I love live music. In spite of my reputation for clubbing, there're occasions when I just need to detox by going somewhere with a live band so that I can just chill out and do the whole audience karaoke thing.

Unfortunately, I haven't been anywhere like that in over a year. I promptly rectified that situation last night when I learnt that EIC and Timmy! (pronounced as "Tim-may!") would be performing at Timbre. We arrived at 10 pm but were stuck in the queue for a table for half an hour, before we just walked in to stand at the bar (after I checked with staff that it was fine), and then shared a table with some people, leaving the poor schmucks who'd been in the queue ahead of us still outside standing. Singaporeans and their queueing tendencies. Yeesh.

In any case, EIC and Timmy! were briliiant. I have liked EIC since seeing them perform at Wala Wala a couple of years ago, and last night was no different. I still think Jack, one of the lead singers and guitarists, is pretty cute, and it's good to see that he doesn't look any different since the last I saw him. EIC tends to do more rock songs, like those by Oasis and U2, and it took me by surprise when they performed slower numbers like Coldplay - Fix You and Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars. I really love these songs, and the band didn't do a bad job with them, which is all you can ask for, really.

Then came Timmy! featuring Ngak. I have not seen them perform ever and after last night, I was wondering why it took me so long. I mean, Ngak is one crazy and energetic performer. They came out doing a whole series of punky songs like The Killers - Mr. Brightside and Ngak seriously reminded me of a monkey combined with the lead singer of Gorillaz (no pun intended). And just when I was about to typecast them as a punk/ska band, Timmy! decided to slow things down by doing a really nice version of Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees, and later on went into more Radiohead by singing Creep just before their break, but substituting "we don't belong here" with "we want to drink beer."

All in all, I've been to Timbre twice. Once for a pizza dinner (AsiaCuisine gives the place 85/100 for their food) and last night, just for the bands. The drinks service isn't exactly the fastest in the world, but if you're not in a hurry, and just want to enjoy the ambience of al fresco dining and drinking, as well as soaking in the music of some incredible bands, then this is the place to go.