People say “the third time is a charm”, but it is actually Indonesia’s Guinness Arthur’s Day (GAD) fourth time that makes a charm. As the event promises something ‘Made of More’ for the Indonesia’s edition, we were pretty sure this would be something new. After striking the lights in Medan, Bali, Surabaya, and Makassar with performances from Firehouse and Steelheart, it’s now Jakarta’s turn (26/10) to close the curtain of this momentous event.

Club 8, the Sweddish indie-pop duo (eventhough on that night they were not really putting up as a duo for the live performance), got the chance to open the brewery’s festival. Karolina Komstedt’s gentle and polite voice, and Johan Angergård’s low-key music yet danceable beats eventually swirled the crowd for a round of dancing session. With songs like ‘Cold Hearts’, ‘All I Can Do’, ‘Saturday Night Engine’, and ‘Whatever You Want’ quite made the venue into a Scandinavian’s mini pub. Club 8 were pretty great as the opener as their tunes never sounded deeper nor darker, they kept the performance to stay thin and a bit wispy (which we think it was pretty good to have them as the opener since we still had two performers left to hit the night). We found having them to perform seventeen songs of gauzy electro-pop into a mellower groove and even stomping with Queen’s We Will Rock You sampler was a light entrée to have. Overall, Club 8’s performance was sweet and pretty natural with the band sounded the typical of Euro-indie aesthetic.

A large white sheet was released, it seemed we’d have some ‘guess-the-act’ agenda of the next performer (eventhough the performers’ set have been released on @SoundRhythm’s twitter). The lights were focused to the stage, the crowd started screaming and cheering as One Republic’s silhouette was projected behind the large sheet. The band picked ‘Light It Up’ which is a song from their third studio album to kick off the performance. After three minutes of ‘secrecy’, the white sheet finally revealed the band. The predictable opening then followed by a beautiful sound of cello which led the band to ‘Secrets’, it was clear that most of the crowd knew words per words of this song, One Republic continued the set with another hits, ‘All The Right Moves’, a bit pumping move we saw here. We would like to appalud Ryan Tedder’s skill in bringing the humour and emotion from the band, everything was perfectly planned and packed nicely. He even showed his skill in playing the piano or hitting some of the highest notes with a stunning improvisation.

The honour was also received by the Jakarta’s crowd for being the first witness of the band to perform ‘Don’t Look Down’ (as the band had never performed this song in any other previous concerts, Ryan added “If we mess it up, please don’t put it on YouTube”, and it constantly responded by a laughter from the crowd). The band also did some mash-ups of ‘Apologize’ to Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’ and Justin Timberlake’s classic track ‘Cry Me A River’, the mash-up was surprisingly good and changed up the melancholy mood of the song. Another gimmick from the band was when Ryan did a cover of ‘Gold Digger’ with a help of Brian Willet (the band’s additional in synth and keyboards), and it exploded the crowd to jump with the song. The energetic performance was like an unstopable stuff on that night, when the band performed ‘Good Life’, they remixed the song with M-83’s ‘Midnight City’ infectious intro and featured heavy electric guitar. And ‘If I Lose Myself’ closed the band’s set in GAD 2013. It’s easy to conclude that One Republic seriously killed the night, seeing their live performance was something we ought to do if we have a chance. The biggest credits are given to Ryan Tedder for taking a nice control in making the show to be more entertaining instead of just showing off his talents.

Two performers were done, the crowd was given about fourty five minutes to catch their breath before having another round of great performance. The crowd started shouting “Mew!” and some shouted the band’s member, it showed how we were so keen to see band. Some ads of Guinness were being played repeatedly on the bigscreen, gave a space for the band’s crew to do some checking before Mew took over the stage. And then, the lights were dimmed, the blue lights spotlighted to the stage, gave some daunting ambience as Mew started making some appearances to the stage, and you know the rest, the crowd got more packed with some loud shouts.

The first up was ‘Making Friends’, Mew’s latest song which was released through their application called Sensory Spaces. The first starter seemed not getting much sing along chance to the crowd (well, because the song is pretty new and people seemed not really familiar with it), but when the band played ‘Special’, the real crowd was awakened and started singing. Followed by ‘ The Zookeeper’s Boy’, the crowd did beautiful choir over its chorus. Jonas Bjerre’s vocals also gave a goosebump when he did multiple mild falsettos and his captivating smooth voice that blended with the atmosphere of the night, it also transported the night to a mystical dimension. Songs like ‘Snow Brigade’, ‘She Spider’ (color us surprised with the fact that this song was on their set, because a day before the show, Jonas told us that it’d be quite impossible for the band to perform this song), and ‘Apocalypso’ were being the highlight of the night, Bo Madsen’s guitar playing also perfectly complimented the whole set of the band. After some bangable and jumpable songs, Mew soothed the crowd with ‘Koor’, which is a medley of The Zookeeper’s Boy and The Seething Rain Weeps For You. The band also introduced their new song ‘Klassen’ before moving up to perform the hooks from their classic records.

Song after song, it felt like we were given a shot of steroids, the crowd sang every single word along, especially when ‘Am I Wry? No’, ‘156’, and ‘Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed’ blasted up the speaker, it was obvious that the crowd was a fan of Mew’s earlier work in album ‘Frengers’. The band nearly performed sixteen songs, they whipped the crowd really well and the demand of having an encore was totally inrefusable. For the encore, Mew had ‘Comforting Sounds’. The beautiful intro, deep meanings, and simply one of the best ballad songs from a prog-rock band to date, made the night into an epic closure. To make the moment calmer, some of the crowd (which we found out that they were Indonesian Frengers, the local fan base of Mew) blew soap-bubbles to the air, the gloomy and mellow mood quickly sprang as the songs fused in with the crowd’s emotion. The addition of confetti also gave a touch of dramatic ending. Without some trippy visuals that they used to have, they were still able to shine us out with their humble performance and a carefully-crafted setlist. It pulled everything together in an magical way. In short, Mew did beauty.

