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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Olympic Hotel, Mangga Besar, Jakarta

If you wanna be right at the “center of action” in the “Big Mangga’ then it can only mean one thing: the infamous Lokasari “entertainment” complex.

This is where the rot started all those years ago: definitely as far back as the 70s and possibly even before. It’s skuzzy, decrepit, rusting and wanton. A lot like an old and battered Skoda left out to rust at a scrap yard, really.

At Lokasari, the venue of choice must be the infamous Atlanta (click for my short review).

Since those days things have changed a lot of course, and there are now a multitude of gaudy looking spas in the Mangga Besar area, many bizarrely paying homage to ancient Greek, Roman and even Egyptian architecture – evidence perhaps that sleaze and culture can be adroitly mixed.

Located just behind the Lokasari complex - it’s actually sort of attached onto it really – is the three-star Olympic Hotel – which thanks to some refurbishment is in pretty reasonable shape.

Olympic Hotel, Mangga Besar, Jakarta

For some reason there seem to be quite a few Olympic hotels in Indonesia (why’s that?), my favorite being the Olympic Hotel in Surabaya, a wonderfully gaudy edifice that looks as out of place as a burqua on Kuta beach, Bali.

Olympic Hotel Surabaya


As for Jakarta’s Olympic Hotel, it has 107 rooms and plenty of entertainment facilities including karaoke and a spa.

Have fun! 

Olympic Hotel
Jl Mangga Besar VII Kompl THR Lokasari Bl A-63,
Taman Sari,
Jakarta
Telp: (021) 624 6666

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