Rockfest ’16, an annual pop/rock concert in NUS, took place at the UCC Courtyard on the 16th of March, Wednesday. Organized by Sheares Hall, the concert featured bands from all six NUS Halls of Residence.
We arrived early at the Courtyard to see a DJ entertaining the waiting crowd, spinning radio favourites and remixes of Top 40 songs. While alcohol was unfortunately not present, cans of Red Bull were liberally distributed to the audience members. There was a certain excitement in the air as the crowd grew, the evening light faded, and the stage lights started to flicker on.
Rockafellas (Raffles Hall) kicked off the night with a 7-piece band, covering difficult songs such as ‘The Kill’ by 30 Seconds to Mars and ‘The Diary of Jane’ by Breaking Benjamin. Their two female lead vocalists helmed the stage well. They delivered effective vocal harmony together, and one of them even (briefly) attempted death metal vocals. While the latter effect was too short-lived to really add to the song, it was an interesting touch nonetheless. Overall the band sounded good, and delivered a solid performance.
The Heng Mui Keng Music Club (Sheares Hall) gave what was arguably the best performance of Rockfest ’16. Jokingly describing themselves as a band with ‘three guys, three girls and one Indian’, the Sheares Hall band was tight and well-rehearsed. The two vocalists were solid and effective, and their female vocalist in particular had powerful vocals, covering songs like Paramore’s ‘Misery Business’ with ease. Their final song was a self-crafted medley that ended with David Guetta’s ‘Titanium’, a perfect song to end their set on. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be much for the synth and keyboard players to do – both often looked bored on stage, and their parts could not always be heard.
Terrestrea (Kent Ridge Hall) was an all-male band that strode onto stage oozing masculinity and aggression with their tight shirts, leather jackets and keen sense of showmanship. A band with post-hardcore and metal influences, they made their presence felt with guttural vocals, aggressive guitars, and drums that drove the beat relentlessly forward. Impressively, all of their songs were original. They were the only band to perform original songs at Rockfest ’16.
The Bratwursts (Eusoff Hall) performed hits such as ‘Take Me Out’ by Franz Ferdinand and ‘Sun Goes Down’ by the Arctic Monkeys. The Bratwursts gave a decent performance, but would have put on a better performance if they had fully captured the spirit and complexity of the songs they were covering.
Temasek Hall’s THreshold gave a decent performance for a band that professed to be new at doing gigs. Much like the Bratwursts, however, they did not capture the spirit of the original songs fully. Their first two covers sounded emotionally flat, lacking the emotional peaks of the original songs ‘Monster’ and ‘Hysteria’. This was a pity, as it was clear that the vocalists had lovely voices. Thankfully, THreshold gained some momentum by the time their last song rolled around, and they delivered a convincing cover of Evanescence’s ‘Bring Me to Life’.
All The King’s Men (King Edward’s VII) had an experimental and fun-loving attitude towards their music. They managed to incorporate Fall Out Boy into all their other songs by Queen, Maroon 5 and Imagine Dragons. Such a mish-mash of musical styles occasionally worked, but often didn’t. For instance, the harmonies did not always fit well when they tried to fit one song over another. However, the energy and enthusiasm of the band was evident throughout, and more musical experience will eventually give them a better sense of which songs can work together.
KR Rockers (Kent Ridge Hall) performed ‘Anna Molly’ by Incubus, ‘Anna Sun’ by Walk the Moon, and ‘Drown’ by Bring Me the Horizon. The musicians were seasoned and confident on stage, and gave a decent performance. While their band was the only one to employ an electric violinist, the bright sound of the violin was not entirely congruent with the rest of the band, which had a darker and mellower sound. More could have been done to blend the violin together with the band, as well as help the guitars fade less into the background.
The closing set of Rockfest ’16 was taken by Royale with Cheese (Sheares Hall), and deservedly so. Their charismatic vocalists whipped the crowd up into a frenzy, and Royale had the best audience engagement of all the bands that night. At some point, a man with a blue backpack climbed onto the stage and tried to grab the female vocalist, somewhat bizarrely. (He was ushered off politely.) Royale, covering bands as diverse as Paramore and Metallica, delivered strong vocals and a solid performance. The tones of the male and female vocalists could have blended better, as their voices sometimes sounded too distinct to be part of the same song. Overall, though, the band ended Rockfest ’16 on a definite high.
Image Credits:
Photo #1 from the NUS Arts Festival Facebook page
Photo #2 from the NUS Arts Festival Facebook page, by photographer Uyen
Photo #3 from the NUS Arts Festival Facebook page, by photographer Uyen
