From Tin to Today: Royal Selangor Opens Heritage Gallery in Kuala Lumpur’s Bangunan

When KL Comes Alive on Stage

SOFIA SHAMSUNAHAR | 30 March 2026

Performers like Sabahan singer-songwriter-actor Ronnie bring the city’s live venues to life – their presence felt in every note, turning each set into something immediate and intimate. – Photos: MUAMMAR ANSARI

KUALA Lumpur reveals itself in sound as much as in sight. Step into the city after dusk and you’ll find music unfolding across many spaces – a singer who brings a room to hushed stillness, a DJ building a set into the early hours, a band turning a small stage into something electric.

From intimate venues tucked into older streets to larger concert halls, live music here moves across genres and generations, reflecting the city’s layered identity.

Within this landscape, venues play a defining role. They are not just stages, but meeting points – places where musicians refine their craft and audiences come ready to listen.

Among them is Jao Tim, set along Jalan Sultan, where a pre-war shophouse has been reimagined into a listening room that prizes closeness and clarity of sound. Across town, Bobo KL offers a different kind of intimacy, where cabaret-style performances and live sets bring audiences within arm’s reach of the stage.

Inside Jao Tim, a restored pre-war shophouse becomes a listening room where sound is crisp, close and intentional – its Art Deco touches and intimate corners folding history seamlessly into the city’s live music scene.

Set within a restored 1910s building along Jalan Sultan, Jao Tim brings a sense of history into the city’s live music circuit. Reimagined as a café, bar and event space, its Art Deco-inspired interiors – high ceilings, brass fixtures, gold accents and intimate corners – create a setting that feels both nostalgic and considered.

Spaces like these add another layer to the listening experience, where music unfolds within walls that have stood for generations, grounding contemporary performances in the city’s evolving story.

It is within spaces like these that a new generation of performers is coming into their own – among them, Sabah-born singer Ronnie.

Born Ronnie Quiamco, he performs simply as Ronnie. Now 37, he moves fluidly between R&B and pop, approaching genre not as a boundary but as a starting point. In a live setting, that openness becomes his strength.

“You can’t really separate the music from the moment,” he says. “Every show feels different because the audience brings a different energy. My job is to meet them there and make it something we experience together.”

That sense of exchange is central to Kuala Lumpur’s live music culture. Unlike larger, more distant concert settings, many of the city’s venues favour proximity – the kind that allows a performer to read the room, shift tempo, stretch a note, or hold back.

Ronnie leans into that dynamic. Drawing on his background in musical theatre, he treats each set as a narrative arc, moving between moods and textures with ease. One evening might see him performing original material shaped by his own experiences; another might be built around reinterpretations – familiar songs reframed through his voice.

“Aside from music, I also dabble in stage acting in musical theatre,” he shares. “That definitely influences how I perform. I think about pacing, about storytelling, about how to bring people along with me.”

Backed by his five-piece band, The Orbitons, Ronnie’s performances carry both polish and spontaneity. The group – whom he describes as “among the most experienced, skilled and phenomenally talented in the scene” – provides the foundation that allows him to experiment in the moment.

Photo: MELVIN CHAN / @ahhmellll

His musical sensibilities, he says, were shaped early on in Sandakan, where a mix of sounds filled everyday life.

“Growing up in Malaysia meant being surrounded by all kinds of music – local and international, old and new,” he says. “I went through phases, from early 1990s Malay rock to Malaysian pop from the 1990s and 2000s, alongside the English R&B I’ve always loved. All of that comes together in how I express and interpret music.”

That blend is especially evident in his themed performances. Tribute shows – from ABBA to artistes like Justin Timberlake and Mariah Carey – become less about imitation and more about reinterpretation.

“For special performances like the ABBA tribute, we celebrate the music while adding my own touch,” he says. “The energy is always off the charts. You’ll see audiences of all ages – families connecting over songs they know.”
Yet for all the crowd-pleasing sets, it is his original music that anchors him.

“Singing your own songs is always very cathartic yet nerve-wracking,” he admits. “But having an audience who is willing to listen to you ‘sing your heart out’ – that’s always memorable.”

That willingness to listen is something Kuala Lumpur’s live music audiences have cultivated over time. In venues where silence can be as important as sound, original material is given space to land – and to linger.

Ronnie’s own journey within this circuit has been shaped in part by Jao Tim, where he headlined his first ticketed show – a milestone that marked his entry into the city’s live performance scene.

“I got my start in the live music circuit headlining my first show at Jao Tim,” he recalls. “I love the intimacy it creates with the audience. I’m always drawn to venues that let me connect with listeners in that way, because that connection is what matters most.”

Jon Teo, owner of Jao Tim, is among those quietly shaping the city’s soundscape – keeping the live music scene alive, one space at a time.

For owner of Jao Tim, Jon Teo, that connection is exactly what defines a performer.

“Ronnie is a great performer and an amazing vocalist,” he says. “He brings you on a journey through his music, and you can see it in the room – the smiles, the excitement, the way the audience responds as he moves through his set.”

It is a dynamic that speaks to something larger within Kuala Lumpur’s live music ecosystem. Beyond the diversity of genres and venues, what holds it together is a shared understanding – that live music is, at its core, a relationship between artist and audience.

Spaces like Bobo KL and Jao Tim continue to nurture that relationship, offering platforms for musicians to test new material, revisit old influences and, most importantly, grow.

“As a performer, Jao Tim has been my go-to venue,” Ronnie says. “Bobo KL is another favourite. Both give me the chance to connect with the audience and bring the energy my band and I aim for, creating a lively atmosphere for everyone.”

In a city that is constantly evolving, its music does the same – shaped by its people, its places and the moments they create together. For artists like Ronnie, the stage is not just where music is performed, but where Kuala Lumpur finds one of its many voices.

Jao Tim is closed for a 'refresh' for a month from April 1; Fret not, it will be back in business before you know it.