2 local bands, Protocol Afro and Jirapah have been granted a duty to kick-start the festival, and then afterwards, 2 British artists, Zero 7 and Fenech-Soler, have taken over the DJ booth and started to drop mesmerising tunes that satisfied the crowd. During Fenech-Soler’s set, a heavy rain started to pour. January and February have been known as the peak of rain month in Indonesia. So that is why, the promoter has provided a lotsa raincoats for the crowd. But sadly, the rain hasn’t showed a sign of stopping even right before Phoenix were going to start their set. However, the show must go on, right at 10.30 pm, Phoenix came on stage and started their set with “Entertainment”. The crowd went nuts straight after the first note of the iconic intro was played. No matter how hard the rain was, they crowd didn’t seem to care. They were just trying to mimic the sound of the iconic intro and sang their hearts out to the chorus of “Entertainment”. There’s no break yet, because straight after “Entertainment”, and iconic, heart-thumping drum intro of “Lasso” was played followed by a long chord of crowd singing. Afterwards, another iconic intro was played, this time it was an iconic intro of “Lisztomania”, a hit from their Grammy-winning album, “Wolfgang Amadeus”. “Long Distance Call”, “Too Young/Girlfriend”, “The Real Thing” and “Fences” came straight afterwards. Phoenix came again with another medley from their brand new album, “Trying To Be Cool/Drakkar Noir/Chloroform”. The rain has stopped for a while during a mash-up of “Love Like a Sunset Part I & II” and “Bankrupt”. The screen on stage began to show a video of Street of Paris in 1970s. Phoenix’s guitarist, Laurent Brancowitz once said in an interview that the best place to listen to music is in a car. Probably that is why the visualization at the screen was from a point of view of a car. However, straight after the song ended, the rain began to pour again. And it was a heavy one. I’ve never experienced that kind of wet again since the last time I had my first wet dream. A hit from their 2006 album, “Consolation Prizes” followed by “S.O.S in Bel Air” and “Armistice” was played straight afterwards. During their next song, “1901”, no one thought it could be their last song of the night.

(c) Richard Sandy/IsmayaLive

Thomas Mars was standing right in front of the crowd, if it wasn’t for the rain and the sea of plastic raincoats, he must’ve been jumped into the crowd. The rain began to pour much longer and way stronger. Finally, the song ended and Thomas said, “Thank you so much, Goodnight”. Even though the crowd began to shout for an encore with their hearts out, there is no sign of coming back from the boys. The gig has ended. Turns out that Phoenix still has two more songs on the setlist, “If I Ever Feel Better” and “Rome” but for safety reason they opted to end the set right after “1901”. For some people, it might be a disappointing end of a great show. But Phoenix have showed their capacity and tried to conquer the rain. Even though they were struggling to cope with the weather and the stage condition. Deck was forced to play his synth right next to the drum set because of the rain, Christian had some difficulties to play some of his guitar part and Thomas Mars was soaking wet. They have tried to deliver their best, brotherly love and Jakartans should’ve been thankful for having them, again.

Phoenix might not be the first French rock band, but they are the only French rock band who made their name into the big league of rock bands. This fuour Frenchies will be one of the headliners on Ismaya Live’s Love Garage 2014.  It’s our tradition to give you guys some fun facts about the band before they rock your world.

1. Thomas Mars, Deck D’Arcy, and Christian Mozzalai met in elementary school. They began recording when they were 11.

2. When they were 16, Laurent Broncowitz joined the band and they became Phoenix.

3. They grew up in Versailles, France. This city is also known as the pre-revolution capital of France.

4. Before Phoenix, Broncowitz was in a band called Darlin’ with Daft Punk.

5. Sofia Coppola – Thomas Mars’ wife, features Phoenix in every film that she makes.

6. In the past, they were shunned from playing in France because they only sang and wrote their songs in English. Fortunately that changed.

