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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Ikan Tude Manado, Blora

A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
~ Winston Churchill

 Located just off Jakarta’s main thoroughfare of Jalan Sudirman lies one of the city’s most bizarre streets: Jalan Blora. The street is not particularly long and has a scuzzy, down-to-earth feel about it, a bit like either Jalan Jaksa – which is known for its budget hotels – or Jalan Falatehan - which is known for its girly bars.

Jalan Blora’s claim to fame – if you can call it that – are a couple of distinctly dodgy dangdut discos which provide lowbrow entertainment for (mostly) Indonesian men who still haven’t come to terms with the fact that we are no longer living in the 1970’s.

However, on one corner of the street lies one of Jakarta’s epicurean gems: the excellent Ikan Tude Manado.

 The restaurant’s décor is unassuming and very much in traditional canteen-style with old fashioned metal chairs, simple wooden tables and large spinning fans. Marvelous.

 As for the food, well it’s quite simply superb, and more than a match for the tasteless crap that is so often served up in the fancy restaurants located in the humongous shopping malls just around the corner. Tasting both sour and spicy, the food really is a treat for the taste buds. Not to be missed are the grilled tude fish or the spicy ikan woku (fish soup). Prices are very reasonable. Open 24 hours, so drop by anytime. And if you come late at night, you can also visit the nearby discos afterwards!

I've got no pictures of the ikan tude but here's one of the fried squid...

Ikan Tude Manado

Ikan Tude Manado,
Jalan Blora No. 29,
Central Jakarta

Sadly, this place is now CLOSED!

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