South By South, Best

The first time it happened, all of KL shook with the reverberations. Fat Boys Records’ Pesta Malam Indonesia was a landmark undertaking bridging the gap between serious music lovers here and in our southern neighbour, and the festival did for the massive but under-satiated Indo rock crowd here what Rock the World did for the alternative rock scene – the PMI gave it a sense of solidarity, a shared purpose and pride in loving an art form unfairly maligned for being perceived as a disruption to the local music industry.

This time around, Fat Boys and iTalk have brought out the big guns, with Peterpan, Ungu, Samsons, Slank, Sheila on 7 and Dewi Dewi headlining the all-day event on 16 August at the Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club. Supporting the visiting heavyweights will be local scene giants Hujan and Meet Uncle Hussain, who no doubt already share a mutual fanbase with the headliners. If you’re down with reestablishing musical diplomatic relations hands-on with thousands of other like-minded fanboys and girls, August 16^th is the best date for all your plans to go south.

Text Azwan Mahzan