Downpour does not mar inaugural My Music Festival 2015

The stage was set at the Surf Beach in Sunway Lagoon on Sunday for the inaugural My Music Festival 2015 — The Largest Malaysian Live Band Music Festival (MMF2015).

The best part of the event was that it was free for all! The crowd trickled in at 4pm — half an hour before the concert was to begin but by the time Jaggfuzzbeatz took to the stage, the space was filled up with people ready to rock the evening and the night away.

But midway into the event that cumulatively featured 20 local bands and British legend Smokie, the dark clouds gathered and a 40-minute downpour ensued, forcing organisers to cancel performances of Fazz and Froya. The crowd ran helter-skelter for shelter but some others deserved credit for being comfortable “in their skin” — their clothes which offered no water resistance, and ruined make-up for the rest of the day.

When Back2Basixx took the stage, their music and spirit dispelled the dampening weather and the crowd was back in the revelling spirit again. The band that made its debut in 2014 transmitted its youthful energy to the crowd, bringing them back to life in dancing and jumping to their music.

Among the other bands featured at MMF2015 were Jumero, Dotters’ Division, Paperplane Pursuit, 9 Lives, The Strollers 2 Featuring Vijay David, Coca D Monday, Heavy Machine, Enterprise, APU, The Union, JunkOFunc, Blues Gang and artist Joe Flizzow.

Veteran bands Alleycats and Heavy Machine took the audience familiar with the older music scenes down memory lane — much to their contentment.

When Smokie, whose music captivated the world in the 1970s, took the stage for a whole hour, the crowd — made up of fans and tourists — sang and swayed to the smash hits the band was famous for. Among the tracks Smokie belted out were Something’s Been Making Me Blue, Lay Back in the Arms of Someone, Medley, Wild Wild Angels, If You Think You Know How to Love Me, Don’t Play Your Rock ‘n’ Roll to Me, I’ll Meet You at Midnight, Oh Carol and Needles And Pins.

They left the stage, not performing the all-time favourite Living Next Door to Alice, and it was clear that the crowd was not going to let them off easily. After a five-full-minute intermission of suspense, all five Smokie members returned to cheer and applause from the crowd.

Before they gave the audience what they wanted, the band belted out Have You Ever Seen the Rain before marking the absolute end of their set with Living Next Door to Alice. The song peaked at No 5 on the UK Singles Chart and reached No 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977.

Two home-grown bands, Hydra and Kyoto Protocol drew the party to a close almost at the midnight hour, but the energy from the crowd clearly had not dissipated yet as they were pumping and screaming to the bands’ electrifying performances. There was clear adrenaline rush as the rock bands performed with such enthusiasm and passion — ending the show with an absolute bang.

It was obvious that MMF2015 drew a crowd that was enthusiastic about all genres of music, and the event was fitting enough that every music lover present felt a certain connection to each band.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 11, 2015.