After forcing
myself to sit through this half-hour show which was the
culinary equivalent of munching through cardboard spread with marmalade
(I was even longing for the non-existent advertisement breaks) with the
VJs making a heroic effort to gloss the thing up to look and sound
credible, and the judges trying not to hurt anyone's feelings (although
the following week Jakeman and Acis were a bit more honest and
forthright) I am
asking myself - is this REALLY all that Malaysia or even Klang Valley
can offer in the way of TALENT? I mean I can go into Paul's Place
or
Jam Asia any weekend and have a really fine musical experience
listening to bands that not only can REALLY PLAY (with a sound system
that is
full and satisfying) but also have that original touch - they can
actually play something that is not just a copy. So all you guys
out
there why don't you enter
for this Blast Off and make it a credible entertainment? What the
F***
are you waiting for? After all it's prime time TV - this is your
chance to shine.
Seriously
though, although some individuals in the competing bands
certainly have musical confidence and skill, the genres and the cover
material they choose is hardly worth listening to - without the
acrobatic vocals of a Beyonce or Usher and the tricks of a top American
producer the songs -if you can call them that are quite arid and
jejune. But then listen to "Girl" last year's gem by winners
Frequency
Cannon and you realise how good the homegrown can be. But one
thing
that made this otherwise tedious succession of musical insipidity into
a show that was pleasant to watch was the VJs - Ean, Mariam and Bel -
what lovely personalities and how skillfully and charmingly they
conducted the whole event. Blast Off as a show was very well
produced
with good continuity and ran smoothly so that the musical dullness and
imperfections were
not so important as perhaps they should have been.