Colorful Weekend At Urbanscapes Festival, Malaysia

After our ‘indie’ weekend early this month in Singapore for Camp Symmetry, we headed to the neighbor Malaysia with even bigger festival which combined art and music in MAEPS with big line ups such as Tegan & Sara, Franz Ferdinand, Efterklang, Sore, Obedient Wives Club, and much more.. too bad due to Alex Trimble’s of Two Door Cinema Club all their show in Asia had to be canceled. But anyway we met lots of friendly people and cool art stuff around, and for you who didn’t get the chance to get there, here’s our review of the fest so maybe you want to plan ahead for the next year!

How we get there? We went there by bus from Singapore, yes you read it right, 5 hours bus to Perhentian Serdang and a cab to the festival. Rain and sun can’t stop us from seeing what’s Urbanscapes all about. The venue itself was gigantic, maybe since it was actually Malaysian agricultural place, and the crowd was about the same as Singaporean festival goers or even more vary, since it was music and art festival. Many food stalls (so you won’t get hungry), exciting artwork and fancy pop up market.

How’s the first day? We were prepared with raincoats, boots and stuff, but the only thing we used that day was sunblock. Even though it was raining pretty heavy in Singapore, it was sunny like hell in Serdang. We arrived when Sore was playing at the Urbanscape stage, performing their hits as smoothly as usual. After that we scrolled the venue and couldn’t be more proud to see our bands performs and some friend’s art works exhibited there. Back to the main stage we saw Oh Chentaku perform, which was great indeed. Band that famous with their ‘Sing It Rock and Roll’ song, succeed brought the crowds to paid attention till their very last song.

We also went to the Next Stage where we witness some of the most random performance mixed by rapper and local ghost after. Its a bit surreal and funny at the same time. We dont have much time as we are heading to see another Indonesian act at Upfront stage, which is one of the line ups we didn’t expected to be amazed by. The Experience Brother, Daud and Ibrahim, proved once again that rock and roll are still alive. With songs taken from their Eye Contact album, the band succeed mixing Zeppelin’s rock and roll style with the spontaneous quirky only Indonesian can do it well, not to mention when they performed ‘She’s Alright’ which made the crowd couldn’t help but to sing a long.

Right after them, it was the Aussie’s very own next big thing, Last Dinosaurs. We’ve seen them several times already just in a year and yet they are still fun to watch. And apparently, they have huge fans here in Malaysia! Lots of teens, boys and girls, local and regional flew to Malaysia just to see this band. Performed the same set list as in Jakarta and Singapore, the band still being asked to do encore. Well, we hope that will encourage and inspire them to make more music for the next album.

And the headline of the night was Tegan & Sara. Even though we’ve seen them in Jakarta before, duo that known first time as ultimate commercial songs (well, I knew them from an advertisement) still had the thing to ‘heart-rob’ the crowds. Playing their hits such as ‘Alligator’ ,‘Back in Your Head’, ‘I Was A Fool’ to ‘Closer’ the crowd couldn’t be any happier than sing a long for more than an hour.

How’s the second day? On the second day we’re mostly chilling with our friends and people we met at the festival, talk with the artists around and enjoying ourselves by the cool vintage lo-fi performance by Obedient Wives Club. Group that has been recognize not as the female muslim group, but a group that consist of Singapore very own Keith Tan, YinQi, Sulaiman Supian, Lennat Mak and Cherie Ko, played songs from their EP ‘Murder Kill Baby’ and captured the crowds of lo-fi spectorgaze fans.

Beside OWC, we also ran to another stage where -another 4AD acts, Efterklang, performs. After our interview with Casper, we couldn’t be more surprised when Mads used ‘Angklung’ we gave for the intro of Hollow Mountain, followed by Casper and Rasmus on stage and that’s when all the magic of sounds happens! I mean really, they literarily used everything, from normal instruments, to ipad apps, to stage’s pillar like those Berlin Blue Man Group with less disco vibe. Despite of the heat outside combine with people inside the tent, this Danish band amazed the crowd with their electronic wave sounds. My worried about either the crowd were already melt by the heat or were there because of the music has been answered, when they forced to ‘pause’ their performance due to afternoon break, the crowd still remind the same. Ended by their hits Modern Drift, this band is definitely one of the band you must listen to if you are fans of Sin Fang, múm, and other Scandinavian experimental electronic music.

Right after Efterklang, we went to the highlight (or mine) of the festival seeing Franz Ferdinand! Even though I wasn’t a big fan, I couldn’t help but to sing a long and dance to their song. They performance were just addictive and let’s face it, no one could possibly stand still watching their energetic act. These Scottish ‘uncle’ brought all their hits to the table from Bullet, The Dark Of The Matinée, No You Girls, Tell Her Tonight, Evil Eye, Do You Want To, Walk Away, Horizon, CSF, Fallen, Jacqueline, Michael, Take Me Out, Love Illumination, This Fire, to Ulysses and not to mention their encore with Right Action, to Outsider. I think it has been a long time since I sang very loud and dance very passionately in a show.

As the technician packing the instruments, crowds went home, so it’s time for us to get back to reality. We took the last bus to the city center and grab the first bus to catch our flight home. Lets hope to see some more exciting line ups with less animal cause itchiness next year, and don’t forget to catch Urbanscapes’s final Satellite show featuring Canadian indie-rock giants Metric this December 3rd 2013.

More photos from the show here