My Heart Will Go On

Wow! I almost forgot about this account. Normally, I don't have anything real exciting to say so I end up logging in and logging out. This weekend was pretty action packed so I thought I would add a post to at least keep this account valid.

NoFX was in Jakarta on Saturday night. I went of course. It was pretty fun. Not as awesome as I was hoping but still fun. It was at this big outdoor parking lot. I was THE only white person there (of course I was smart enough to go alone). I felt totally safe and even a bit excited to do something that no other Bule was doing. Honestly though, it was an extremely strange feeling to be the only whitey in a sea of Indos. I ended up hanging out with a bunch of University kids, who spoke some english. Between my bit of bahasa and their bit of English we were able to talk most of the night without too much awkward silence.

The gate to get into the concert was a narrow lane enough for one person to walk through at a time. Imagine thousands of people squeezing their way through this gate, like trying to suck a steak through a straw. Basically, any movement that was made was not by your own will. The masses chose the direction of the flow and if you were lucky enough the flow took you to the gate. During this insane shuffle, my handphone was stolen. I couldn't believe it! I was kept my hands in my pockets the entire time until the last minute when you had to try to reach up to show the polisi you tickets (I bought mine from a scalper out front and I am almost 98% positive it was a fake). The second I got through the gate I checked my pocket and it was gone. Luckily my wallet was still there.

There was a hardcore band from Hong Kong called King Lychee (I think). The sounded really funny and I couldn't quite figure it out until I realize that the screaming singer was actually a girl who sounded like a man who sounds like a girl. NoFX had their usual stage antics where they talked for about 10 minutes between each song. I don't think the crowd liked it too much. Most likely because they couldn't understand very much of it. I thought it was pretty funny. The University kids kept asking me what things meant and why they were so annoying and rude.

It was really awesome to have a band, even one I don't listen to much anymore, come to Indonesia. On occassion some come to Singapore but never to Indonesia. Actually that is not true Saturday night was NoFX and Sundy night Good Charlotte came. NoFX made fun of them the entire time. And everytime they made fun of them the crowd went wild. I guess they thought NoFX was saying good things about them. Good Charlotte is huge here. I have never been able to figure that one out.

One other interesting thing was the insane amount of street punks that were there. I had no idea Indonesia had such a scene. Even though they spoke another language I could tell they were just as stupid as the ones back home.

The end of this story is kind of funny for those of you that know NoFX at all. Again, I was THE only white person there. I decided to head out on the last song to try and beat the mad rush of Indos out the same tiny gate. As I was walking all of the sudden a smooth reggae song with a cool bass line came on and it occured to me that I knew the song as I was unconsciously singing along. Then it occured to me that everyone else knew the song and was singing along. The weirdest part was when the chorus hit and the words go "Kill all the White Man, Kill All the White Man, etc... Me and 10,000 other people of non-pigment deficient people were singing these same words. For those of you unfamiliar with NoFX, they write a lot of joke songs and this is one of them...well maybe in America. So I was walking at about midnight, amongst thousands of Indos all singing these words. It was pretty surreal to say the least. Plus my phone was stolen, so even if something happened I would have had no way to get help. But this is a lesson, I never really felt unsafe and in general safety is not a big issue when you are with Indos. Most, even gutterpunks, are friendly and helpful.

One other exciting thing happened but you will have to read about that on our other blogsite for Judah...

http://judahbuddah.blogspot.com

later,
G