When I was in college I joined a band called Disco in Disguise and the band was heavily influenced by the Manchester music scene, so when I heard about The Stone Roses performing in Jakarta, I felt highly obligated to see them.
It was the first concert I’ve gone to this year (as I’ve been very busy preparing for Supper Snapshots exhibitions), and what a great kick-off.
The blokes were still as awesome as ever as if they didn’t age (that much). They still played brilliantly, they had really good communication with the crowd, and the stage visuals were stunning. Plus, the crowd was amazingly great. They all sang along to the songs and seemed to have an absolutely jolly good time. Although unfortunately there were reports about some white trash who were throwing beers around and smashing people around them as if they were the coolest dudes on the planet.
I stood on the front left, far from the reportedly annoying dudes. Jammed in the middle of die-hard fans, it was a surreal experience. It reached its climax when the band started to play Fools’ Gold. OMG, I felt like everybody at the venue was lifted up to the psychedelic magenta sky.
I always have the magenta colour in my head every time I listen to The Stone Roses – mostly because “Fools’ Gold” and “I Wanna Be Adored” were the two videos that I often saw on MTV in my teens.
(..which explains the tone of my photos)
“I Wanna Be Adored” btw, was the opener. And I could hear everybody singing synchronised like a choir, like a roar. And then Ian started to make some monkey moves – after all, he is Ian “monkey” Brown! Now I could clearly see why he was called that way 😛
He also started to give away some of his tambourines, throwing them to the crowd. But they were not the common circular tambourines, they were the modern, stick tambourines. I took a closer look and realised that they were of Latin Percussions. I said to myself, “Oei, LP tambourines! I could use one for Skipping Salamander School!” 😉
But of course, I have never been tall enough to grab stuff thrown from the stage. Oh well…
For the next 1.5 hours, the band played all their anthems from their (only) two albums, the 1989 self-titled album, and Second Coming. “Ten Storey Love Songs”, “Sally Cinnamon”, “Waterfall”, “Made of Stone”, “Love Spreads”, “She Bangs the Drums” – you name it, they played it. But, if you wished for “Elephant Stone” – which was not featured in those two albums – no, they did not play that one.
The gig was a part of their reunion tour, as the four original members of The Stone Roses finally reformed in 2012. Loads of my friends actually went to Singapore last year to see their gig, being rather pessimistic that there would be no chance for them to perform in Jakarta. I think the band (in particular Ian Brown) was so impressed by the Indonesian crowd, realising that they had a huge fanbase here, and decided to drop by.
However, the concert had some flaws:
a) The sound system was really bad. I remembered condemning myself for forgetting to bring my earplugs, and having to ask for some tissues from a girl who stood next to me so I could stuff my ears and prevent further damage.
b) The venue was very muddy, and
c) There were humongous-size fans in front of the stage.
Anyway, it was an awesome concert nevertheless. And for those of you Manchester United fans, the night went even better when Ian took a Manchester United flag from the fans, unfurled it, and kissed it before he gave it back to the crowd. That evening, Manchester United won 2-0 against QPR at Old Trafford.
And it was closed with the perfectly appropriate “I Am The Ressurection”, affirming the band’s reunion.
The Stone Roses
Lapangan D Senayan
23.02.2013