Substation’s Septfest: Sounds of the Sub

The Substation ended its month-long Septfest, the arts centre’s annual anniversary celebration, on Sunday.

Of course, given the buzz surrounding the nation’s celebration of 50 years of independence, one might be forgiven for not noticing that this year’s edition was a special one because the institution turned 25.

Nonetheless, it was fitting that the final programme ended with a two-day concert edition of their regular music showcase Tribal Gathering Of The Tongue Tasters at the Substation Theatre over the weekend.

Day One of the bill saw relatively newer music acts such as The Livid Sun, TAJ, Spacedays, Hanging Up The Moon and sub:shaman taking centre stage with headliners and veteran rockers Plainsunset closing the festivities for the night. Day Two saw a group of indie musicians who used to perform at The Substation in the early to mid-1990s: Moods, The Oddfellows, Astreal, TypeWriter and The Observatory.

But, Sunday night was more than just a night of music performances. It was a night of remembrances and recollections as well.

The bands that performed all featured members who used to perform at The Substation back in the 1990s.

Back in its early days, The Substation was known by music fans as a venue to see what Singapore had to offer in the indie music scene. There were regular music showcases held at the Substation Garden (which later morphed into the Fat Frog cafe and, eventually, Timbre).

Noted Yee Chang Kang, the lead singer of indie band TypeWriter, the shows would start “around noon and go on until about 10pm … and there would be bands playing all kinds of music, and the people would sit there throughout the day”.

This was where The Oddfellows performed at the launch of The Substation 25 years ago. They were followed by bands and musicians such as Art Fazil, Kevin Mathews, Humpback Oak, The Padres, Opposition Party, Corporate Toil, Stompin’ Ground, The NoNames, Concave Scream, Twang Bar Kings, Mortal Flower, Pink Elephants, The Ordinary People and more, taking to the stage in the years following and playing a mixture of covers and original songs.

These showcases would last all day and feature bands and singers performing all sorts of music, whether it was jazz, blues, rock, punk, hardcore, metal or acoustic numbers. The braver ones would even attempt spoken word.

There was no discrimination. Well, not on the part of the musicians, anyway. Very often, members of various bands could be seen huddling together and shooting the breeze, helping each other tune the instruments (or in some cases, sharing instruments because not all the musicians could afford them) as they waited for their turn to perform.

The audience would cram themselves on the floor to watch the bands: Punk fans mixing it with metal fans and pop fans. And they would show their appreciation — or displeasure — in no uncertain terms. Hecklers would offer colourful “suggestions” as to what one could do with the instrument if they did not like the music. Others would be more direct: “F*** off, we want Stompin’ Ground!”

Yee, who was fronting indie band The Ordinary People at the time, offered an anecdote on Sunday night. “The punk fans would all come and sit through the day to wait for their favourite punk bands to perform. After that, when we came on, they would all leave,” he deadpanned to much laughter from the audience.

As a performer, you could run away screaming or face the music. It was considered a badge of honour if you could win over the tough Substation crowd. (By that, we mean get a majority of the audience to applaud your set.)

Fast forward 25 years later, and the crowd at the Substation Theatre was made up of a decidedly different bunch (although quite a few of them looked like they were there back in the 1990s).

Moods kicked off the proceedings with a “cool and funky” and energetic vibe that echoed through their set. The Oddfellows — singer Patrick Chng, bassist Vincent Lee, guitarist Kelvin Tan and drummer Johnny Ong — were up next and they treated the crowd to a selection of never-before-released songs (such as the title track to their album Teenage Head, which, for some reason, was left off the album), and familiar crowd favourites such as She’s So Innocent, Unity Song and what is probably their biggest hit, the No 1 smash So Happy.

Ginette Chittick, the lead singer and bassist of rock band Astreal, which followed The Oddfellows, recounted the days in which she and her all-girl punk band Psycho Sonique had to take on the crowd at the Substation back in 1990s. Chittick would later form Astreal with guitarist Muhammad Alkhatib — keyboardist Jason Ang and drummer Joseph Chian were new additions — and the band performed a very enjoyable set of dreamy rock tunes, which had several members of the audience dancing along and even hurling underwear onstage.

Like The Oddfellows, TypeWriter’s set consisted of familiar songs such as The Deepest Blue and Enemy, from their album Indian Head Massage, which had the crowd singing along — and unfamiliar ones, in the form of four tracks from their upcoming as-yet-untitled album, including the sparse-but-intense The Room Upstairs and Gentle Wind, a possible crowd favourite. Instead of ending with a rouser such as Sunlight Takes Over, the band ended their set with the almost eerie Your Window (also from Indian Head Massage). It was an odd choice as a closer, but it was a great segue for the next act.

The last band on the list was The Observatory, and this writer, admittedly, was going to give them a miss, having seen their recent performance. However, curiosity won the day and I was glad that I snuck back into the venue. To the mainstream audience, The Observatory have always been an unconventional act and they opted for a set that included as-yet-unheard tracks. While some might comment about the slightly imperfect performance, I could not help but think that it was actually an apt way to end the night.

You see, The Substation shows of yore were not polished, slick events. While it was not always Amateur Night, they were, for the most part, raw and ready performances by bands who wanted nothing more than to show the world (or at least, the hundreds who regularly gathered at the Garden) what they could do. There was a vibe of excitement that was undeniable. It was a time of discovery, of experimentation. It was a time to “just do it” and see what happened.

That was what one could feel at The Substation Theatre on Sunday. And, in a way, that was a perfect way to end Septfest.