Thursday, June 30, 2005

RIP Motherfucker

The problem with Estonia, my friends, is that it is situated in the Middle of Fucking Nowhere.

With no natural wonders to speak of and measuring only "
slightly smaller than New Hampshire and Vermont combined", this ex-Communist state exists in a reality that is defined by organized crime, corrupt politics and quite possibly, a little indifference, too.

No one really knows how to get there. Or knows why it actually exists.

The same sort of problem applies to Teasers, in Sri Hartamas. Relegated to corner shoplot status by the likes of Coffee Bean and Breakers, the small club, formerly known as Chinamax, has been the traditional cherry-popping venue of most drum n bass/breaks DJs from KL: Acid, Mac, Six, FSKL, Irman and Johan have played there, in addition to international turntablist-types the likes of Vortex and SIV. We've had Loops nights, Funk is Free! nights and lots more.

But junglist christening ceremonies are intimate and spartan, in contrast to other forms of electronica, like techno or House music. In fact, it's an old joke that if you ever wanted to make it as a famous non-mainstream DJ you had to play your first gig at Chinamax/Teasers. Boh!

But Teasers is just the wrong sort of place to have gigs. Like Estonia, it's too small, and is haphazrdly populated by stragglers. The DJ console is way too high up and the speaker positioning would better suit a Hi-Fi dealership. And the decor, well that's just plain rotten.

But for all of its shortcomings, we never passed up an opportunity to get loaded, hit the dancefloor and rinse out the better part of our Saturday evenings. Even when the crowd turnout was like, 5 people, we'd still find a way to ditch everything else and leg it to Desa Sri Hartamas. And big up the DJ.

I guess that's why Teasers will always have a special, if not peculiar place in our hearts.

It might still be one of the dodgier clubs in KL, but for a while, it was home.

P.S./ The whole point of this post is that you can now go to The Loft at Zouk KL, every last Thursday of the month, to get your regular dose of dnb.

Goodbye Teasers. It was fun.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

it's hard being a non-clubber who visits this site. i just dun get it. but i have now. i feel much smarter. thank u.

K@MO said...

You're welcome. I love the junglist life. I love the music, the culture and although it's a little pretentious, I love talking about it. There's just no turning back for me. I'm already lost in Jungle :)

Anonymous said...

nice comparison estonia=chinamax.
does remind me of a certain paulo coelho book tho. "where is slovenia?"