Night Audio: Fight Club

It was three weeks ago, the eve of the Malaysian independence day.

Questioning why I was there in the first place, I find myself pointlessly wandering the streets of Changkat, in Bukit Bintang at 12 something PM. It was the 3^rd time I was there and I still couldn’t manage to enter any of the pubs, bars or clubs.

The main reason was because I don’t drink. Another, is because I think it’s pointless and boring. Sitting around, listening to horribly distorted techno music in a dark, cramped space.

So while my friends were somewhere in the vicinity getting wasted, I walked the streets like a zombie.

It was a Friday night and Changkat was packed. I had to struggle my way through crowds in front of the more popular clubs. I somehow made it to a more quieter part of the street, where I took refuge in front of a 7-11.

Sitting on a makeshift bench in a form of concrete blocks, I sort of dozed off, until a voice woke me up. “Heading to ‘Fight Club’ bro?” a friendly looking presumably Indian dude in a fitted cap, said while he hands me a flier.

I took the flier which had a picture of Tyler Durden on it, with the words “FIGHT CLUB” at the top. Underneath it was the location, “Bakita.”

“It’s just across the street.” The guy added, as he pointed over his shoulder.

I asked the flier dude what type of music they will play.

“Moobahton, Dubstep, Electro-house. Cover charge 10 Ringgit." he said in a cool voice.

I was sold. Bakita sounded better than sitting on concrete blocks next to a convenience store.

The main floor of Bakita is mostly a Bar slash hangout place where people go to drown their sorrows or have meaningful conversations with acquaintances.

The slightly hidden entrance to the upper level of Bakita, which is located at the side of the building for unknown reasons, was guarded by a not so friendly looking bouncer. After a flash of my ID, payment of 10 bucks cover charge and an invisible stamp on my arm, I was granted access.

You know that feeling when you hear a song you really like on the radio and you get all excited? That was me at the bottom of the stairs, heading up to the club floor. A robotic voice drones; "Destroy them with lasers!" followed by a flurry of bone crunching bass beat, inter-looped with samples of laser pew-pew sounds.

The DJ was playing a song by Knife Party, an Electro-House group that I have been listening to religiously. Before I knew it, I was part of the crowd. Part of the mosh pit, as though I was there from the beginning, like I belonged there. Nobody seemed to notice that I just joined, everyone was too busy enjoying the music.

Bear in mind, I had no idea who the DJ was, I had no prior information of this event before that nice dude handed me a flier. But I liked what I heard, and I know what I was hearing, and that is important to me. You can't really force me to have a good time listening to music I don't like or am not familiar with. I'm sure this applies to many people.

The DJ, who I later find out is called DJ Nesh, was playing songs by Mustard Pimp, Feed Me, Benga and surprisingly even Skrillex. He had me bumping my head with a mix of euphora and adrenaline. I blame it on the thrill of stumbling upon something that I can relate to.

DJ Nesh

30 minutes into the set, I started to look around a bit at the crowd and I noticed that everyone seem to be in clear appreciation of the music that was being played, as was I. Heads were banged, hands were in the air, the crowd of approximately seventy people were moving in unison to the thumping bass coming from the speakers, as I joined them in shouting "FIGHT CLUB!" at the top of my lungs.

An hour or so into the event, I was still at it. Enjoying the moment, and taking in the atmosphere.

Hearing bass music how it was meant to be heard, loud and in your face. Even though I was alone, it was truly a moment worth reliving.

A midst my joyous pumping off fists and incessant hopping, I felt a vibration in my pants. It was my cellphone. I made my way to the quietest place I could find, the men's washroom, and answered it to find out that my friends are somewhere on the streets of Bukit Bintang drunkenly trying to find me. I was the designated driver.

Therefore my night in Fight Club was abruptly cut short.

After a few weeks have flown by, Fight Club was still on my mind. So I decided to do a bit of a follow up research. From the flier I deduced the organizer of the event to be the Malaysian Dubstep Alliance.

Through the magic of the Internet, I got in contact with a nice lady that basically "is" the Malaysian Dubstep Alliance. Miss Michelle Daphne Khoo, 22, is the person behind the MDA.

I asked her some questions about Fight Club and to talk a bit about the MDA, and this is what she had to say:

"MDA will be 2 years old in November. Currently a girl (me) is running it. It was founded by 2 of my guy friends, which they aren't really doing anything as of now for MDA. Started taking over somewhere in the middle of last year."

Malaysian Dubstep Alliance, made up of
Michelle and former members turned
headlining DJ's H3 and Nas-T

"I try to gather up all local bass music dj/producers on Fight Club/H3AVY. Stopped H3AVY the event in Vertigo Club, only focusing on Fight Club now."

"I always believe in starting off with what is locally and prepare our followers with the right kind of mindset, to always be open to new different style of music."

"We have more and more new faces that turned up for our event and definitely faithful supporters who come in each time for our event. We feel that our Bass scene pushers are getting recognized and being respected even more than the rest of the other Electronic Dance Music genres, mainly because we stay as one and support each other's events."

"One of the main reasons why MDA was created was to educate us Malaysians to be aware and to share good tunes with one another. To be honest, we've never earn loads of money doing events; We have always been passionate in pushing the scene. Just our love for bass music. Our motto: Support Your Local Music Scene."

Now that I know the people behind this event, I begin to understand it's purpose more. It is simply, the love for a different kind of music. Music that is not on the Radio. Music that you have to find yourself, or in some cases, music that finds you.

Looking back, even though it was just a random night out for a bunch of my buddies, for me, it was the night where I found out there is a place for people like me to belong; in front of a DJ blasting the type of music that I like.

"Rule number one, you do not talk about Fight Club.

Rule number two, you DO NOT talk about Fight Club."

I guess I know where I will be this coming 28th.