Unlike our perceptions on other live concerts or festivals, WTF has its own set of throne. It had the perfect ambiance of an indie-hipster fest or whatever shenanigan you may call it, with a balance of mainstream music you listen on the radio during traffic hours. Soon after we saw the set list released by Ismaya Live, we fell in love almost instantly seeing how all the artists from different genres somehow are fused into one wholesome

When we arrived at the Parkir Timur Senayan, we didn’t really know what to expect. The concept was vague, yet intriguing, there was no certain image of what the festival would be like but we ended up psyched when we saw all the festivities. Clowns, gorillas, man-eating sharks, weird bunny-like creature, balloon rides, bananas, free lollipops, tumblr scene kids with flower headpieces, young tweens that make you feel older, artsy cliques who looks much cooler than you, 18+ drinks, booths, festival foods, it had it all. A dream-like carnival.

The first set we got to see was Sore, one of the best local performers we have in the current music scene. It was very nice vibe to sit around the area and swaying to songs like Merintih Perih, Setengah Lima and Vrijeman, and other songs from the album Port of Lima. Other local performers of the Banana Palooza including Lala, Vox, The Experience Brothers had the crowd beguiled.
Timeflies was set to play after Maliq & D’essential’s lively performance at the Clown Chella stage. We can honestly say that the duo was much more than that overplayed song on the radio as they have some serious skills in freestyling and a voice that would melt even the coldest heart. Their set included the songs ‘Swoon’, ‘Monsters’, ‘Until The Sunrise’, ‘I Choose U’, and a very sweet and intimate freestyle song of Jakarta that definitely hyped up the crowd. Miami Horror continued the set as well as Goldroom all away across the other stage while we had some festival snacks by the food booth.

Jessie Andrews brought the party people out with her mixes followed by RAC’s DJ set. A lot them teenagers were lining up to see RAC’s synthpop and electo vibes and sick mixes from the album Strangers, both parts. Azealia Banks, the rising queen of rap and Rapunxel had the crowd cheering over her badass rap beats and her flawless figure wearing a metallic blue steel romper. She performed songs including ‘BBD’, ‘Jumanji’, ‘Liquorice’, ‘1991’, ‘Venus’ and the attitude anthem ‘212’. During Azealia’s set, Mayer Hawthorne also had some mixes up his sleeve. With a sharp suit and weird combination of matching shorts, Mayer brought the dance floor to groove along to the tunes with ‘Reach Out Richard’, ‘The Walk’, ‘Henry and Gingerale’, ‘Her Favorite Song’ and a cover of Hall and Oates’ ‘Kiss On My List’.

The summer fest lineups were definitely dominated by fierce female solos, one of them includes Banks. The enigmatic singer and songwriter wore an all-black attire and the doe set of sad eyes she sings with, including the songs ‘Before I Met You’, ‘Change’, ‘Brain’, ‘Fall Over’, ‘Warm Water’, ‘Waiting Game’ and the roaring song ‘Goddess’ from her newest album of the same title. It was so moving, her performance, the energy that comes from what looks like minimal effort is so empowering that the whole crowd were mostly paralyzed by the grace and the haunting music Banks have brought upon. Banks enlightened that her show in Jakarta is her last set from her world tour, which made the night even more special than it already has. Leading up to last concerts of the tours, the leading lady of the night, Ellie Goulding, ended her two-year tour with a heated finale in the heart of Jakarta.

Ellie Goulding’s performance was undoubtedly the most anticipated one, along with Havana Brown’s set across the stage. The two performers shifted the mode of the festival from a calming summer fest into an energetic rave party. Ellie’s set started with three songs from her recent album ‘Halcyon Days’ with ‘Figure 8’, ‘Ritual’, ‘Goodness Gracious’ and the wild untamed ‘Animal’. It is unimaginable how full of life Ellie is and that she was an absolute sweetheart on stage. Ellie wore a two piece silver and metallic black dress and has her signature platinum blonde hair dancing around the stage. Up next were ‘Starry Eyed’, ‘Stay Awake’, ‘Tessellate’ and ‘Life Round Here’. The set list of the night was a gem, as it covered mostly all of the favorite songs from both of her internationally acknowledged albums.

