Last Sunday's Punk Rock Night
And just when everyone is talking about the new nifty Macbook Air, I want to tell you a story about my first concert of 2008 right now. Boring and pointless story? Well, it might be for you who don’t have soul! Ah just kidding there. But seriously, this story will be fun, promise!
So back to the story, I promise myself in my spontaneous-unwritten-2008-resolution-list that I had to watch more than three concerts this year. So last Sunday, would be my first one. That day I was as sick as hell, I got this flu that kept my nose feeling it’s going to blow every instance (well it did blow and I sneeze a lot, but unfortunately it blows every time that I’m not ready).
Nevertheless, I force myself to watch MXPX "Live in Concert at Senayan Basketball Hall A", since I have bought the ticket (it’s somewhat expensive) and since I like MXPX. Funny story with MXPX. I know them back in the 90’s (well, late 90’s to be exact). They had this one-hit-wonderful radio playing song called “Chick Magnet”. However, that’s not the case, I like them by the fact that they are somehow punk rock, and they have this very cool singer, Mike Herrera.
No I’m not a big fan, I occasionally listens to their album singles that they release every now and then (they had eight albums by the way). The only full album of MXPX that I like was their “Ever Passing Moment“album. That my friend, I believe is the best album they have made so far.
So back to the story, I promise myself in my spontaneous-unwritten-2008-resolution-list that I had to watch more than three concerts this year. So last Sunday, would be my first one. That day I was as sick as hell, I got this flu that kept my nose feeling it’s going to blow every instance (well it did blow and I sneeze a lot, but unfortunately it blows every time that I’m not ready).
Nevertheless, I force myself to watch MXPX "Live in Concert at Senayan Basketball Hall A", since I have bought the ticket (it’s somewhat expensive) and since I like MXPX. Funny story with MXPX. I know them back in the 90’s (well, late 90’s to be exact). They had this one-hit-wonderful radio playing song called “Chick Magnet”. However, that’s not the case, I like them by the fact that they are somehow punk rock, and they have this very cool singer, Mike Herrera.
No I’m not a big fan, I occasionally listens to their album singles that they release every now and then (they had eight albums by the way). The only full album of MXPX that I like was their “Ever Passing Moment“album. That my friend, I believe is the best album they have made so far.
So I went there, hoping to meet my old-time buddies and have those nostalgic punk-rock moments together for old time sake. And of course, enjoying live music and rock the night out!
The show started at about thirty minutes past seven. The first opening act was this band called 4nufan from Jakarta. They kind a built the crowd mood rather slowly as they act. The sound system was not quite getting there. I think they didn’t do sound check properly. But hey! I knew this guys back in those so-called Monami days (uuh, it’s a long story, folks). They were nice guys; I’m proud of them stepping up notch and made a headlining band for great band like MXPX.
The next one was one the superstar of Indonesian punk scene; the all-authentic Superman is Dead. The performed very well that night, with their hits they made the crowd getting hotter and nearly there. I love how they perform without any clumsiness or awkward gestures that arise in some of our bands, just full professional intense punk rock music. I tell you man, this guys got style.
The last headlining band before MXPX was Rocket Rockers. Well this band is the rock star of Indonesian Punk Rock scene. They are the one of the bold band that tries to break through the mainstream area of Indonesian music with their genius singles. Now equipped with Synthesizer (played by Ucay, the vocalist), they make better music. Performance wise? I can say that they very seriously prepared for their comedic act on stage. Very amusing and entertaining indeed!
Time flies when your rockin' your heart out, and when MXPX finally on stage it was 22.00 in the evening. Well I don’t care, it’s not that I have to escort Wita safely to her home after the show, go home myself and tried to take some sleep since the day after would be a hectic Monday morning, right? Well in fact, I did have to all of that... But what the heck…
Just like I said earlier, I like MXPX and their songs, but I did not follow them all these years. So when they opened up the show with their new singles from their new album, I didn’t catch it. I mean I love sing-a-long a song, so when I can’t do that, I just keep myself happy by rockin’ it out loud. Now, since punk rock songs are very repetitive, I can catch up after two refrain. That’s my strategy! However, I do love them when they perform “My Life Story”, “Responsibility”, “Emotion”, “The Next Big Thing”, or “Chick Magnet” (featuring Eka of Superman Is Dead playing Bass!). When they played these, I was singing along with my heart out.
So they played about 10 songs that night. With two songs for the encore, the infamous Clash covers “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” (Which strangely many of the crowds didn’t know and most of them are looking blank. I mean come on guys! It was a legendary Clash song! How could you not sing-a-long?) And of course, their all-time favourite “Punk Rock Show” which makes the crowd goes wild at the finale.
And that’s about it! It was a great show; MXPX played very very well, the crowd was awesome. For a couple of hours, I forgot that I had flu. And yes, I did meet my old friends there and had a little chitchat with them. All was well; it was a nice night for a punk-rock show…
The show started at about thirty minutes past seven. The first opening act was this band called 4nufan from Jakarta. They kind a built the crowd mood rather slowly as they act. The sound system was not quite getting there. I think they didn’t do sound check properly. But hey! I knew this guys back in those so-called Monami days (uuh, it’s a long story, folks). They were nice guys; I’m proud of them stepping up notch and made a headlining band for great band like MXPX.
The next one was one the superstar of Indonesian punk scene; the all-authentic Superman is Dead. The performed very well that night, with their hits they made the crowd getting hotter and nearly there. I love how they perform without any clumsiness or awkward gestures that arise in some of our bands, just full professional intense punk rock music. I tell you man, this guys got style.
The last headlining band before MXPX was Rocket Rockers. Well this band is the rock star of Indonesian Punk Rock scene. They are the one of the bold band that tries to break through the mainstream area of Indonesian music with their genius singles. Now equipped with Synthesizer (played by Ucay, the vocalist), they make better music. Performance wise? I can say that they very seriously prepared for their comedic act on stage. Very amusing and entertaining indeed!
Time flies when your rockin' your heart out, and when MXPX finally on stage it was 22.00 in the evening. Well I don’t care, it’s not that I have to escort Wita safely to her home after the show, go home myself and tried to take some sleep since the day after would be a hectic Monday morning, right? Well in fact, I did have to all of that... But what the heck…
Just like I said earlier, I like MXPX and their songs, but I did not follow them all these years. So when they opened up the show with their new singles from their new album, I didn’t catch it. I mean I love sing-a-long a song, so when I can’t do that, I just keep myself happy by rockin’ it out loud. Now, since punk rock songs are very repetitive, I can catch up after two refrain. That’s my strategy! However, I do love them when they perform “My Life Story”, “Responsibility”, “Emotion”, “The Next Big Thing”, or “Chick Magnet” (featuring Eka of Superman Is Dead playing Bass!). When they played these, I was singing along with my heart out.
So they played about 10 songs that night. With two songs for the encore, the infamous Clash covers “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” (Which strangely many of the crowds didn’t know and most of them are looking blank. I mean come on guys! It was a legendary Clash song! How could you not sing-a-long?) And of course, their all-time favourite “Punk Rock Show” which makes the crowd goes wild at the finale.
And that’s about it! It was a great show; MXPX played very very well, the crowd was awesome. For a couple of hours, I forgot that I had flu. And yes, I did meet my old friends there and had a little chitchat with them. All was well; it was a nice night for a punk-rock show…
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