 |
| Adam (Humiliation vocalist) and John Yoedi during the festival which was cancelled by the police @ Soreang, 1 April 2012. Humiliation played their set and the police closed the show just as Outright was ready to start performing. |
Only a few minutes later we all watched in
amazement as young fans in OUTRIGHT tee-shirts swarmed out of the side entrance
all with very sad looks on their faces. The word passed around at lightning
speed that the local police had cancelled the rest of the festival. A few
policemen could be seen here and there within the compound and a macho police
voice sounded over a megaphone. We congregated under the side entrance porch
for a long time as people did not want to disperse quickly.
As we climbed uphill and the rain grew harder and harder, Bobby Rock (Bleeding Corpse vocalist) had a difficult time controlling the van amidst the traffic. He used a dry cloth to wipe the inside of the windscreen on his side while I wiped the windscreen on the passenger’s side of the van with the same cloth. Bobby did very well to stay calm and to drive carefully and skillfully. We finally turned right into the venue’s car park at around 2.30pm or 3pm. The rain was still very heavy and Bobby parked the van close to the back entrance of the venue. Although many high-school aged metalheads ran past the front of the van towards the back entrance we were all older and wiser and we chose to stay in the van until the rain lessened. A POISON song was playing from Bobby’s homemade mp3 collection. I thought the song was “Every Rose has its Thorn” but I realized it was not this song because the familiar chorus never came! [Author’s note: The actual song was “Something to believe in”.]
As we climbed uphill and the rain grew harder and harder, Bobby Rock (Bleeding Corpse vocalist) had a difficult time controlling the van amidst the traffic. He used a dry cloth to wipe the inside of the windscreen on his side while I wiped the windscreen on the passenger’s side of the van with the same cloth. Bobby did very well to stay calm and to drive carefully and skillfully. We finally turned right into the venue’s car park at around 2.30pm or 3pm. The rain was still very heavy and Bobby parked the van close to the back entrance of the venue. Although many high-school aged metalheads ran past the front of the van towards the back entrance we were all older and wiser and we chose to stay in the van until the rain lessened. A POISON song was playing from Bobby’s homemade mp3 collection. I thought the song was “Every Rose has its Thorn” but I realized it was not this song because the familiar chorus never came! [Author’s note: The actual song was “Something to believe in”.]
After a fifteen minute wait, and with the rain still
heavy, we [Bobby Rock, Popo Demons Damn, John Yoedi, and me, Kieran James] all made a quick dash to the back entrance of the venue. The porch
was full of high-school age metalheads and punks queuing to enter the venue. We
followed Bobby and Popo inside walking in single file. As they were able to
call us “special guests” we did not need to pay an entry fee. We walked through
the crowd to a back stairway which led to a dressing room on the second level
about eight metres wide and three metres deep. This room had windows looking
out on to the venue below. The room had doors on each side and on the far side
just outside the room itself there were three chairs on the stairs’ landing
looking out over the hall below. When we arrived a band was playing, then there
was a break, and then another band played. There was a stage at the opposite
end. The hall itself was around 25 to 30 metres long and around eight to ten
metres wide. It was hot inside with no fans or air-conditioning. The crowd was
around 200 to 400 people, mostly of high-school age. Punks made up nearly 20%
of the crowd with metalheads making up the other 80%. The punks were there to
see Bandung hardcore band OUTRIGHT and Bandung skate-punk band TCUKIMAY at this
mixed-genre festival.
 |
| Adam's mother, Adam, Kieran James |
John and I took seats on the stairs’ landing overlooking
the hall while Popo, Bobby, and Dimas disappeared in order to prepare for the
DEMONS DAMN performance. Adam [the HUMILIATION vocalist], a cheerful, young,
handsome guy in white tee-shirt, came to greet us. He has thick, wavy but short
hair and I mistook him for Deank [the bassist for DESPAIR]. Adam was very happy
that Busuk Webzine had sponsored his band for its festival appearance. I felt
much rewarded to see Adam and his mother’s happiness and their warmth towards
John and me. I thought that sponsoring a young band’s show was an excellent way
to build up and encourage death-metal musicians in Indonesia and contribute to
the building of the scene there. As it turned out, the local police cancelled
the festival before HUMILIATION got to play its set. For a time Adam was very
angry and disappointed that HUMILIATION could not play its set especially
because John and I had travelled a long way for the festival. However, we do
not at all regret sponsoring HUMILIATION. As I posted on Busuk Webzine, Adam is
a young guy and he will be able to perform with his band in many shows in the
future.
