Angel Dust conquers Malaysian hardcore scene at 10:00am on a Tuesday

by Dean Alt+

It started with a harmless curious tweet from Turnstile “Who can set us up a last minute show in Kuala Lumpur in a few days?” and people went crazy about it. It was around 12 midnight last Saturday and I was just chilling at a coffee shop when people kept texting me to get on this.

I stayed cool about it because I saw that a lot of other promoters were on it already. That’s when I suddenly got a call from Shah of Bigmouth Booking telling me it was actually Angel Du$t that were looking for a quick show in Kuala Lumpur during their layover at KLIA 2 airport. Apparently they just noticed they had a short window from 7am till 12pm. (They had mistakenly tweeted using Turnstile’s account.) This was going to be extremely challenging: a 5 hour window of time that includes pickup from the airport, a long ride to the venue and back, breakfast and lunch, and of course a show all on a Tuesday morning. For some strange reason, I agreed to take it on beginning the next few nights of no sleep.

I started calling up venues that I thought could fit the time and conditions. It was around 1am and I was just hoping for a reply. After about a half hour I realized that studios were off the table. I couldn’t risk getting noise complaints and the show being raided if the show somehow attracted a lot of people. I kept on waiting to hear back from other venues. Right when I was about to give up for the night and hope to continue the search the next day, I got a call from Cathy from PlayspaceLive and within 10 minutes of back and forth, I was able to secure a venue. That night I just tweeted about the show and started doing the flier and promo video.

The next day I woke up, seeing a lot of feedback on all my social networks. Despite a huge response, people were still confused and were complaining about the time of the show. It was something beyond my control so I just kept blasting promos on social networks hoping for the best.

2 days passed and it was finally the day of the show – Tuesday. The day went by so fast I thought I was still sleeping. Arrival was at 6:30am, we grabbed breakfast and made our way, no expectations, we moved along hoping to just have fun at the show. We made our way to the venue by 9:30am and there were a bunch of people waiting outside the venue already. We proceeded with setting up everything. Nothing interesting had happened yet, small crowd, most of people that were passing by were just busy getting to work.

Alt+ with the band at the airport

By 10am we opened the doors. What was funny was that people just kept coming and coming and coming. Angel Du$t merchandise was set up and was all sold out within 10mins (They didn’t actually bring a lot, but still…). Everybody that came, was excited and many shared how they had to fight with their bosses, or lied to get a day off, etc. Some of them took unpaid leave, canceled meetings, ditched their mother’s birthday, drove 300km and one even came directly from a job interview. I was overwhelmed to see people making such an effort to come support the show. Angel Du$t themselves were surprised and baffled at how some people really went the extra mile just to be here.

The show went off smoothly, people were jumping off the tall stage, moshing, singing along…the whole nine yards. I came in doing the show with no expectations, only hoping to make some new friends and possibly not lose all my money. Sure the venue wasn’t as big as what I normally use, but it was perfect for the occasion. Despite the tight schedule, Angel Du$t played a full set, after that Turnstile came on (Branden and Justice changed positions) and shit went off. You’d think that after a full set of people jumping around and singing along the energy would be lost, but people were really feeling it. They played a few songs and left people wanting more.

The show ended and I was running around clearing the venue. I felt bad for everyone that wanted to hangout with the band, but I’m glad they did got a chance to take some photos and say hi to the band. We rushed back to the airport just in time for the flight. Along the way everyone still couldn’t believe what happened.

I want to take the chance to thank everyone that came out, everyone that put that extra effort in to be at the show, to buy merch and make the band feel welcome. The band themselves were amazed and regret not having more time to spend here. It goes to show how good the scene really is when it’s like this. Til next time.

Lastly, I just want to mention that if it wasn’t for everyone in Alt+, Bigmouth and RVDKL it wouldn’t have gone so smoothly. I got help from Nerd, Farza and Zimm from Singapore as well. The crew at PlayspaceLive played a huge part getting the place ready. I was just basically managing time and making sure everything was going as planned. Thank you everyone that played a part in putting this together.

Thoughts from the band themselves:

Photos are by Aizat Ady Ikram

Here’s the FULLSET video as well!

Turnstile after Justice and Branden switched places: