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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One hand clapping: Hakuin Ekaku

Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand? 
>Hakuin Ekaku 

I’m off to Bali tomorrow for a two-week break seeking pollution detoxification, plenty of solar electromagnetic radiation, psilocybin mushrooms, locally brewed Stormbrewing beer, and even - if I’m very lucky - a mola-mola or two at Lembongan Island. 

And as for the answer to that famous Zen kōan - well you could spend the next three and a half years in a Buddhist temple - like this one in Banjar, North Bali (complete with a miniature scale Borobodur temple!) – trying to figure it out. Or, alternatively, you could just forgo the enlightenment and slap the poor blighter who asked you across the face! Sma-ck!!!!!!!!!

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