The Drums Live in Jakarta

The Drums live in Jakarta, May 25th 2011

Jacob Graham, Jonathan Pierce, Connor Hanwick and former member Adam Kessler.

Once again, all live music lovers in Indonesia are very lucky. On Wednesday, May 25th 2011, indie pop band from Brooklyn, New York, called The Drums performed their first gig in Jakarta. The band with member Jonathan Pierce on vocal, Jacob Graham on guitar/synthesizer and Connor Hanwick on drum/guitar entertained their loyal fans at Blowfish, City Plaza, Jakarta with Ismaya Live as the promoter (same promoter with Suede’s gig last March). The show itself started on 9 pm sharp and gate opened one hour before it.

I was quite excited to see The Drums’ performance in Jakarta. I admit that I am a new fan of them, but I enjoy their song so much. At first, I am interested in their music after I listened to Book of Stories. Somehow, that song reminds me of The Smiths’ song (I love this Manchester legend). Second, I heard the remix version of Down by the Water by Hurts and I love it! (You guys know how I madly in love with Hurts and knowing that Adam is the man behind the remix song always gives me a thrill.) Yeah, for all The Drums addicts, I know I was being such an ass because I started listening to their music because of those silly reasons.

Soon after that, I listened to their self titled album and Summertime EP and… BANG! I was and still amazed with their songs. I searched their videos on youtube and I became more and more in love with them. I knew that they would perform in Jakarta and without any doubt, I went to the ticket box and bought the ticket.

My ticket for The Drums’ performance in Jakarta. (IDR 250K equal to USD 28)

On the d-day, I went to the venue right after my office hour was ended (around 4 pm) because you will never be able to predict traffic in Jakarta, especially on busy hour in rainy day like yesterday. I took a TransJakarta bus and surprisingly I arrived early on about 5.30 pm. Wow! Long way to go considering the gate would be opened on 8 pm. I was like Oh no… What am I going to do in the next 2.5 hours… But soon after I arrived, I heard the sound from inside the venue. They were doing sound check and I heard they sang Book of Stories and Me and the Moon. Even listening their sound check made me so excited. Haha.

While waiting their gig to start, I met a new friend. She was also arrived early at the venue. She recognized me as a person who gave Brett Anderson a picture and met Adam Anderson. She knew it from my blog. It was a nice surprise because I really appreciate every one who reads my blog. (Nice to see you, Oti!)

Oti and I talked about a lot of things (mainly about our interest in live music) and I enjoyed our conversation. Then suddenly, on about 6.30 pm, we saw Connor came out from the venue! Jeez, we’re so lucky! I took a picture with Connor and Oti took a picture of him with her Polaroid and asked him to sign it. Smart girl with brilliant idea! (and it made me realized that she is the girl who took Polaroid pic of Adam and Theo and have them signed it! Wow, what a small world!) I also met my mate there, Tyas and her sister. We often meet in live music and it’s always a pleasure to be in a gig with her and doing crazy stuff :p Hahaha.

Connor and me. Lucky to met him before the gig.

Finally on about 8 pm, we were able to get into the venue. My first impression after seeing the stage was… WOW! It’s going to be an intimate concert! LOVE IT SO MUCH! I stood at the front row right before Jonny’s mic. There was no barrier. No gap at all between stage and audiences. I knew I was going to have so much fun! I can even see the setlist on the stage floor and I managed to took a picture of it.

The Drums setlist

The stage with big screen on the left side of the stage.

On 9 pm, the show finally started. Excitement was heard among the crowd, mostly girls, especially at the front row (include me). Jonny, Jacob and Connor entered the stage with a very casual look. Jonny looked comfortable with his Paris shirt, jeans jacket and red Converse shoes while Connor wore black-purple shirt and Nike shoes and Jacob looked so adorable with his green-long-sleeve shirt. Without any further ado, they sang the first song, What You Were, followed by Me and The Moon which made the crowd gone crazier and everyone sang along with them. Then, they sang the third song, Best Friend after Jonny said his words, “This next song is about my dead best friend”.

Jonny was so energetic last night and we love his moves!

Jonny’s shoes. Even his shoes were so important. Hahaha!

Last night, Connor played guitar, instead of drum. His play was amazing!

Jacob with his synthesizer. He kept moving his hands, doing his dances which were so adorable.

The crowd that night was amazing. Everyone sang along loudly, filled with excitement. I believe it made Jonny and the whole band felt satisfied. Jonny kept smiling and saying thank you to Jakarta and he said “Tonight is the best crowd definitely so far during this tour!” WOW! And he said that the Drums are gonna come back to Jakarta soon. Oh yes, you have to! We love the drums and we missed them already.

