10 Malaysia - The Argies, 199X, The Caesar @ Rumah Api, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The Argies, 199X, The Caesar @ Rumah Api, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The Argies

I had missed out on going to the Boom Boom Kid / Systematic Death show on my birthday, so I was keen to get out the following weekend. There was another band from Argentina this weekend, who were advertised as 'ska and punk', and having checked out their profile, it seemed that these older gadgies had been doing it for a while, and had played a previous show in KL years back, so they were bound to be decent. I am glad I took a chance on this one. 

After grabbing a beer as I arrived, I was about to start chatting with some of the other gig-goers but the first band started, and as many people hadn't arrived yet I decided to show my support and go and watch them. This was THE CAESAR - a new band on the scene, playing a classic ska style - and it got me shaking a little. They played a nice short set of four songs and a cover, and it was an ideal warm up for the rest of the night.

199X

Next up were 199X, which was another draw for coming to the show. I had previously read about them on a 'Top 10 pop punk bands in Malaysia' style blog article, and they sounded interesting as they were the only one mentioned that gave a nod to the 1990s EPIFAT style I love so much. There were definitive elements to parts of some of their songs that hooked me, yet overall I felt that they covered many different pop punk styles (including modern) in the range of songs that they played, so it was somewhere in the middle for my overall enjoyment. They dropped in an INTERUPPTERS cover in the middle of the set, which went down well with me. 

The Caesar

And to round of the night we had THE ARGIES, who played a blinding set. They threw a knock out punch from the start of the set, and just started ploughing through their own songs at 100km/h from the get go. The crowd had filled out by this point, and a bit of dancing was taking place. Mid set was the true highlight for me, because they played a run of cover songs that I knew, and got me dancing and singing along. They played Bella Ciao by Ska-P, followed by Olympia, WA by Rancid (with a Ruby Soho outro), followed by White Riot & Should I Stay Or Go by The Clash, and then rounded this part of the set off nicely with King of Ska by The Skatellites. They then raced through a few more of their own numbers, and they were relentless, just going straight into the next song almost every time. The guys were a pure visual joy too, rocking around the stage hard, and it was clear that they were tight having done this for so long. I left before they finished, with a great buzz, and another enjoyable night down at RUMAH API.