king ly chee southeast asian tour diary 2004

first stop - THAILAND

JANUARY 17, 2004:
whats up everyone!!! just landed in Thailand and i have been trying to figure out how to connect my laptop to the internet...i'm finally done but its TOO slow!!! so - all the images that are on this page won't appear until i find a faster connection...all the stuff that has a big "x" on this page is because i haven't transferred the photos to my laptop yet. ANYWAY: its fucking HOT here man!!! holy crap - but i'm so excited...all the other guys are still sleeping but i'm too excited about the show tonight to be able to get some rest...i'm here with the organizer of the show tonight, Yos...i just convinced him to forget Thailand for one week and come with us on this tour!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! he's like, "shit - good idea! let me call my girlfriend first!" hahahaha...girlfriends are all of our guardians man!!! hahahaha...what would we do without them?! okay anyway...just thought i'd update you guys with this post...i'll update you guys AFTER the show tonight again!!! thanks for your support everyone and check back here later on in the day!!! peace!!! HONG KONG HARDCORE ON TOUR!!! ALSO: just got back to the hotel and found out some more details of what happened last night while i was still in HK. kevin told me that last night while they were walking around Thailand - kevin had a friend who brought another friend along with him. they were walking around and then kevin's friend said, "hey man - my friend really likes your friend!!" of course, i don't need to tell you that kevin's friend's friend was talking about our popstar Andy! :-) but wait for the funniest part, kevin's friends friend is a transvestite (yan yiu)!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! i'm not laughing at kevin's friend's friend - i'm just laughing at the power of our lovely Andy! no matter WHERE he goes he manages to gets people interested in him! :-) we're trying to convince andy to stop playing with King Ly Chee and become a popstar. that way, whenever he makes money he can come back to King Ly Chee and help kevin buy a new drumset, help me buy a new amp, alex a new bass...hahahaha...anyway, joseph (hardpack's drummer who is our roadie for this tour) SWEARS that if someone didn't tell you that kevin's friend's friend was a transvestite, then you would completely think that she was a girl...

okay - the show...we got there around 5pm to do soundcheck. the amps and drums all sounded good - but we tried hard to find the vocals. there were 2 speakers for the vocals but they were NOT on the stage. so when and alex i were singing we couldn't hear anything...it was crazy. anyway - we still thought it'd be alright. then we went outside and set up all our stuff to sell and all the kids that came to see the show were super friendly and smiling non-stop. it felt great...we met some brutal metal bands who were playing tonight so it was nice to see how open minded everyone was! over here death metal bands hang out with punk rock bands who hang out with hardcore bands...its great. by the way, they say that just in bangkok they have over 30 hardcore bands!!! isn't that crazy!!! anyway...then the show started and the first band was a band that travelled 12 hours to come play this show!!! they're a brutal metal band called SinsKids...they were super good. then another few grind/brutal metal bands played who were also really good. then came a hardcore band called Born From Pain who were fucking amazing!!! the whole time i was like, "i really hope we aren't playing after them!!!" they were so SO tight - as tight as i could only dream we were! the music they played was a good mix of Hatebreed and Snapcase...super SICK breakdowns and good vocals and song arrangements. after they were done we went outside to help sell more stuff. then Yos comes out to tell us that we're next. fuck - we had to follow Born From Pain! :-) we got on stage and all the technical problems that ALWAYS happen to us started happening right away. something went wrong with Andy's guitar...then when we started our first song, Izzue.crap, the snare stand fucked up and kevin had to play holding the snare in place with his knee. that's pretty amazing if you ask me! ask any drummer who has experienced this...anyway - in the middle of the song he couldn't do it anymore and had to stop. so we stopped in the middle of our first song. then we tried to start again and in the confusion we had to start and stop 3 times before we could finally start the song. then after the third song the organizers told us that one of the house speakers died - we managed to screw up one of the house speakers. the floor we were standing on was so slippery and alex and i couldn't really jump around. i stood in one place and my feet kept slipping...weird shit!!! but it was great - the whole time the audience didn't stop going apeshit. they went totally crazy...joseph was filming and after the show he was like, "they went crazy!!!". there were a few people there who were singing the words "I Run Far Away"!!! that was crazy to hear that! joseph filmed those kids singing the lyrics...after the show, another friend whose name is Chris who organizes a bunch of shows in Bangkok said that we were one of the top 3 bands to have played in bangkok. this DEFINITELY made me feel better because i felt pretty lousy about all the technical problems we were having. 

