Below is info, blog posts, pictures and video four Asia Tour 2008. For specific show information, visit our Asia Tour 2008 Shows page. We’re going to try and blog almost every day, so bookmark this page and keep checking in for new posts!
NOTE! We are retroactively adding pics and videos to earlier posts, so please check old posts for new content!!!
Where: Korea, Indonesia, Singaore, Malaysia When: October 31st - November 13th, 2008 Who: The tour is being booked by Arwith, of Utarid Booking in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
November 1st / sat - Seoul, Korea @ TBA
November 3rd / mon - Jakarta, Indonesia @ MAROTTI CAFÉ
November 4th / tue - Bandung, Indonesia @ TBA
November 5th / wed - Solo, Indonesia @ TBA
November 6th / thu - Yogyakarta , Indonesia @ TBA
November 7th / fri - Singapore @ TBA
November 8th / sat - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia @ GUDANG NOISY
November 9th / sun - Penang, Malaysia @ SOUNDMAKER
November 10th / mon - Taiping, Malaysia @ RAINHOUSE
November 11th / tue - Manjung, Malaysia @ TBA
November 12th / wed - vacation day!!!
November 13th / thu - fly back to US
We are home from our Asia Tour 2008. We arrived yesterday (tomorrow? — errr.. international date line confusion…) and are pretty tired. We’ll be posting the last few tour blog posts soon, with updated pics and videos. Before I fall asleep again, we want to THANK EVERYONE who helped us out. This tour was an extraordinary success thanks to all the incredible organization and planning that everyone in South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia provided us every step of the way. You set up the shows, met us at airports, bus stops, and train stations, helped up find food, showed us around, helped do merch, took photos and videos, had a place for us to sleep, got us to the departing trains, busses, airports on time or drove us through the night… all while being friendly, fun and positive throughout it all. Your efforts were amazing, and made this tour possible. We are eternally grateful, and thank you for showing everyone what DiY community is all about.
We rented a van, and a friend drove us up the west coast of Malaysia to Penang. Arwith went with us as well, andit was about a 4 hour ride. We were paranoid we were arriving late, but as the show time was pushed back, we weren’t, and after riding the ferry from Penang accross to George Town island, headed for a meal at the much recommended Evergreen vegetarian restaurant. Freaking delicious.
We made to to the Soundmaker venue space. The turnout for the show was pretty thin, as it was a Sunday night, and there were exams for students the next morning. Despite that, the people were enthusiastic, and the low number of attendees meant the A/C kept up, and it was the first gig in a loooong while where were weren’t drenched in our own sweat afterwards. A rooftop hangout party, with a great view of the straights followed, and we did a taped interview for a music website.
We took a 5 hour bus from Singapore to KL, and go into town after the all day Girl Fest had started. We then took the subway across the city to the venue, and missed about 4 - 5 bands, but got there in time to see the rest. This show was fantastic, with a hot room packed with people, all excited to see us and the other bands. Some great stuff. We met a lot of new poeple. There are a lot of photos and video from that night, but we haven’t had time today to get them prepared for this post.
(Speaking of which, we are slowly add vids and photos to our earlier posts, so check down from time to time to see what we’ve updated.)
Kammy addresses the grrrls…
playing the show…
big crowd…
friends…
After a looooong night, we went to get some late night food, and ended up at Arwith’s apartment. Arwith is the promoter who booked our whole tour, and it was awesome to finally meet him in person. We had a good night at his place, and had some Malaysian breakfast before heading out to Penang.
…and were met by hosts Glenn and Talib, and later Cher.
We went to grab some fantastic vegan asian food, walked around Singapore a bit, then settled in to get ready for the show. The venue was another practice space, or “Jamming Studio” as they are known, this time on the 4th floor of an office building. Lots of great people were there, and we played with 3 other bands.
That night we stayed at a friend’s apartment, and despite having a ceiling light spontaneously emit massive amounts of burning plastic smoke, had a restful night with good internet. We also had a chance to do some much needed laundry.
Glenn and Cher of 7×0x7 were fantastic hosts, and made the whole Singapore experience a great time. We were sorry we had to go.
