This year we have seen so many eye-popping concerts. From Indonesia to Singapore and also to the furthest, Ireland. But, since we want to dig it more about the concerts in Indonesia. We made a list of The Best Live Acts of 2012 for concerts that we attended here. We will rank it from “the best” to” the better than the best” live acts. Ready for some reminiscence?

8.Avicii Live In Jakarta

Venue : Fairgrounds, SCBD.
Date : April, 5 2012
Promoter : Ismaya Live
Full Review : Dimensions Avicii

The ticket show was sold like a cupcake! Very fast and it was sold out. What we love about the show (beside the ground kicking set by Avicii) is the concept! Really, we never experienced seeing a laser show at Fairgrounds before! By the time We entered Fairgrounds, we were like entering the future. Time capsule to the 2020? Might be. Plus, since the tickets were sold out, the venue was so packed! The crowd was awesome and blended in one wave. Especially when “Levels” hit the speaker.

7.Playground Jakarta : (Best Act : Saint Etienne)

Venue : Tennis Indoor Senayan
Date : May, 5 2012
Promoter : Urbanite Asia
Full Review : Play Ground 2012

We know it rained buckets at Playground, but really, that’s why we loved it! It rained heavily when Saint Etienne were performing, then rain seemed like a party pooper. But wait, Saint Etienne paused the show and decided to comeback when it stopped. It means….. two sessions of their show! And over all, Play Ground really really played it well for designing the arena. We saw a ferris wheel there! If this list was about “The Best Festival with Edgy Concept”, Playground will top the list. Good job, Urbanite Teams!

6.Djakarta Warehouse Project 2012 : (Best Act : Angger Dimas)

Venue : Tennis Indoor Senayan
Date : December, 7 2012
Promoter : Ismaya Live
Full Review : Djakarta Warehouse Project 2012

Honk! Honk! Djakarta Warehouse Project was the house of EDM lovers. Maybe you all are asking why we choose Angger Dimas instead of Calvin Harris or Avicii or PVD. The answer is because Angger Dimas is our local hero! DWP is coming to all-EDM lovers’ favourite festival, it even kicked Zouk Out anyway. So, having one of our local heroes like Angger Dimas was amazing. He has worked with Steve Aoki and Tiesto. He did the deck in many EDM capital city all over the world. So, seeing him in Jakarta was our pleasure. Angger Dimas, you are one hell of a future of Indonesia’s DJ Generation. Best World’s DJ in the making!

5.The People’s Party 2012 : (Best Act : Metronomy)

Venue : Fairgrounds, SCBD.
Date : January, 13 2012
Promoter : Soundshine Event
Full Review : The People’s Party Jakarta 2012

Metronomy’s album was placed No.2 (No.1 was PJ Harvey) on NME’s Best Albums in 2011. Eversince we heard this mini festival would bring Metronomy (and also Bombay Bicycle Club, The Jezables, and Naked & Famous) as one of the lineups, we were making a bee-line to “Let’s Go to The Show” counter. Soundshine Event was pretty smart by putting Metronomy as the band who would close the show. It’s a worth time of waiting to see them performing last.

4.Foster The People Live in Jakarta

Venue : Tennis Indoor Senayan
Date : January, 11 2012
Promoter : 3 Ocean Live
Full Review : Foster The People Live in Jakarta

Who doesn’t know Foster The People? And also their super hit “Pumped Up kicks”? Got to see them live in the first month of the year was one of the best choices to start your year! We can just deny it that Foster The People did their job really well. Surprisingly, we thought the crowd would be just chanting along for “Pumped Up Kicks” but we were wrong! From the first song to the closure song, which is “Pumped Up Kicks”, the crowd put it all together! The interesting moment is when Foster The People performed Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So”. And also their new song “Ruby”. Anyway, back to the Pumped Up Kicks’ momentum, We just want to say it again, it was dope. Plus they did the remix stuff on it. Say it again. It was dope.

3.Feist Live In Jakarta

Venue : Fairgrounds, SCBD.
Date : February, 15 2012
Promoter : Soundshine Event
Full Review : Feist Live in Jakarta

Feist teared down the place that night! When she performed “I Feel it All”, our jaws were dropped to the floor and they stayed there until the show ended. Feist also brought her three backing vocals who are known as “Mountain Man”, and the backing vocals were also amazing. The best was when one audienced showed a “Happy Birthday” on a paper and then he also gave her a present (sadly he didnt bring a cake, at least Feist might share some to the crowd. Okay, whatever). And it wasnt over just there, later than the crowd sang Feist a Happy Birthday song in Indonesian version (Selamat Ulang Tahun)! And then when the show was about to be over, here came a little surprise, Erlend Oye of KoC joined her to stage and danced. Feist amazing vocal and stage performance really convinced us that Feist should win a Grammy instead of just getting nominated in it.