the vocals were the weirdest part - because i couldn't hear my voice so i tried to sing even louder and then i totally fucked up my voice for doing that. i should've pretended not to sing...and then i could've saved my voice for tonight's show. oh well - the kids had a great time and it was cool to see so much support for an Asian band - on stage i said, "we all love the US bands, even we love the US bands, but us Asian bands need the support more - we gotta stick together" hopefully people will think about that...

after the show we went to get some good food with a friend of andy's and it was a nice way to end the night...all in all - it wasn't a very great start to the tour but it'll be fine. we have no real expectations for the next show in Bangkok because people have told us that the sound is going to be even worse. i don't know how the sound could POSSIBLY be any worse...but we'll find out later today when we get there...

the bands that played today were insane - so so so so damn tight...

okay - going to bed...joseph has some photos i think but NOT of us playing because he was on stage taking care of the mic's and stuff...as usual, the poor guy had to run around between all the 3 guitars and the drums...he's got a tough job being our roadie!!! :-)

JANUARY 18, 2004:
today's show was CRAZY!!! i really need to start using other words instead of "crazy" all the time - but i don't know how else to describe these shows so far! the place we played in was like a small cafe - like a coffee shop. when we got there earlier in the day to do soundcheck - none of us imagined the sound to be as good as it was later on at night. during soundcheck microphones were squeaking, there was feedback from everywhere, kevin couldn't hear anything in the back because the amps were placed so far in the front. the organizer also came over to tell us that the owner of the cafe thought we were too loud. so we had to turn our amps down. anyway...after we were done then the show started.

the first band to play was called Innocent Blood...they were INCREDIBLE!!! total Hatebreed style hardcore - and the best part was that the whole band has 4 people in it and none of them are older then 17!!! the guitar player and drummer are both 15!!! they were so so so so so damn good - when we played i said, "i don't remember being as good as them when i was 15!" hahaha...great song structures and awesome breakdowns. really nice and humble guys too!

next was an awesome emo/punk band called Makers of Casablanca. anyway, this band had an awesome female singer and their music and musicians were all super tight. they totally went nuts when we were playing too which was great to see! the drummer had to use a busted snare drum - but he still kicked ass! they were like a mix of Beloved and other emo/punk acts...later i spoke to the singer and she told me that she grew up listening to some pretty old school hardcore bands which was rad...

so far the night's standards of the bands was pretty damn high and we were getting SUPER excited. in the total of 2 nights that's what both kevin and i noticed about all the Thai bands - all their standards are VERY high!!! every band that has played with us has been incredibly tight and ALL have great stage performance!!! its awesome to be playing in a scene where all the bands really set the standards high. it makes you work even harder to make sure you perform just as well.

then came on two punk bands but alex and i were starving so we stepped outside to get some food and talk to some people at the show...

when we came back it was our turn...as soon as we got on we started working on getting our sound right. alex has a new idea of how to set sound and we tried it out - it worked REALLY well!!! the sound tonight for us SO MUCH better then last night and we had NO technical problems the whole night. after we set everything i looked up at the second floor where a lot of people were sitting to watch and told them that they ALL should come downstairs. as soon as they came downstairs we blasted into our first song Izzue.crap and the place went crazy! during the set there were kids stagediving off the second floor just like when we played in taiwan! :-) since this was a tiny tiny coffee shop there was no chance of doing a circle pit really - so i just told them to run back and forth between the walls and the kids turned the place upside down! oh yeah - i totally forgot to mention!!! for our song Refuse, our lovely roadie Joseph is singing Ah Kit's part!!! joseph sounds great!!! he has an awesome low-death metal sounding screamy voice and he does a GREAT job singing this part...again we played the brand new song and again kids loved it...you guys in HK won't hear this song until we come back and play a show there! :-) we played a total of 10 songs i think and the energy and love from the audience was non-stop throughout each of the songs...they were there dancing around, smiling and loving it every minute...

