PREP Live in Jakarta

PREP Live in Jakarta!

Hello hello! Well I just returned... Not really just returned. But yes I got back from Jakarta last night catching PREP live in Jakarta on Wednesday, and also doing some shopping errands on Thursday! Man, PREP's gig was so so awesome. Still thinking about it, and probably will take some more days to move on from it haha. They're my favourite band that I discovered in the recent years.

Anyway I went to Jakarta on Wednesday via train, cause I'll be rendezvous-ing with my worker on Thursday for the shopping errands. Love taking train rides to Bogor, and now I'm kind of familiar with the KRL (Jakarta metro) system, although I'm still pretty clueless about Jakarta itself haha. Before the show I went to catch Coldplay's documentary, A Head Full of Dreams which was co-incidentally showing for one day only on the 14th. I'll talk about that on a separate post!

After the movie I met up with Wilus first before the gig. Wow man it's been almost 9 years since we both last met! We probably last met back in Tanglin while I was taking my O Level results back in 2010 haha. I remembered meeting with some of the Indon peeps on that day. Anyway glad to know she's doing well in Jakarta now! We had lots of catching up and also talking about music and gigs.

The gig was held in Hard Rock Cafe Jakarta. The venue is kinda small but I thought it was a good venue cause the show felt more intimate and fun, moving alongside with the other fans haha. I caught PREP last year at Kampoeng Jazz and it was such an awesome show. They sound really good live. And this gig is no different. They played all of their songs from the 3 EPs and they sound so good T_T

Ollie Weston killing it with the sax solo

Not gonna go into details but some of my favourite songs are Line By Line from their new EP, Don't Bring Me Down from Cold Fire, and to end everything, singing along to Cheapest Flight with the rest of the audience. Definitely one of the highlights of 2018! There isn't a single song that I don't like from them. So to see them play every song from the EP is really like bliss to me. 

Thank you PREP for signing my Futures EP booklet!

And Tom for the photo (sigh, I want to take a photo with the band!)

After the show there was a signing session and we were all queuing for the moment! The VIP ticket holders are given priorities to go in first so we patiently waited to go in. The 4 members of PREP are such a friendly and humble bunch! Had a good time talking to them, and Tom, the vocalist, actually remembered me from Kampoeng Jazz! He was like I think I remembered you, we were at that white tent signing stuff hahaha. No photo with the whole band but got a photo with Tom! 

Great to see you again, Wilus!

Thank you PREP for coming to Jakarta and for the incredible show. Well at least I don't have to take a cheapest flight, just a (second) cheapest train ticket to catch em live mwahaha. I hope to see you again one day in Indonesia! And also thank you Wilus for coming to the gig with me! What a great way to meet after such a long time of not meeting one another haha. All the best to you in Jakarta :)

Then I headed back to the hotel and went to do the shopping errand the next day.

Well, like I mentioned for WTF'18, music has always been my escape. It's great to take a break just for that one hour plus and enjoy some great music. To quote the song that started it all:

"I'll take one more sleepless night, and I'm on the cheapest flight to give my head a chance to clear"

Thank you PREP!

Chvrches Live in Singapore 2014!

Blown away by Chvrches!

Hello again, yup I just got back from Singapore last night to watch Chvrches live! It was such a great night really, but I was so tired after reaching home last night that I knocked out right away. Anyway the concert was so great oh gosh, it was so awesome that I had a difficult time "moving on" haha. Severe withdrawal syndrome right here! But I'm just glad that I went for it. Even though it means I have to fly to Singapore to catch them. Totally no regrets!

Anyway I went to the concert with Brenda! I went to Sentosa straight and met her there as she had work. There was a queue already when I reached there. The wait went by pretty quickly and we went inside. The Coliseum is such a hot venue to hold a concert, not sure if the fans beside us are actually functional heh. But no complains, I just can't wait to see Chvrches! Riot !n Magenta opened the act and they are so good! You have a new fan here haha.

And then Chvrches came on stage! They opened their gig with "We Sink" and damn I am loving the energy. I can still remember when they entered the stage, my heart was beating so fast and I was smiling like a retard. Like oh my god, I'm finally catching them live. It's a dream come true! Haha. I am so happy that they play all of their songs from their first album, and also my favourite new song from them "Get Away". It was such a joy singing to "Gun" and dancing the night away to their music. Life was forgotten in that one hour plus or so. Pure adrenaline and endorphin really.

