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Slank stages Indonesia's highest-ever concert, 4.29 km above sea level
The performance was part of an Independence Day celebration organized by PT Freeport Indonesia (PT FI), which operates the Grasberg mine and is majority-owned by the government.
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Lead singer of rock band Slank Akhadi “Kaka” Wira Satriaji (left) performs at the Grasberg mine in Mimika, Central Papua, on Aug. 16, 2023. (PT FI/-)
I
ndonesian rock band Slank broke the national record for the highest-altitude musical performance on Wednesday with a concert next to a decommissioned open-pit copper mine at the Grasberg site in central Papua.
The performance, 4,285 meters above sea level, was part of an Independence Day celebration organized by PT Freeport Indonesia (PT FI), which operates the Grasberg mine and is majority-owned by the government.
The band performed a number of its hits, including "Terlalu Manis", "Balikin" and "Orkes Sakit Hati", as well patriotic tunes "Garuda Pancasila" and "Indonesia Tanah Air Beta", in front of miners on break from their work in an underground mine below the Grasberg open pit.
Slank’s road crew provided supplemental oxygen masks for drummer Bimo Setiawan Almachzumi, better known as Bimbim, and bass player Ivan “Ivanka” Kurniawan Arifin, as a precaution against altitude sickness.
And with the temperature at the site at 8 degrees Celsius, the band performed in a temperature-controlled structure built specifically for the concert.
Lead singer Akhadi “Kaka” Wira Satriaji, who declined to use a breathing aid during the performance, led a singalong with the crowd, engaged in stage banter and hit the high notes during a rendition of "We Will Rock You" performed with PT FI CEO Tony Wenas. Tony was a keyboardist in the 1980s progressive pop band Simfoni, which he founded with pop singer and composer Fariz R.M.
