The 24th Prog Nite

The first time I received a short message at my cellular phone from my colleague prog head, and one of my gurus in appreciating prog music: Andy Julias, I was so inclined to spread the news to my other colleague prog heads especially those who never attended this regular event by Indonesian Progressive Society (IPS). So, my talented colleague prog head Rizal B Prasetijo (Ijal) was interested to attend the 24^th event of Progressive Nite. Tatan “Bonzo” Taufik was also interested to join us. So “and then there were three …” of us making an arrangement on how and where to meet. Through a conference call at approximately 2 PM on last Friday, February 8, we talked about ‘the plan for tonite’. It was almost canceled because Tatan could not join due to his duty to pick-up his wife at Pondok Indah Mall. Well, because kang Tatan is a prog head, finally he found out a solution to overcome the situation in order for the three of us to prog the world, yeaaaahhh!!! Here we go …. We agreed to meet at Masjid Al-Nuansamatik at Sarinah during Maghrib and we would do a salat maghrib berjamaah first and then we would eat together a great satay at Sabang. What masjid got to do with prog? Nothing – it’s just a meeting point and we believe that as a prog head and a rocker we got to surrender to God by doing salat on time and at the mosque. We agree to call this mosque as “Al-Nuansamatik” (rich with nuances and so memorable) because many times we made this place as meeting point in many of our previous meetings before we talked about prog rock. Yeah, you may call it as prog mosque you know ….

After we finished our dinner with sate kambing, sate ayam, and soto madura, we headed for venue with Kang Tatan’s Toyota Camry driven by Mr. Tarmin who seemed very familiar with Jakarta’s streets because he maneuvered the car skillfully. Thank you pak Tarmin who made sure that the three of us could reach the venue on time. Yeah!

 

Three Wonderful Performers

This is no exaggeration man! I mean it! I was so satisfied with all three main performers of last night’s event. They were: VUGA, TIKA and PENDULUM. The first two I had never heard the name – and in fact the music! – before, but Pendulum is a legendary prog band since Prog Fest 1 in 2001 who has evolved until its current line-up.

 

VUGA opened the event with heavy prog, so to say, music. The line up of the band was teenagers: Gea (vox), Okky (guitar), Indra (bass), Arief (keyboard) and an 11-year old boy energetic drummer Alif. I like the way they prepared themselves for the show: with ALL BLACK uniform like they were all armies of a kingdom, and the front lady Gea who attempted to make a two-way communications with the crowd which tend to be quiet. The music is basically metal with energetic performance even though the sound system was not that conducive to support their music. Regardless the sound quality, their performance was truly excellent and very attractive. Why do I say so? They played everything upside down! Arief played the keyboard upside-down, Okky played his guitar up-side down, and Indra provided his bass guitar lines upside-down – they’re all crazy! Two thumbs up for their stage act!

 

 

I then moved ahead to the stage and took a picture of the kid who played the drum (Alif). Oh my God … he played his sticks skillfully with FULL POWER! He did it brilliantly, really. I believe if Neal Peart was there last night, he would be stunned seeing Alif played like crazy. If Mike Portnoy was there, I believe Alif would be invited to record drum section of one song in the next Dream Theater album. I believe Bill Bruford would cry seeing Alif with jaw-dropping drumwork! Oh .. as a matter of rock memory, I remember vividly sometimes in 2002 there was a Led Zeppelin’s “legend of The Month” event at Waroeng Kemang (RIP) which featured a Nine-year old kid who played “Achilles Last Stand” wonderfully. Was he the same person? It seemed not .. but where is the kid now? Any of you who were there at Waroeng Kemang remember that?

 

VUGA played four songs (I think) including one song from Evanescence re-arranged by VUGA including a medley of Dream Theater’s Metropolis where Indra played his bas guitar solo so attractively. They really rocked man! I was so satisfied with the performance of VUGA. My colleague Ijal sent an SMS appreciating the performance this band by teenagers who have full potentials in prog rock scene. Bravo VUGA!

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TIKA appeared as second performer. While the band setting up the stage, the organizer conducted a very interesting program: “Air Guitar Competition” hosted by Nengah Rikon and Tom Malik. It’s an attractive program which I believe Rikon would elaborate later. While TIKA’s band was setting up their instruments for the show, I saw some familiar faces: Susan (In Memoriam bass player) brought up his acoustic bass like the one used by Tony Levin in King Crimson as well as Peter Gabriel’s concerts; and the accordion / synthesizer / guitar / sequencer player Iman (of Zeke and The Popo’s fame). Tika came up to the stage introducing herself to the crowd while questioning herself about her music: “Is our music quite prog, really?”. (Later I told to myself – when they performed the first song: YES, it’s prog!).

