Post-rock fans must be having a fantastic year in Malaysia, because the post-rock bands just seem to keep coming. With a brilliant Explosions in the Sky concert at Ruum’s in February, summer ’08 delivered another great show by Mono, this time at Zouk KL’s Mainroom. (And there’s more in August, as Ruum’s once more becomes the venue for Toe’s South-East Asian Tour, so hardcore post-rockers, watch out for that one!) Mono Live in Malaysia was a concert on a much smaller scale than Explosions – Zouk’s Mainroom was by no means packed with enthusiastic moshers, although there must have been a good 150+ people there. The fans who were there were not disappointed; there were two brilliant (if rather long and drawn-out… that’s my only complaint; after a while I just wanted Mono to come the hell out, already!!) opening acts from the Indonesian Forbidden Culture and the local Elemental Gaze, both of which set the tone for the main act to come.
But the opening acts went on for a good hour+, and I was growing bored of opening acts and finally, the elusive Mono did come on stage, to set up their equipment. They came on without saying a word (and I learnt that this was customary of Mono), and disappeared after five minutes of sorting out their equipment. The crowd was bemused, but the MC soon enlightened us – we needed to cheer louder? Which we did, I guess, and then the mysterious and silent Mono reappeared on stage, and began to play without saying a word to the audience. The concert wasn’t the most upbeat of them all, as their song openings were slow and soft, and the build-ups usually led into excessive distortion. The drummer in particular caught my eye, as he played some amazing beats, which were enough to whip some of the crowd into a frenzy, as were their playing “Yearning”, which elicited huge applause and cheers. The music was fantastic, but the distortive build-ups were not good for anybody standing too near either speaker, as it did funny stuff to the ears and brain; that was probably the only flaw in what was otherwise a musically brilliant performance: LOUD DISTORTION. Mono didn’t play for very long – they didn’t do the non-stop frenzied playing of Explosions, and although their songs were long (some went on for about sixteen minutes), the song breaks were easily recognised, as they stopped now and then to catch a second’s breather. They played for about one and a half hours max, and the concert was over by about 10 pm. Thus ended Mono’s stint in Malaysia =D For any hardcore enthusiastic fan, it probably would have been an excellent concert. Even for the neutral viewer (me) the music was breathtaking; but the concert itself just wasn’t that memorable. I think I’ll stick with listening to their CDs, where I can turn the volume down when the distortion becomes a little too much. :P
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