One of our most favourite things to do in 2013 is seeing a live show! Everyone has their own version of ‘The best concerts in 2013’, so we also have it. Unlike last year’s list (we only listed ten concerts in Indonesia), this year we also listed shows in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. In case you missed all of these shows, you still can catch some highlights that we had this year! Here is our “Concerts of The Year”!

10. The Cribs

What would you expect from an all out rock concert? Mosh-pits, wailing fans, blood and the undeniable alcohol would all fit in the ensemble. That it was, The Jarman brothers brought out their persona on stage during their Payola tour stop in Malaysia in a rawness that enthralled their fans, not shy of anything. Ranging from broken instruments to rowdy fan-boys barraging through barriers rummaging across the bands equipment. Everything you would list down to happen at a rock concert happened, not shy of anything. No filters to the band, making everything as real as possible to serve the ideology of the band, “We play every show like our last”. Undoubtedly ending their ‘Payola Tour’ with their highest grace, leaving an everlasting impression. With no filters, the entire experience to The Cribs Payola Tour definitely left a mark of excellence and to justify it as that, would be an understatement.

Venue : The Bee
Promoter : Upfront
Full Review : The Cribs Live in Kuala Lumpur

9. The Kooks (Road To Big Sounds Festival)

Luke (and the band) 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.

Venue : Tennis Indoor Senayan
Promoter : Dyandra Entertainment
Full Review : The Kooks, Delphic, and The Radio Dept : All In One for Jakarta!

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Lovegarage 2013)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs! Not try to repeat the headliner’s name, but that was our straight expression after experiencing the band’s live set. Karen O, Nick Zinner, and Brian Chase had crushed the Lovegarage’s crowd into pieces. 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!”. Karen O did the deepthroath to mic (literally), screamed, danced crazily, she did all of the craziest stage acts that a frontwoman would never do. When ‘Date With The Night’ was performed, we knew it’ll top any kind of stage acts that she did in the earlier set. 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.

Venue : EX Park
Promoter : Future 10 & Ismaya Live
Full Review : http://www.svanapaper.com/a-date-with-yeah-yeah-yeahs/

7. Mew (Guinness Arthur’s Day Jakarta)

The show was humble and down to earth. Without any trippy visual treatment on the screen, Mew put us into one of the best Saturday nights that anyone could have. Songs like ‘Special’, ‘ The Zookeeper’s Boy’, ‘Snow Brigade‘, ‘She Spider’, Am I Wry? No’, and ‘156’ had changed the venue into a karaoke party in a larger scale. 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 was definitely not Mew’s first time show in Indonesia, but no matter how often they’ll be here, it will always be the fans’ pleasure to welcome them back.

Venue : JIExpo Kemayoran
Promoter : Guinness ID
Full Review : Mew, One Republic, and Club 8 Dropped the Balls at GAD 2013

6. Tame Impala (Laneway Festival Singapore)

Photo by Dawn Chua c/o Chugg Entertainment

Tame Impala’s set at Singapore’s Laneway Festival 2013 was one of the most-anticipated set during the festival. At the time, Lonerism has just grabbed most of the music blog’s “album of the year” title. So that is why people were flocking at their stage, even before their set was even started. We’ve seen Tame Impala once before, but this time, they’re taking their game into the next level. They kicked the gig with “Solitude Is Bliss”, and it seems like the meadow’s green grass has elevated during the intro of the song. They played “Endors Toi”, “Elephant”, “Feels Like We’re Going Backwards”, and they closed the set with “Half Full Glass of Wine”. Even though Gotye was due to perform after them, most of the crowd had left the venue, with a joyous smile on their faces. Because Tame Impala has filled the crowd’s “Half Full Glass of Expectations”.

Venue : Garden By The Bay
Promoter : Laneway
Full Review :Soak Up The Sound At Laneway Festival 2013

5. Linkin Park

Mondays may not be a lot of people’s favourite, it’s the first day of the week and the mediocrity stains throughout the nine-to-five schedule. Yet the Monday on August 19th 2013 was a different story. There were approximately 20,000 people, of which 5000 of it travelled overseas just for this live event, waiting eagerly for the day to come. After precisely a decade for the legends to come back to the land of multi-ethnicity in South East Asia, Linkin Park exclusively came back to yet again amuse the audience. Linkin Park made their fans to sing till their lungs out as they performed their topnotch songs, such as ‘Faint’, ‘Given Up’ ,With You’, and ‘Somewhere I Belong’. Needless to say, Linkin Park live in Malaysia 2013 is among one of the best performances any band could ever deliver. The energy, the music, and the chemistry is one of those substance that can never be engineered as precisely and immaculately. Next time a Linkin Park concert comes play, even if you need to fly over to watch it, do it. The experience is worth the expense. We walked in the stadium as a fan, but walked out as a straight-up LP soldier.