Personally I can say that The Drums’ gig last night is one of the best gigs I have ever attended! The band is fantastic, the stage is great and the crowd is amazing. Jonny was so energetic doing his moves and interacted a lot with the audience. All the girls (and some boys) at the front row were able to touch his hand several times (and some even touched his shirt, jacket and legs. Hahaha! Include me :p) Totally a crazy night.

After singing 12 songs, the band left the stage (encore) and they came back to sing the last three songs (Skippin’ Town, Down by the Water and The Future). Sadly, we have to say goodbye to the drums after total 15 songs. But, everyone left the venue with a big smile on the face after this satisfying performance. The only minus point from gig last night was the microphone. Jonny’s voice wasn’t heard so clear from his microphone. But overall… the gig was AWESOME. Jeez… I couldn’t find a greater word than amazing, awesome, fantastic, and so on to describe last night gig. Someone should invent a new word for it! Hahaha!

Jacob was doing his moves. :D

Connor was so calm playing his guitar.

Jonny ROCKED the night!

Cheers!

Tessa F. Chen

I Met the Man!

I was still hanging around after the Hurts’ gig, hoping to see Theo and Adam in person. I stayed around Nylon Mall (the same place where they held the press conference) because I heard they’re gonna have afterparty there.

When I was standing there, I saw Adam was approaching. He’s surrounded by a lot of venue security (almost 10 men I guess) and one crew. I looked at him and he smiled. I was holding my drawing of him. When he was nearby, I asked him, “Adam, would you like to sign this for me?” He said, “Sure.” As I gave Adam the drawing and marker, the securities approached and one of them pushed me. I was pissed off. I said (with high tone to the security), “Hey, he doesn’t mind.” Adam was so nice. He was standing beside me and looked at my drawing. I said, “I made it.” Adam said, “Incredible! Where do you want me to sign it?” I just pointed the blank area on the drawing and said, “Thank you.” He also asked my name and he wrote it on my drawing. Oh my God, I’m going to faint!

One more annoying person was there. When Adam signed my drawing, the crew keeps saying, “One minute, Adam.” Oh, please shut up!

When Adam signed my drawing, I asked him, “Where’s Theo by the way?” Adam replied, “He’s coming in a minute.”

(I waited there and Theo’s not coming and the crew took Adam leave the place. Damn!)

However, I am VERY HAPPY. Still couldn’t believe I met Adam and talked with him.

Here’s the signed drawing :-)

Ta!

Tessa F. Chen

—always be a proud fangirl—

HURTS SETLIST IN JAKARTA

Hurts setlist in Jakarta:

1. Unspoken

2. Silver Lining

3. Wonderful Life

4. Happiness

5. Blood, Tears & Gold

6. Evelyn

7. Sunday

8. Mother Nature

9. Verona

10. Devotion

11. Confide in Me

12. Illuminated

13. Stay

——-Encore——-

14. Better Than Love

Satisfaction and Disappointment (HURTS live in Jakarta, May 7th)

Just gonna sum up what I felt in Hurts gig on Saturday night.

Satisfaction:

HURTS!

Well, I don’t have to explain it. Anything related to HURTS is satisfying!

Theo did all the ‘ritual’. Oh… those white roses! And the hand moves that Theo makes when he sings ‘We all get hurt by love, and we all have a cross to bear’ from Confide in Me.

While Adam keep throwing kisses to audiences. The cuteness of Adam is reaching its limit when he pinched Richard’s cheek as he walked away and left the stage.

Disappointment:

The promoter and venue security!

Some annoying things that are arranged by the promoter:

- The stage is too far from audiences. The gap between stage and audiences is about 4 metres. Crazy! I was at the front row, but the pics that I took look very far far away. Never been this far in any concert I have ever attended. Usually the stage is only 1 metre or max 2 metres away from audiences. Here’s the prove.
- It’s very common if the promoter allows photographers to take pictures at the beginning of the show. Based on my experiences in attending music concerts, the photographers usually stand between the stage and barrier, then take pictures when the band sings the first or second song (or maximum third song). What really annoys me last night is the promoter allowed photographers to take pictures from the first song until the sixth song! Here’s the prove. I took this pic when Hurts sang Evelyn, the sixth song (see the setlist I have uploaded). Oh, come on…. it’s the only song when Adam plays his guitar. But look at those heads. Isn’t that annoying? I do understand that medias need good pictures for their stories, but SERIOUSLY six songs are just too much. Photographers have SLR cameras with great quality. They don’t need that long to take good pictures.

Promoter should think about the audiences—the fans that paid to see the gig. They don’t want to see photographers’ heads for as long as 6 songs. As for myself, I didn’t use media pass. I always want to be a part of the crowd. (Sometimes media has a different spot with the audiences.) That’s why I bought the ticket.