John and I decided to go downstairs and mix and interact
with the young metalheads in the crowd. There was a break in the performances
and the high-school age death-metal fans at the back were busy taking group
pictures of each other. They were really enjoying the social and community
aspects of the festival and clearly they had waited a long time in eager
expectation for this festival to take place. We had advertised the festival as
a News posting on Busuk Webzine several weeks before it took place and the News
posting at one point entered the Top-10 most viewed pages’ list. We should
point out that HUMILIATION is a popular young group with our interview with the
band for a long time remaining in the bottom half of the Top-10 most viewed
pages’ list on Busuk Webzine. [Author’s note: Although it comes from Soreang,
the band is associated with the Bandung Death Metal Syndicate (BDMS) community
group and it released its debut album Savor
of Human Destruction in January 2013 with Iwan’s Extreme Souls Production
(ESP) record label.] One of the reasons we chose to sponsor HUMILIATION for the
festival was the number of page-views gained by the band’s interview on Busuk
Webzine.
Downstairs John asked a high-school metal-chick to take
a picture with some of the high-school fans. One of these pictures appears on
Busuk Webzine. The crowd is aged 12 to 16 and most fans wear tee-shirts of
respected Bandung death-metal bands UNDERGOD and JASAD. The choice of
tee-shirts shows the desire to support and respect the death-metal scene from
the nearest major city Bandung. Slowly the barrier between us and the
high-school crowd broke down and more and more people wanted pictures taken
with me and John. We gave the metal-chick our Busuk Webzine URL address and we
hope that the website can also become known among the high-school death-metal
crowd of Bandung and West Java. It is unusual to see a Westerner at an
underground death-metal festival out in the countryside areas. I think the
crowd was pleased with my presence because my presence reminded them that as
metalheads they are part of a dynamic global underground-music scene which has
touched every corner and country of the world.
We were very hot and sweaty by this time so we went
outside. The rain had nearly stopped and outside the countryside air was very
crisp and refreshing. The venue compound was around 40 metres by 40 metres and
it sloped gently downwards to the roadside and we could look across to the
mist-covered mountains in the distance. People grouped together in their twos,
fours, and sixes and many young metalheads sat down along a curb alongside the
far side wall of the compound. Apart from the senior Bandung contingent of
travelling metalheads and friends, most of the locals were of high-school
age. The punk-rockers tended to
congregate together but there was an overall atmosphere of goodwill and
friendship at this mixed-genres festival. John and Glenn of BLOODGUSH began
talking; Bobby, Popo, and Dimas were there, and I chatted about punk rock with
band-members of TCUKIMAY. Glenn was wearing his new long-sleeved BLOODGUSH
tee-shirt with the red logo font and magnificent power-metal style artwork.
Glenn is an interesting character – like Bobby he is a brutal vocalist but a
gentle character offstage. He has a shy smile and a soft yet deep speaking
voice which is a little difficult to hear at times. I also had a picture taken
with another legendary Bandung death-metal vocalist, Amenk of DISINFECTED,
famous for his duck-walk and jug-of-beer-sharing onstage. Through Popo’s
interpretation, I told Amenk that I enjoyed his guest vocals on the track on
BLEEDING CORPSE’s debut album The
Resurrection of Murder. Amenk’s death-metal denim vest doubles up as an
actual motorcycle jacket and he is one of those old-school hard-nuts of the
Ujung Berung [East Bandung] death-metal scene who has devoted himself to
death-metal with complete integrity for as long as anyone can remember. I
talked with Man of JASAD’s brother Iwan of the famous ESP record label. He told
us of his plans for a split DISINFECTED / MOTORDEATH album for 2012. [Author’s
note: His plan was for the HUMILIATION full-length debut album to be released
around April to June 2012 but its eventual release was delayed for six to eight
months.] He also announced that a full-length debut album from BLOODGUSH was
also to be released by ESP in 2012.