Continuing with a slower pace songs, Ellie played acoustic ‘Guns & Horses’ and a lovely piano interlude of ‘Your Song’. Ellie Goulding’s music have always been related to synthesizers but watching her live just proves that she is even better without the mixings and computer-distorted sounds. ‘The Writer’, ‘Explosions’, ‘My Blood’, and my personal favorite a mashup between ‘Bad Girls/Salt Skin’ and ‘Every Time You Go/This Love’. By now, the whole audience were already jumping out of breath singing along and trying to keep up with Ellie’s soprano vocal ranges. As if she was saving the best for last, most of the popular singles were performed last which includes the summer pop ‘Anything Could Happen’, hopelessly romantic tune ‘I Need Your Love’ and her timeless single ‘Lights’.
Ellie Goulding’s set ended with her epic youth anthem, ‘Burn’ with firey red lights glistening up the entire stage and the flame-colored glare hypnotized the faces of the mass. Even without an encore, It was that great, and worth the hype. I can righteously say that the festival was a huge hit and we cannot wait what Ismaya Live will offer on the next We The Fest.

But, Who is actually the mastermind behind this harlem shake wave? It’s all started by Baauer, a 23 year old man who has been dedicating himself for hip-hop ever since he was 13. He was born in West Philadelphia with a name Harry Rodrigues. His life as a boy wasn’t surrounded by a hip-hop culture, he spent his early age in Germany. And it didn’t stop there, after spending from age 4 to 7 in Germany, he moved to London until he turned 13 then to Connecticut for the next four years. His nomads life happened due to his father employment as a financial consultant for an international company. His father is not even a hip-hop person, he often played jazz and classic rock, meanwhile the young Baauer discovered a hip-hop life in a suburb side in Connecticut. Baauer’s influence was just being the 180 degrees view to his father’s music idol. His father is pretty much into Led Zeppelin and Baauer digs into Dr. Octagon, Madlib, and MF Doom.

His way in becoming a DJ was caused over a night when he surfed on Youtube, checked out amount of videos of  The DMC World DJ Champions, and by that moment, the seed of his DJ’s life began. His debut gig was at the local place in Connecticut, at Toquet Hall Teen Center. In 2007, he moved to New York and continue his study in Audio technology at City College. If you think his journey to the stardom was a cakewalk, they you are wrong. Baauer went to a bunch of unsuccessful projects in producing dance music. Then he took a different side of it, became more influenced by hip-hop, and he decided to change his name into Baauer. That name was not inspired by Jack Bauer or even a iced hockey company called Bauer, but he took that name from his middle name, Bauer, then later he added more “A” to make some differences. There it came the name, Baauer.

As he said to The Daily Beast “This time last year, I had just started the Baauer project and I told myself I was going to really commit to this one thing and pursue it full-time. So I just started practicing all the time making beats. I’d start a beat and make myself finish it by the end of the day.”.

The Birth of Harlem Shake

To Baauer, Harlem shake was not born because of the swiveling shoulder move in 1982, but originally the track’s sample, Philadelphia rapper Plastic Little’s “Miller Time”. He stated “A friend had shown me that track where he says, then do the Harlem shake, and it just got stuck in my head for a while, so I used it,” . Then people started posting some crazy viral videos to his facebook page. The underwater one is one his favourite works.

Azealia Banks even put her harlem shake version, which apparently pretty much has become an issue for Baauer. Previously, Baauer has warned Banks to not releasing it because he and his partners don’t like how her version works. After a couple of warnings from his side, Azealia Banks dropped a bomb, she released her own Harlem Shake online. It’s actually not a huge surprise to Baauer, because some people have said that Banks likes to put a beef with some music producers.

AZEALIA BANKS – HARLEM SHAKE REMIX from Rony Alwin on Vimeo.

Baauer doesn’t want to put more spices into his beef with Azealia Banks and decided to be more focus in his future career. He has done some meeting with Columbia Records and f upcoming festivals, including SXSW in Austin, WMC in Miami, and Coachella in Indio, plus will be a co-headliner with a rapper Danny Brown in Australia and Europe. Harlem Shake itself has hit 175 million views on YouTube and this song peaks on the chart in US, Australia, and New Zealand.

Well, hope we will see some great works from Mr.Baauer in the future. And his career doesn’t end up as a fever which will be gone in the next few moments. So, Let’s do the harlem shake!