I will tell the stories about the annoying security later. It happened when I met Adam after the show. Wait for it! :-)

Cheers,

Tessa F. Chen

—still a proud fangirl—

HURTS live in Jakarta – Media Session (Stories from fangirl to fangirls)

On May 7th, HURTS—British duo from Manchester, Theo Hutchcraft on vocal and Adam Anderson on synth—performed in an event called Nylon Music Festival organized by Urbanite Asia. Beside Hurts, there are 10 local bands who performed on this event which took place at Epicentrum Kuningan, Jakarta.

Before the music festival began on about 6 pm (Hurts performed on 10 pm), there was a press conference with Hurts and the 10 local bands at 2nd floor Nylon Mall, near the venue. My friend and I came to the press conference on behalf of one of the biggest media in Indonesia (not a music media, but it’s been around for quite long here). On the press conference invitation, it is said that the press conference should starts on 1 pm to approximately 2pm, but the time set can be change at anytime due to technical preps/band’s needs. So, the crew asked medias to be open for the press conference on 1 pm to 4 pm.

My friend had been there since 1 pm, while I came late due to another event that I have to attend. When I arrived on 2.30 pm, the press conference hasn’t started yet. Imagine my friend waited for 1,5 hours and they only talked about the local bands. The crew told her that they still don’t know whether Hurts will come or not because at that moment, Hurts were sleeping. (I bet they’re tired due to a tight schedule. They played in Kuala Lumpur on Friday night, took a plane to Jakarta on Saturday morning and had to perform here at night.) Few minutes after that, we got the news that Hurts were on the way! I was so nervous. I have prepared some questions for them (with a help from my best mate idlecuriosity). In a normal press conference, the band usually sit in front of the medias and the crew will give us about 30 minutes to ask questions. Usually each media will get a chance to ask 2 or 3 questions to the band. I was hoping for the same thing would happen on Hurts press conference.

And then… the men we were waiting for are here.

Theo and Adam came up from behind us and walked between the media who were standing there and waiting. Theo was wearing white shirt and black trousers (and I think he’s getting tanned), while Adam was wearing white plain shirt, black trousers, sunglasses… and THE BOOTS! When they passed me, I was so amazed. My hands were shaking. *Seriously, it is so hard to act calmly as media in press conference, while actually you are really in love with the band. Feels like I wanna jump and hug them. But once again, I have to be calm.*

After Hurts walked to the front, the crew allowed us to take pictures. The picture below is when Theo introduced the band. He only said, “Hi, we’re Hurts.” (The man on the right is Neil Reeves, the road manager.)

But the happiness of taking pictures was suddenly over. I was surprised when the crew said that they only allowed media partners to ask Hurts questions. They mentioned only few medias. They suddenly asked us and other medias to leave the place because there will be a shooting with MTV Indonesia. WTF? This is what you called press conference? They even asked me to stop when I took Theo and Adam’s picture before I left. This is ridiculous. We might not a media partner, but we want to cover Hurts gig. We got the invitation and we already RSVP-ed it. Of course we need story. We want to ask them some questions. What will we write if we’re not allowed to interview or ask them anything at all? This is strange…

Well, the promoter can make any special interview session or TV shooting session or whatever they want. But, please don’t call it press conference. They are two different things. The last press conference I attended before Hurts is Suede press conference on March with different promoter. At that time, there were also special interview with some medias (such as Rolling Stones magazine and Channel V), but the promoter managed to arrange the time so the special medias still had their interview session and the rest had their turns together in a press conference afterward. And they did it. They got a lot of coverage stories from online and printed medias all over the country.

So, I’m sorry if my writing above disappoints you because I didn’t have a chance to interview them. But don’t worry, I will share the pictures I got. Here they are…

Thank God, the weather in Jakarta is hot so they don't need to wear jacket and more skins are exposed XD

You may share or repost all the pictures in my tumblr or blog as long as you give the credit to me. Check out my tumblr for more photos at picturesquescene.

PS: I will share my stories about the gig next. (Or I think it’s better to share more pictures than writing about it:p)

Regards,

Tessa F. Chen

—a proud fangirl— haha!

Theo Hutchcraft Drawing_the Process

Tools: graphite pencils, eraser on A4 paper
Time taken: 6 hours

6 hours away from happiness XD

Theo Hutchcraft Portrait Drawing

I'm speechless everytime I see his picture...

Adam Anderson Drawing _ the Process

And here is the process XD

I always love to see how a painting or drawing is made. Therefor, I love to scan every step of it and show you how it begins until it's completely done.
But sadly, I forgot to scan the rough sketch :(

Adam Anderson Portrait Drawing

Here's my latest drawing. YES! IT'S ADAM ANDERSON FROM HURTS!
I made this special for my best buddy, Sindi, who LOOVVEEESSS Adam sooooo much XD I promised her that I'll make a portrait drawing of any boys she wants! I thought I'm gonna draw her Brendon Urie, but her it is.... Adam Anderson.

Tools: Pencil
Time taken: about 6 hours

HURTS live in Jakarta

I'M IN! YEAH! \m/