Saturday (15/03) marked the 5th episode of Music Gallery, a local music festival which was organized by BSO Band FEUI. With significant improvements of quality in each year, Music Gallery –or known as Mugall, is gradually making its way as the local festival to look forward to. The tickets were selling out so fast at some point it became hard to find, all because of the enticingly hard-to-resist line of performers. The 5th Mugall invited Jirapah, MMS, Monkey To Millionaire, Ramayana Soul, Banda Neira, Payung Teduh, and NAIF. And beside the selection of incredible local talents, this year Mugall added an international act, the France-based indie-pop band Tahiti 80. Another intriguing part laid on the setlist that there were SORE, Mondo Gascaro, The Trees and the Wild, and BARASUARA. We couldn’t help but wonder how’s the reunion going in the backstage.

Shifting spot from the usual Upper Room Annex Building to a more southern part of Jakarta, the 5th Mugall took place in Gandaria City. Around 2pm the Bookstore Club, Selimut Cokelat, Circarama, and Jirapah warmed up the Pertamina Stage on Skeeno Hall, while Solace, Fourtwnty, Bageurs, and Monkey2Millionaire entertained passersby from the Piazza Stage. While we were around the Piazza, we could gaze and contemplate upon the art installations of Synaesthesia: Tasting Words, Seeing Sounds, Hearing Colors.

With the separated venues located on different levels –3rd floor and ground floor, one would have to choose the more desirable stage. Not really a pleasant options, then We decided to start at Pertamina Stage to see BARASUARA. Iga Massardi, the lead vocalist, shared the fact that he’s about to be a father before he continued to rock the stage. Within their 8 songs, the constant sing-a-long and the perfectly synchronized lighting boosted up their already powerful performance.

The huge venue was starting to feel packed around the time for The Trees and The Wild, and the entrance queue had just become really long. Whereas people who needed outdoor air would likely choose to hang out in Piazza Stage as Mondo Gascaro soothed the ambiance with “Our Day Will Come” and “Naked”. Along with Mian Tiara, they sang the rendition of Chrisye’s “Serasa”, followed by “Komorebi” which attracted the audience to come closer.

Banda Neira was scheduled to perform almost in time for Tahiti 80, but the audience in Piazza Stage grew larger. They brought melancholy to a historical level with the song “Mawar” –titled from the name of an army squad responsible for kidnapping activists in New Order era, and “Tini dan Yanti” which lyrics were adopted from writings on a prison wall. “La historia me absolvera, history will absolve me”, Rara Sekar (vocal) explained the excerpt of the song.

Upstairs at the Pertamina Stage, Xavier Boyer greetings of “Halo Jakarta, senang bisa bertemu kembali!” responded with loud cheering. It’s their third visit to Indonesia and they haven’t lost their charm. Boyer (vocal, keyboard), Pedro Resende (bass), Mederic Gontier (guitar), Raphael Leger (synth, percussion) and Sylvain Marchand (drum) were excited to be back. Though they were sweating because of the heat, that did not stop them from being energetic on stage. With songs from their latest album, Ballroom,  Boyer lead the audience to sing along. After about 12 songs, Tahiti 80 signed out without “Heartbeat”. Of course that’s a cue to request an encore. So they went back on stage and served the most awaited line: Can you feel my heartbeat when I’m close to you?

It’s almost midnight, but the audiences stayed for NAIF and Payung Teduh. NAIF songs never fails to please the crowd for a classic karaoke session, from “Air dan Api” to the classic hit “Piknik 72″. It is an admirable decision to put NAIF as closing act; a gesture of staying committed to Music Gallery’s main purpose of showcasing great local bands.

More photos: The 5th Music Gallery 2015 on Facebook

First thing first, before getting in to the main board on how exciting the night was (22/01), we were just utterly glad that something good finally landed in our country (after all those starvation of those rad music shows in Jakarta last year), all of the credits go to Mac DeMarco’s visit before making an appearance at Laneway Festival 2015 in Singapore.

