Adidas Bibs and Tees...The Biophonics - day 1 (3 Sep)

I went to the FTAAA at the Olympic Council M'sia building to collect the Adidas KOTR bibs and T-shirts. But on the way there, it started raining bulls and cows! Yeah, you heard me right.. BULLS and COWS! Not cats and dogs. It was like a typhoon or a twister, man... so heavy that drivers had to drive slow because they could hardly see anything in front of them except rain! Talk about a scary experience... imagine being blown away whilst inside your car? Anyone seen Twister?

By the time I got to FTAAA, it completely stopped.. of course the aftermath effect could be seen like trees tumbling (there was on big branch that fell over the road just before the OCM building) and all. Anyway, I got the Adidas tees and bibs and sorted the additional stuff out, like discount vouchers and bibs, for each of the 7 people I registered for. By the way, I have to say, I think this is the only race (at least the ones I know) that makes the best race t-shirts.

I then made my way to Alexis Ampang for the soundcheck with the band. Md. Noor, from Singapore had only just arrived in KL, and we got started on getting him familiar with the songs. Not bad for a last minute rehearsal, I tell ya. That's what I like about musicians like that (and I try to learn by example), of how they could come on the same day as the gig, rehearse and try to nail most of the parts down, if not all. I can't help but wonder if the dynamics for the gig later tonight could come close to some of our previous shows, as a lot of shows we did were really kick-a**!!

Done with that, some of us went to Desa Pandan to makan an early dinner. And then I hung around KLCC doing a little window shopping. Got the latest issue of Running Times and Downbeat (a jazz mag).

Made it back to Alexis to change shirts and gel hair (must look good mahhh!!), and cologne.. eh hem.

As the show started, it took about a song or two before everyone got their footing together (especially Md. Noor, since it was only in the afternoon that we ran thru the songs with him). Then the whole band started to cook real good. The funk was nice and fat, and the grooves were starting to get butt-shakin'. Fromthen on, we pretty much enjoyed ourselves.

Oh yeah, during the break I met up with Bernice Chee (or Becholi) and Andrew (Ketam Batu), runner friends whom, until today, I have not met except thru a tagboard. They were running the Adidas KOTR as well, and I passed the T-shirts and bibs. Nice meeting and chatting up with you guys, yeah..!!

Played our second set, our trombonist, Chow Ming came over with his horn to jam the second set with us. Due to budget problems, we couldn't put in a full horn section to play for the Alexis gig. We usually got Chow Ming to play. But he came anyway, and jammed with us, for the fun of it! Real cool cat..

Greg Lyons and The Biophonics

After our gig, we ended the night with a nice (but due to ordering LOTS of food.. expensive) supper at Suzy's Corner just down the road. Bill came up to RM89! That's my record for the most expensive mamak session I've ever had.. hehehe...

Next up: The Biophonics at Alexis.. day 2