 |
| John Yoedi and Glenn Bloodgush |
During this time I also had my picture taken with a
group of young punk-rockers. My friend Lord Butche, vocalist of punk-rock band
THE CRUEL, was not at the festival and the JASAD guys were yet to arrive at
this point. The headlining bands were scheduled to be JASAD and DISINFECTED. I
enjoyed the fantastic atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual support as everyone
exchanged the latest death-metal news and gossip from Bandung and beyond. Of
course Daniel [guitarist of TURBIDITY and BLEEDING CORPSE] was among the senior
Bandung travelling contingent and he was as usual enjoying this kind of
atmosphere.
The festival was due to start again and people had
mostly disappeared indoors again to see the popular Bandung hardcore band
OUTRIGHT [the “HATEBREED of Bandung”]. Some metalheads, including most of the
senior Bandung contingent, had remained outside gossiping and networking in the
cool mountain air. As expected, some traditional Indonesian “arak” wine was
passed around and I became immediately drunk. Only a few minutes later we all
watched in amazement as young fans in OUTRIGHT tee-shirts swarmed out of the
side entrance all with very sad looks on their faces. The word passed around at
lightning speed that the local police had cancelled the rest of the festival. A
few policemen could be seen here and there within the compound and a macho police
voice sounded over a megaphone. We congregated under the side entrance porch
for a long time as people did not want to disperse quickly. Bobby and Popo
joined John and me and some of the young crowd recognized Bobby as the vocalist
of BLEEDING CORPSE and many more pictures were taken.
 |
| Bobby Rock and Kieran James |
I think Bobby wanted to at least give the young fans
some pictures from the festival given that it was going to be a disappointing
day overall for them. Bobby is a humble giant [183 cm. tall] and he never tries
to attract attention to himself at a death-metal show. He happily merges into
and mingles with the crowd in his capacity as a fan. He may have the rock-star
look and swagger when walking down a Bandung street but at a show he merges
into the crowd and does not want or clamor for any attention from the teenage
fans. He is a wonderful ambassador for Ujung Berung and Bandung death-metal
with his calm nature, humble manner, cheerful attitude, and generosity of
spirit. John and I have benefitted from the kindness and helpfulness of Bobby
and Popo and this couple is certainly wonderful company. They have a great
sense of humor and they exude natural warmth which is always a surprise to
outsiders. John has told me that he expected Bobby to be arrogant because of
his status in the death-metal world and his brutal onstage persona but he found
this not to be the case at all.
I went back inside the hall where everyone was busy
packing up gear and exiting now the show had been cancelled. I met Adam and he
expressed his disappointment that HUMILIATION would not be able to play. He
apologized to me although there was no need to do so because the police’s
cancellation of the festival was obviously not an event within his control. I
tried to comfort and encourage Adam by telling him that we will see him perform
again at another show later. John had told me that Adam’s mother was there to
watch her son play. I asked Adam that we could meet his mother. She was seated
in a parked van at the rear of the compound near the back entrance of the hall.
Although it was now raining she came out of the van for a picture with Adam and
me. She is a policewoman and wearing the uniform but she did not have the power
to stop the police from cancelling the show. She was very proud of Adam playing
for HUMILIATION and receiving the sponsorship from Busuk Webzine. She was
distressed by the cancellation of the show and earlier she had been crying. I
think our sponsorship of HUMILIATION’s gig was a highlight in the short life to
date of Busuk Webzine.
 |
| Kieran James and Amenk Disinfected |
Most of the metalheads had quietly dispersed by this
time. Even the punks left quietly without a fight and without any harsh words.
