A gig to kick off the year

Antara/Agus ApriyantoIt was probably not the best concert we’ve seen in Jakarta in the past few months. But Foster the People showed the city that they can draw a crowd.

For Foster the People, playing Jakarta was probably a good kick-off for 2012. The Los Angeles-based band flew a long way to the east to meet people they didn’t think existed when tabulating their fans.

The gig in Jakarta’s Tennis Indoor Senayan building was living proof of how good this band is in doing their thing on stage. With only one album in hand, surely there were no high expectations.

Foster the People has released only 1 album, Torches, in 2011. But the buzz they created in Southeast Asia has been quite powerful over the past few months. They sold a lot of records and instantly became a local favorite with radio airplay everywhere.

This leg of their tour started in Jakarta and then moved to sold-out gigs in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, followed by a trip to Japan. The concert in Jakarta began around 8:15 p.m. – a side effect of the heavy rains that have been the city’s best friend these last weeks. Teenagers were dominant in the crowd, thanks to the radio.

The band consists of Mark Pontius on drums, Cubbie Fink on bass and keyboards and frontman Mark Foster on vocal, guitar and keyboards. They were accompanied by Sean Cimino on guitar and keyboards and Isom Innis on keyboards and percussion.

The five men on stage seemed to exude energy in answer to the enthusiastic crowd.

During the show, only drummer Mark Pontius stayed fixed the spot. The other four actively moved around the stage, changing instruments. During a few songs, the instruments played were even quite similar: four keyboards and one drums.

The concert started with back-to-back songs played without a single word of greeting. But hey, the crowd wasn’t looking for a speech; they wanted songs, which they gladly received. When he did speak, the first few sentences from Foster’s mouth were sweet indeed; as he spoke in Indonesian.

“Terima kasih, Jakarta! We’re really excited to kick off 2012 here,” he said.

The words drove the crowd to cheers. It was a gentle way to open, especially for a newbie.

With an album with five singles, Foster the People’s task was actually not that hard. People have already fallen in love with most of their catchy tunes. They were only waiting for each song to be performed.

From the opener, “Houdini”, to slow songs like “Waste”, the crowd was on the band’s side, guarding the touchline by singing each word along with Foster and his high-pitched voice.

“How you guys doing? This is our first time to be on the other side of the world. It’s wonderful, it’s beautiful, it’s amazing,” Foster gushed prior to “Waste”.

While Foster may not yet be any good in delivering inter-song speeches, his voice is superb. Only time will tell if he can turn into a good front man on stage.

Overall, the concert was good, especially when the band covered Weezer’s “Say It Aint So” in the final half of the concert.

“It’s my favorite song,” Foster said in his intro. The surprise element was quite successful in adding another color to the concert.

After that, opening track from the album, “Helena Beat” was played and it was supposed to be the last song of the set. It wasn’t, of course: The band’s biggest hit, “Pumped Up Kicks”, hadn’t been played.

Chants were heard soon after the band left the stage. It took them around 5 minutes before making a U-turn back to the stage, playing another three songs with “Pumped Up Kicks” closing the show.

They managed to get everyone in the house dancing during the finish.

The complete package was good enough, but few things need remembering. A few people thought that the sound system at Tennis Indoor Senayan was less than OK.

“I moved down to festival because I couldn’t hear what Foster was singing from the VIP section,” said concertgoer Ina Nurulita.

The band’s stage act, however, pushed technical issues aside. Other the other hand, their lighting show was top-class. In total, Foster the People played 13 songs -definitely not enough for this crowd to call it extraordinary. But everyone was quite happy as they left Tennis Indoor Senayan.