It is hard to string a sentence of GAD 2013, having bands like Club 8, One Republic, and Mew altogether in one stage, gives a festive vibe of the celebration. One thing for sure, the tagline “Made Of More” that the GAD has for this year, is not only giving a sailor’s promise. Because as what we experience this year, GAD has gone bigger and more massive.

(Photos : Guinness Indonesia)

Arthur’s Day Jakarta (A Mixtape by SVANAPAPER) by Svanamix on Mixcloud

There’s nothing more fun than finding out ten hidden interesting facts of your favourite band. For now, we’ve got ten interesting facts of Mew that you should know. With a help from Indonesian Frengers, we are ready to give them all to you!

1. Mew consist of three members, Jonas Bjerre (lead vocals), Bo Madsen (guitar), and Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen (drums) after their bassist, Johan Wohlert, decided to depart from the band in 2006. For their live performances, the band have Doctor Nick Watts (keyboardist) and Bastian Juel (bassist).

2. On October 26th 2013 will be Mew’s fourth time of performing in Indonesia after having their previous shows in Bali (2003), Jakarta (2009), Surabaya (2010).

3. Jonas Bjerre (lead vocals) is so keen to see the gamelan show in Indonesia and the most interesting is…. he wants to try riding Jakarta’s TransJakarta!

4. Bo Madsen (guitar) once worked as a Germany teacher for a couple of months.

5. Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen (drums) has been fully inspired by African music, which can be heard in his rhythm (in album “And The Glass Handed Kities”) eventhough you won’t find the African music clearly. But it’s there.

6. In song “Apocalypso”, there is “Nolan” in its lyrics. Nolan is actually Jonas Bjerre’s dentist. The story is he had to wait for a while for his dentist to come, because of that, he wrote “in Nolan time..”

7. Lyrics “No Shadow Kick” are written in “broken cantonese” language, That’s why the band are not going to be able to perform the live version in its own studio version.

8. Mew will be making their debut as the final judge of “Covering Sounds”. Covering Sounds is the Indonesian Frengers’ competition of doing a cover work of Mew’songs. The finalists’ cover work can be heard on indonesianfrengers.com

9. Mew just released their music application, “Sensory Spaces”, and published their official announcement in several languages, including Indonesian. The application is designed by a french designer, Kevin Hammon.

10. Been thinking to give some gift to Mew? Do it! Mew are known as a gift-keeper from their fans! As they still have the gifts from Indonesian Frengers, such as the handmade flag of Indonesian Frengers, “Eggs Are Funny” face mask, t-shirt, event flyers, and etc.

Guinness Arthur’s Day music event started making the noise by bringing international artists in 2009, in the previous years, they have got Mr.Big, The Script, Creed, and Lifehouse. Each year also has a different theme that describes about the event’s content. And for 2013, Guinness Arthur’s Day will bring ‘Made For More‘ as their theme which the title itself describes that the music event will feature more international artists. Guinness Arthur’s Day 2013 will be kicked off in Medan and closed in Jakarta.

Mew

Mew are a Danish rock band consist of Jonas Bjerre (lead vocals), Bo Madsen (guitar), and Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen (drums). The band who have remarkable songs such as ‘Zookeeper Boy’, ‘Am I Wry’, and ‘Snow Brigade’. This will be the band’s third time to perform in Indonesia, because they have been here in 2009 and 2010. In 2006, Mew were chosen by MTv for their Buzz-worthy artist.

Club 8

This indie pop duo consist of Karolina Komstedt and Johan Angergård. The Swedish duo has been facing some transition on their music perspective, from bossa nova, dance to chill out music are all included in all of their eight albums. On May 21^st 2013, they have released their latest album titled ‘Above the City’. Their single, ‘Missing You’ once became a club and radio’s favourite in the European countries.

Firehouse

As what their name says, their music will burn you into dust. Firehouse are an American rock band consisting of C. J. Snare, Bill Leverty, Michael Foster, and Allen McKenzie. In the 90s, Firehouse were a rock music phenomenon in Asia, especially in Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore. The band have release eight studio albums and one live album.

One Republic

One Republic are a Colorado-based band. The band was firstly known by publishing their cover work on their MySpace page. One Republic consist of Ryan Tedder, Zach Filkins, Drew Brown, Eddie Fisher, Brent Kutzle. The band started getting their limelight when their debut, ‘Apologize’, hit more than 10.000 air plays in US’ Radio stations. Through their career, One Republic have been nominated in many prestigious awards, such as Grammy Awards and MTv Music Awards. They released their third music album, ‘Native’, on March 26^th 2013.

Below is the informations about the price of Guinness Arthur’s Day 2013 :

Medan       : 12 Oktober 2013 at JW Marriot | Ticket : Presale Rp.100.000 – Regular Rp.200.000
Bali              : 15 Oktober 2013 at Hard Rock Café | Ticket : Presale Rp.100.000 – Regular Rp.200.000
Surabaya : 17 Oktober 2013 at Grand City | Ticket : Presale Rp.100.000 – Regular Rp.200.000
Makassar : 19 Oktober 2013 at Celebes Convention Center | Ticket : Presale Rp.100.000, Regular Rp.150.000
Jakarta      : 26 Oktober 2013 at JIExpo Center | Ticket : Presale Rp.350.000, Regular Rp.500.000

 Ticket can be purchased via gad.loket.com.

Ps : You must be +21 to attend this event.