after was an awesome grind/death metal band called Zealot who RULED...the guitar player was totally crazy...they were such a good band and again, really really nice. they all both our CD later etc...grind-death/metal is a BIG think here in thailand - a lot of these bands exist here and they're ALL so damn talented!!! again - they push the standards of bands here...

throughout the night, Kit, one of andy's old college friends, was helping us sell our shirts, jackets and CD's at the show...he's such a nice guy and has been SO supportive and helpful at our shows. joseph later told me that two of the Innocent Blood kids wanted to buy our album but didn't have any money, so what did Kit do? he took out his own wallet and bought two of our albums for the kids!! ISN'T THAT CRAZY!!! what a generous and big-hearted guy!!! reminds me that beautiful people DO still exist in this world...

so this ends the thailand section of our tour...its been so great to meet all these people at both shows and talk to them about hardcore and music in general. that's the best part of this tour, meeting all these people and making new friends.

we have some photo's from tonight's show but ALL of the internet cafe's in thailand use 56k modems which fucking SUCK. the transferring of files takes forever and i'd rather wait until we get to malaysia before i upload photo's...

we have one more day in thailand to hang out and do some shopping and then we leave for KL on tuesday!!! can't wait to get there!!!

see ya...

JANUARY 23, 2004:

we just said our goodbyes to all the Malaysian hardcore kids that have been taking care of us for the past 3 days in this beautiful country...i'm feeling pretty sad right now to say goodbye to them because in the short few days we've been together, they've really made us feel like family. they've treated us like long lost brothers who've finally made their way back home...they came to pick us up at the airport, took us back to the hotel, then showed us around KL, then helped us with the amazing show that we played on Jan 21...then they took care of us today with our last day in KL...the total amount of pure unconditional love that they've given to us cannot EVER be measured. and i truly believe that this is because we're a fellow hardcore band and since we came on our own to Malaysia to be a part of their hardcore scene, they want to make SURE we know how thankful they are. but the strange thing is - its not THEM that should be thankful...its us! and we are forever grateful to Jana, Zac and ALL the kids that have spent their time with us these past few days. 

the memories that have been created in our hearts by these kids will forever remain one of the most proudest moments in our lives in this band...to be able to come down to a place where hardcore is so ALIVE and to be fully accepted by them, is a dream come true.

the show...i don't know where to start about the show. when we first got there for soundcheck - the equipment was total crap. we then told the soundguy that we would pay for better equipment OURSELVES, because we wanted to play a good show tonight. with the equipment they had there, there was NO way the show was going to be fun to play. anyway, we were able to rent better equipment and instead of the organizer going to pick up the equipment, Jana and another person went to pick up the equipment. jana is someone who has the biggest heart in the world and for who, NO words are strong enough to describe. it is a pure HONOR for everyone in King Ly Chee to have someone like Jana so into this band and so willing to do ANYTHING to make sure we have a good time. 

then the show started and the first band that played was a cover band that was SO good...they played Sepultura, old metallica, Sabbath and so much other stuff...the kids that were in the pit for this band were having SUCH a great time! :-) it was awesome...

then the second band to play was the band that i wanted to see the most in malaysia - it was malaysia's old-school hardcore pioneers Second Combat. as soon as they got on and started setting up it was obvious that the audience was going to be totally nuts!!! a huge crowd was forming around the singer and right from the first song - the power of Malaysian hardcore pride was in full effect. guess what was the first song that they played though? because King Ly Chee was at the show they covered "Zhen Zhik Oi Nei" by Beyond! HAHAHAHAHA!! can you fucking believe that?!?! the guys in Second Combat aren't even chinese - they're all Malay but they love Beyond and played that song to warm up. that was so funny...then they got serious and played their old-school hardcore anthems. they were unbelievable and the audience were insane...arms were around each other, fingers were in the air, lyrics were being screamed LOUDER then the band!!! i felt the strength and unity throughout my entire body...they set the standard for the night no doubt with their non-stop singalongs and energetic performance. the band members were so humble and respectful - they were just so happy to be on stage with other hardcore bands. Second Combat started way back in 1996 and are still around today...they didn't give up on hardcore and deserve every OUNCE of love that they got from the audience at the show. oh - i forgot to mention, they covered Bane's "Can We Start Again?" - needless to say, me and alex went fucking crazy.

