"Trapped" for TEMPER TRAP: My Recount of The Jakarta Concert

Sweet disposition, Never too soon...
Oh reckless abandon, Like no one's watching you...
A moment, a love
A dream, a laugh
A kiss, a cry
Our rights, our wrongs

That was probably one of the band's most popular songs. Temper Trap gained a lot of recognition in Indonesia after "Sweet Disposition" was featured in a soundtrack of (500) Days of Summer and as a theme song to JIFFEST 2009. The band received greater fanfare when we learned that the vocalist, Dougy Mandagi, was actually from Indonesia. Their other songs then went on to be featured in many popular TV Shows such as 90210, Grey's Anatomy, Chuck, and One Tree Hill. The band, who gained prominence with their atmospheric sound featuring grand guitars set to pulsating rhythms, was scheduled to have their debut Indonesia tour from 11-13 November 2010.

The 12 November Jakarta concert was held in Tennis Indoor Senayan. And being  such an alt-rock fanatic that I am, I just simply couldn't miss it. Not to mention that IsmayaLive would be pre-selling tickets to the Two Door Cinema Club concert for February 2011. From IsmayaLive's twitter account, it was said that the gate would be opened from 5 p.m. and I got there at 6. I figured as it was with this kind of concert, of course there will be some kind of delay so I would still make it if I was late one hour. Turned out, they were even more late. The gate wasn't even opened when I showed up. Finally about 6.30, I got into the lounge.

The entriway into the lounge
 

As always with any IsmayaLive event, the lounge was set very classy with chic seatings, bar, food stalls, DJ booth, and a projection of Twitter TV (a live feed of all tweets with @IsmayaLive tag). It was very comfortable to spend time in while waiting for the gate to the concert hall to be opened. On a slightly negative note, the Toilet was located by the concert hall and patrons weren't allowed entry until the gate to the hall was opened and the foods were overpriced (as always).

 Food vendors from Sushi Groove and Pizza e Birra

The queuing alongside the DJ booth
 

Twitter TV

When the gate was opened at 7, people just rushed in. I managed to get a really nice spot in the front and center. However, the opening act by Efek Rumah Kaca and DJ James Yuill (whom I didn't really care for), took almost two hours and by then I already got so bored and restless that I decided to abandon post and just hang out at the lounge until the main act start. I managed to bump into some friends and spot a few celebs like DJ Winky and wife and other socialites like etc, etc. Then we heard news that the band will not even show up until 11. The Twitter TV was already up in flames with insults and negative comments about the long delay. One of the running joke of the evening was that one of the band member is Indonesian, so of course they would be late. I spotted several people leaving the premises because they can't handle the long wait, but since I actually paid for the tickets to the show I decided to stick it out.

By the time the band finally showed up on stage, it was already 11. You can feel the resentment and  the restlessness in the atmosphere. People actually "boo-ed" at the band. But then, the lights came on and the music started. You can feel the energy started to change around you. People started screaming out the band's name and dancing. The performance had a few climaxes with Sweet Disposition, Soldier On, and the drum song where all the lights went off and spotlight were shining only on Dougy as he beat the drum that he splashed with water previously. With the contrast created by the dark background and the spotlight, you could clearly see the water jumping around and  dancing to the beat and erupting like a geyser.

After all is said and done, the band played with vigor. They gave off a great performance, would have been perfect if not for the long wait. The lighting arrangement was out of this world. But still, there is something very traumatic about the whole being made to wait for 5 hours. Even though people danced and screamed during the performance, I got the feeling that the ambiance could have been more energized had we not been made to wait that long. Personally, no matter how a great show is, if you have to wait 5 hours for a one-hour-show, the pay off is way to little. And instead of a sweet disposition, I was left with a bittersweet disposition.
 

The crowd clapping for an encore.