Indah khabar dari rupa

Bertemu sekali lagi dalam sesi mencarut mingguan. Duh! When I first heard that AF6 will stage one of its weekly shows at Istana Budaya, I was quick to imagine a grand, glitzy and glamorous atmosphere with flashy stage…something like American Idol being staged at Kodak Theatre L.A. But from the actual scenario last night, it was in fact “indah khabar dari rupa” totally beyond my imagination (in a negative sense) …*LOL*. The hall looked very cramp and messy. The stage was “naked” and as tiny as the one in my previous school hall. I presume they didn’t fully use the stage capability yang dikatakan boleh bertukar-tukar wajah. Maklumlah kan, apalah juga konsert AF6 ni sehingga memerlukan stage setting ditukar-tukar. Sistem akustik tu bolehlah tahan, masa mendengar pelajar-pelajar menyanyi teringat pula sistem akustik dalam studio rakaman yang canggih. But then the symphony orchestra sounds a bit ‘dry’ and nothing like other symphony orchestras I’ve heard before. Some words say that IB is not necessarily the place for the best theatrical performances, it’s more on the question whether you can afford its rental or not. Prestigious? I’m beginning to question about it...:)

On to the performances, tapi sebelum itukan, kenapalah letak tu orkestra di depan, macam nampak semak. I know they can place it at the back tapi entah apa motif letak di depan. Mau tayang Ramli M.S?..hehe.

Lagu medley Melayu – One word…semak! Macam banyak silap. Pentas sempit, penari-penari IB pula control pentas, maklumlah rumah dorang. Suara pelajar-pelajar adakala tenggelam hilang entah ke mana (atau masa part ni ada yang terlupa lirik?). In short satu persembahan yang ‘potong stim’.

Nubhan - Dealova (Once)

He started off quite well until the second “seperti” in the chorus. Lepas tu seperti biasalah terseksa habis, suara terpelanting-pelanting. No gift for those who can guess correctly why a shawl is wrapped around his neck (ala-ala winter dressing). Jawapannya sebab, leher dia pandai memanjang macam zirafah saat terseksa menarik suara, siap terdedah urat-urat saraf. So siapa bilang Jasmi Rajab tidak kreatif dalam menutup cacat cela...:). Nubhan berupaya juga mengawal kekurangannya walaupun nampak jelas terpaksa berhempas pulas bergelut dengn lagu ini. C+

Stanly - Footloose (Kenny Loggins)
He started off very well too and managed to do the dance steps effortlessly. Although he nailed about 80% of this song, he just couldn’t wrap up the ending smoothly. It appears to be a bit of turbulent towards the end. B

Toi – Shakila (Rahim Maarof)
Hmm…this is the pitchiest performance from Toi so far. Mungkin lagu ini terlalu beasr dan sukar buat Toi. Nothing special about Toi’s performance and he didn’t give justice to this song sekadar mengundang bad critics. But the good news is he managed to avoid suara terkucil seperti yang selalu kenampakan dalam diari AF. D

Alif – Rozana (Search)
Siapa rasa lagu ini terlalu mudah? Sila angkat tangan. Uiina..semuapun angkat tangan…hehe. This is indeed a very simple ballad. It was nothing like Search’s Fantasia Bulan Madu or Isabella. Vocal wise, it wasn’t that bad. Alif did well during the first part, but on certain parts during the repeated verses, Alif adakalanya macam hilang tumpuan dan hampir-hampir lari tempo. Lirik pula adakala tidak sama dengan sebutan lirik penyanyi latar. C+

Nadia – You Got One Night Only (Jeniffer Hudson)
Oh rupa-rupanya IB is no stranger to Nadia, she did perform there a couple of times before. Overall performance was okay, although she almost lost her vocal stamina towards the end (she’s forgiven cos this is indeed a big and hard song). This girl has her own way of singing, unique in that sense but not pleasant enough for me. Despite having the quality in her vocal tone, she seems to know only one single technique of voice projection, which is the “normal” projection. Some people tend to equate her with power (Nadia equals powerful voice), despite having a hard and rough sound. Thanks to her loudness. Nadia’s sweet face plus her loud voice plus not a bad performance equals over-rating by Adlin. No doubt she did well tapi tidaklah sampai tahap Adlin rated lebih-lebih dengan aksi seperti konduktor orkestra mengarah penonton bertepuk. B

Riz - Memburu Impian (Kaza)
The drama presented just before Riz took over the stage was very boring. I just didn’t get the message. It was really a waste of precious time…errgh! Back to Riz, he was in full control. Be it on his voice, gestures and expression. Not much of negative remarks, maybe the song tempo is slightly slower than the original as if Riz kept delaying the next words.A

Stacy – Hati (Siti Nurhaliza)
With a settee and some decorations on stage, it looked almost similar props as last week. This is another big song. Stacy tried very hard to be in full control, most of the time she managed, other times she trip a bit. It’s either her voice is not fully recover or the mike (the sound system) is too good and captured every tiny glitch in her voice. A very nice outfit indeed (despite the absence of patriotic elements) unfortunately it inhibits her movement particularly in her efforts to inject extra gestures towards the end. Vocal wise, was good although it doesn’t sound completely flawless (blame it on the imperfect breathing timing and maybe the sore throat). But most importantly, as Tiara said there’s no glimpse of Siti at all. B

The Music of The Night

As expected lagu makanan Stanly...macam makan kacang ja dia nyanyi kan! Too bad Stacy was unable to project her soprano voice as good as she did in Diari few days back. Yupp understood she has health problem. Still, pengetua depends on her for the difficult counter melodies. Sampai berdiri macam patung bah si Stacy kontrol pitch takut silap..hehe..but she made it..well done. Nadia was totally prohibited to take the part. Yang kelakar time Alif took over his turn punya panjang "s"..."sssssssssssoftly..."..haha! Riz did well too, Toi and Nubhan not that bad either. Interesting performance. C+

Menuju Puncak - I was like who the hell is the guy dressed ala2 captain, rupa-rupanya si Alif....a sign that he'll be eliminated. Tu lah siapa suruh terlupa bawa uniform.

Elimination: Most people expected Toi. To me siapa-siapa saja pun boleh, so long the person is not Stacy, Nadia and Riz. So it's Alif's turn, the most quite guy in the academy.