Sunday Night Lights is organised by Reza Salleh. Held in No Black Tie, with an acoustic line-up of Reza, Estrella and Rizal Hefni, the night seemed indistinguishable from the early days of Moonshine – the other popular acoustic music night Reza initially organised in No Black Tie, now held at Laundry Bar. All three acts have previously performed in Moonshine, and cater to the same crowd (many probably found out about Sunday Night Lights from the Moonshine mailing list, as I did).

Overall, I had a good time and made some discoveries:

1) Reza’s romantic ballad “For Her” is about sneaking into a girl’s house in Kelana Jaya. In between lines, he confided: This song is about a girl / I had to climb a roof. The serenade is suddenly tinged with the dodgier, predatory act of breaking and entering. I have to admire his fortitude.

2) Rizal Hefni is back after a year’s sojourn to focus on his dissertation. Previously a solo act discovered at a Moonshine open mic gig, he now has a band, smaller hair, and a singing style and lyrics that still remind me of Shawn Mullins – he says his inspirations are more lyric-inspired bands like Live, U2 and Third Eye Blind. It’s been a year, and I still remember the lyrics to “Realise”, a song about his mother he sang when he first started appearing in the local gig circuit.

3) Estrella’s band is also bigger. From the original line up of just lead singer Liyana, and guitarist Yob, they now have a percussionist, bassist and drummer. I’ve tried to like this band since they were a duo in 2006, but the expansion is insufficient – Liyana doesn’t have the energy to sustain the dispersion, the vibe sinks from “chilled out” to “limp”, and she ends up being drowned out by her band. The few snippets of lyrics I manage to hear fail to evoke any emotion.

4) No open mic tonight, dammit!

It being a Sunday night, and most patrons of No Black Tie having respectable day jobs come Monday, there wasn’t enough time (or audience) left after the performances for an open mic session.

My group left at the end of the night, when the staff at No Black Tie unceremoniously dimmed the lights on us. Considering the hour, it seemed like even if we had people around to listen to open miccers, we may not necessarily have the space.

If things go well there will be other nights. Of all the music events in town from 2007, like the Troubagangers, Project Bazooka, The Songwriters Round, and Moonshine – it seems Reza is one of the few still steadily organising events almost every fortnight for musicians, and building up a loyal following of music lovers. Bands in his shows have a good chance of being heard by a decently sized audience, and the open mic sessions are great for discovering new acts, or as a soft launch for new performers. However, due to restraints like time, there are less open mic sessions now, and consequently, we see less new faces performing at these events.

I don’t think there are easy solutions, but I have faith in Reza still finding opportunities for fellow musicians – after all, he’s already shown us barriers can’t keep him out of houses, or away from girls, so who knows what walls he’s willing to scale for venues and audiences.

~
Lainie Yeoh is such an over achiever that she runs not one, but two blogs: Lainie Artword Addict and the 6th Annual BOH Cameronian Arts Awards 2007 blog