Don’t Cry For Me, Jakarta; The Journal.

Last May we're informed by our manager that we're invited to perform at Jakarta Rock Parade on July 11th. Cannaris was also invited to perform at the same festival.

After 30 days of waiting patiently, we flew to Jakarta on July 10th. Our excitement was interrupted by a little trouble which was; our guitarist, Napik can't make it to Jakarta due to ticket issues. We arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 6:30pm and picked up by our liaison officer, Bly and our escort, Irfan. We stayed at Sultan Hotel in Senayan, which by the way a stone's throw away from the festival took place. We (Dailyshow, Cannaris, Muiz, Bard, Lan, Abg San & Ajay) were given 5 rooms but we gave away one of the room since we wanted to stay 3 person per room. Dailyshow had a buffet dinner courtesy of the hotel and the rest of the guys went out to grab dinner. As far as I remembered, they went to a stall and ate "Nasi Goreng Gila". Dailyshow + Ajay (Ajay got Napik's complementary buffet voucher) stayed at the hotel after the meal waiting for the rest of the guys to come back. We practice for a while (and when I said a while, I meant 15 minutes) since we're going to perform on the next day. Right after that, Me and Ajay went down to the hotel's lounge and had a drink while enjoying a live band performances. There's one girl, who was a guest at the hotel, sang Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" and her voice captivated both of us. And somehow we admit that Indonesian literally, can really sing.

tickets for day one and two

Ajay and the official mobil.
We got up at 9am on Friday, and honestly, I shivered a bit. Nervous, maybe (definitely!). We had breakfast at the hotel's Co'op Stall and waited patiently for the Jakarta Rock Parade's Official vehicle to come and pick us up. At 2pm, we arrived at Senayan Stadium and the environment was very "secured". There's like, hundreds of police and security guys in that spot.
Kami di jamu di "international Bands" booth dengan makanan yang agak enak (kerana ianya makanan katering dari hotel) dan itu merupakan perkara baru bagi kami, kerana as far as the story goes, kami memang tak pernah dilayan begitu. Dengan kata lain, kami teruja. Lepas makan, Bly, our Liason Officer bawa kami ke stage yang kami akan perform.

the khemah berhawa dingin!

Kami di tinggalkan di dalam khemah berhawa dingin di belakang stage (oh ya, booth International Bands tadi pun berhawa dingin) untuk bersiap sedia. Lapan orang yang lain berada di depan stage, menonton band yang perform sebelum kami, iaitu Begundal. Setiap band di beri masa setengah jam sebelum persembahan untuk sound check (kiranya, show akan berhenti 30 minit setiap kali bertukar band).

Jam 3, giliran kami tiba. Sudut pandangan dari atas stage telah mematahkan sedikit semangat kami (dan juga menghilangkan sedikit nervous kami) kerana kami dapat melihat terdapat tidak lebih dari 50 orang sahaja penonton dan keluasan tempat itu membuatkan ianya kelihatan terlalu sedikit. Kami mulakan persembahan pada jam 3.30 dengan lagu "Trail Of Working Ant" dan diikuti dengan lagu "Johnny Cash". Ketika kami mula bermain "Summer Serenade", semangat kami di "boost" sedikit (mmg sedikit sahaja) dengan kedatangan penonton yang lain yang hanya menonton dari tepi dan duduk di kaki lima sahaja. Kami akhiri persembahan kami dengan lagu "The Homecoming". Selepas perform, kami berehat di khemah di belakang stage sebelum kami pulang ke hotel untuk menukar pakaian (hanya Dailyshow, the rest was still at the festival).

For more photos; www.myspace.com/thedailyshow
Kami tiba kembali di stadium itu pada jam 5; me and Wary went out around the stadium with Bly to find my Indonesian friend, Lena. I felt bad because she went there just to meet me & the band and in the end, her cellphone battery was out and I can't contact her or find her at all. IM SORRY LENA! Then Bly took me and Wary to the guys which by the way was watching Nidji performing in the indoor stage. Setulus ikhlas, Nidji memang hebat. Agak teruja melihat showmanship mereka.

Nidji
Selepas "nonton" Nidji, kami makan sekali lagi di booth tadi (ya, kami dijamu seharian) dan tidak mahu pulang lagi ke hotel kerana ingin menonton The Upstairs pada jam 9 malam. Pada jam 8, kami menonton Pas Band bersama teman baru kami yang kami kenal di Park Stage iaitu Pamela.

