Been away from the blog for the past two days because I've been out of the house too long and too tired to write after getting back. So here's a recap:
Sunday, August 1st: Went to cover GALA (
Gawenya Anak Lapan), a high school music festival held by SMA 8. As of the past few years I've avoided these high school things like the plague for a number of reasons, chief among them being I've been to enough of them to know that they're all the same: you have to stand for hours in an outdoor venue of dubious groundskeeping quality, waiting for oodles for crap high school bands and tuneless underground nobodies before getting to the main attractions, and even then they just go through the motions via a truncated set. And then there's the simple fact that I'm just too old for this shit, and being surrounded by several thousand people half my age (OK, maybe I'm not that old and they're not that young) doesn't do wonders for my ego.
But GALA was different for a number of reasons: it was held at the Jakarta Convention Centre, which is usually reserved for occasions of a more high-brow persuasion; the show format was acoustic (well actually more "Unplugged") performances by an eclectic bunch of acts; plus I was asked to go there anyway. So I showed up for free with help from Rija and his band, Triqua. Hung around backstage with the band, got a feel for pre-show jitters, no doubt amplified by being the first ones scheduled to perform. But they did alright, got the crowd going in spite of only getting a two-song set. Eventually Citra and Halief arrived at the venue, so I had viweing company.
Highlights of the night:
- Lain's art rock performance was absolutely mesmerising. Mostly went over the heads of the high school crowd, but this is one of those rare times when I've felt a band's performance can be truly moving (in this case, very depressing, but in a good way) even though I don't know what the hell they're singing, something I hold important in terms of a song's emotional content. Which is why I've been resistant to getting into English-language Indonesian indie, because the pretentious yet utterly shite lyrics put me off significantly. But I think I just might check Lain's album out...
- Buckjava, yet another "over-their-heads" case. To be honest, even I was about to write them off the moment they came onstage, "they" being two guys who were the physical embodiment of "badly-dressed struggling artist". The bespectacled nerd sang about chickens and played blues riffs on his steel guitar, while the dreadlocked dude did just about everything else, including harmonica and a metal sheet as percussion. Sort of like an Indonesian White Stripes, but less prettier - which would be a given as they're all male, but even Jack White alone would be prettier than these two. But of course, it's not all about the looks. The centrepiece of their set was this song where Dreadlock Dude was on xylophone, playing that little tune you hear whenever a train pulls into the station. Then Bespectacled Nerd played his blues riffs, and Dreadlock Dude switched to shaking the above-mentioned metal sheet, before finally getting back to the xylophone. The idea of the whole song was to convey the experience of a busker hopping on a train, doing his thing, and getting off at the next station. Very impressive.
- Padi, the headliners. During soundcheck I could tell it was going to be a special show from them. Apart from the acoustic guitars, they also brought out a choir and two guys on flutes to replicate the guitar solos. And then there was the weird-looking bass (more like a stick with strings) and the funky theremin-like gizmo which made spooky sounds whenever someone waved their hand over it. Pulling out all the stops, you see. No wonder I thought it'd be special.
Come showtime, I didn't realise how special it'd be. After a bemusing start in which they reduced three of their best and most popular songs into a medley without even bothering to get to the good parts, things promptly went bizarre the moment Fadly suddenly broke into a rap over the rhythm of 'Ice Ice Baby'. He's never been the most entertaining of between-song frontmen, and I assumed the rap was just a one-off occurance. Boy, was I wrong: he commenced to make surreal commentary more suitable for dangdut, got up and did a brief dangdut dance in the middle of a solo, hawked an energy drink. Like I said, bizarre. People I subsequently met who were at the show all think he was drunk, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was. And if he wasn't, then he did a damn good impression of it.
All in all, it was a great show, and it set a pretty high bar for all future high school shows. I doubt I'll be going to another one any time soon, unless it's a kick-ass line-up. But I would pay good money if Fadly went all wacko again.
Monday, August 2nd: Halief's last day in town, and so we did our best to make it memorable. Went to Dakken for a little meet-up with the MBDC gang, and I gotta say, there's no way I'd ever imagine I could make as many cool friends as I have via the internet.
And then it was on to Parc for the weekly Monday Mayhem shindig. Halief went there the week before and said I ought to check it out, and check it out I did: a club where they play music thatI could enjoy without having to be shitfaced. Reminds me of a quote I read somewhere, by Jet's Chris Cester, if I'm not mistaken: if you have to take ecstacy to enjoy a certain type of music (in this case, techno), then it's probably shit in the first place. Though that's not to say there wasn't a large amount of people getting off their tits at Parc. In fact, I'd say about 75 percent. I was in the 25 percent, of course. All I was interested in was pulling out CDs from the DJ's carrying case and getting him to play stuff. I even got my Supergrass
Best Of CD from the car. (If you're wondering how on earth I could do that even though it was my first time there, well let's just say that it pays to hang out at Aksara Kemang.) It was really cool to see people dancing along to songs I had picked, and it's got me thinking about what songs I'd play if I had control of the deck. I'll get back to you on that...
And now on to today: got home at around 2:30, got a few hours of sleep before waking up and preparing the Beach Boys compilation Halief had requested. Got another hour of sleep before departing for the airport, taking about an hour and a half to get there because a truck had fallen over on its side somewhere along the way, and the inevitable rubbernecking held things up in both directions of the road. Luckily we were headed in the opposite direction of the accident, because the traffic on that side of the road ended up being something like two kilometres long.
After Halief boarded, the way home was trickier, as I suddenly felt really, really sleepy. For some reason, heavy traffic and accidents were the order of the day, and being caught up and travelling at a snail's pace does not increase one's desire to stay awake if one is desperate for shut-eye. Ended up pulling over at a highway resting point to get an hour of sleep, and then it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. Then I fell asleep again. It's 2:40 as I write this, which means I'll have woken up and fallen asleep again. Sleep is good.
