I suppose I could begin the story from the time I found out they were coming to Indonesia, no? Ok, so here it goes...
I went on Twitter one day in late November and I came across to a tweet from Adrie Subono -the music promoter- who said that Maroon 5 will be coming to Indonesia. I was ecstatic and my friend Dini -who also follows him on Twitter- would really want to see them too. We decided to buy the early bird tickets at Adrie Subono's residence (which, you may already found out the whole story of how I got the tickets from this blog). This happened in December and the concert was going to be for April.. Haha..!! We waited patiently for 4 and 1/2 months till the day of the concert arrived. Aside from Maroon 5, I also did manage to buy Stone Temple Pilots ticket sometimes after that in January but I couldn't remember whether I bought it earlier than JB's ticket. ANyhu...
From Twitter, again I read that Justin Bieber might be coming to Jakarta. Well, I did hear the rumors about his coming sometimes in October of last year. I was confident when I told one school parent and her daughter that he was really coming but needed to find more information of when exactly he was going to come. Twitter told me to follow @marygopsstudios and so I did. Then @marygopsstudios announced that we could buy JB's early bird tickets early January. Wow! They also put out the price and it was not bad at all, and so I thought, "Hell yeah! Why not? Let's see this kid that everyone talks about". Around the same time, Dini and I were very keen to watch Duncan Sheik as well, and luckily both ticket sales were happening in the same place, which was at Plaza EX. Justin Bieber was going to perform in April and Duncan Sheik in February.
Plaza EX
The day was sometimes on a Saturday in mid January. I have just came back from a long break from school when I announced this Justin Bieber concert to some people who might have interest in watching him live. Some were very excited and some just laughed and said "You're not going to see him, right? C'mon, for real?". Whatevs.. I didn't reply. Well, long story short, one person from work was interested to purchase the ticket but only bought it for her daughter because she loves him so much. I said I'd take care of her since I'd be watching him on my own too. So the deal was made and my friend offered her help by asking her driver to Q in EX for the tickets. I agreed, and told her that I'd be there too with Dini since we planned to buy Duncan Sheik's tickets together on the same day. I guess I just realized that we were kind of addicted to concerts for that period of time.. Thinking it made me smile :) ... We ended up watching Duncan Sheik, Janet Jackson and Maroon 5 together.. Madness!
When I arrived in EX at 10am, I didn't think the Q was long because not a lot of people knew since not everybody is on Twitter. Wrong. Big Time. Came down from the escalator and knew it was going to be a long day -poor driver who had to wait since 7am!-, luckily I met him and gave him the money right about 15 minutes before he approached the ticket desk. I am saved! Not long after that Dini came and we bought Duncan's tickets at Hard Rock Cafe and we went out to see the rest of the Q for JB's tickets. OWWWWWW.... It wasn't a pretty sight! I found out that the line was pretty much screwed since the promoters -newcomers who refused to learn from the guru, Adrie Subono- didn't expect that much crowd for the early birds.. HELLO?!?!?! It's Justin Bieber, ok?? Like, his biggest fans in Asia are based in Indonesia?? It's preposterous if they don't know that ABGs find out things faster than Google. Anyway, people did get their tickets. About 1500 tickets were sold out in 5 hours and that was the end of the EX story. Wait until I tell you about the day of the concert...
Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber live in Sentul,Saturday, April 23, 2011. This was marked as Justin Bieber Day.. Actually, more like, Justin Bieber Weekend, since he came a day before that, exactly on Easter Friday. He didn't come by himself, he brought his mom, his possies and... Selena Gomez. OMG. Hilarious, but sweet. Fans were standing by at the Airport on Friday and around 3.30pm he came out from the airport with Selena -unnoticed by fans- and left in a rush. Beliebers cried and cried for they have been waiting since morning. Some from dawn as well! Poor kids.. They were mostly the ones who were not able to see the concert. At least they got the Biebs vibe that weekend.
That whole weekend I was on Twitter 24/7 just wanting to know where he was staying and what was he was doing. Nothing. Hotel was top secret -but doh! Everybody knows Ritz Carlton Kuningan is the best hideout hotel for artists- and Justin didn't tweet about his coming to Jakarta just yet. He did mention he was staying in a hotel with one floor reserved for him and crew and it had to be done that way for his own good. The next morning he tweeted about eating breakfast food all day and then... Show time!
Going to Sentul was really a pain in the arse! The traffic was fine until we reached the exit toll way. We patiently waited for about an hour to get near the venue. My friend brought the whole family to accompany her daughter and I. Husband was very understanding though I know he had to be around the venue for hours while waiting till his daughter and I are finished with the concert. Anyway, it felt like a field trip to me.