In the climate of modern Indonesia (which is really still a police-state but
just with outward democratic form) the police will always have the last word
and it makes as much sense opposing the police as it does hitting your head
against a brick wall. The police all entered the back entrance and came out a
few minutes later. There must have been around 20 or 30 of them. The senior Bandung
metalhead contingent was dishing out and eating noodles on the back porch as
this was happening. They adopted a look of nonchalance as if the festival was
already naturally winding down and they were making preparations to go. The 20
or 30 policemen stood as a group in front of their van which was parked in one
of the back corners of the compound where they could watch both the side
entrance and the back entrance. All the police were male and most were in their
20s, 30s, and 40s. They stood in stiff fashion, almost like death-metal fans
posing for a picture, with significant empty personal space between them. All
the policemen had very serious facial expressions which to me suggested guilty
consciences since they had no valid reason to cancel the festival. Usually
police walking around and guiding traffic in Indonesia look cheerful, chat with
the civilians, and try to build rapport. Here we saw the opposite situation
with very stern faces. The police had a somewhat arrogant and idiotic
appearance as if the younger and junior ones among them did not really agree
with what they were being asked to do.
 |
| Kieran James with the punk rockers |
The metalheads behaved very well, departed very slowly
and casually, and avoided eye contact with the police. They left slowly so as
to “save face” and self-respect by keeping up the appearance that they were
leaving voluntarily rather than being forced out (much like Western CEOs who
“pretend” to resign out of their own choice when actually they do not have a
choice). The police allowed them this dignity and no-one was manhandled by the
police. I was disappointed because I had travelled 5,000 kilometres from
Australia to watch an underground West Javanese death-metal festival and now
the police were seizing this opportunity from right underneath my nose. There was
no logical or valid reason to cancel the festival. The high-school crowd was
well-behaved and just enjoying harmless fun. Later Man [the vocalist for JASAD]
told me that the police were nervous because of the recent chaotic
demonstrations about petrol prices in Jakarta. He also said that if he had been
present at the venue he could possibly have negotiated with the police and then
the final outcome might have been different. It is important to mention that
this was not the city-police from Bandung but countryside police from this
region three hours out from Bandung and countryside police can be expected to
be more socially conservative and risk-averse.
The bands whose gigs were cancelled included: OUTRIGHT
(hardcore), HUMILIATION (death-metal), DEMONS DAMN (death-metal), TCUKIMAY
(street-punk), JASAD (death-metal), and DISINFECTED (death-metal). It was a
very strong line-up of bands for a countryside festival and the local crowd
missed the chance to see some excellent bands from a mix of genres. Bobby’s van,
containing Popo, John, Dimas, me, and one or two others, was appropriately the
last car to leave the compound, the police vans obviously being excluded from
this calculation. People were angry in their hearts but they adopted the
philosophical attitude that this was just part of life in modern Indonesia.
People’s spirits slowly improved as we drove along the beautiful, hilly
countryside roads. Mist hung over nearby mountains and light rain fell on the
rice-fields and the orange-roofed houses of the kampongs [villages].
 |
| Man Jasad, John Yoedi, Kieran James @ hot-springs |
We drove on further up into the mountains and then
parked in the parking lot of the hot-spring swimming pools which are a popular
tourist attraction in the Bandung region. This is a usual location for
metalheads after shows in this region but this night we all ventured there a
little earlier than planned. There are two huge swimming pools which combined
are around 50 metres long and 20 metres wide. Around the pools there is paving
and beyond that places to sit and talk under cover and many tents. Most of the
senior Bandung death-metal contingent from the festival was there. Everyone
wanted to relax and unwind after the distressing experience with the police.
Although I had given the police some harsh stares they had all avoided my gaze.
In my view, the police had been “grandstanding” – they wanted to be the stars
of the afternoon rather than the headlining bands. Therefore, I ironically
labeled the Busuk Webzine News Item about the festival as “West Javan Police”
so this label appeared [at one time] alongside all the band names down the
right-hand side of the website home-page.