 

The music of TIKA was quite different than the first band whereby, as Ijal reckoned, the music has its roots on bossa nova jazz which I then agreed with his opinion. Tika’s vocal is very powerful where she could deliver low as well as high register notes with great pitch control. Not only that, the way she sang was so deeply rooted into what she felt inside her heart. There was a segment where she shout, sings and laugh loudly like crazy and the crowd gave big applause for her performance. It was a very attractive performance. Some people mentioned that the music of TIKA is something like Bjork who would do a concert in Jakarta in couple of days from now. The vocal quality of TIKA is somewhat a marriage between Paula Cole and Nikka Costa.

 

I find the music of TIKA is so peaceful and entertaining. As far as the sequence, I think putting TIKA as second performer after heavy music like VUGA was a great decision made by organizer because it provided some sort of break for the crowd. I was quite surprised that TIKA has recorded an album and would follow the second one soon. Unfortunately, there was no CD of her first album at the CD Counter – so I could not get one.

 

Overall, I am very happy with the performance of TIKA who was accompanied with other musicians: Luky (piano), Okky (drums), and No Bon (guitar). This morning I received a call from bang Ijal saying that he purchased me TIKA’s first CD (aksara label) – so I am excited now to have the CD with me soon). I think TIKA is having a promising music career especially by looking at her performance last night. Keep on going, TIKA!

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PENDULUM was the headliner, I believe, because they appeared as final performer last night. This time their line-up included Turi (guitar), Michael (drums), Resha (bass) and Danny (keyboard). This is a new line-up because from the last performance I did not see Danny on keyboard. Danny has been a regular performer in prog nite since Progressive Festival sometimes in 2001. I usually refer him as Danny Emerson because his keyboard work reminds me to Keith Emerson. I could not imagine how the music of “new” Pendulum would sound like with Danny joining the band. The first song by Pendulum was really a killer. The band is usually characterized by its jazz rock fusion music style but this time last night they made the crowd surprised with an unprecedented music we all never imagined before. Oh yeah, the music was quite heavy, with more of rock elements, in fast tempo and energetic stage performance. Turi played his guitar skillfully and the guitar seemed dominating the music and provided the overall melody, augmented by Danny’s keyboard work which sometimes they played intertwiningly.

 

Another key attraction of Pendulum is the dynamic drumwork by Michael who has been in the band since its inception. I think the key elements of Pendulum music are determined by the contribution of Michael with his drums and Turi with his guitar. I am not saying that the other members of the band do not contribute. Danny’s Kurzweil work is so stunning and dynamic and I could not believe that his style could match with Pendulum music. In fact, according to Bang Ijal, Resha’s bass guitar work was so brilliant especially when he played 1/32 at “Silent Operation”. Bang Ijal has always been giving an observation at subtleties level. I salute him on his sharp observation and review, while I am still putting “music is emotion” as my basic premise of any of my review. Well, I am not a musician, so I just put everything on emotion and drive. Judging from this alone, I was really satisfied by the performance of Pendulum last night. In fact, last night performance was the best that I have ever seen from Pendulum in concerts!

 

In the middle of the performance, Turi invited Rifky (previous Pendulum’s guitar player) to come on stage. Pendulum performed their legendary “Turangga” with double guitar: Turi and Rifky. Oh, what a fabulous performance! Two thums up for Rifky and Turi! Keep on proggin’ guys!! By the way, at the last session of their performance, Danny provided a cover of Rick Wakeman’s “Gone but Forgotten” wonderfully.

Complete PENDULUM setlist: 1. Jagad Ratoe 1 & 2 / 3. Gelisah / 4. Flying Garden / 5. Turangga / 6. Magic Mirror / 7. Fantastic War / 8. Silent Operation / 9. Solo Keyboard / 10. Rain Marching / 11. Final Enchored.

 

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SUMMARY

 

The 24^th Prog Nite by IPS was very memorable for me and also my colleagues Kang Tatan and Bang Ijal, and I believe the rest of the crowd was all enjoying the event. I have no major complaint on the overall organization of the event. It’s probably the CD Counter is not as complete as it used to be. But I was very happy purchasing two albums of Krakatau and also an album by Kande that I have not spun the CD yet. For next time, it should be noted that the sound quality for first performer has always been not good at all. Lucky that starting from TIKA onwards the quality improved significantly. I am very happy because Bang Ijal who attended the Prog Nite for the first time last night is very happy attending the event. In fact, the next day he went to aksara to find TIKA CD. Unfortunately, he could not find Pendulum CD yet. Keep on proggin’ ..!

 

Peace on earth and mercy mild – GW

Jakarta, February 9, 2008