Pamela
The Upstairs membuat persembahan pada jam 10 (ini berikutan sound check yang melebihi 30minit) dan it's worth the wait. Amar jatuh cinta dengan Dian, penyanyi latar The Upstair dan yang lain was hypnotize with Jimmy's (frontman) shoe gazing.

The Upstairs
Selepas tamat persembahan The Upstairs, kami pulang ke hotel dan kami di lawati oleh Kanny, rakan Indonesia Joe. Setiap bilik kami mempunyai agenda sendiri. My room with the sleepy Amar and my bubble (not so bubbly) bath, Joe's room with the company, Muiz's room with his Gajah Mada's Escape Plan, and Hizny's room little private party.

On the next day, Yuri and Bly took us to go "belanja" at Mangga Dua Square. It took us 1 and a half hour to get there from the hotel. TIRING! We hardly shop for souvenirs there (except for Joe) but the food was awesome and effin cheap. Cheap as in, nasi + sotong + udang + ayam + sayur =RM5. You can't find a shopping mall's food court meal with a price like that in Malaysia.

Mangga Dua Square
After that we went to a place, I can't remember the name of that place (padahal tak tahu pun) and at that place, there's like, a loooooong line of shops selling artsy fartsy sculptures and antique items. Wary spent time the most among the others there; browsing for LPs while the others waited in the van.

Then we went half way to Block M (we wanted to go there so badly cause Mel and Bly and Yuri told us that we can shop for indie's stuffs there) and went back to the hotel sebab all over sudden the panitia of Jakarta Rock Parade called and said Cannaris had to perform that night and the event might be canceled on the day after. We rushed back to the hotel and went to the stadium. Before we went to the stadium, Joe had a call from Malaysia and he was told that the studio in Kelantan was rushed by the Authority. Parti Liar katanya. DOWN SIAL!!! Anyhow, turns out Cannaris tak jadi main malam tu. Ini semua terjadi kerana Jakarta Rock Parade menangung kerugian yang agak besar setelah 2 hari festival itu berlangsung. Apparently the ticket was too expensive for Indonesian people (RM 50 per day, RM100 for indoors). Entah bagaimana, Cannaris tetap bermain pada hari Ahad. So, we went back to the hotel and Pamela paid us a visit with her friends (The WhiskyBaba fellows). They stayed there till 5am; and Kanny was there too.

Hari Ahad, giliran Cannaris pula untuk beraksi. Cannaris sepatutnya perform di Park Stage, iaitu stage yang sama dengan Dailyshow, tetapi oleh kerana Jakarta Rock Parade mengalami kerugian, 2 dari 4 stage telah di robohkan dan hanya 2 stage sahaja digunakan untuk hari ketiga. Oleh itu, Cannaris telah diberi peluang untuk perform di indoor stage. Mereka agak beruntung kerana stage itu lebih besar, mempunyai efek pencahayaan, dan crowd mereka lebih ramai berbanding crowd Dailyshow (ini kerana pada hari itu, harga tiket telah dikurangkan kepada RM50; all access termasuk indoor stage). Mereka merupakan opening band pada hari itu; mereka perform 4 buah lagu iaitu "Transplant", "Cape Winds", "The Night Skies Turn Blue" and their new song, "She Doesn't Like Rock and Roll". Their performance was amazing. Personally, I was jealous. And I still am. But in the other hand, we went there together as friends and to represent our hometown, so proud itu telah menghapuskan jealous tadi. HAHA YEA RIGHT. (sila rujuk gambar, malas nak terangkan satu per satu).

Kanny hooked Cannaris up with a gig later that night at De Ja Vu. Cannaris managed to play only 2 songs due to some minor issues (bass drum pecah!). We've made friends with Calliber for the Heroes and Unbroken Virgin.

Cannaris @ De Ja Vu


Later that night we went back to the hotel and enjoyed McDonalds and which by the way, sedikit murah berbanding McDonalds Di Malaysia. We spent our last night talking and having fun with our Liason Officers and escort. We went to bed at 6am and woke up around 10am to get ready to go home. We took Efek Rumah Kaca's tour bus to the aiport courtesy of Yuri and we took of back to Malaysia at 7pm local time.

It's funny; we only slept not more than 5 hours everyday when we're there and we weren't tired at all. Maybe we're a little too excited to be there and don't wanna waste time by sleeping. Haha. We didn't wanna leave Jakarta, but at the same time, we're glad that we're not living in Jakarta. Why? What happens in Jakarta, stays in Jakarta. Hehe.

We had fun. Really. The best trip, ever. period.