2.Beatfest 2012 : Friendly Fires Live in Jakarta

Venue : Fairgrounds, SCBD
Date : March, 17 2012
Promoter : Urbanite Asia, Berlian Entertainment, & Hybrid Entertainment
Full Review : Friendly Fires Live in Jakarta

Ed Macfarlane of Friendly Fires is known for his deadly energetic moves. Even NME Magazine said “You have to see Ed Macfarlane’s dancing for once in your life!”, We did! . Performed their best 17 songs, we kept wondering, how came he kept dancing like that. The crowd got bombarded by Friendly Fires’ performance which really satisfied us! The icing on cake moment was when they performed “Hawaiian Air”, we could feel the Polynesian tunes with some breezing tropical air. One thing that would be great, if only they also brought some Hawaiian dancers to the stage (like when they did at Reading&Leeds 2011), There was no doubt the greatness would be two-fold.

1.Morrissey Live in Jakarta

Venue : Tennis Indoor Senayan
Date : May, 10 2012
Promoter : Indika Productions
Full Review :Morrissey Live in Jakarta

The wait is over! The congregation of britpop lovers finally got their aim in life accomplished. Morrissey, The former frontman of The Smiths who were the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s brought his Greatest Hits Tour to Jakarta on May 10th 2012. “It was radical!” that’s probably most of the crowd said after seeing Morrissey’s show in Jakarta. Many of his fans (even from the Smiths or his solo era) will never ever forget that night. That night was pretty much a karaoke session, all of them sang every single song perfectly. Morrissey even took some of the crowd to the stage and hugged them. Can it get any greater? Yes, He then took of his shirt then threw it to the crowd! Some people even got glassy-eyes after seeing him, no wonder, they’ve been waiting for ages and they finally able to see their legend live right infront of them. It was a history.

Those are the Best Live Acts of 2012. We just cant hold our excitement to catch the concerts in 2013! Yeah Yeah Yeahs,Weezer, Blocparty, and many more! So, who’s with us to continue the journey? (Alcander Alonzo)

Could not make it to Jakarta on their last tour in 2011, Friendly Fires finally gave a big check to us last night (17/03). The annual event that is held by Rated-A Avolution, Beatfest, also in a colaboration of three promoters Urbanite Asia, Berlian Entertainment, and Hybrid Entertainment put their effort as one to bring Friendly Fires and The Magician for headlining the night.

Unlike those typical Saturday nights, this Saturday was totally (and probably) one of the nights that many people have been waiting for.  As one of the most anticipated concerts in 2012, we could see a long queue at the entrance gate. People came early eventho Friendly Fires were going to be on stage at 11 PM, seemed like they really rooted and were curious to experience a massive performance by them.  As we entered the venue, we could feel a different atmosphere or let’s say an atmosphere that you always have when you entered Beatfest. We were welcomed by some of art and fashion exhibition that represents an urban culture.

Back to the track, Roman Foot Soldiers(RFS) hit the stage at 8.10 PM. In charge as a starter, they boost the crowd with their first song, “Streets Without Signs” , then followed by “The Canal” and “Higher Peak”. We didn’t need to put our ear to the ground to know how famous they are now, because we could easily hear some people sing along to their songs. The band that have been trusted to open many gigs, such as Nylon Music Festival 2011, The People’s Party 2012 and LoveGarage 2012, were praised for their electro rock music. And not forget to mention, they became a Santa Claus on the St.Patty day because they spared some of their EPs tittled “Kitsilano” to the crowd.

To boil some blood, after RFS’ performance, now the crowd is served with an alternative disco show by The Magician. If you are familiar with some of dance tracks , you might recognize The Magician, Stephen Fasano, he was a co-pilot in Aeroplane (now only consisting of Vito De Luca). There is no doubt that The Magician would change Fairgrounds into a dancefloor. Spinned some of his remixes, he did hypnotize the crowd to keep dancing and not saving their energy, because we were not close to the big show!. Furthermore, when he played his infamous remix, Follow Rivers by Lykke Li, he turned down the volume of his machine and asked the crowd to sing the chorus part, and then you know the rest, We danced till drop.

Having more than an hour of a sudden disco, the lights were dimmed. People started screaming Friendly Fires and Ed Macfarlen, but nope, it was not Friendly Fires already, we believe that something worth seeing is worth waiting. It was actually a visual mapping show starring Anton Wirjono’s holograph. So, Anton Wirjono’s holograph appeared on the stage and dj-ed. And then, there were like ten men (these were not a holograph) walked on the stage wearing a white t-shirt. The cool thing is about to happen, their t-shirt was projected with a sort of visual mapping and it went for about three minutes.

