As the news of them being one of the headliners for Future Music Festival Asia came out on a surface. Some gossips of them coming to Jakarta started flowing on the online channels. And it’s Ismaya Live who get to break the 144.  The promoter seemed have been trying to get Bloc Party (where they successfully brought Kele to do a DJ set in 2010) to have a show in Jakarta. On that night, March 20th 2013, some of the avid fan of the band have come earlier (the gate was open at 6 PM) to earn the front row which will get them a better sight to the stage.

The Indonesia’s power pop indie band, the Adams, took back some memories of their fans who have missed the Adams’ classic tracks. “Konservatif”, “Hanya Kau”, and “Halo Beni” were performed nicely and could scrub more the nostalgic feeling of the fans.

People started tapping their feet when the clocked ticked at 10 PM and there was no sign from Bloc Party to show up. After the another couple of minutes, the lights were dimmed and turned to spot out one by one of the members who got to the stage. The first track from album “Four” was picked as the starter, “So He Begins To Lie”. Since this song is from their latest album, the sing along session was not heard much, but the cheer was explosive. For the next three songs, they played consecutively in order for the least to the earlier, “Trojan Horse”, “Hunting For Witches”, and “Positive Tension”. It was the eleventh song which ripped the crowd into a dancing mass. The single, “One More Chance”, definitely level-up the heat with its dancey intro. We could see the atmosphere shook out as Kele showed off his dancing skills. The more charging up song was up next, “Octopus”. Still performing from the new album’s tracks, “We Are Good People” got to be the last song for the first round.

The noisy sound from the stage went off, the crew ran back and forth to prepare for the encore. The silhouette of the band re-appeared from the left side of the stage. Matt Tong was definitely the one who got the fan-girl scream the most since he was shirtless and wore a short-denim pants. Prepared for the fourteenth song, Kele who wore a black tee with words “Support Your Local Artist” printed on it, said “Round two” and it invited the big loud scream from the crowd. But it was not a song which will invite people to another dance-floor. It was “Kreuzberg”, the song which Kele said as the real-eye opening moments and has a lot of memories of Berlin, soothed the crowd. The head-hammering song, “Arse”, really pumped the crowd. The crowd began questioning what song would be up next after Kele said “this song is for all of You who have waited for eight years” And the band charmingly performed “This Modern Love”, which is taken from their first album in 2005, “Silent Alarm”. For the song “Flux”, Kele asked all of the girls from the crowd to sing the intro of the song, as usual, it was Rihanna’s “We Found Love” and continued with an incredible riff of Flux.

The band left the stage again and did the typical move to invite “we want more” cheer from the crowd. We certainly knew that it would be the second encore. And the band, returned to stage. Performed three songs for the last session, “Sunday” and “Like Eating Glass”, the crowd was happily forced to do a karaoke session of the band’s classic tracks. For the last shot, “Helicopter” which was one of the tracks that rocketed the band’s career flamed up that night. The earth quake-like ambience was clearly felt when the song’s intro blasted out. And of course, the other thing to make it greater, two big square balloons were thrown out from the stage. Choosing “Helicopter” as the closer of the night was a climax thing. But we still felt that there was something left since the band didn’t perform great songs like “Mercury”, “So Here We Are” or “The Prayer”. In the other hand, one of the audience, Faisal (19), said differently about the set. He said that the band’s decision to replace “Ratchet” and “Truth” (in Singapore, these songs were performed for the second encore) to “Sunday” and “Like Eating Glass” was a brilliant move. But still, fan is a fan. No matter how the set was like, we still had fun. And we finally can cross Bloc Party from our “Bands That You Have To See Before You Die” list.

The popular Future Music Festival, which annually held in Australia once again greet the tropical humid temperatures of Malaysia. It’s one of Asian festival enthustiastic can not figure out unless they’re heading on the day. Kinda strange that on our way from Kuala Lumpur around 3PM, the heat was unbearably hot but not long after a big heavy rain bashed everyone even before the festival started. Lucky the sun came up again as the crowd filled inside the venue, and for a moment we’ve thought they must’ve import some Indonesian ‘pawang’ for that!

After the night of trance or so called ASOT 600th, which been fullfiled by the trance master Armin Van Buuren and a world-scale stage and eight globally renowned DJ acts to conceive one epic night of adrenaline-pumping trance party, the party continues to the day two of the festival with even bigger stages from Flamingo Stage, Warrior’s Dance Arena, the Gnome Stage to the Red Bull Hangar, where crowd can choose depends on their interest choice of genres.

Maybe it was The Temper Trap’s first ever performance in Malaysia, but Dougy and his mates succeed satisfying the crowd like it was their several times of performance. Not to mention the long wait for those fanboys we spotted among the crowds! After Temper Trap still at the same stage we catch the energetic performance from Rita Ora. Despite of the technical problems, we all have to admit tha she has nailed it with her contagious energy through the crowd.

