Blog Besar Jakarta, Day 4 - 10th September 2007

Assalamualaikum and Greetings,

Sorry for the delay, we were really tied up with work. Here's the installment for the last day in Jakarta.

We woke up early that day, had breakfast, and scoured Blok M area for more shopping. Requested the hotel to call in an Innova to send us the airport.

We left for the airport at about 1 pm, checked in, and boarded the plane at about 6.30 pm. Reached Changi at about 9.00 pm, took MRT all the way to Bugis, and took a bus to Johor Bahru. Each of us reached home at about midnight, except Ajax who only managed to get home at about 3.00 am.

It was a tiring but eventful journey, and we would like to thank Bob Agigi for the opportunity, Robin for the hospitality, and Damokis, Negation, Torture Incident, Noxa, Finish Irene, After All Over, Suaka, Evacuate Cowboys, Invictus, Bestiality, and Inlander for putting up such a good show onstage!

Cheers, and till next time!

Blog Besar Jakarta, Day 3 - 9th September 2007

Assalamualaikum and Greetings,

We woke up early that morning, and had breakfast, together with Negation. We took photos and discussed in depth about a lot of stuff.

Robin text messaged us that he would be treating us lunch, and by 12 noon, he arrived at the hotel. By then, all of Damokis had also woken up. All of us checked out from the hotel, and thanks to the hotel, we were allowed to put all our luggage for a little while more in Torture Incident's room while we set out for lunch.

Robin led us on a mini jogathon to a not-so-nearby restaurant. It was a seafood restaurant, and it was jammed packed on a Sunday afternoon! All of us were sweaty and hungry by then and so we quickly walked in and waited to be seated. Bob Agigi and Madie Negation went to check on Torture Incident as they were not together with us in the initial hiking session. Shortly afterwards, Ratna & fiance, Deck & partner, and Ayen showed up, and we went in. We got seated and Robin placed orders. We had a very nice lunch of rice, fishes, and squids, and lots of coconut drink and Tehbotol Sosro. Thank you very much Robin, for everything!

We took some more photos in the restaurant after we finished lunch, and hiked back to the hotel. From there, we caught some cabs to Hotel Melawai, near Blok M. Tried to check in, but we were told that all rooms were fully booked. Haris, Zaihas, and Muhairi walked for about 15 minutes to Hotel Losari, only to find Negation already there. We were told that there was a short cut from Hotel Losari to Hotel Melawai which only took 5 minutes on foot. Zaihas got whacked by Haris and Muhairi for attempting to bring them keliling padang (around the field)!

We walked back to Hotel Melawai to alert the rest of the people about Losari having vacancies, and suddenly we were told that there were rooms to check in. Things just got lucky, so we all checked in. Torture will be leaving for Malaysia that night, Negation and Wynken Delirium were due to leave on 10-Sept, and Damokis was to go back to Malaysia on 11-Sept.

We took a little bit of rest in our respective hotel rooms, and met up at Blok M Plaza to do some shopping. There were lots of good stuff around, too bad we did not have much money to spend :( Wynken Delirium completed the shopping session that afternoon by having a good afternoon meal of Pecel Lele at a stall nearby.

Robin let us know that he would be bringing us out for dinner at about 8.00 pm. So we went back to the hotel at about 7.00 pm, bathed, prayed, and rested a little bit. By 8.00 pm, almost everyone was down at the hotel lobby, and Robin was already waiting for us. We walked a little bit to the stall which we ate dinner when we first arrived. It was a welcome return, with Bob Damokis the vocalist resuming his duty of forwarding numerous song requests to our favorite busker there. We swore that he completed at least 2 albums worth of Ebiet G Ade's songs!

Ajax who earlier had grunted loudly about not being able to have Bakso Urat was finally silenced by 2 bowls of delicious Bakso Urat. He did comment that the meatballs were not too big like he wanted them to be, but he swallowed all the bowls' content anyways. Negation and Haris had a good talk on serious issues. Zaihas could only chip in once in a while as he had lost most of his voice. Poor fellow.

We headed back to our hotel room at about midnight. Wynken Delirium had a good funny-tribal-pillow-and-mattress-hit-by-drumsticks jamming session before going to sleep. Some good audio tracks were recorded and hopefully snippets of the jam will be mixed together as part of the upcoming debut album.

Day 4 blog coming up soon.

Blog Besar Jakarta, Day 2 - 8th September 2007

Assalamualaikum and Greetings,

Let's continue from where we left.

We slept to the machine gun tone of Fad's snores that morning. We woke up at about 7.00 am, washed ourselves, and had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. We went out to a nearby cellular phone stall to purchase new SIM cards for Ajax and Shah. It was a beautiful morning, slightly cloudly and it looked like it rained earlier that morning.

Received a text message from Robin about picking us up, and by 8.30 am he was already at the hotel with the van, together with Panji. We exchanged greetings and got to know each other better. We left the earliest to Rossi Music Hall, the venue of the gig, and arrived at 9.00 am. The staff were still setting up the equipment when we arrived.