Venue : Stadion Bukit Jalil
Promoter : The Wonderland +
Full Review : A Decade for an Encore: Linkin Park Live in Malaysia 2013

4. Blur (Big Sound Festival)

No one would forget what happened at Lapangan D Senayan on May 15th 2013. Especially if you’re a major fan of British music. Blur, one of the lineups for Big Sound Festival (BSF) made their fans’ surreal dreams come true. Blur jammed the nineteen songs just like it was their first time to pump the crowd, even though they have become wiser in age, they still know how to captivate these songs, sounding as great as how a legendary band should be. Witnessing Blur in Jakarta, where A-list bands don’t come too often, is another reason why you should be in for a whole lot of woe if you didn’t catch their live performance. We witnessed most of the crowd having glassy-eyed and even cried when the show ended. Knowing Blur also felt happy with the crowd has proved that Jakarta has one of the best crowd that the band have been performing to. Whether they will come back to Jakarta or not, they have dropped one hell of a good show. Let us all cross out ‘Blur’ from our ‘Artists That You Have To See Before You Die’ list.

Venue : Lapangan D Senayan
Promoter : Dyandra Entertainment
Full review : Big Sound Festival : A Surreal Dream Has Come True

3. Weezer

Photo by Agung Hartamurti / Deathrockstar.com

In November 2012, the rumour of Weezer’s show in Jakarta had been growing rapidly on the social media as Weezer posted “Jakarta!” on their facebook page. And finally, the rumour didn’t stay as a rumour, it came true!. On January 8th 2013, Weezer made their Jakarta debut. The set was pretty amazing and very captivating. With Rivers’ ability in entertaining the crowd (and his ability to speak in some Indonesian words) were getting a good credit. The concert itself was divided into two segments; The Greatest Hits and The Blue Album. When a break to the second part of the show, Karl Koch, the manager and long life buddy who have been with the band for about twenty one years put his slot of Weezer’s journey with a title “Karl’s Corner” which was the best supplement for Weezer’s avid fans of course. A great long set and the surprises put the fans into their very best moment of their life. By seeing how the band got a great feedback from the Indonesian Fans last night, we totally are sure that the band has found the second home and hoping they would be back soon for another show. As Rivers Cuomo said before he left the stage “Sampai Jumpa!”

Venue : Lapangan D Senayan
Promoters : Asia Live Entertainment, Marygops Studios, Blackrock Entertainment, and Star D Pro
Full Review : Weezer did a historical night in jakarta

2. Sigur Ros

Photo by irockumentary.com

Sigur ros have visited Singapore and Malaysia for their first time right 6 months before this Jakarta gig, and there are lots of Jakarta’s post rock aficionados who came to our neighboring countries and witness the beauty of Sigur Ros’ music. That’s the reason why this concert doesn’t drew the same attention to Jakarta’s Indie enthusiasts when the promoter and the band announced the gig date in January. But still, this is the band who is capable of producing one of the best melodies on Earth. So that’s why thousands of people came to Istora Senayan on May 10th, 2013. They opened the gig with a huge visualization and mesmerizing lighting setups. They played a setlists consists of some brand new tracks from their recent albums, Kveikur and Valtari, and some classics such as Hoppipolla, Olsen Olsen, Festival, and Saeglopur. They closed the gig with Popplagid followed with a long applause and satisfied smile from the attendance. That night, Sigur Ros have transformed Istora Senayan into a some kind of new, beautiful world that nobody’s ever dreamt of.

Venue : Istora Senayan Jakarta
Promoter : FLUX&PLAY

1. Metallica

Metallica’s show in Jakarta broke some of the records of Indonesia’s concerts. A couple of weeks before the show, people worried the terrible things that happened to the band’s show (in Jakarta) in 1993 would happen again, but thankfully it didn’t. With a very organized system from the promoters, the show, which took place at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, became one of the most successful (and also the biggest) concerts, which has been held in the last 10 years. Metallica blackened the stadium, they heated up the metal heads, and they definitely rocked the nation. Half of 20,000 festival class tickets were sold within few days after the ticket box opened. About 54,000 tickets were quoted on sale, more than half capacity of Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Stadium. On August 25th 2013, People dressed in black, mostly wearing metal band t-shirts, were packing the venue since 2 pm. They came from all over the country to celebrate the ‘National Metal Day’ that day ames Hetfield, Kirk Hammet, Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo hit the stage with a bang and all of sudden screams were exploded to the open-air. Everybody was quiet yet amused. After they played some of their songs such as ‘Fuel’, ‘Ride The Lightning’, and ‘Kill ‘Em All’. then Hetfield said “Jakarta, do you feel it?? I know you see it, I know you hear it. But DO YOU FEEL IT? Now here, I know you know every word of the song… CYANIDE!” and the crowd exploded in shouts once more. Metallica never seems aged. They still had constant power and energy since they started the concert until its finish. That was probably the reason why we choose as our Concert of The year! They make other concerts in 2013 seems not so enthusing!

Venue: Gelora Bung Karno Stadium
Promoter: Blackrock Entertainment
Full Review: Metallica Live in Jakarta : It’s National Metal Day!