Not so glorious return of rock and roll at JRP

Ary Hermawan ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 07/19/2008 11:02 AM  |  Entertainment

It is hard to believe, but it seems that jazz enthusiasts now outnumber rock fans in Jakarta.

A three-day rock festival, which was grandiosely named "The Jakarta Rock Parade" (JRP), on July 11-13, was a virtual failure, with a number of headliners canceling their appearances. The organizers of the event even had to cut the ticket price by 75 percent in a desperate attempt to fill the half-empty concert venue.

The JRP was initially aimed at counter-balancing the more prevalent jazz festivals in the capital, in particular the prestigious Java Jazz Festival, which draws hundreds of local and international performers and thousands of concertgoers annually.

However, the efforts made by the JRP organizers to stage the event proved to be virtually fruitless.

The first day of the JRP saw only a few concertgoers attend. When the ticket price was cut to attract more people on the last day of the festival, the crowd only grew slightly.

The performing rock bands sounded distant and quiet at the empty entrance of the Tennis Indoor Senayan where the festival was held.

"I changed my mind. I won't go to the festival. The bands that I'd like to watch canceled their shows. My friends did the same," an upset rock fan told The Jakarta Post after learning that Yeah Yeah Yeah was not coming to the festival.

Top local bands like Sore, Naif, Seringai and Rumah Sakit also made last-minute cancellations due to payment disagreements with the organizers. Flowers' guitarist Boris yelled on stage, "Thank you all the officials out there who have worked hard for this big event. I know you have not been paid, neither have we."

"There are things that are beyond our control," the concert director, Jimmy Johansyah, told journalists.

Some journalists and performing artists blamed the high ticket price -- Rp 200,000 (about $US20) per day -- for the lack of rock fans.

However, the organizer argued that for Rp 200,000 concertgoers could watch 40 different acts -- so they actually only paid Rp 5,000 (less than a dollar) for a single concert.

It was, they therefore insisted, relatively cheap. But the event still failed to lure visitors.

The JRP organizers ambitiously tried to bring more than 100 bands spanning four generations to the play at the concert -- no mean feat. As Jimmy himself said, the festival was "burdened with idealism".

Powerslaves, one of the country's biggest rock bands in the 1990s, expressed appreciation for this idealism.

"This event actually has no flaws and we really appreciate what the organizers have done. We just hope that next time they could lower the ticket price and make it affordable for our fans and other rock enthusiasts out there who did not attend this time," the band's vocalist, Heidy Ibrahim, said.

Powerslaves, who took the audience on a nostalgic journey through the 1990s by playing their popular ballads "Impian" (Dream), "Jika Kau Mengerti" (If You Understand) and "Malam Ini" (Tonight), is planning to make a comeback after a hiatus of several years, following Heidy's decision to leave the band.

"We are now preparing to release our new album," bassist Anwar Fatahillah said.

Heidy's high-pitched and husky voice was the most powerful element of the rock band when they hit the local music charts in the early 1990s. His return seemed to boost the spirits of the other band members. On stage he kept saying, "We are band jadul (an old band)" and "Thank you for applauding and remembering our songs."

However, the band maintained the reason they were upbeat about regaining their popularity was not the return of Heidy but their decision to add new sounds to their music.

"The spirit of the songs in the upcoming album will still be rock and roll, though," Anwar said.

While Powerslaves and Flowers represented the rock music of the 1990s, Andy Tielman, the surviving member of the legendary Tielman Brothers, Ucok AKA & Therapy Project and Gang Pegangsaan represented the rock music of the 1960s and 1970s. They kept the spirit of rock flaming during the festival, despite the small audience.

New bands like the Brandals and alternative band Efek Rumah Kaca were also able to rouse the audience on the last day, which was dominated by youngsters.

Although the outcome was not as glorious as the organizers had expected, the festival still seemed fit to be called a parade of the country's rock bands, as it at least succeeded in bringing old favorites back to the stage.

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