The vibe that we got once we stepped into the venue, Level II at Foundry No.8, was just full of excitement that we have been drooling and wanting to experience more intimate live music concert in Jakarta. It was clear to say the not so big venue (reminded us to the Malaysia’s Upfront show at The Bee) gave a comfortable feeling to welcome one of the most eclectic performers. To underline how eclectic his performance is, he once performed U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’ naked on stage (yes, it’s on YouTube if you are trying to look it up) and in the interview that we had with him in 2013, he said that he’d been dreaming to drink donkey’s cum on stage if he has any chance to do so. To top everything, Mac DeMarco sounds much better when he’s doing live shows, which comes to a reason why we shouldn’t miss his concert.

The night was opened by Jirapah, the local band who stormed in an indie-rock music (and they happened to take part in Brooklyn’s music scene for a while) gave a humble set to poke the crowd a bit before seeing Mac. To us, Jirapah’s performance was definitely not a filler, their dynamic music was just a perfect way to open the night.

As Jirapah left the stage, the lights are slightly dimmed, and the sound crew went back and forth to make sure everything’s set. The small LED screen started showing Mac DeMarco’s banner alarming that the show was just seconds away to start! Opening with an ode to growing older and life soundtrack ‘Salad Days’, a hundreds of voice erupted singing along to its melodyc chorus. He continued his set with fans favorites such as ‘The Stars Keep On Calling My Name’, Blue Boy’, ‘Cooking Up Something Good’, and ‘Let Her Go’. Finding that Mac’s hadn’t  smoked any but after five songs, we started thinking maybe he was subject to building’s protocol, but nope, he didn’t stop there, after asking some permission to one of the crews (who also didn’t give him the smoking pass), the crowd started raining Mac with a pack of cigarettes! Just like an invitation to lit his first cigarette on stage, he smoked one and paid an honor to his favorite thing in the world, performing ‘Ode To Viceroy’. As the night progressed, everything felt really amped up, especially after giving a moody nuance over ‘Still Together’, Mac interrupted the song with a venue-circumventing crowd surf, and gave a quick sign-off before the typical cheering for an encore session hit.

From swaying, mellowing out, laughing, and also not to mention the epic closure of Metallica’s Enter Sandman (or most likely translated into ‘Enter SandMac’) which changed the audience’s style from the urban youth to the king of mosh pit. Mac DeMarco’s charm of his loose music will never fail to win our attention. Just like what expected before, we saw Mac did his regular silly joke, demonstrated Elton John’s Candle In The Wind’ and also his crowd surfing. The way how Mac and his band put a show for the crowd wrapped the night into one word ; memorable. If you have seen Mac DeMarco’s live show before, the stage actions that we mentioned earlier might sound like something that has been done repetitively, however, when it was Mac and his friends who did them, everything didn’t seem like a cliché thing to do, and the most important thing, everything was just enjoyable.

Big thanks goes to PraSvana and STUDIORAMA for bringing Mac DeMarco to town!

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.

Love Like Sunset (An Introduction to Love Garage 2014) by Svanamix on Mixcloud

Hello guys, straight to our first question. Where did the name Jirapah come from?

Ken (K) : Hello, hello hello (imitating a phone gesture), actually the name Jirapah came from our dearest friend who used to call me “Jirapah” because of my height. Well, me and Mar loves the idea of using the name, so, that’s where the name “Jirapah” came from. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Yup, it was pretty simple. So could you tell us more about how you guys met?

K : Oh okay, so, I met Mar a long time ago, we used to date each other for a very long time during our days in New York, and uhm, I met Jan right during my first gig back in Indonesia. Jan was hitting on me (laughing) and we found out that we shared a lot of things in common, such as our love of Hardcore music, Classic hip-hop and Japanese Noise bands. I’ve met Yudhis during one of my gigs at Treehouse, Kemang. Jan and Yudhis are playing in a same band, Vague, and at that time, Jan asked Yudhis to catch my performance. And Nico, He used to work as a graphic designer at Whiteboard Journal, same place where I work. At first, he was a roadie, and then we asked him to play bass. We’ve been playing together since then.

For Ken, what is the difference between being in a one-man band and a full formation like this one?

K: Actually, I’ve never played as a one-man band. Well, maybe once or twice back in New York. But yeah you could call me a one-man band when it comes to recording. But back in my NY days, Mar and some of our colleagues used to help me play on stage. So yeah, I love playing with other people, especially my friends. I think I’d never hire someone to play with me (laughing).