We had soto for breakfast with the staff of the radio station in Solo, and then caught the train to Jogya. Mandra, who set up shows for us in Jakarta, met us in the morning, and we said oiur goodbyes at the station. When we arrived in Jogya a few hours later, we were met by our hosts at the station. They walked us through a touristy/backpacker area to a cheap little hotel.
We went out explored a little of Jogya, and had a meal at a great traditional restaurant. The headed off to the show, which was quite a ways across the city. The venue, Dennis Lounge, was an open air bar, and we played with about 10 bands of all types. Lots of people showed up, and we played a pretty good set on so-so gear. We hurried back to our hotel to catch a few hours sleep before the flight to Singapore in the am.
We head to the train station on the morning to catch the 8:00 train to Solo. It’s about a 9 hour trip. Our friend Kitu is going with us. The train costs $9/person, and is pretty comfortable.
Rice paddies everywhere stretch out on all sides, and we enjoy the ride, and enjoy leaving the smog of the cities for a while. Friends from home send text messages to Patrick updating us on the election results — they call it for Obama, and we celebrate with a round of cookies.
When we arrived, we were met by our hosts at the train station, and then we found ourselves at the radio station, StarFM. They sponsored the gig, and put us up. The show took place in the foyer of the station, but before that, we found ourselves in a weird Indonesia/English live radio interview, complete with listeners calling in with questions. Kitu kindly translated for us.
The show went great, with several local bands opening up and a lot of excited people. That night, we slept in the station’s air conditioned studio, and we woken up to the sound of the morning DJ starting her show, at 5am.
Here’s a more detailed report on our show in Solo, Indonesia. (Written by Kammy after we got home)
Early in the morning we go to the Bandung train station. It will be a 9 hour train ride to Solo. Ketu will be continuing to travel with us. Did I mention he blew off school so that he could help us with the tour? (He is teh awesome).
Our train car is the “soft seat” type. It has cushioned seats and oscillating fans mounted on the ceiling. As we depart the Bandung station, an employee comes down the aisle and passes out little containers of water. We start traveling, leaving the city behind and entering the tropically forested countryside. At every stop, local people board the train and circulate throughout the cars, hawking everything from fresh fruit and fried tempeh to bottled water, candy, and instant soup (they even have a kettle of hot water with them). Each hawker has their own distinctive spiel that they keep singing out — kind of like a bird call — it’s a cacaphony of voices.
Here in Indonesia it’s November 5th in the daytime, but back in the U.S. it’s still the evening of the 4th — election day! (We all took advantage of early voting, before we left town.) Patrick’s girlfriend Jessi is sending us updates via text message. So far, it looks like Team Blue is winning. It’s pretty exciting even for a cynical person like me. I almost wish I could be transported back to the U.S. just for today.
Soon we leave behind the forest and the landscape turns into endless green rice paddy land. It’s also hot again — we’ve descended from the highlands and are now on a coastal plain. Whenever we’re moving, a pair of train employees keep coming down the aisles with food and drinks on trays. I’m not sure of the system, it seems like you can either go to the dining car or else they’ll bring the food to you. Eating at one’s seat seems a little bit inconvenient since the train is moving & there aren’t tray tables, so I eventually go to the dining car (which is only the next car forward from ours), and order nasi goreng telur which is fried rice with an egg. (I’m pretty sure fried rice is the national dish of Indonesia, at least unofficially). I start talking to a guy in the dining car who speaks pretty good English. I tell him I’m in a band and we’re on tour, then lend him a CD because he wants to copy the songs onto his laptop.
It’s late afternoon. More text messages from Jessi — they have called the election. Obama has won! We’re all very stoked, but still cautiously so — after 8 years of Bush, we still can’t believe that this is really happening. Surely the Republicans will come up with some loophole, or there’ll be some Florida-type situation with hanging chads — but no. It’s really happening. President Barack Obama!!!
We pass through Yogyakarta, where we’ll be returning for tomorrow’s show, and then about half an hour later, we arrive in Solo where some folks are there to meet us. One of them is wearing an Obama t-shirt. (Obama is well-known here, as he spent part of his childhood in Jakarta, attending — gasp! — a madrassah, otherwise known as a “school”.)