next was Sperm Blast - it was so hot inside that i had to stay outside so i missed these guys. i stayed where we were selling t-shirts and CD's and met other hardcore kids and talked about hardcore non-stop...so much fun!!! :-) i feel like i never get to have a conversation about hardcore in HK! only when we do interviews - but that's not really having a conversation. that's answering people's annoying questions about "what is hardcore"? stuff like that gets so annoying. i love sitting down with people who already know about hardcore and just talk about the hardships that each other faces in their own scenes and bands.

after Sperm Blast came the band that has changed my life...Cassandra. this band consists of an old friend, Zac, who i met along with Jana 2 years ago when i visited KL on a skateboard trip. NOTHING could have prepared me for what i was about to watch and experience with Cassandra. i walked in with alex and stood right in front of the band...before they started they got on the microphone and said nice stuff about us and welcomed us to Malaysia which was great. it was so heart-warming to be appreciated like that...i would definitely NOT say that this tour has been hard work because it hasn't been hard work, i don't consider something that i LOVE doing "work". everything has been so much fun and enjoyable - i can do this for my entire life if that was ever a possibility. but we have spent a lot of money on this tour to go to places and be a part of other people's scenes. add to the fact that this has been a dream in the working for a long long time...ANYWAY...back to Cassandra. they are a perfect mix of all the types of hardcore i love - they're a total mix of Killswitch Engage, 18 Visions, Bleeding Through, Lamb of God, Poison the Well, From Autumn to Ashes and all of that stuff. but the thing is, they're even better then ALL of these bands. the sound that they had was BEYOND the settings of professional US hardcore/metal bands and this i can say with personal experience of watching hardcore bands in the States. then when they started i was left standing their completely shocked. i was shocked at the power and talent of this band. i was shocked that i could never imagine an Asian band to be able to sound better then ANY US or European band on this planet. i stood ashamed of myself for doubting the sheer power of Asian hardcore. to me, Cassandra remains the high standard that ALL asian bands should follow. their music and emotions left my heart wanting more. i didn't want them to get off the stage - they could've played all night and i would've been the happiest fucking person on this planet. in the past 4 and a half years that King Ly Chee has been around, i have NEVER been so inspired by a band before. in my 27 years alive, i have never been so emotionally drained watching a band perform live before. every song would have a part which would make me think, "that was incredible", but then as soon as i said that they would play ANOTHER part which would be even greater...then after that part they'd play ANOTHER part that was even better. by the end of the set i couldn't think anymore, they took all the thoughts in my head away and turned it into their music and lyrics. after watching them i had to go outside and away from everyone just to sit down and think. i haven't felt like that in many many years - no band has EVER made me feel like that and i feel honored and grateful that we had a chance to watch these guys LIVE. they inspired and pushed us to make one VERY big change in King Ly Chee - this you'll hear when we come back home to play.

Cassandra remains in my heart as the pride of asia - i bought their t-shirt and i will wear it with so much love and pride. they're the best Asian hardcore band (outside of Japan) and will take over the world if they could get a chance...

the next band was Utarid featuring the bass player of Second Combat...i missed them because i was sitting outside trying to collect my thoughts and emotions after watching Cassandra...

we were on next and the place was packed...Jana later told me that over 200 people came to this show!!! that's insane if you think about the whole situation - we were playing on Chinese New Year Eve AND on a wednesday night. they weren't expecting more than like 50 people! who would've known more than 200 people were going to show up...

but we got on and ripped right into Izzue.crap and from then until the end of the set it was chaos...kids knew the lyrics again because of the songs on our website. i love how kids in both Malaysia and Thailand really did their research before we came - they learned the lyrics and everything and i'm sure this made our performance even more emotional for them. while we were playing kids were stagediving with slippers on! hahahaha - i remember 2 years ago the guys in Himsa told me to watch out for these kids in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines who come to shows wearing slippers and stagedive! :-) it was such an amazingly fun night at the show...we were so proud to represent Hong Kong in a country where hardcore is so deeply rooted already. the best part was to see all the Malaysian kids totally embrace our music and lyrics...in middle of the songs when i was saying stuff about the feelings in our hearts and explaining the songs - the kids were ALL listening so intently. awesome awesome feeling...the new song is going off so well!!! i love how kids get into it...

