Portrait

cousins and boyfriends and favourite people are all currently contestants in tnl onstage 2006.

these ‘band competition’ types are always interesting, if they manage to dodge being intolerable. last night was on the whole a somewhat curious combination of both interesting and intolerable, and was endured with a little patience and an effort at general un-snob-ness.

nemesis didn’t play the kind of music i listen to. it’s heavy and tense and makes me feel stressed out and jumpy. i can’t imagine enjoying that kind of thing, leave alone letting it make me feel happy, inspired or, heaven forbid, realxed. but some people do. each to his own, i suppose. i don’t think this made them a ‘bad’ band, though. i think the music was (very) technically well played, but the vocalist needs to find a way to do his thing right, as it seems is most often the case with this kind of band.

bikini bottom was unprofessional. they were out of synchronization with each other and just not ‘together’. the frontman isn’t a great singer. they’re mostly school kids, and i’m sure with time, practise and experience, they’ll improve. they were the closest we got to punk rock last night, doing the ‘green day’ thing and having a rather over energetic guitarist.

beyond reckoning is difficult to understand, literally and spiritually. i really didn’t understand what they were saying, being the hardcore hip-hop scene that they were, but i also wasn’t utterly convinced about the originality of their act. they were like so many we’ve seen before them, a string of rappers, perhaps topped only by iraj. i guess the music in itself wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great, it tended to become montonous and all the songs ended up sounding more or less like the one before.

cynosure was a tight band. they screwed up (badly) once, but they have a good vocalist and the rest of the band is well rehearsed and sound good. their performance was overall pretty smooth, despite the fact that they’ll probably just become another one of those bands that play gavin degraw and train.

magic box mixup, are well, the professionals. they are completely comfortable onstage and this makes you want to watch them if not listen to them ; they perform with ease and even a certain amount of swagger. they played well, again despite the fact that they play music that i could pass listening to, (’hemorrhage’ by fuel, ‘i wish you were here’ by incubus), and their original is worthy of attention although it didn’t demand it, not having a distinctive flavour to it. the frontman talks a little too much, but everyone loves a superstar.

flake should win (the whole thing), but then, some would say i have a biased opinion. unbiasedly (stop scoffing), they were the only band i really enjoyed. they got my adrenaline flowing and that’s always a good sign. they were original and funky and had an infectious energy. they looked great and played great and felt great and had the slickest performance last night.

the boys did well, and we miss hiran very much.