We split up into two cars. A girl is driving the car I’m in — I’m asked to sit up front because I’m a woman and everybody else is male. Apparently it might look improper otherwise. She’s very quiet and reticent and I can’t think of much to say to her. Soon we arrive at the place we’ll be playing, a radio station called Star FM. OMG, there are a million kids here and they are all super friendly and sociable — it’s awesome, if a little overwhelming. (I’ll tell you one thing, social awkwardness does not seem to be a big thing in Indonesia. People are *very* friendly and easy to talk to. You make eye contact with somebody, even random people you see on the street, and chances are very high that you get a smile, a handshake, or even more. It’s like the anti-Russia.) We stash our gear in a little room adjacent to the studio, where there are some foam mattresses on the floor. Our roadie Mark immediately goes to sleep on one of them. I’m a little concerned because he’s been looking really pale and wiped out. Me, on the other hand, I’m feeling better since last night. Still tired but I think I’m going to pull through.
We meet some of the DJs/show organizers including a very outgoing girl named Tika, and a guy named Beton who is sooo incredibly excited to have us there that he peppers every other sentence with “Omigod!” Tika says Beton has been practicing his English for this occasion and shows us an English/Indonesian conversational book. Ryan is very interested in this, and quickly learns how to say “What about the mangoes?” Assisted by Ketu, we do a live radio interview with Beton. The studio is airconditioned but quickly becomes hot and stuffy as kids keep piling in, excited to watch us being interviewed.
After the interviews, somebody brings us some food — curried rice with tofu and tempeh. Just in the nick of time because I’m so ravenous I’m about to fall over. Because we’re eating and talking with people, I miss the first two bands, OVERKIDS and MY EVERLASTING DEAR, but manage to catch REMAIN SILENT and ENFORCED, two very good hardcore bands. Finally it’s our turn, we have a big crowd of excited kids. Mark has been comatose again, but revives to take pictures. It turns out to be a really fun show.
Afterwards we hang out and talk to tons more people. D has tried talking to the quiet girl but she won’t answer him. I go up and talk to her with no problems. Undoubtedly it’s some cultural thing where an unmarried (?) woman shouldn’t be talking to a man not related to her — but obviously not all of the women here abide by this. Maybe she comes from a stricter upbringing than most? At last I basically feel overwhelmed by people and have to hide for a bit, LOL! We go to sleep on the floor of the radio station — well at least until 5:30am when we’re woken up by the first DJ of the day, come in to do her R&B show.
We took a 2 hour van ride to Bandung. While travelling, and after arriving, we saw lots of interest in the US election and Obama, and many people asking if we voted for him. The media also runs Obama stories, and are very proud that Obama lived in Jakarta for a few years as a boy. We arrive at the venue, which is the promoter’s record store, and home. There’s a practice space on the 3rd floor where the show takes place. Heavy rain all afternoon and onto the evening, but still lots of kids on scooters show up. We’re playing with 4 other local bands, and everyone is excited to have us play. Our show is an the packed little room, with people standing on all side, and the temperature soaring. We play well, but the heat kills the bass amp during our last song. Still no usable internet — a small university nearby with free wifi takes 10 minutes to load a page, so again, no post/video/pictures uploaded yet. We slept in the record store that night.
Here’s a more detailed report on our show in Bandung, Indonesia. (Written by Kammy, after we got home)
I spent a mostly sleepless night after our show in Jakarta — first off, I was feeling sick & have to take some medicine. Finally that kicks in, but just as I’m about to drop off to sleep, Patrick’s phone (which we’re using as an alarm clock) goes off because some random person has decided to call him from the US, which is twelve hours behind us. Then I’m about to sleep again, but this time the neighborhood cats begin yowling as a prelude to mating. Argh! Then it’s time to wake up, pack up our gear quickly, and depart. Mandra has arranged for two cabs which will take us and our gear to the bus station, so we split up. I’m in one cab with D and Ketu, while Patrick, Ryan and Mark go with Mandra in the other cab. Apparently our cab has gotten the wrong directions, so we end up taking a circuitous route through a rather shee-shee section of town. I’m sort of worried we’ll miss our bus, but on the other hand it’s a nice opportunity for me to see that Jakarta isn’t all cramped barrios and tall skyscrapers. There are some crazy fancy mansions here with beautiful architecture and landscaping.