after the show we hung out and had late dinner and tea with SO MANY hardcore kids...the guys from Second Combat, Cassandra and so many other kids were all there to celebrate the show with us. they seriously treated us like brothers and we will never forget the way they treated us. they would go so far to help us...

right now i'm sitting in Singapore and its friday night - we're playing two shows tomorrow and i'm SO SO SO sleepy right now...so i'm going to go to sleep now...

all i have to say is that KL has been exactly how i predicted - THE MOST intense show and experience of this entire tour so far. to be surrounded by more than 200 punk and hardcore kids all having a great time was so amazing...Malaysians by nature are one of the most hospitable people on this planet - it was great for us to be surrounded in their aura - i think they turned us into even more positive people! :-)

okay...going to bed...can't wait to play in singapore tomorrow!!!

peace...

JANUARY 24, 2004:
"We in Malaysia say Singapore is a FINE city, whatever you do wrong - you will be FINED!" - said by a passenger on our van from KL to Singapore.

First photo: you want to know what the words that are going through my head were? "OH MY GOD - i'm in heaven..." :-)
Second photo: we just got to singapore and were hanging out with some friends...i think our friends had JUST given us a stack of local punk/hardcore CD's! they were so nice for doing that...that's Zac from Cassandra standing next to me...
Third photo: kevin and joseph busy setting up for what was going to be a fucking RAD show...
Fourth photo: is that called support or what?! hahaha...i wear this t-shirt with ASIAN PRIDE...

the whole process of coming into singapore yesterday was a pain in the ass...we drove down from KL to singapore and it took more than 5 hours because of traffic and other stuff. it started raining on the way and we were all like, "oh shit - i hope it doesn't rain in singapore!!". that's because, the second show in Singapore was at an outdoor place. at the border i was taken into another room because i carry a pakistani passport. after sitting there for like 30 minutes i came back out finally and was able to cross into Singapore. once across the border i found kevin and Zac (singer of Cassandra who is our roadie for the two singapore shows) waiting WITHOUT the van! they were like, "the driver needed to go so he left us here". sucks - so we had to walk around at the border with all our guitars and heavy ass bags trying to change money and find a taxi. it took forever...

we had two shows booked today for singapore...the hardcore festival show and the big Espalande show. during the day we walked around looking for shops that sold some hardcore t-shirts etc. there was one HUGE shop with SO MANY t-shirts and sweatshirts - but it was closed!!! oh my god - we were banging on the window and trying to get our good friend Roy to find out how we can call the boss of the shop to come down to open up for us! after Roy made a few phone calls he told us that the boss and his entire family is on vacation outside of Singapore! sucks!!! they looked like they had everything in there. there was so much shit inside...

ANYWAY: then we went over to Espalande to take care of soundcheck. during soundcheck it was raining a little bit but it was alright - we thought that we still had all day for the rain to stop and for the grass to dry. during soundcheck was the first time we got to hear the new King Ly Chee sound (remember i said that Cassandra inspired us to make a big change? well we tried it here...sounds fucking RAD!!!) after soundcheck here we went over to Sub Station to play at the hardcore festival. when we got there we walked into a room that looked like the back of the Fringe Club - except MUCH bigger! it was a pretty cool place and the sound was great. they had 2 FULL-STACK ibanez amps!!! :-) i knew it was going to be fun and i was right....when we first got on stage it was a bit weird because the kids seemed standoff-ish. like they wanted to see how good we were first. once we started playing kids went totally fucking NUTS!!! it was rad - it was like we won them over! hahahaha...we only got to play 6 songs and the set seemed SO short!! we've gotten too used to playing more than 10 songs on this tour! :-) after we finished the show we went back to the hotel to rest before our next show and it still hadn't stopped raining!!! we walked out of the show feeling so good because it was so great to see the reaction of the Singapore hardcore kids...they just loved our music and energy and we loved there's. there were kids doing full rolls while they were stagediving - it was sick! the sound was so good inside too...i could've easily played another 5 songs!