What is the difference between New York’s scene and Jakarta’s? Is there anything that Jakarta’s scene doesn’t have? (Being compared to NY one)

Well, because of cultural differences, we can’t say that Jakarta’s scene is not as good as New York ones. Every scene has its own signature. But there are some pros in the New York scene such as massive amount of venues and good infrastructure. But it doesn’t mean our local scene doesn’t have an adequate number of venues. Well, we can take Keuken Bandung as an example. They have transformed an empty warehouse to become a good place to play. Well, that is why we think our local scene is not inferior to a scene in New York.

Well, could you tell us a bit about the story behind one of your song, Alexander?

Um, back in New York, there’s this French guy named Jacques who was a frequent customer at the place where Mariati used to work. He used to be a famous actor back in his homeland. But he decided to throw it all away and start a life in New York. Despite the fact that he’s not young anymore, he decided to start everything from scratch again.  Personally, I think his story is a one hell of a good story to tell. So that’s why I wrote “Alexander”.

Since you’re in Bandung, What is your favorite Bandung-based band?
M: Mocca
K: Sigmun
Y,J: Sloth
N: Pure Saturday

Okay, this is my last question. Is there any plans to release a physical album/EPs somewhere in the future?

Yeah, we have planned to release a physical album since a long time ago. But, right now all of us are in the condition where our life outside music is much important than our band. But still, there are some plans to drop a physical release of our album. If we ought to make a full-length album, It has to be a well prepared one. I’d rather have an album with a good concept from start to finish instead of a compilation of our songs that we’ve created. But yeah, there is a plan to release a 7-inch vinyl with our friend from Orange Cliff Records. So, wait for it, we hope we could drop it as soon as possible.

Okay Jirapah, thank you for coming to Bandung. I hope that you guys are enjoying Keuken Bandung as much as I do.

Yeah, we hope that we don’t have to encounter a technical difficulty tonight and we could entertain our friends in Bandung. And, our pals, Bergaz is also DJ-ing tonight. I hope you could catch him later on.

Before we caught music performances, RRREC Fest played some clip from old movie ‘Ambisi’. Benyamin S and Bing Slamet were the stars in that movie. After that we watched four movies made by Jakarta’s film maker. One of our favorite is Sinema Elektronik by Anggun priambodo. It reminds us about some Indonesia’s Tv Series that we used to watch in early 2000.

Nine guys with black shirt came up on stage. It was Sentimental Moods. The upbeat tunes from nine differents music instruments including percussion, saxophones  and trumpet. They started the show with song Gradasi and also played new song for their upcoming album that will be released on June/July this year Head Free. People started to shake their body and feet when Sentimental Moods played their songs. Approximately they played eight songs. This ska band also covered Ismail Marzuki’s Payung Fantasi with their own style.

second to perform was Jirapah. Ken Jenie, Mar Galo, Januar Kristianto, Yudhis Tira, and Nico Gozali started making some noise with their song Telephones. The post rock ambiance suddenly showed up with a help from the breezy weather followed by their song Muto. Although Jirapah is a Jakarta based band but Ken (vox & guitar) started the band as one-man-show in New York, USA. They performed eight songs and closed their performance with SOL.

Indie pop band with female vocalist, Hightime Rebellion that we put on our Most Anticipated Local Bands in 2012 was up with their sophisticated aura. With the powerful bass-line they succeeded to make the crowd gone wild. This was the second time they played in RRREC FEST.

and the last but not least Sigmun. The rock band from Bandung was conquered to create an epic rock atmosphere to close the third show made by Ruang Rupa with some songs from their latest EP “Cerebro”. Even though they haven’t released their album yet we can say that they are currently the most rocking local band.

Well however the line ups weren’t as many and as big as the RRREC FEST #2, but Ruang Rupa can still show us  another round of how to serve great local acts to the local fans.

Quoting from rrec fest on twitter “This festival aims to celebrate music as art form and an important part of contemporary culture”. Sigmun (Bandung) , Jirapah (Jakarta), Hightime Rebellion (Jakarta), and Sentimental Moods (Jakarta) will fill the line up. This music perfomance is curated by the famous “The Secret Agent”. Beside cool line ups, RRREC FEST will also have some tenants for their bazaar which will sell art craft/work which is created by Jakarta’s youth artists.

So for you people who enjoy indonesian music scene, you definitely must go to RRREC FEST THE SHOW CASE. See you there!

(Photos : Ruang Rupa)