A Date With Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The outdoor parking lot at Ex Park on Friday, (01/02), had been changed into a well concepted concert arena. The hype for this year was pretty much different and more elevated, by bringing two big international names, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Ra Ra Riot, We knew this would top the list of the finest indie music festivals in Indonesia. We drowned in an excitement when finding out that Yeah Yeah Yeahs are the band that IsmayaLive have been giving a hint since December and even more the additional lineup, Ra Ra Riot, which revealed a couple of weeks before the festival happens. As we entered the venue, we felt the usual indie-hipster atmosphere of Love Garage. The very fashionable looking crowd is one of the most remarkable memory of this festival and also the gimmicks that Love Garage offers, “Status Badge and Sticker”.

Before got smashed by the big names, some local heroes got the chance to knock some socks. After Onnie kicked off the festival, Polka Wars, the band who won a slot to performed at Love Garage, did their debut at the festival beautifully. Next stop, The Brandals. The Brandals showed up with a drag queen wardrobe, long blonde hair, fuschia dress, and those womanly stuffs. We even thought if Karen O saw this, she might off to the stage and rip the night with the whole band. Well, The Brandals may wear like a crossdresser but they rocked up the stage with a not so womanly stage act. If You ask for something in a big number, You might love the next performers. This year, Love Garage put up a special segment by dragging three bands, Homogenic, Rock N Roll Mafia, and Agrikulture into one name called Love Garage Special Project. The twist for this project was very entertaining, especially when the bands mixed up their performance together.

After releasing their latest album Beta Love, Ra Ra Riot put Indonesia on their tour list before heading to Japan for Hostess Club Weekender. Wes Miles, Mathieu Santos, Milo Bonnaci, Rebecca Zeller and Kenny Bernard warmed up the stage with their songs from Beta Love such as Angel Please, Binary Mind, Beta Love (of course!), and they also played song from their old album Too Dramatic, Too Too Fast, and Can You Tell. Ra Ra Riot succeded in shaking the crowd.

As Ra Ra Riot left the stage, the crowd started cheering and chanting “Yeah Yeah Yeahs!” and also some dudes screamed “Karen O!” as if she would hear that. Two days ago, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (YYYs) also had a show in Singapore (along with Vampire Weekend and Band Of Horses), so We peeked on their setlist for Singapore and expected that Jakarta would be much greater since Brian Chase and Nick Zinner have been to Jakarta for couple of times, so they must be knowing how well to treat the crowd here, especially Zinner is a huge fan of Indonesia!

By the time Nick Zinner and Brian Chase stepped on to stage, the crowd exploded their throath and even became a huge explosive when Karen O, the super front woman, hopped in and screamed “Jakarta! – Indonesia! Yeah Yeah Yeahs!”. The band started off with song “Runaway” which was not really upbeat but quite took the crowd to sing along. Karen O’s wardrobe was definitely one thing that I also looked forward to (after her crazy stage act and the band), she wore a red Michael Jackson-like costume plus the tassel on the sleeves, coated in zebra print robe, a sunglasses, and a thing that I couldn’t name, it looked like a crown but it’s totally not a crown. As the intro of “Rich” hit in, Karen O did an opposite circus stuffs, she didn’t breathe fire. But water. That’s pretty splendid. Then YYYs performed their new song “Mosquito” from their latest album which is also titled Mosquito. Here came the seriously most throath killing song, “Art Star”, Karen O really nailed this song, even better than the studio version. The crazy stage act from Karen O kept happening for the rest of the show.

After the thirteenth song, “Turn Into”, Karen O went off the stage for a while and returned with the infamous studded black leather jacket (which Karen O wore on “Zero” music video). YYYs used a different version of Zero and when the song got in the bridge part, about three big eye ball baloons were thrown to the crowd.

The band went to backstage and the classic chanting “We want more!” happened. A couple of minutes later, Brian Chase and Nick Zinner returned to the stage and played “Maps” riff, Karen O also gave a short dedication speech said “I dedicate this song to Ismaya Live….” Then hit the stage with one of their best track from their debut album. The karaoke session started, since this is one of the songs that people are more familiar with the band. YYYs have performed fifteenth songs, We started thinking either the next song will be the last song or not, then the ear-blasting intro of “Date With The Night” played, we knew if the band played this song, this would be the show closer. the band have made the crowd lost their voice by singing along this song, when Karen O shot a Y-shapped confetti, it really put a cherry on top of their final act. Yeah Yeah Yeahs totally pulled the night off and shook Jakarta. Got a chance to witness Karen O’s stage act was something that worth it, since we knew the band almost made it to Jakarta on their “It’s Blitz” tour in 2010, but for some reason it didn’t happen. As we compared to their set in Big Day Out and Big Night Out, We think Yeah Yeah Yeahs have done more than an amazing job in Jakarta.

Over all, Dimensions Love Garage 2013 gave the crowd one of the best early valentine gift. The best local acts, Ra Ra Riot, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. You missed it? Well, You have missed one hell of a good event this year. (Alcander Alonzo / Andriani N.P)