BMTH live in Jakarta 2024

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This time around Ravel gets it right and BMTH (Bring Me The Horizon) are headlining the Nexfest festival in Jakarta which also features Babymetal. In this format there is no seating - which makes for a much more intimate experience - although you do have to arrive really early if you want to pick a spot right up close to the stage.  We arrived about six hours before BMTH were scheduled to start their performance and bought plenty of drinks to stay hydrated in the tropical afternoon heat (mind you, some of those were Iceland vodka mix!) This was a gig I had long been looking forward to - especially after the debacle last year. Not everyone likes BMTH of course. For deathcore fans the band sold out. For metal heads the band is not purist enough. And for the wider mainstream audience, the band is too heavy. You can't please everyone of course but there are few bands in the rock world which can match the sheer emotional velocity of BMTH. To bring metal and even aspects of metalcore t
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Poverty in Jakarta

All Apologies 
What else should I be? All apologies What else should I say? Everyone is gay What else could I write? I don’t have the right What else should I be? All apologies 
 > Kurt Cobain 

Thanks to the Jakarta administration’s road narrowing policy I can’t drive a normal route to the office anymore. So I make use of the Jalan Tikus, or narrow side streets. And there are plenty of them too. because away from the main roads in Jakarta, a labyrinth of narrow twisting alleys seems to cover the entire city. 

I even got lost a few weeks ago when I took a short cut going through the Petamburan slums in Central Jakarta, and more than a little concerned when the alley narrowed to such an extent that I could hardly get the roaring beast through it. 

The locals found it highly amusing to see a bule in such a place of course, but I didn’t particularly want to hang around: this area is home territory to the radical knuckleheads and a lecture on why sex bombs are worse than Bali bombs was the last thing that I wanted. 

Anyway, coming to the office this morning, it’s very congested close to a traditional market and I notice a little outside stall is doing a roaring trade selling items of clothing. Two pieces for Rp15,000. Bloody hell. That’s like less than a quid. It’s almost inconceivable to me how these poor people keep going. Just to eat a daily struggle. Forget the Starbucks, holidays to Bali, IPODs, JW Black Label, Digital SLRs, etc. I’m not going to moralize here – not my style – but I wouldn’t say it was going too far to say that the poor aren't getting their fair share. 

Oh hum...

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