The Journey Of A Music Concert In Indonesia

Illustration (Pixabay)

This article is still part of VOI's signature Series, "Disturbing Musical Events". Earlier, in the article "About Music Performances with Interesting Concepts and Values", we reviewed music concerts with unusual concepts. Now, in this article, we want to tell a story about music concert trips in Indonesia.

Music concerts in Indonesia have a long history. Not everything is beautiful, Indonesia has ups and downs in music festivals. But what is certain, good and bad results, must initially have the same goal; fill the thirst for music lovers. The musicians are given the freedom to convey their music, the audience is given the freedom to enjoy the music.

Going back decades or to be precise in 1975, Indonesia was visited by foreign bands for the first time. The concert was held 10 years after the events of 1965. Previously, bands from abroad were banned from entering Indonesia under the Soekarno government. Soekarno, who was anti-West and colonialism, prohibited popular music related to the West from entering the country because it was considered a new model of colonialism.

Deep Purple became the first overseas band to concert in Indonesia. The hard rock band successfully drugged 150 thousand spectators at the Senayan Stadium, which is now the GBK Stadium. The concert at the biggest stadium in Asia and the extraordinary reception from the Indonesian people, made the concert the most memorable for Deep Purple, considering that at that time the Indonesian people were facing political problems; the transition of the Old Order government to the New Order. The concert was opened by the Indonesian band, God Bless, which at that time had only been established for 2 years.

Unfortunately the concert was marred by rioting incidents. Many spectators forced their way to the stage in order to see Deep Purple more clearly. In addition, many people rushed in even though they did not buy tickets. There was even a riot between the audience and the security forces.

Quoted from the 23 March 1976 issue of Circus Magazine, the security forces fired rubber bullets. One of the members of Deep Purple, Jon Lord, even saw with his own eyes there was a dog dragging a young boy covered in blood. As a result of the riot, Senayan Stadium was heavily damaged.

In 1991, where Indonesia is not as free as now, the grandest and biggest concert for the first time in Indonesia was performed by Kantata Takwa. With a magnificent lighting arrangement and being held at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium (GBK), Jakarta, the music concert succeeded in gaining an audience of 150 thousand people, which at that time broke a record. The stadium's capacity is only 88 thousand people, as a result the concert was chaotic due to excess capacity. The spectators of the stands forced their way into the festival area and the rioting outside the stadium also forced their way into the concert area. However, the chaos did not eliminate the frenetic of the band's concert which consisted of Iwan Fals, Jockie Suprayoga, Sawung Jabo, and Setiawan Jodi.

Uniquely, the record for most viewers achieved by Kantata Takwa was defeated by Iwan Fals himself. In 2014, Iwan Fals held a concert at Monas entitled 'Voices for the Country'. The concert managed to get an audience of 200 thousand people and became a record for a music concert with the largest audience in Indonesia.

The birth of alternative music genre concerts

A music concert that encouraged the birth of alternative music in Indonesia was held in 1996. Organized by the promoter of Java Musikindo, the Jakarta Pop Alternative Festival was held. The concert was filled by Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, and Beastie Boys at Plaza Timur Senayan, Senayan. The music festival was also filled with Indonesian bands such as PAS Band, Netral, and Nugie.

The greatness of PAS Band at that time made the vocalist of Foo Fighters amazed. Dave Grohl did not hesitate to give this compliment to PAS Band.

"They are good, guitar players, drums, basses, let alone vocalists. They will become a big band," said Dave when interviewed backstage, quoted from Hai.

However, the concert was marred by rioting incidents. The audience who did not have tickets forced themselves to enter the concert area. The security forces immediately secured the condition with a guard dog. Luckily the concert was able to keep going and still made a good impression on the Foo Fighters.

Unfortunately at that time, not many moments were captured considering that at that time it was still far from the digital era. However, this does not reduce the value of the Jakarta Pop Alternative Festival. The festival is still remembered as the best alternative music concert in Indonesia. The greatness of the promoter at that time who collaborated with MTV Asia to invite the rising Foo Fighters was also a thumbs up.

Music concert tragedy

On the other hand, Indonesia also has a dark history in music concerts. In 2008, the metal band Beside held a concert at the Asia Afrika Culture Center or AACC Building, Bandung. The concert was held at the same time as the launching of Beside's first album entitled 'Against Ourselves'. Because of the high public interest, the building with a capacity of 500 people was filled with about a thousand people.

Unrest cannot be avoided. After the concert was over, the audience flocked to leave because they could not stand the density in the building. The unexpected happened, 11 people died from suffocation. This incident brought grief to Indonesian metal music lovers, until it became known as the AACC Tragedy. This tragedy also made restrictions on the audience for rock or metal concerts, which had a large crowd in Bandung, and some were even banned.

The tragedy gave birth to a documentary by Yolanda Christianti entitled 'Eargasm'. The 30-minute film features interviews with players of the Bandung music scheme and interviews with the band Beside. In the Eargasm film, the AACC tragedy became a turning point for the emergence of concert problems in Bandung. Not only discussing the AACC tragedy, the film also tells the impact of the tragedy on licensing and sponsorship issues.

Next Article: The Fate of a Musician When Mentas Canceled