Some people asked if we did interview some acts, well sorry to disappointed you, but apperently we just as disturbed as every indie online media can get with a regular pass, that’s also why the only pictures taken were just some shitty shots and not a chance to ask anyone about their music like we used to do. But hey! looking at the bright side, we can enjoy the fest like the real crowd with mates all over the world! And thats what we did when PSY came with his dozen dancers heating up the stage. Although we had no idea what he sang about or when he introduce the crowd with his new catchy song, yet we still dance and jump when he said so. How can we say no to the creator of Gangam Style?

In the other stage, Naughty by Nature, Idiotape, Zeds Dead, Kill The Noise, and not to mention that Indonesia can also be proud of their ‘famous’ DJ, Angger Dimas amused the crowd with their thumping sets. Ok, back to the Flamingo stage, after FUN and awesome performance from Malaysian very own band, They Will Kill Us All, we can say that by the end of the day, apparently the stage were meant to be for Bloc Party. With the amusing lightning stage and kick ass setlist, all those sacrifice being in the middle of drunken crowds and numb legs for standing hours and hours, everything just disappear when Kele, Russell, Gordon and the sexy Matt, yes I said it, cause he’s a hell of sexy drummer with only his pants on, hit the stage and everyone went crazy as hell, from moshing, surf crowd to only God knows what happened on the centre of the crowd. Well, we can’t see much from each stages but we managed to minggle at Warrior Dance stage before we went back, as The Prodigy killed everyone with sweet memories of how dance music supposed to be.

If we wanted to learn from Malaysia, it is okay to win the hearts of music lovers through good quality of festival by having relationship with other countries, and it is even more than okay if the government help to endorse such event, as it can be such a big income for our country. Hopefully, in the upcoming years we can see even more great music festivals around South East Asia! Neverless, we had fun that day and hasta el próximo año peopleee!!

1.The band were formed in 1999 after Kele Okereke and Russel Lissack ran into each other at Reading Festival. But it was not their first meeting, because they have known each other since 1998.

2. If Bloc Party had a “historical places”. Franz Ferdinand’s concert must be one of it. Because in 2003, Kele gave a copy of debut single ‘She’s Hearing Voices‘ to British DJ Steve Lamacq. And he also handed it to Alex Kapranos. So that was pretty much how the band were discovered.

3. Eventhough all of the band’s member have so many disagreement and different taste in many way, but all of them are sure for one thing, They are a fan of the Broken Social Scene’s records.

4. There was a rumour about Bloc Party had a beef with Kaiser Chiefs. But it’s totally not true. In fact, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs are a good friend! Apparently the press was the one who attempted to put some stuffs around.

5. Liam Gallagher has been known for his cold-handed work (We are talking about his work in Oasis. Not Beady Eye) once was asked about what he thinks of Bloc Party. And he said “They’re like a bunch of University Challenge students.”. And the band responded that his insult was a truly dissapointing. Well, what did you expect from The Gallaghers.

6. In Britain, Bloc Party’s first album “Silent Alarm” was released in Valentine’s Day. But in the US, it was released a month after.

7.It’s maybe the band’s first ever show in Jakarta. But the frontman, Kele Okereke , has done a show in Jakarta before. It was a DJ Set at Blow Fish in 2010.

8.There are so many stories about the lack of “K” in Bloc Party. But here’s the real one according to Gordon Moakes, “It sort of came from when I was a student and I was fascinated by political iconography; you know, like the idea of the Stars and Stripes and the Hammer and Sickle, and how East and West are kind of denoted by different kinds of things. So we liked the idea of the Bloc, the Eastern Bloc, and from that we got the idea of a Bloc Party, kind of like a Soviet image and a classic American image combined. So that’s kind of the true story”.

9. Kele Okereke is a fan of a fashion-themed Tv Show called “Project Runway”. And what is the Tv show that he dislikes the most? Jersey Shore. Well, every cool person doesn’t like seeing a full wax haired dude and Snookie.

10.Bloc Party’s debut album, Silent Alarm, was also shaped by Adele’s 21 producer. Paul Epworth.

After having a hiatus for about two years, Bloc Party finally announced their latest album “Four” (which was worked in the beginning of 2011) in May 2012, which was released on August 20th 2012. The album itself worked by Alex Newport who have worked with The Mars Volta and At The Drive In.
Bloc Party’s concert in Jakarta will be held at Tennis Indoor Senayan Jakarta on March 20th 2013. This is definitely one of the concerts in 2013 that you will regret if you don’t get a chance to catch their performance. (Alcander Alonzo)

Ticket Info
Tickets on Sale – 15 November 2012
• Festival IDR 490.000
• Tribune IDR 390.000
Ticket Box
Jakarta:
- PIZZA e BIRRA Plaza Indonesia, Gandaria City, Central Park
– SUSHIGROOVE PIM2
Bandung:
PIZZA e BIRRA PVJ Bdg
Bali:
K1TCHENETTE Beachwalk
Online:
- http://www.ismayalive.com/
– http://www.rajakarcis.com/
– http://www.jakartaconcerts.com/