7th Music Gallery: Hipsters Haven Topped with Profound Love for HONNE
After its continuous teasing since last year after they announced the line up one by one, finally on March 11th, 7th Music Gallery was happening at Kuningan City Ballroom, Jakarta. The annual music festival held by BSO Band from Economics and Business Faculty of Universitas Indonesia boasts multiple line up that cater towards the youth’s current taste. There were two stages prepared for the celebration and they are on two different levels. Intimate stage was set on 6th floor or P6 at the parking lot of Kuningan City. It is relatively a small stage compared to the other one, and the main entrance was placed on this floor. There were also mural exhibition, music exhibition, lifestyle tenants and food and beverage booths. Since it’s a partly outdoor area, when a little rain drizzled over the venue, a puddle of water was formed in this area. The Main Stage was on the level above, and as we ascended to the destined venue, we were pleased by the view of Jakarta city at night with its tall buildings and bustling life. Hipster kids from all ages (but mostly those in their early 20s) showed up in style, it’s almost like it was partly a fashion show.
On the 7th floor, there were more tenants available and also Samsung Galaxy interactive booth as they are the main sponsor of the event. Since 2 PM in the afternoon, the attendees had started lining up to exchange their tickets into wristbands. Several bands have performed on the two stages there, starting from the bands who passed the audition to perform on 7th Music Gallery until the guest stars which were invited. Peonies, Ikkubaru, Gizpel, Ballads of The Cliché and Bedchamber graced the Intimate Stage and Main Stage until the break. With huge influx of people kept coming to watch the performances, each stage gave different appeals. The Intimate Stage might be small, but its genre vary and people would love to hear different sounds. While on the Main Stage, familiar tunes became the magnet for the crowd. After the break, Hollywood Nobody, Polka Wars, Goodnight Electric and Seringai heat up the Intimate Stage respectively. Seringai in particular got their fans to come to see the show with their black attire and standout appearance.
The Trees & The Wild became the sixth performer on the Main Stage and with their new sound and stage, they managed to hypnotize the spectators. They were all clad in black and gave a monochromatic visual with their white lighting on stage. Haikal Azizi, the frontman of band Sigmun from Bandung then commenced his set with his solo project as Bin Idris. Different with The Trees & The Wild which utilized electric musical instruments to the maximum, Bin Idris went minimalist and stripped it all with his acoustic guitar on lap to sing songs from his debut album like “Dalam Wangi” or “Rebahan”. He also went on to comment about Music Gallery’s previous editions which he also participated in. At 9.30 PM, folk duo from Yogyakarta, Stars and Rabbit greeted the audience with their tunes. Elda, Adi and the rest of the bands don ethnic styled make up on their faces and people sang along to their songs like “Man Upon The Hill”, “The House”, and “Worth It”. They said that it was an honor to become the last band before the long awaited main act, HONNE.
People could not wait any longer for HONNE to perform as they were excitedly and enthusiastically calling out their names and sang to their songs. The Kuningan City Ballroom where the Main Stage was located was truly packed from end to end. Finally, at a little over 22.45 PM, the duo hit the stage with their live band and performed “Treat You Right”. HONNE seemed to be taken aback with the response the got from the audience as they memorized the lyrics to their songs down to a T. They performed their hit songs from their album “Warm On A Cold Night” as well as their singles like “Coastal Love”, “The Night”, “Good Together”, “3AM”, or “Someone That Loves You”. James Hatcher and Andy Clutterbuck even went minimalist to perform a song “It Ain’t Wrong Loving You” without the band. As the song is very romantic, the pair encouraged the attendees to embrace people next to them and even gave an example to hug each other. “Woman” became the last song of their set but the audience were eager for some more so two more songs were performed. “All In The Value” was added to the setlist, and it was closed with their biggest hit to date “Warm On A Cold Night”. 7th Music Gallery was one of the music festival that went right on time and we love the fact that they kept inviting good quality musicians on each edition. May the next edition would be bigger than this one!
