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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Great countries and not-so-great countries

Some 25 percent of Aussies view Indonesia "very negatively" according to a recent survey. A lot of ‘em also think Iraq is a basket case, and two-thirds don’t like Bush. If a similar poll were carried out in Indonesia, I guess you’d find unfavorable attitudes towards any of Malaysia, Israel, Australia, Singapore, the US, Holland, China, Saudi Arabia, or Denmark – subject of course to the prevailing political prejudices of the time. 

 But what counties are truly great? And which ones are not so great? Well, here are my lists (provisional): 

Great 
1. Great Britain. Beer, football, sarcasm and rain. What more could you ask for? 
2. Sweden. Well you know what they have there! 
3. Jamaica. For obvious reasons!!! 
4. South Africa. An unpleasant story with a happy ending. 
5. Indonesia. Paradise innit? (as long as you are not one of the 120 million or so unfortunate souls living on less than US$2-3/day) 
6. The US (*). Hendrix, the Flaming Lips, MLK, LA, the American Dream etc. 7. Brazil. The beautiful game. 
8. India. All that is sublime and all that is mad. 
9. Kazakhstan. 

Not so great 
1. Zimbabwe. A madman at the helm and inflation of 7,638 percent. 
2. Sudan. Where the locals are being wiped out faster than a Geiger counter ticking over in a nuclear power plant. 
3. Myanmar. Nasty nasty generals who should be stabbed with the pins on the stupid medals that they wear. 
4. The US (*). Bush, US foreign policy, napalm, Barry Manilow. 
5. Belgium. 

*Note: the US appears in both lists 

Other lists 

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