A Stomp-ing Time

Attack of the Blurry Camera Phone

A thousand bucks to the first person who can tell me what's in the picture above. Serious. Can't do it? I thought so...hahah. Anyway, don't blame me for the crappy looking photo. It's the best I could do in such dim conditions and with a crappy camera phone (For all the P900's bells and whistles, its camera sure sucks big time!). Btw, the organisers prohibited the use of any cameras whatsoever in the hall, so yeah, the above picture is living proof that I'm a law breaking criminal at heart. Woo hoo!

Just in case you're wondering, what I was futilely trying to capture on camera was the stage at the Istana Budaya in KL, moments before the crew from Stomp were set to come on. Ah yes, I attended their performance last Saturday night and it was rocking!


Stomp Out Loud

The performance was held at the Istana Budaya in KL. Although the place was a merely stone's throw from my office (if you could possibly throw a stone 10km), I had no idea where it was prior to this. To the uninformed, the Istana Budaya is located opposite General Hospital. See? You do learn something new everyday.

From the moment the Stomp crew alighted the stage, the entire audience was captivated. It was truly amazing seeing what they could do with mundane household items. I've seen their performance on DVD before, but watching it live is a totally different experience altogether. Their first set consisted of brooms and sweeping motions. Lots of it.

Amidst the 'swish-swish' sounds of the brooms, and the 'ker-thunk' of its handles being slapped on the floor, you could make out several silhouttes of bobbing heads in the audience. Catchy, the beats definitely were.

What followed were several more sets whereby the crew made use of everything from newspapers, to rubber tubes to create a cacophony of beats and rhythms. My personal favourite was the one where they played with their balls. Their basketballs, to be exact. Excellent!

As the show ended, I walked out thinking how cool it would be if we Malaysians could come up with something as creative, if not more, than Stomp. I am sure we have the necessary talent here, but maybe the avenues to nurture such talent remains limited in our country. Ah well, give it some time. I am sure we'll get there.

In the mean time, I'll just practice slapping myself on my belly to see what sort of beats I can produce. Oooh yeah, as mentioned in my friend's post, hours of wholesome fun!