TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
The Teaches of Peaches, a class of its own
From dressing as a monster-like duster to a skimpy angel, the controversial electro-clash singer and performer Peaches rocked Jakarta’s disco-loving crowd last weekend, telling boys to shake their “d*cks” and girls to shake their “t*ts”
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
F
rom dressing as a monster-like duster to a skimpy angel, the controversial electro-clash singer and performer Peaches rocked Jakarta’s disco-loving crowd last weekend, telling boys to shake their “d*cks” and girls to shake their “t*ts”.
The influential Canadian singer, renowned for her edgy electronic tunes and her sexually explicit gender-bending lyrics, performed in the wee hours of Saturday to partygoers at Indochine nightclub in the FX Lifestyle Center in Sudirman, South Jakarta.
No limits: Peaches wears another of her signature outfits, a black leotard with a print of an image of a giant hand wearing a skull ring, with its middle finger pointing to her crotch. JP/Will Mansell
Before her arrival, she promised the Jakarta crowd “a one-woman extravagance, with 500 percent energy coming from me and fun, fun, fun!” And fun did they get.
The crowd danced, sang along and eagerly complied with the former elementary school teacher turned singer’s demands. When the petite 41-year old jumped into the mosh pit, the audience held her, and helped her crowd-surf back to the stage. The crowd also let her step on their hands as she walked on top them, while singing.
Event organizer Ashram sponsored by watch producer Vestal brought the singer to the capital, as part of her Spring Asia tour after releasing her latest and best-selling album I Feel Cream. Organizers’ slight concern about Peaches’ sexually charged song lyrics attracting opposition from religious groups went unproven as she flowingly rocked the club.
True to her non-conforming dress style that mixes crass-glam and ugly beautiful, Peaches started the night singing her beat-filled single Mud from her latest album under a light brown fluff-filled garb, which covered her entire body. In the next song, she took off her head cover, showing her Mohawk-mullet-style black and blond hair.
She sung her attitude-filled single Billionaire in a pink costume with giant shoulder pads. American hip-hop artist Shunda K’s rapping image was projected on a screen during the song.
Later in the show, Peaches changed into yet another of her signature outfits, a black leotard with a print of an image of a giant hand wearing a skull ring, with its middle finger pointing to her crotch. Further still into the show, she changed into a white leotard, her crotch lit up with a green laser light.
Apart from two dancers, wearing giant blond wigs that covered their heads at the start of the show, peaches had the stage to herself, running here and there, surfing onto the crowd and climbing back on stage.
She sang most of the songs on her latest album I Feel Cream, which music critics deem shows her musical evolution, while staying true to her sexual revolution trademark. In her latest album, Peaches brought the likes of Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford as well as Soulwax, Digitalism, Shapemod and Drums of Death as her producers.
Mingling with the crowd: Peaches, renowned for her edgy electronic tunes, crowd surfs in the wee hours of Saturday at her concert in the Indochine nightclub in the FX Lifestyle Center in Sudirman, South Jakarta. JP/Ricky Yudhistira
The crowd danced to her singing and sang along in her song F*ck the pain away, which starts with the infamous s*cking on my t*tties-line — from her debut album Teaches of Peaches that gave her recognition in the electro scene.
Ashram manager Jitin Kewalramani said there was more to Peaches than her act as she was fighting for gender rights and sexual freedom. Peaches started in the electro scene with her overtly sexual lyrics more than a decade ago. Since then, she has released Fatherf*cker and Impeach My Bush.
In an email to The Jakarta Post prior to her show, Merrill Nisker — better known as Peaches – said from Teaches of Peaches to I Feel Cream, her music had morphed “from an intimate bedroom recording experience to a public revolution”.
A similar extravagant style of dressing can be seen in the younger generation of singers such as Lady Gaga. Pop singers Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears claim Peaches has influenced them. Meanwhile, Peaches has reportedly said she had seen her influence on solo women artists such as M.I.A., Little Boots and La Roux.
Nisker, who spent a brief time in Berlin in early 2000, said that returning to Toronto from Berlin had inspired her to focus on what she really wanted to say and express in her music.
She also had time to reflect on the kind of approach she wanted to take going forward, which manifested itself in very direct self-production, with minimal sounds, and “obviously direct lyrical content”.
Nisker said her gender-bending and authoritative lyrics were definitely inspired by Riot Grrrl, a 1990s underground feminist punk movement, characterized by its angry tone.
“But, I wanted to move forward from the ability to express my opinion as an emancipated woman without sounding angry,” she wrote.
“I find what I do is more direct and I tend to use humor as a way for the listener to feel comfortable with the lyrical content and then sing along and not even realize that they’re actually singing along with my point of view. I think Riot Grrrl was more abrasive, but a very necessary anger. Because as we know, Johnny Lydon always said, ‘Anger is an energy’,” she wrote, referring to the vocalist of the 1970s Sex Pistols band.