We arrive at the bus station, then wait around for a while. I feel feverish and generally lousy but I buy some water and some kind of bread with chocolate inside, and eat that. (It’s almost the same word in Indonesian: “coklat”. Their “c” is pronounced “ch”.) Our bus arrives — it’s a nice minibus with airconditioning — and we pile in. Only Ketu is going with us, so we say goodbye for now to Mandra.
The ride to Bandung is about 2 hours, passing through the countryside — lots of green rice paddy territory, then the tropically forested hills known as the Puncak Pass. The road is a nice, smoothly paved two-lane highway. I spend most of the time talking to Patrick about my writing and my ambitions to hook up with an agent, then he tells me about his ideas for a service to provide internet-delivered underground, cult and B-movies.
We arrive in Bandung — at only 2 million people, it’s much smaller than Jakarta, and being at elevation, it has cooler temperatures. The air is also less polluted than Jakarta. Somebody tells me it’s because they don’t have those two-stroke engine mini-cars here. We’re met by some of the local punks who give us a ride to the venue: the Jawara Hell Jammin Studio. (Most of the shows we’ll play on this tour will be in jamming studios, otherwise known as practice spaces.) We meet Methui, who runs the studio as well as the Full Speed Ahead Record Store in the same building. (He says the rent on the record store is 750,000 rupiah per month. For the jamming studio, it’s 1 million rupiah. That’s about US$75 and $100, respectively. To save money, he also lives in the record store, sleeping on a mattress behind the counter.) We go for a meal, and while we’re eating, there’s a torrential downpour. Yep, it sure is the rainy season.
After the rain subsides, we go in search of the internets. First we go to a nearby university where many students are hanging out in a courtyard area. We try to leach off the university’s wifi (D has brought a laptop with him), but it’s very slow. In search of a faster connection, we go to a nearby internet cafe located next to a political bookstore — Methui points out the Indonesian translations of Marx and Engels. Unfortunately, the internet here is even slower than at the university. I literally cannot even login to any of my email accounts.
Back to the record store. I’m feeling very feverish and sick & have to lie down on Methui’s mattress. The show has started but I’m too miserable to go upstairs and check out any of the other bands. We are scheduled to go on last. I’m actually afraid I might not be able to play tonight. That would be a first for me, having to cancel a show due to illness, and I really, really don’t want to let everybody down like that, especially not here where the kids are so incredibly amped to see us. Patrick and Ryan go out and buy some bananas and oranges. This helps a lot. Finally it’s time for us to play, and I feel like I’ll live. The practice studio is like a little hot box — unbelievably sweltering and sticky, and so small that the band sets up in the middle and the audience forms a ring around them. Fortunately, there is a tiny, struggling airconditioner directly behind me. I think I’m the only one who can feel it. We start playing and it’s just incredible — everybody is so into it! This is the best thing about playing these kind of “underground” shows in very close quarters — the intimacy. There’s no stage, there’s no performer/audience barrier, you’re either just inches away from everybody else, or else you’re actually touching, everybody’s moving together, breathing in the same hot air and sweating out the same hot salt, while the excitement and energy are about to blow the door out from the inside. Heh what can I say, it’s a fucking rush!
After we’re done playing, all the kids want to take pictures with us. Everybody keeps jumping into the pictures, and there’s always a cry of “One more! One more!” We all have to pose for 9 million shots with crowds of happy kids. Just like last night, it’s almost all guys here — just a couple of females in attendance. We hang out and talk to people. Somebody asks if Patrick and I are married to each other. What a concept! We tell ‘em I’m married to D, Patrick’s married to Ryan. LOL.
By the end of the evening I am feeling considerably less sick, maybe I sweated it out. We all go to sleep on the floor of the record store. Tomorrow we have a 9 hour train trip to Solo.