anyway - we went to Espalande in the pouring rain and waited an hour on the stage because of the damn rain. a bunch of people also showed up to see us play and they were hiding underneath some tree's and a little stall! i felt so bad for them...the organizers ended up canceling the show...we hung out with the people who soldiered it in the pouring rain and sold them some t-shirts, jackets and CD's. one guy even had a DIY Guan 36 t-shirt on!!! so sick!!! we went back to the hotel and on the way Roy asked us, "hey - the organizers want to know if you guys can play tomorrow night". andy was leaving tomorrow so if we played it was going to be a 3-piece...by the end of the night we said yes lets do it! so we're playing at espalande tomorrow night as a 3-piece!! we haven't done that in over 2 years! hahahaha...hopefully it won't suck!

see you tomorrow at the espalande which, if it doesn't rain will be our last show of this tour!

JANUARY 26, 2004:

dude what a fucking day!!! the started off with me saying goodbye to singer of Cassandra, Zac, who came down to KL to be our roadie and check out the singapore scene. what a great guy - and its an honor for us to know someone like this dude. then i went back to sleep and was awoken by alex. this poor guy has been sick for almost half the tour. he had a sore throat and today he suddenly got a high fever. i had to take him to the hospital because he was getting so dizzy that he was worried that he was going to fall down. so we got to the hospital around 3:30pm and our soundcheck was supposed to be at 4:45pm. when we got to the hospital he got a check up and then the doctor gave him some scary news. because alex was in HK at least 10 days ago AND because he SUDDENLY had a high fever, they wanted him to go to the Sars hospital to check to see if he had sars!!! JESUS CHRIST!!! that was scary as fucking hell...the hospital called an ambulance to take him there. so i went with him to the other hospital. he checked in their to get a check up. the first doctor didn't think that alex had sars but he just wanted to be sure. so now it was about 4:30 and it was looking like we wouldn't be able to play the show tonight. alex at this point couldn't even stand - how was he going to play a show? anyway - i left him at the hospital because it was going to take 2 hours. i went to my friend Jon's shop Wake Me Up Music to buy some CD's...after that i went back to meet up with kevin and everyone else because they had to explain everything to the show organizers and tell them that we weren't going to be able to play tonight because alex is really sick. when i met up with kevin he said that the organizers of the show really wished we could at least play a couple songs. but i said, i don't think alex can make it man but we'll call him in a bit to see how he's doing. around 6pm we called him back and he said that the doctors were letting him go because he obviously didn't have sars - just a fever. thank GOD!!! so we asked him if he thought that we could at least play a couple songs...and he said yes!!! ho yeh!!!

so we rushed back to the hotel to pick up all our stuff and get back to Espalande to do a quick soundcheck...the sound was fucking great and we were excited about the show.

when we got on stage - i think at least 100 people were there watching and it seemed like the number slowly started to grow. no hardcore kids from Substation came though i think...the crowd was VERY VERY tame. they all just stood there and didn't move around. we watched the video of the show later and nobody was even nodding their heads. a really really WEIRD show...reminded me of HK 4 years ago - thank god HK has changed a lot!!! anyway - we played as a 3-piece today because andy had to go back to HK. i played through two amps at the same time to make sure that the sound was full enough. sounded great but me and alex definitely missed andy on stage - its just not the same when the 4 of us aren't together. anyway...we managed to sell some stuff and ended our whole tour on an anticlimatic note. later that night we got to hang out with some friends we made in singapore - Henry, Christy, Donita and old friends like Jon for some tea and to relax...

that was it...that brought our WHOLE tour to an end...what a tour its been - and what an awesome experience with memories that's going to last a life time!!! :-)

thanks to everyone that helped in organizing our shows, thanks to everyone who took the time to show us around, thanks to everyone who took time to befriend us, thanks to everyone who came to the show to support us and the other bands, thanks to everyone who gave us a piece of their hearts for us to place inside our own...its been an honor to spend time with you guys/girls and we hope that you had a good time as well...

thank you and we hope to see you guys someday again!!! :-)