Did our soundcheck session, and relaxed a little bit. By 10.00 am Damokis and Torture Incident arrived and did their soundchecks. At about 11.00 am Negation arrived, with luggage and all, fresh from the airport. They did their soundcheck too. Suaka was next, and guess what? They came with Baron (ex-Gigi guitarist) as soundman and Marcell (yes, that famous RnB singer Marcell) on drums!

Met up with Frank Yudo from Grindbuto and also Rully and Gun from Suaka. Hung out a bit with all the guys present. Overall, it was a cheery atmosphere, with handshakes, smiles, and laughs being exchanged between all those present. We passed some copies of our EP to our newly found friends, and Zaihas passed WAV files of the 2 tracks off our EP to Gun (Suaka) for him to test out the mastering on those tracks. Gun is with Stonedeaf Music, and they did a good job on Suaka and Noxa's recent releases. Ajax and Fad had fun posing for photoshots with Marcell. We also had good fun talking to Frank about Diponegoro (may Allah bless him for fighting the Dutch colonials), magic men, and meditation.

Soon after, Robin called all the bands and handed out security bracelets to distinguish the bands from the gig goers. It was an orange plastic based bracelet with "MaxxNoiseFest 1 VIP" printed on it- cool stuff!

Wynken Delirium, Damokis, and Torture Incident went out to have a satisfying meal at a Warteg (Warung Tegal or rice with dishes stall- for those who wonder what that mean). Prices were cheap, and helpings were many. Warteg lady was smiling from ear to ear- all of a sudden her stall was stuffed in all directions by hungry band members, that certainly meant good money!

Zaihas, Fad, Ajax, and Harris left for the hotel at 1 pm to bathe, pray, and rest. Shah hung around to check out the remainder of the bands doing soundcheck. We later heard from Shah that Suaka's soundcheck was extra long and that the sound was extra cool.

We went back to the gig venue at about 4 pm, and very soon after that Robin approached each band to confirm the performing sequence. Wynken played fourth, after Torture Incident, and before Damokis.

Soon after, the show started. We had these 2 really sexy, good-looking lady DJs announcing the name of the bands and the sponsors.

The first band was Finish Irene. They were really young, but their playing skill was something else. Their music was a mixture of metalcore and emo, powerfully and blazingly delivered. The whole Malaysian contingent was in front, banging to their music.

Next was After All Over. Another good band, there were marked Pantera and NYHC influence in their music and presentation. The band had tattoos all over them.

And here came the third band- Torture Incident. Ayen was on guitars, Deck was on drums, and Ratna on throats. They played as a three-piece since their bassist left. Ayen did a good thing by playing through 2 amplifiers and using quite a low set of tunings- there was almost no need for a bassist. Deck's drumming was consistent, and Ratna gave her best growls and shrieks to the amazement of all those who were present- "Selamat Datang, Selamat Datang, Selamat Datang...". That has got to be the heaviest welcoming song ever heard!

We were next. We played a mixture of originals and cover. We had Orgasmatron (Motorhead), Soul Sacrifice (Cathedral), NIB (Black Sabbath), and Refuse/Resist (Sepultura) as covers, and we played Jingling Nona, The Song That's Not Supposed To Be, and Gudmunsdottir. Crowd was really cool and supportive, and they sang and banged their heads to our music, and we almost lost our minds playing the songs in the most sludgy and fuzzed out manner we could think of.

Next, we had Damokis. They started their set with a dastardly cover of Dewa19's Sedang Ingin Bercinta, which resulted in a majority of us reeling in laughter! They played about 18 songs, with a cover of Groinchurn.There was this burly vocalist Bob flying all across the stage, there was guitarist Bob who was playing it super cool, Wan the other guitarist with his super whammy squeals, Muhairi the bassist with the occasional backing vocals, and Fauzi the super drummer. This is the peak of humorous grindcore, a must-see live act! Wan's effects pedal gave way in the middle of performance, but he quickly switched to direct amp gain for overdrive.

Negation was next. Super tight and powerful outfit. Frontman Madec was scaringly effective as a vocalist, you should see his eyes. His eyes! Guitarist Madie was as meditative as ever, coaxing violent noises from his Kramer. Yore the bassist unfurled signature Negation riffs in the coolest manner we have ever seen. Hezry the drummer is another cool fella. That cannot be said about his drumming- blisteringly tight and snappy! Somewhere around this time, Harris was suddenly grabbed by Bob the guitarist and was reluctantly dragged and used to mop the mosh pit!

Next was Bestiality, a hardcore outfit. Very NYHC, they reminded us a lot of Victory Records bands. The drummer used trigger to back up his drum pedals. There was a power failure in the middle of their set, but that did not deter them from performing the best they could.

Inlander came up next. Super crazy punk rock crews! We had fun singing to old punk tunes and people were pogo-ing like crazy all over the place! Zaihas lost his voice over the course of the next few days because of the song "Attitude", and Shah clapped his feet to "Die Die My Darling"!

Invictus was next. Really awesome progressive metal band! They were reduced to a three-piece as their vocalist was ill, but still, they took our breath away with their super-complicated song arrangement and skill. This was easily the best-skilled band in the whole bill! They played a fiery mix of progressive metal. All three members are suitably skilled, with virtuoso skills like bass tapping executed and displayed relaxingly!