Man of JASAD was there at the hot-springs, along with
his brother Iwan [ESP], and he came over to chat with us. The big,
broad-shouldered guy from the TCUKIMAY punk band pointed to the forest and the
mist-shrouded mountains, around 200 metres higher than us and also around 200
metres distant, and said it looked like a classic black-metal scene (Norway van
Java). Before the twilight disappeared totally I took a picture of the forest
and the mountain and we have used it alongside black-metal band interviews on
Busuk Webzine. During this time, Dimas and others took scary posed death-metal
pictures of each other and John and I enjoyed relaxing chats with many of the
metalheads. However, when originally writing this one week later on 8 April
2012, I could not remember who had been talking with whom. I do remember
talking to people I did not usually get to talk to and people who knew me even
though I might not know them. I do remember Daniel being there and the band
members from TCUKIMAY. As is his style, Man walked around chatting to the
various groups but he did not stay very long with each group. Man confirmed
with me that the police had been nervous after the chaotic Jakarta demonstrations
but, as usual, the cancellation ultimately happened because of money issues
with the police pressing for more money. Most things in Indonesia, no matter
who is involved, can be solved when more money changes hands. Western
liberal-democrats might label this as police corruption and they would be
correct. However, Indonesian history progresses according to its own dynamics
and consistent with its own internal logic. Although I think the police were
wrong to cancel the festival, I respect the fact that they used no physical
force against anyone. However, they took harmless entertainment away from the
high-school crowd and perhaps that crowd returned to their neighborhoods and
graffitied on some walls, kicked some chickens, and bullied some younger kids!
In a sense the police must accept some responsibility for any violent or
anti-social actions conducted by the metalheads after the festival back in the
kampongs because the festival should never have been cancelled.
 |
| Popo Demons Damn, Bobby Rock, John Yoedi |
We said farewell to the other Bandung metalheads in the
hot-springs car-park. I had been slightly worried that John or I would become
detached from the group and Bobby would leave without us. It had been very cold
at the hot-springs, perhaps 12 degrees Celsius, and John had been lent a hoodie.
Being from the hot climate of Balikpapan in East Borneo he was now learning how
cold the nights could be in the West Javanese Mountains and even, to a lesser
extent, in the city of Bandung itself.
We drove down the mountains on the roads back to Bandung.
The roads were filled with pedestrians and motorcycles enjoying the nighttime
markets and Bobby consistently had to be very careful in his driving. While
still outside Bandung a motorcycle clipped the left side of our van causing a
minor accident. Everyone got out of the van and Bobby and Popo talked to the
two motorcyclists, coming to certain agreements. John and I stood together
under the front porch of a nearby house which looked abandoned apart from some
faint light shining through the makeshift curtains. In Australia you would not
want to stand on the front porch of a private house uninvited but the concepts
of private and public space are less fixed and more fluid in Indonesia. We were
still in the mountains and it was still cold although now perhaps it was closer
to 16 degrees Celsius than to 12 degrees. John took the opportunity, as usual,
to enjoy a cigarette. It appeared that the two young motorcycle guys had a good
attitude and were apologetic. The “good attitude” test is always vital in Indonesia.
The conversation between the motorcyclists and Bobby and Popo switched from
animated to casual and friendly. Soon we were on our way again and we reached
Bandung around two hours later.
This day, Sunday 1 April 2012, was Popo’s birthday. We
celebrated her birthday at a roadside food stall in Bandung. At this stall,
like in Singapore, all the food available is displayed and then you can all
help yourself. We were tired and after the meal Bobby dropped John and me off
at the hotel. The time then was around 11pm. Just before this we had driven
through the historic red-light district in Bandung and we had invented new
brutal band names such as PROSTITUTE CORPSE! I can’t recall whether it was this
night or another night but Bobby has a homemade collection of 1980s songs which
includes many hair-metal ballads and even pop hits. On one occasion we all
joined together in singing the beautiful chorus of the 1980s pop hit “Ordinary
World” by DURAN DURAN! It is true that there is an “ordinary world” out there
we all have to find. The vocalist Bobby Rock from the brutal death-metal band
BLEEDING CORPSE has his softer side and I’m sure that this softer side is very
appealing to Popo. The death-metal life holds in balance the forces of violence
and self-control, gentleness and strength. However, I don’t expect we will get
a cover of “Ordinary World” by BLEEDING CORPSE or HYDRO any time soon
(“obituary world” perhaps)! [by Kieran James aka Jack Frost. This review is also published in the book Struggle, Anger Hate in the Indonesian Underground by Jack Frost which you can buy from Sofyan Hadi of Death Vomit band.]
 |
| Popo's birthday party @ Common Room Network Foundation, April 2012. Left to Right: Bobby Rock, Popo Demons Damn, Butche (The Cruel), Man Jasad. |
