REVIEW /CONCERT
T-REX
Esplanade Outdoor Theatre/Sunday
Switching out and swopping instruments like seasoned professionals, genre-defying home-grown band T-Rex closed the last performance of the Mosaic Music Weekend in style.
Combining everything from post- rock to progressive metal to even jazz, the band's proficiency as a live act outshone the platform they were allotted to play on - a free performance that could very well have been a ticketed one.
The three-man band - Ahmad Khaliq on guitars, Axel Serik on bass and Junaidi Kusnong on drums - looked fairly nondescript as they walked on stage, with the trio dressed in T-shirt and jeans.
But they traded instruments from the get-go, with Junaidi picking up the guitar and Ahmad having a go on drums in their first song, White Rabbit.
Their ability to move from instrument to instrument so effortlessly was as impressive as the spontaneous feel of their multi-textural sound that spanned a 40-minute set.
After one song, the band were joined by saxophonist Bryan De Rozario - whom The Straits Times understands is now a permanent member of the band - who added an entirely new dimension and a jazzy touch to the already technically challenging soundtrack.
Irregular time signatures - characteristic of math rock - coupled with fluid jazz lines, made for an incredible live showing by the band, which have been around for less than a year.
The band have yet to have an album to their name.
But perhaps, before that comes, they would be better off getting a new name, given T-Rex's immediate association with the English glam-rock band, T.Rex, fronted by Marc Bolan. Not only is their sound completely different, but also an online search for the up-and-coming band would pull up a barrage of hits by Bolan and company instead.
Surprisingly, drummer Junaidi, 30, revealed to the crowd mid-set that he had pulled the band together as part of his exam requirements as a student at the Lasalle College of the Arts.
For a band assembled for school, they are certainly turning out to be one of the most exciting additions to Singapore's burgeoning live music scene.