After getting an electro rock and an alternative disco performance, plus a radical visual mapping show. Now they real party has begun, Friendly Fires were finally on stage!. Ed Macfarlane with his dapper style (We bet if the concert was held in an outdoor venue and in the afternoon, he must be wearing his Hawaiian’s pattern shirt) landed on stage with the other two members of the band, Edd Gibson and Jack Savidge, and also followed by some of their additional musicians. Performing Lovesick as the first song, Ed constantly danced like crazy (as what NME said, people have to watch Ed Macfarlane’s dancing for once in their life) to get us all dance “horny”. The band who also nominated for Mercury Music Prize in 2009, blasted our eardrums in the next two songs, “Jump In The Pool” and “Running Away”. Ed Macfarlane made the whole Fairgrounds pumped with his signature relentlessly energetic moves. Eventho Ed was having a cold, In the song “Blue Cassette”, he shown his amazing vocal skill. His stunning voice brought resonance to songs like “Chimes”, “Show Me lights”, and “Live Those Days Tonight”. The eleventh song, “Pala”, soothed the crowd with a sound of chirping bird and a cosmic synth. Have bombarded the crowd with more than eleven songs, Friendly Fires played their latest single, “Hurting”, and also known as Ed’s favourite track from album Pala. Continued with “Pull Me Back To Earth” and then the craziness peaked to “Paris” which is their first single that achieved “Single of The Week” in The Guardian Newspaper, NME Magazine, and also on BBC 1 Radio Show.  After a few minutes of cheering for an encore, they wandered back to the stage and played “Hawaiian Air”, we could feel a polynesian tunes and grooves from the instrument, and we kind of expected that there would be some Hawaiian Dancers like we saw in Reading Festival 2011 (but it seems the last time that they are using them is at O2 Brixton, London). To wrap their kick ass performance, they played “Kiss Of Life” and gave a rejoicing closure of the show.

Overall, there wasn’t any greater way to start the night with Friendly Fires. From the first note of the tunes to the first dancing hips, the crowd was just as into it as a deadly energetic Ed Macfarlane. Watching Ed as he danced while singing at the top of his lungs was a uber highlight of the evening. Could catch Ed’s signature shake-your-ass moves with bare eyes is the moment and a rare privilege that you could not find from any other frontmen. Finishing the sixteenth songs with a jaw dropping performance felt like a job well done. After a show in Jakarta, Friendly Fires will continue their task to shake some hips on 4th-5th May in Spain and they also will be headlining for Lovebox Festival in London on 16th June. So, who has learned some new moves? (Alcander Alonzo/Dorothy T.)

This probably their second time heading to South East Asia, but different from last year’s, beside this time their came as the Headliner of the show, they also included Jakarta on their tour list. After their touring for Future Music Festival around Australia, Singapore and Jakarta are two cities in Asia they heading before going back to UK for another round of tour. And thanks to Untitled Asia and Urbanite we have the chance to see both of their show in Singapore and Jakarta.

Not much people fancy this band, but we all know those who came for the band are the people who knew about this XL Record’ band since their first self-titled album in 2008 with hits such as Paris, Jump In The Pool, Skeleton Boy, Kiss Of life, Hold On, to their recent released by the end of last year’s album ‘Pala’ with hits such as Hawaiian air, Blue cassette, Hurting. But for some other partygoers, you might heard them with Azari & III compilation album playing “Stay Here”.

While doing their live tour this three pieces band always included numbers of members, and we all know band with horn section is a shit (I mean in an epic way!). So beside Ed Macfarlane, Jack Savidge, Edd Gibson, they also added Jack Hamson as their additional bassist and two sax and trumpeter layering their –already- dance funk sound.

Same venue like last year, Avalon is a perfect set up for this dance funk showgaze band to perform (16/3). Though the gate was open around It was 7.30 local time, which not so much crowd when the gate was open and practically the show started around 9PM. But seeing the enthusiasm from the people queuing for the show definitely we expecting hype atmosphere from the show. Starting by Singapore’s own local DJ Ginnete Chittick, warming up the dance floor by remixing songs from Morrisey to Forster The People, Franz Ferdinand to some other catchy dance music.

And around 9PM as ‘Lovesick’ starting the show and Ed MacFarlane moved to the song like doesn’t care about the crowd, infecting everyone with his dancing move. The crowd was of course are unable to resist to his move, with unique disco tangled indie pop music, the band played most of songs from Pala album and singles from their self titled album. The most unexpected and epic moment was when Ed ‘joining’ the crowd as he walked and circling around the venue on their ‘True Love’ and moved groovy across the crowd like Moses and the red seas (LOL). Unfortunately the show is only about 100 minutes, which is less than 2 hours, but with 17 songs set the crowd is definetly have a blast of night.