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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Risky business in Jakarta

There’s a time for playing it safe…

 … and a time for risky business! 
 
There is a lot of talk why there are so many accidents in Indonesia, and noone points out the obvious: an addiction to high-risk behavior, Tom Cruise style. Live life on the edge and never mind the consequences. You’re going to die some day, and it’s all preordained anyway. 

Condoms, lifejackets, clean needles and seatbelts are for pansies and non-filter super strength kreteks are for breakfast. 

Chemical packed street foods brighter than a rainbow. Overtaking at 150kms on the inside emergency lane going to Bandung. Motorcycles as precariously balanced as a tightrope walker and construction workers one wrong foot away from a messy ending.

overloaded (back) 

 And the reason for the high-risk behavior in Indonesia? 

 Well poverty could be to blame. Because if you haven’t got much, then, well, you don’t actually have much to lose. So the experts reason, and judging by the way the bus drivers here tend to disregard the value of human life I’d say they were probably right. 

 But some things are much more dangerous than others, of course. So I wouldn’t get too worried – not unless you’ve got one of those cancer sticks hanging out of your mouth while you’re driving home. After all, risks must be seen in proportion. 

Probabilities of dying from a certain cause in a one-year period (in the States). Source: Harvard 

Bathtub drowning (1 in 840,000) 
Cancer (1 in 510) 
Playing high school or college football 
(1 in 59 million) 
Homicide (1 in 18,000) 
Hornet, wasp, or bee sting (1 in 6.1 million) 
Lightning (1 in 3 million) 
Motor vehicle accident (1 in 6,700)

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