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My personal take on the festival. A very long one because you won’t believe how much time I have on my hands today.. so skip to the videos if you don’t want to hear me rattle away like a spoilt teenage blogger..

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In anticipation of Missy Elliott’s arrival, I’ve been shaking my imaginary pom poms in my Missy E/Adidas kicks all week prior to 17th May 2008. Sure as hell trying to get my freak on, right?

With a line up that consists of Missy E, Yoji and Dan the Automator, expectations were high.

Come festival day, I learnt that Dan the Automator was a no show. Major disappointment. I wondered what Gorillaz’ fans would feel if they had paid RM118 for pre-sale tickets, travelled an hour to the highlands, waited at the empty XLR8 stage because Dan was all that they hoped to see, and then find out that he bailed..?

That would’ve sucked.

Of course, to stay happy and make the most out of the night, those who came to see Dan the Automator could check out the many other good acts. But what if they didn’t know the programme of the night and where the stages were all located? Simply because there were no schedules and no maps to be found at the festival grounds? That’s quite enough to make even the most hopeful soul burn with frustration.

Didn’t help that the promoters were only handing out XPax flyers.

I understand the advertising aspect; but who wants to subscribe to a phone line at a festival? Damn not cool, ok?

Branding is already everywhere, so they should think about saving production cost and saving paper by doing away with the flyers (and maybe make use of the advertising dollars to put up bigger signs and artist rosters in XPax colours). This is no shopping mall. No one wants to carry flyers while dancing or fist-punching to their favourite songs. If you really need to, hand them out when we’re leaving the party. We could read it while waiting for our friends, read them in our hotel rooms or in the car. Or even trash it in our bags while leaving and re-discover the flyer later and MAYBE we might just take a glance at it and remember XPax threw a cool party.

But of course, if that were to happen, then first of all, you need to know how to throw a good party. In my opinion, it was the musicians that made the night. In my case, it was definitely Al Haca and Yoji’s set.

Still, I have to give big ups to the event organisers and their PR company for actually pulling a massive feat in less than a month. There could be many reasons unknown to ordinary festival goers like us, as to why the plan had not kicked off earlier. Lots more could have been achieved..

More beer sponsors, for instance. It was definitely an inconvenience to search for beer in the messy web of a theme park. The XLR8 stage, which in itself was already out-of-the-way, didn’t have beer. The XL-Tronic stage, which was full of happy people, didn’t have beer. They had hotdogs or something. But no beer.

The only place that had beer within reach was the XL Main Stage where more soulful, groovy people were supposed to be hanging out. Didn’t look like a place for mad dancing people – which, on reflection, is probably just as well, since beer was served to the brim in plastic cups and very splash-prone for bouncy, dancy people like me. (Beer was served in plastic cups to prevent the hazards of fights with destructive glass bottles)

So while carefully sippin my hard-to-find beer, Spaceship was getting the crowd bopping along. I have never seen Goldfish spin before let alone rap, so it was a startling revelation.

When Al Haca appeared, they very professionally kept the flow of the music going even though they had so many equipments to pipe up. MCs RQM, Oliver, Coppa and Fefe completed their “Family Business” and we had that rare treat of having a complete crew on stage.

The MCs demonstrated their virtuoso lyrical skills and it was an unbelievable experience, witnessing the delirious spitting of words so precise against some heavy, abstract bass.

The stage set-up was just unfortunate. Their sounds and mad skills would’ve been more suited for an intimate, smaller arena, where we can actually see the DJs and feel the sweet bass vibrate away at our feet. With the MCs on the floor with us. Like that, y’know. I.. can.. just.. feel.. it. Oh yes, it’ll be truly exceptional.

Introducing Al Haca.. This was the view from the floor:

Cee & Stereo’s Intro:

And Cee & Stereo’s massive view from the stage:

Juana Juana pelame la banana.. we love Fefe!

Fefe is an established street artist in Brazil. Check out her incredible paintings.

After the inspiring and pumpin’ set from Al Haca, we expected Missy Elliott to roll in not long after. But our hip-hop royalty decided that the stage wasn’t prepped enough for her grand entrance. She sent her Big Guy out on the stage coupla times, perhaps to suss out the crowd and the sound. 45 mins into the waiting game, same Big Guy came out to paste some papers on the stage. Song sheets or steps, maybe.

My thoughts at that time - Why couldn’t they have done it right after Al Haca left the stage? Maybe your royal highness didn’t think it was important to start on time. I mean, the other acts in the other stages couldn’t have been as eminent as your majesty’s!

Look.. In 1 ½ hour, I could have been checking out Filo & Peri and a bit of Lapsap. In 1 ½ hour, Linkin Park had performed intensely at their last concert in Kuala Lumpur.

To turn the waiting into a cringe-fest and make it even more unbearable, they attempted to hypnotise all of us with some tribal dangdut-like sounds looping in the background. It was LOOPING on some CD player, not even a performance! For 1 ½ bloody hours. And no one attempted to explain what was happening - not the organiser, not the hot chic emcee who announced after Al Haca’s set that Missy Elliott will be comin up.

As the organiser, even if you had to hide your face, use the mic and tell us what’s going on or why we were waiting for the super royalty.

If we had to wait for 1 ½ hours, put Al Haca back on at least. With Goldfish, with Stylustiks, anyone who can spit a beat. It’s a music festival and we expect some live music.

But no.. it was muuuutted silence.

Can bear? Hell no.

My head was on fire and I needed some the cool air and some real music. So I left.. regrettably, because Missy E came on shortly. Looking at all the You Tubes, I didn’t miss much really.

American trance acts, Filo & Peri , was heralding more positive cheers from the overjoyed crowd at the XL-Tronic area. At least these guys kept the crowd very happy. I still wasn’t.

Until…

Taking the night to a different level was Yoji who took our pulse blazing when he started with a bang, literally, because of the explosive bass and higher bpms. I’m finally in good spirits again. He played so many great tracks, most notably his hits, Rain, Samurai and oh yes, the stuff I’ve been longing to hear live for weeks - TECHY TECHY!!! He also dropped his remix of Atomizer’s Time to Time, which was such an apt festival song because of the ceremonious percussions and climatic cymbals.

Sheer hysteria.

Techy Techy! If I wasn’t so tired, I swear I would’ve cried..

Despite all the event slip-ups, it was great to have Yoji back and to meet Al Haca. Essentially, XLive was a music festival, and most of the artists played intensely and with heartfelt honesty. I just feel great pity for the acts at the XLR8 stage who had to deal with a crappy sound set-up and a bad location, and Stylustiks who played after Missy Elliott to a near empty arena. More could’ve been done to make sure the local acts were not sidelined. Judging from the 10,000 crowd reported… wow, they could’ve been representin’.

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Eh, what’s wrong? The Star ran 2 favourable reviews in the same week.

By Zack Yusof
By Jason Cheah

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Read Halfway Street’s earlier interviews with the XLive performers:
Al Haca
MC Coppa
Maliq & D’Essentials

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With XLive over, what’s next in this region? We’re digging..

The much desired Ed Banger crew invades Zouk Singapore, 31st May
Mono Live in Malaysia, Zouk Singapore on 3rd July and Zouk Kuala Lumpur on 5th July
Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman will be in Contakt at Zouk Singapore, 25th July

And somewhere in the distance.. above and beyond.. Global Gathering on 8th November, A Famosa Resort, Malaysia. The line up at the UK festival is a sweet one.

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