7. Phoenix has a rule that every record they make should be under 40 minutes.

8. The band used Oblique Strategies (a set of flash cards that is supposed to help artists break creative blocks by encouraging lateral thinking) to help them write their breakthrough album Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

9. As Big fans of Michael Jackson, Phoenix bought the recording console used on Thriller to make Bankrupt!

10. Remember last year’s Coachella when Phoenix and R Kelly did Ignition mash-up? Phoenix are big fans of R Kelly. Brancowitz said in an interview that they’re part of a secret society of R Kelly.

We all knew that Phoenix were about to have a show in Jakarta since someone posted a screen capture of Phoenix’s latest tour list on Twitter, but it was “who will be the promoter” that will bring them to town. So, after all of the rumours spread out, Ismaya Live tweeted an official statement on their Twitter that the Versailles-based band will be the headliner of Love Garage 2014 on January 17th 2014, “@IsmayaLive : #confirmed PHOENIX for #LOVEGARAGE14 in Jakarta 17th Jan 2014. It’s definitely gonna be a great ENTERTAINMENT!! cc: @IsmayaLive @future10”.

Phoenix will kick of their tour in 2014 by visiting Osaka on January 12th. And this will be the Versailles-based band’s second time to have a show in Jakarta, their first was on August 1st 2009 at Bengkel Night Park (now Potato Head Garage). Phoenix are an alternative rock band from French who were formed in 1999, the band consist of Thomas Mars, Deck d’Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz. The band have released five studio albums and one of them won The Grammy Award in 2010 for ‘Best Alternative Music Album’ by defeating Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Depeche Mode, Death Cab For Cutie, and David Byrne and Brian Eno.

According to Ismaya Live, Love Garage 2014 will have another names to be announced and the tickets will be on sale on November 9th. The first presale is IDR 490.000, second presale is IDR 590.000, and the normal price is IDR 690.000. The festival will also bring up “Love Can Save the Universe” as their theme for next year.

In the previous years, Love Garage had Two Door Cinema Club, Royksopp, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs to headline the annual festival, and Ismaya Live are promising the 2014’s Love Garage will be bigger that the last editions and will take place at EX’s Park.
Well, we have got our clams ready to welcome Phoenix in Jakarta!

Love Garage is back! The anticipated music festival will feat the three times Grammy Award nominee, Yeah Yeah Yeahs!. Karen O, Brian Chase, and Nick Zinner have confirmed that they will be the headliner for the third installment of Love Garage on February 1st 2013.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs will also headline Big Night Out in Singapore and be one of the lineups for Big Day Out in Australia. The question about Love Garage 2013′s headliner loomed up when the founder of Ismaya Live tweeted the confirmation of its headliner then followed by tweeting Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Map lyrics.

Love Garage is a music festival which is held annually in February, its first edition got Two Door Cinema Club as the headliner and the second edition was held in two series of festival. We are sure Love Garage 2013 will be taking the highest bar as the most anticipated concert in 2013. And we also look forward to some surprises that these three New Yorkers will give next year since this will be their first time in Indonesia (for Karen O). So who’s on our side to roll some heads with the spontaneous performance by Karen O, the pedal snap by Nick Zinner, and get pumped with Brian Chase? (Alcander Alonzo)

Ps : Considering that this is an 18+ event, make sure that you are above 18 to attend this festival. If you are not, don’t bother to buy, because strict rules are applied at the entrance gate.

Ticket Info •
Presale Price: IDR 375.000 • Normal price: IDR 450.000

Ticket available at Jakarta: – PIZZA e BIRRA Plaza Indonesia, Gandaria City, Central Park – SUSHIGROOVE PIM2 – The Goods Dept Pacific Place/ PIM – The Goods Dept Diner

Bandung: – PIZZA e BIRRA PVJ Bdg – Sushi Groove PVJ

Bali: K1TCHENETTE Beachwalk Online: – http://www.ismayalive.com/ – http://www.rajakarcis.com/ – http://www.jakartaconcerts.com/