School of Rock at Electric Ladyland

Dude,

One of the biggest surprises in my life was how I managed to survive the local equivalent of O-Level and A-Level examination. I eventually got a place in the oldest university of this country – in the capital city. So, on May 2000, I enrolled in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, to begin my training as a chemist.

Small town boy come to big city – all that drug, sex and rock n’ roll…..

Not… but the Rock n’ Roll part, yeah baby…

While many of the other kids were enjoying their dorm life and endless orgy parties (just kidding), I was extremely efficient in being home immediately after lectures (I stayed out of the campus). Why?

Remember WL? This guy was seated beside me since primary one till my A-Levels, broke our leg in the freak accident and took our black belt in Taekwondo together. We ended being roommate for the next 3 years in university.

WL is a Computer Science student in the same university, majoring in Artificial Intelligence. Now, all the IT geeks get a designated computer in the faculty’s lab, and for some reason, they began installing KaZaa, downloading everything from how to make a bomb (just kidding) to academic books – all that safe from the lab supervisor’s knowledge.

WL was also a fellow student during my classical days and he is equally at home listening to rock, metal and everything electric.

So day after day he will be back with something new…first it was the mp3 – Vinnie Moore, Cacophony, Wes Montgomery, Steve Morse and many many more…..

Then came the videos – John Petrucci’s Rock Discipline, Marty Friedman’s Melodic Control, The Allman Bros Band Live at the Fillmore, Joe Stump Berklee Video, Dream Theater’s Change of Season, Larry Carlton Live at Blue Note, Paul Gilbert’s Terrifying Guitar Trip, the list was endless. Till today, they are still the best reference I have.

My first 1.5 year in uni were spent without a guitar, although later, WL would bring his Samick and Mini Marshall, which I played most of the time. I look forward to trips home, cos’ that’s when I get to play on my classical.

During that period as well, I made frequent trip to local CD stores. You get everything in the city. I remember getting my first Randy Rhoads cd – Tribute – and finding Uli Jon Roth’s Earthquake and Fire Wind lying at a flea market, unappreciated (it’s now safely in my cd drawer). Finding all the cds, which I could only read about in Guitar World was indeed, priceless.

Guitar stores – this is another story. To cut it short, I swear I could have died a happy man after my first encounter with an American Strat or an ESP. But drooling over them was all I could afford to do.

In 2002, Paul Gilbert conducted a clinic here in the city. I saw an ad on ticketing outlets and it led me to a new guitar store around the suburb I was staying. The store was still under construction, and I got a chance to speak to the proprietor of the store and had some good vibes going around. Because renovation was going on in there, the place was rather messy. I got my ticket to the clinic, wave goodbye and promised to check the store when they are up and ready.

I went back eventually when they were up and ready. Little did I know that this little neighourhood store will eventually pave the way for many great and mighty things to come.

Digital music is the in-thing now…but nothing beats the feeling of holding a new cd, ripping the plastic off, playing the disc and reading the entire booklet/sleeve…..