 Martin blowing us away with Under The Tide

Also... Brenda won a lucky draw contest by HMV where we got to meet them for a meet-and-greet (shortening it to M&G) session! It was a pair given out so Brenda and I went for it. I am just so thankful to her for this opportunity! Anyway we were instructed to move to the back of the venue "when the last song plays". But we don't know what's the last song, but we do know it's usually "The Mother We Share" so with a bit of heartache (since we love that song so much!) we moved to the back of the venue. And turned out, they played like 4 more songs! Including one of my favourites from the new Mockingjay movie - "Dead Air". But it's okay, I got to enjoy it still from the back :P

 Speechless, happy and star-struck

"point at Martin's arm on my shoulder"

The M&G session happened rather quickly after their concert. There were 2 more people who won another concert (by Universal Music I think) and we were waiting for the session to start. We entered a room where the trio were there and they greeted us. I shook hands with all of them and introduced myself. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW STAR-STRUCK I WAS. I just froze and stumble my speeches out but I was trying hard to keep my cool and tried my best to chat with them. They are such lovely lovely and friendly people! Anyway there's a funny moment in this session!

Brenda and I prepared some gifts for them. So when the M&G session organiser guy told us to exit the room, I asked if I can give my gift for them.

Me: Hi, I actually prepared some gifts for the band, can I pass it to them?

M&G Guy: *looking annoyed* why don't you give to their manager? *points at manager*

Me to manager: Oh okay... Hi this is some gifts for the band from me...

Martin: Hey don't give it to her, give it to me!

*walks briskly towards him*

Me: Hi oh yeah this is my gift for you guys... It's postcards from my country... You see I'm an Indonesian.. And there are some polaroids of my hometown and cats!

Martin: Oh wow cool, thank you so much! So you flew in here?

Me: Yeah I did!

*Time running out and we left the room*

IT WAS THE BEST MOMENT OF THE SESSION HAHAHA.

Brenda and I were so overwhelmed by the experience we couldn't speak after we left the room and we're just so excited about the whole moment! I just can't believe I actually talked to them... It's a memory I will never forget really! And once again thank you Brenda for this! All of this wouldn't have happened without you. Thank you so so so very much! :)

 Thank you for being such an awesome partner for this gig!

We left Sentosa to have dinner and then I went to her house as she has something to pass for me. Thank you for the gifts from Hong Kong and Turkey as well! I hope you enjoy drinking the Luwak coffee I gave you too. Which was supposedly for Chvrches but I was too excited that I forgot to pass it to them (silly me!). And then I made my way back to the hostel. And knocked out right away too.

 Thanks Chvrches for the amazing night!

Oh man it was such a wonderful night... I seriously can't believe that I actually talked and shook hands with one of my favourite bands (and favourite electronic band). The concert itself was so so good really. I love their energy, love Lauren's bubbliness and basically the chemistry of the band and the audience. I hope one day they'll come to Indonesia and I'll definitely be there again!

Okay I'm going to talk about my Saturday in Singapore on another post! Chvrches was so good! I can't seem to move on from the concert hah. Alright till then, see you soon!

Sigur Ros Live in Jakarta!

 Sigur Ros JKT

Amazing, beyond words

Once again it's 4:06 AM and why am I here? Cause I want to blog about the most awesome concert I've been in my life and that is yes, Sigur Ros Live in Jakarta last night! It was just a truly amazing concert. I've been to their last year's concert at Singapore but I really feel this concert was better than that one heh. It's just amazing! I can't stop thinking about how awesome it is. If I were to dream about it, I won't be surprised either. I wish!

Anyway yup it's my first time watching a concert here in Indonesia. I really didn't know what to expect. And best part is? I'm watching it alone! Yes since no one at home likes this kind of music, and I know no one here who does anyway hah. And it's my first time watching a huge-scale concert alone as well. It was a good experience. Wasn't bad at all, just that waiting alone can be a bit depressing (lots of delays today) but it's alright.

Best part about watching concert alone: You can do whatever you want when watching the concert without anyone-who-knows-you judging you. If you know what/how I watched the concert, you'll find me a lunatic maybe. But tralala. There's no rule to enjoy music.

But anyway yes it was such an amazing concert oh gosh. I love the setlist, and they played new songs from their soon-to-be-out album Kveikur as well. Which some I've never heard of hehe. Kveikur and Breinnstein are lovely though. Was hoping they play Isjaki but oh well no worries.

And of course the highlight (to me) to Sigur Ros concert is Hoppipolla! And this time round, it's more amazing cause seems like the whole of Istora sang along with Jonsi to the song. It sent shivers down my spine listening to it and singing along at the same time. It's so scary and so good that I cried when the "climax" of the chorus hits. It was just so amazing. Thankfully I have immortallised the (I call it) Hoppipolla moment once again.

It's so amazing. I really hope I can see them perform again one day! :')

And I even got inspired to write a puisi (poem in Indonesian)! Here it is...

Malam ini Indonesia bernyayi
Bersama Sigur Ros di malam yang sunyi
Istora berubah menjadi sebuah mimpi
Mimpi yang selalu ku ingin hidupi
Hidup  ku lupakan
Rasa takut ku ancurkan
Hari esok ku hapuskan
Malam ini Indonesia bernyayi
Bersama Sigur Ros di malam yang sunyi
Istora berubah menjadi mimpi
Mimpi yang tak ingin ku akhiri

And once again,

Here's to to me, the greatest band on earth

TAKK!