What Went Down: Heineken Green Room @ KL Live

By Alif Omar Mahfix  •  25 Jun 2013 in Green Room

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As Bunga took centre stage and declared that he was about to play a song that meant a lot to him, experienced TAGgers knew The Killers’ ‘Mr. Brightside’ was about to blare out from the speakers. True enough, the room hit fever pitch as soon as Brandon Flowers’ vocals were audible. It almost seemed like the end of an era as Bunga, ChaseyLain, Ribut, and XU thanked the crowd before bidding them adieu, but then we realised we’d probably get drunk off Barsonic’s Long Island Teas the Friday after. Twenty Years of TAG come Heineken Green Room 2023, maybe?

Electropop maestro and young upstart Darren Ashley continued the night with a 20-something minute set that showcased his mastery of synths, vocal effects, and drum pads. It was a little on the short side, which would give the impression of Darren as a non-presence, yet the distractingly red-haired KL star displayed enough technical wizardry coupled with notable vocal range to those who paid attention.

Even before they got up on stage, headliner The Drums looked seemingly at home among the crowd with similarly dressed KLites. These guys were exactly as what they claimed to be during our interview with them the night before; regular people who really enjoy music. Put them on stage though, as they were that night, their regular Joe persona was immediately stripped and what we had in lieu of that were proper indie rockstars. Had Irman Hilmi’s alternative rock history posters been real, we’d imagine this was what it would be like to have The Smiths on stage in KL circa the mid ‘80s.

The Drums deftly played their entry level-fan favourite ‘Money’ in the middle of their set and ended with ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, a song that dedicated fans were excited about. All without losing any of the potency of the recorded version of those tracks, as they had revealed in interviews, they made sure how they sound on record is exactly how they are live.

As the band left, Green Room regressed to a dance arena again as TEED got up the stage and played a DJ set that mixed disco, deep house, and electronica of the indie persuasion – just like his own music. TEED’s set was reflective of the overall feeling we had of the event, a pop combo of niche and mass subcultures. His song selection could very well play at an indie night as much as it could at an EDM fest.

Perfectly segueing to his KL kindred spirits, The Deer Society (Asquared and Robotron 5000) continued where he left off with a disco and deep house dominated setlist that got what was left of the crowd still prone to sweating off all that Heineken they consumed through their pores. As Sandy Rivera’s ‘Changes’ (feat. Haze) finished off the night, JUICE decided that this was definitely a party to remember come year end.

Heineken Green Room balanced the new zeitgeist of today’s youth culture better, bridging the gap between gig goers and clubbers by knowing what sort of live act would overlap with the dance crowd while others just stubbornly stick to one or the other. And this wasn’t an exclusive gig with only a particular subsect of well-dressed urbanites involved either, Heineken managed to attract modern KL in a microcosm of pop culture-savvy music event.

Heineken Green Room went down on Saturday 15 June ’13 at KL Live. More pictures of the event here.