Next we had Noxa - super heavy grindcore outfit. They were by far the tightest unit we saw that night. They also did a grindcore cover of Sepultura's Troop Of Doom- heavy! Noxa ended the show with a surprise birthday party for Robin, Noxa's druumer. The DJs brought a cake and Robin blew the candlelights off, and he wished that all the bands with stay united and be together. Let's pray for that wish to come true.

Next was Evacuate Cowboys. Cool relaxed dudes, but what they played was something else. Tool and A Perfect Circle came to mind. Some of us immediately rose from the back and went to the front when the first few notes of that Tool song (we forgot the title, we think it was from Tool's Undertow album). Their original compositions were as suitably complex and cool too.

The last band on the bill was Suaka, we only managed to catch about 3 songs before all Malaysian bands were called upon to depart the venue for security and safety reasons. Suaka played an interesting mix of heavy metal and Indonesian traditional music, and their live sound was arguably the best of all the bands that played that night, thanks to Mr Baron on the mixer.

After the show, Torture and Negation left straight for the hotel, however, Damokis and Wynken Delirium decided to drop by to have Nasgor (Nasi Goreng) on the way. We arrived at the hotel at about 12 midnight, took bath, and slept.

More coming up on Day 3 :)

Blog Besar Jakarta, Day 1 - 7th September 2007

Assalamualaikum and Greetings,

Folks, sorry it took a while to update our blogspace. We had just came back from a monstrously fun show in Jakarta on 8th Sept 2007, and we are glad that the trip began and ended well, with lots of new friends made. I will write up the blogs, one day at a time as not to bore you guys. Let's start with Day 1 - 7th September 2007.

All of Wynken Delirium gathered in Larkin bus station at 11.00 am together with Damokis. We waited for a while for Bob (Damokis' vocalist) while he rushed home to get his wife's passport, and we boarded the bus at about 12 noon.

We travelled to Eunos to have a super-grindcore-lightning-fast lunch (mucho thanks to Bob - Damokis' guitarist - and family!), and from there took cabs to Changi Airport. We checked in at about 4.00 pm, and board the plane at about 4.55 pm. All went smoothly according to schedule. We took Lufthansa.

In the plane, we all ended up sitting on the few last rows of seats located at the tail end of the plane. It was here that funny incidents started to happen.

Ajax wondered why his seat was marked 54E and Zaihas' was 54D, and wanted his seat number to be the same as Zaihas'. Zaihas was not willing to have Ajax sit on him through the flight- if that was what he wanted!

Muhairi (Damokis' bassist) suddenly panicked- he did not know how to open the seat belt he had just fastened!

Wan (Damokis' guitarist) sat in someone else's place and practically shoo-ed the seat owner and his girlfriend to the other side!

Midway through the flight, we were served croissant and cheese. It was exceptionally yummy, and Fad was already eyeing a lady who did not eat her meal to see if he could secure that other croissant and cheese too. He was also wondering if the croissant and cheese tasted better with chilli sauce.

Ajax came to the rescue. As he waved his pack of wet towel (which looked like an extra large pack of condiment), he innocently said, "Here's the chilli sauce you need". The rest of the people laughed like crazy!

Then a couple of people stood up to go to the restroom which was located very near where we were seated. Ajax was surprised to know that actually planes have restrooms inside them. Another round of giggles ensued!

As we were nearing Jakarta, the plane hit a few air pockets, and this caused the plane (especially the tail, where we were seated) to tremble. It was a bit unnerving, and most of the passengers chose to keep quiet. Suddenly Bob (Damokis' vocalist) exclaimed loudly, "Roller Coaster!" and we all laughed like nutters!

We reached Soekarno-Hatta Airport at about 5.35 pm WIB (or 6.35 pm Malaysian time). Shah managed to grab his guitar which was almost placed in the "Lost And Found" section of the airport- phew! Robin (Noxa's drummer) was already waiting at the nearby McDonald's and proceeded to assist us to put our luggage into the waiting van.

We snailpaced through Jakarta's heavy work evening traffic and reached Blok M about 3 hours later, tired and hungry. Harris had hot bum from sitting on top of the van engine too long, while Zaihas and Bob (Damokis' vocalist) ended up talking to each other in Pingu language from the long journey. Fad, surprisingly, had a good snore session through it all.

The van stopped by Blok M, and there was this row of stalls in which Robin invited us to drop by and have our dinner- thanks Robin! We had a good meal, and the bands discovered the good Tehbotol Sosro - we drank like 30 bottles!

We were then sent to Hotel Wisata Indah in Kemang, and we offloaded our stuff into our respective hotel rooms. We bathed, changed, prayed, and slept. Uhm, more like, we tried to sleep. Suddenly there were these really loud splashes of water from the nearby swimming pool. We thought we heard whales. No, they were Muhairi, Bob, Wan, and Bobby, swimming around happily way past midnight!

Zaihas and Ajax took the time to pack the merchandise we brought with us and also cut the stickers we brought to size. We passed some stuff to Damokis, and we had a good night's sleep.