Payung Teduh, the local act who were chosen to be the starter for the international bands, were up on stage at 6.33PM. Heated on the crowd with their sweet melodic and of course, shady tempo. The atmosphere was pretty calm and very comforting when they performed their swinging set, even more the festival was filled by fifty people only at that time, which made Payung Teduh’s show became very intimate.

The local listeners had been soothed by the local act, it’s now the Radio Dept.’s turn. That night was the third time for them to be in Indonesia and their second time for Jakarta. The swedish’s pals transferred their traditional indie and dream-pop sounds through an electronic haze. The band performed the dreamy shoe-gazy to the crowd (with their shy yet solid acts). The songs blended together evethough there were some technical difficulties in the middle of their performance.

If you were at their show in Jakarta in 2011, last night was actually your perfect time (and maybe the band’s time) to pay some redemption after the lame experience of seeing them live (as if you remembered the event was poorly organized). All in all, the shoegaze listener would give them an “A” for last night.

From shoegaze to alternative dance! Delphic, the second international band highlited the crowd into some dancing scene. The band who released their second album, Collections, in January, seriously had some business to do in mixing all the crowd to stomp their feet and bust the moves. They also performed their mixing skills by playing some remixed intros over the songs. If you are not familiar of them, we are that you could easily get along (or even tap your foot) with the beats as the drummer , Dan Hadley, dropped some hook over and over again. Songs like “Doubt”, “Counterpoint”, and “Halcyion” were performed flawlessly. And yes ,they performed the energy which most of the bands on their genre would pretty much end up in showing just an “OK” show.

Here comes the king of the show, The Kooks! After experiencing a long wait and as we saw some people started yawning for getting a real sleepy for waiting them, the Kooks finally arrived on stage. Luke Pritchard cs’ appearance invited the big cheer from the crowd. The crowd erupted into screams as lead singer/guitarist Luke Prichard who showed up wearing a lurik clothes ( Indonesia’s traditional costume), jumped onto a higher stage, shaking his hips in Mick Jagger-like fashion.

They picked “Ooh La” from their debut album, Inside In Inside Out, as the first song. Luke totally performed a good communicative skills to the crowd and his pampered dance. For song “Seaside”, he did an acoustic solo and followed by a crowd’s choir to the song, it was a pretty smooth move. Hugh Harris’s vocal also strongly shone and balanced the performance. The singing along’s session still much happening for the rest of the songs, especially for “How’d Ya Like That”, “Sway”, “Shine On”, and “Do You Wanna”. After performing “Do You Wanna”, the encore’s typical shout out was cheered massively, the crowd seemed still hungry since the band had not performed their hit songs from their previous albums. After shouting for a couple of times, the band returned to the stage again then played the riff of “Junk Of the Heart”. The crowd went into a jiggling-machine and bobbing their heads to the song. Without having a time to catch a breathe, the band played their hit-maker song, “Naïve”, which was the icing of the show. The Kooks totally nailed the night and they surely knew how to make it “big” for “Road To Big Sound Festival”. Despite the fact of the not so crowded, Road To Big Sound Festival has given us something what the young listeners have been waiting for a long time. And remember, this is not over yet, since Big Sound Festival will be up in May 15th with the Temper Trap, Van She, Tegan & Sara and the legendary, Blur, to mark the history in your 2013’s concert list! See you ate Big Sound Festival 2013!

Starting their freshman album, Acolyte, it was not difficult for them to grasp the industry’s attention with praises as “might just be the first great album of 2010”, “never less than stylish” and “pseudomodern”, for having a sound that might just be a whirlpool to Manchester, 1985, but with the advanced dance technology that keeps you in the dancefloor. Counterpoint, Doubt, Halycon were the trigger that launched Delphic from a cannonball straight to the list of British musical prodigies. Acolyte gained the 8th place in the British album charts, inevitably a turn-head for a band with their very first debut. With impressive ratings as a first-timers, the sophomore album, Collections, sadly did not live up to the expectations, a drastic low-point after their previous grand entrance into the music scene. Their previous rock essence seems to be on the thin line of disappeareance, fusing the music with more soul and blue, and a subtle influence of R&B and dubstep (gasp!). Adapting to the contstantly changing music trends, Collections were neither in our out the trend, merely floatig in between. Their new single “Baiya” did not achieve the expectations, yet seemed to still impress a different size of crowd. Needless to say, Delphic still got their orthodox, suit-&-tie charm of a Mancunian triad up their sleeves, along with a strong influence of the notorious British rock.

Despite their recent fairly poor attempt for a dynamic change of music scene, Delphic is known to be the one of the best live performances of electro-rock genre, based on audience’s review, a five-to-four star was their own personal threshold. It sure is worth seeing their epic piece in our favorite intimate gig venue, The Bee Publika, brought by Upfront.

Upfront presents Delphic
Date  :    May 1st, 2013
Venue  :    The Bee, Publika, Kuala Lumpur
Tickets :
 Presale tickets – RM128
 Regular sale tickets – RM148
Tickets on sale at The Bee Outlets (Jaya One and Publika) and Rock Corner, Bangsar Village 1. Entrance opens at 8 pm. Fair warning that this intimate event is 18+.
 

Big Sound Festival seems going to be one of the most anticipated music festivals in South-East Asia, since the show will be headlined by Blur, the legendary band from England. Furthermore, the excitement for the festival which will be held on May 15th 2013 is going to be heated up first on April 24th 2013 by The Kooks, Delphic, and Radio Dept.

The Kooks are an English rock band formed in 2004. They have released three albums, Inside In/Inside Out (2006), Konk (2008), and Junk of The Heart (2012). The Kooks stealed the attention from the media once their first album exploded. The band consist of Luke Pritchard, Hugh Harris, Peter Denton, and Paul Garred.

Delphic are definitely a familiar name if You’re a fan of shoegazing and electronic rock music. Their name started rocketing when they did their national tv debut on “Later … With Jools Holland” in 2009. In January 2013, They just released their second album titled “Collections“.

The Radio Dept are totally not from England, the band were named after a gas-station-turned-radio-repair-shop called “Radioavdelningen” (Swedish for The Radio Department). Their first album, “Lesser Matters“, was ranked no.9 for NME’s list of the best 50 albums in 2004.

Dyandra Entertainment and Sound Rhythm have been calling this All-in-one event as the Road to Big Sound Fest, and the event will be held at Tennis Indoor Senayan. If You are an avid fan of those names above, the ticket can be purchased via online on February 27th 2013.