Justin didn't come out right away. The first opening act was Gruvi, this really unknown band -to me particularly- that sang 3 songs but surprisingly was sung along by the 10,000 Beliebers that were there that night. Then a DJ came out, don't remember his name but he played several club songs that again, surprisingly were sung really well by those kids. Amazing! Kids nowadays are really trained to get ready to party at clubs when they grow up. Not a good sign.
The countdown began ... And Justin came out!! Aaaaaahhhhh.... The screams were really getting on my nerves and ears. I thought to myself, "Oh God, what did I get into?" but I think my ears went numb as I heard fine for the next 90minutes.
Justin's first song was 'Love Me' and everyone were singing along. He wore this silvery jacket with glasses and cap, singing energetically to the crowd. Wow! I kinda felt the chills for a moment there.
When Justin did a couple of song acoustically, I was really impressed. He sang with his profound feelings and his voice was strong and clear. One moment he finished a song,the camera went up close, he looked straight to the camera and gave his funny smile and everyone went hay wired!! I started to really like that kid.
I felt the concert went for a long time because I did enjoy the night. Justin sang about 16 songs plus a drum solo and a slide show of his childhood which was totally adorable. This kid is a prodigious child. No doubt about that, and I think his mother knows that too. Doh! He interacted well with his fans and he was also a good entertainer. Joked here and there and everywhere.. Haha. My favorite songs of the night were "I'll be" -a song that he used to sing back in Stratford, Canada- and "Pray" -which he sang with full emotion-. I will never forget this moment. Justin Bieber is really a good performer. I don't care what people think, but I do know that he's for real, he could go really far if he keeps his circle healthy and positive. Thanks for coming to Jakarta, Sentul and Bali, Biebs! You were awesome :)
Maroon 5
Justin Bieber left for Australia from Bali on Monday and the next day Maroon 5 came. Like Justin, the band were welcomed by several fans that were waiting for them at the Airport. Adam Levine is not shy about tweeting his thoughts, so right after he left the airport, he tweeted "I think the fans mistook us for Justin Bieber!" .. Hahaha!! He so funny. Me so rolling my eyes.
The night of the press conference, Adam Levine was not feeling well. I could tell by the way he looked from pictures that were taken and he wasn't speaking much. Uh-oh. I thought he was going to sing awful on Wednesday! Took us 4 months of waiting for nothing?? Hell,no! He should be well by d-day. Later that night, Adam tweeted from his bedroom, "Jakarta mosquitoes are assh*les!" ... And boy, what reaction he got from Twitter! Some Indonesians are just so short minded or ignorant that they decided to fire back at him because they felt insulted. Since when do we love our mosquitoes anyway? If I could talk to the mosquitoes I would say "Go to hell!!!". Well, thankfully, I didn't think Adam noticed the reaction much because on the next day, he looked much better.
I left school with Dini with the school bus heading toward Senayan. We went to Istora by walking and when we reached the entrance to the parking area, we saw an Alphard car passing by with some guards trying to get other cars to move away. When I looked who was inside the car... I saw Adam Levine and his long haired guitarist friend !!! Ahhhh!!! I screamed, "Adaaammmm!! Adaaaammm!!".. I knew he could see us, or hear us, but he might think I was screaming "Mosquito hater!!!" and so maybe he was afraid of me. Oh well. I'd see you later, Adam.
Two hours later, Maroon 5 came out with a blast. The place was fully packed, you could see people's heads looking like ants in the Festival area.
They sang 'Misery' as their opening, and this time, we got to sit right in front of the stage so every single thing, from the stage, the sounds, the band .. Everything.. .Was seen in full frontal. Hell yeah!! We had such a great time. Maroon 5 too sang about 16 songs and Adam was loving our crowd so much, he said, "You are by far, the most amazing fans that we ever had!!" or something like that. Adam even tried to speak in Bahasa like, " Saya cinta kamu" or "Apa kabar?". Maroon 5 performed at their best and Adam's voice was so crisp and clear, it sounded like I was listening to the CD with huge stereo sound speakers. Excellent lighting and sound too. Thanks to Javamusikindo and Adrie Subono, every single concert they make are always almost perfect and very professional. Kudos!
When I came home that night and laid on my bed I thought to myself, "I have just witnessed the best performances ever in one week" and closed my eyes, smiling. Thank you God for letting me born to this world loving music. Thank you to my parents for being understanding of my passion -rolling eyes moment-, I don't know if there will ever be a moment like this so let me cherish it by saying, "Never say Never."
Peace out,
K.P. Bex
21 May 2011
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