The first time we made some sort of splash in Penang was for the Hard Rock Rising competition. The band made it all the way to the finals, having entered the top four by the skin of our yellowed teeth. And in all earnestness (and irony), we will always parade ourselves around as one of the four Malaysian 2017 Hard Rock Rising Finalists™.

It'd be funny, no?

You can take a look at our performance in the finale here - it wasn't as tight as it could've been, but we crammed in blood and sweat into it.

Meanwhile, musical dark prince Kien Lim (who curates the sessions at ChinaHouse, deemed as one of the coolest venues to play in Penang) had seen us a couple of times, and felt that we were deserving of a featured slot - and the rest is history. We went down to ChinaHouse last year with George Wong in tow for bass (starting a pattern of sorts).

This year was just as cool, but with more people in the room.

Our 2 June show was pretty aces on all accounts, and we had the opportunity to present the material in its stripped-down glory, as well as in its amped-up reality. The "Dead Propositions" might become a thing. It's got us frothing at the thought of it being a nice complement to EP #2 later this year.

Anyway, back to the show.

We played with the amazing Jaime Gunter of Volatile (who deservedly took the Hard Rock Rising crown), as she covered the bass for us in Ruben's absence. And here's the thing - we didn't practice together at all. So 2 June was the first night we played together, and it was down to Jaime's quick-thinking that got us through the night.

She's now an Honorary Proposition. We're going to need to create a ceremonial sash.

She then took on the reigns of bassing it up and playing lead for Brendan, as he closed the night with two more of the Volatile crew: Sean (who usually sings, but was on drumming duties) and Raul (on bass).

At this point, Brendan had the crowd eating out of his hand. Some might have called it a buffet.

What a night. We're not sure when we'll be back in Penang again, but we'll be mighty pleased to have some proper CDs to peddle to the good folks of George Town. We feel that Penang's given us so much, and it's been such a great experience playing there.

xoxox

Ian

#thepropositionsarego #rock #malaysia #malaysianmusic #indierock #indiemusic #music #thepropositions #penang #chinahouse #hardrockrising