Report: Bisik Bisik Tetangga #2 Was Held Again in Bandung
If you heard about an event titled “Bisik Bisik Tetangga”, then it must be a collaborative routine gig held by university radio from several colleges in Bandung. Those radio are Radio MU (Mahasiswa Unpad), 8EH Radio (ITB), and URS (Unpar Radio Station). The second installment of Bisik Bisik Tetangga was held last Friday, on 28 July 2017 at Porter Bar and Resto Bandung. This time they invited few local musicians whose performance and music need no doubt and they are Bin Idris, Peonies a dream pop group from Jakarta, Ellipsis, Circarama a psychedelic rock act from Jakarta, and Sins O Suns. Arriving a little earlier, we caught the performance from Bin Idris and that time there was not much crowd. Maybe we watched too many of his performances that the zillion time we watched him that day, it did not give off any particular amazement plus his stage acts wasn’t the thing he is famous with. Peonies came like a breath of fresh air, bringing their fun and catchy indie pop tunes with dreamy atmosphere.
They performed songs from their debut album ” Landscape”which was released in 2016 via Misashi Records/Nanaba Records. Songs like “Whispering”, “Truth”, “Falling” and “Summer” successfully lifted our moods up. The MC then announced the next line up Ellipsis, a post-rock group from Bandung. Prior to watching their live performance, we have checked them out on Soundcloud and truly stunned by how tidy their instrumental play are. We assure you, the live performance was 100x better. They played their lick guitar neatly and the math rock-like drum reminded us of Mogwai or Toe, but their own characteristic was still intact. Circarama was the last line up to perform that day, and we could see the crowd had started to build up. Their music which is thick with 70’s psychedelic rock ambience managed to sway the audience. They remind us of Led Zeppelin, The Doors, and the likes and they played songs from their first EP. “Trap”, “Apple Queen”, “Sweet Shining” and “Porcelain Sky” that they brought were refreshing, and far from monotonous.
Overall, the line up for Bisik Bisik Tetangga #2 varied in terms of genre, starting from folk, indie pop, post-rock, and psychedelic rock. However, it seemed like the committee need to do more preparation for the whole event to go smoothly. The first edition was a success, and we expected a lot for this second edition. We did not see any committee who acted as usher for the audience, so the direction in the venue was not clear enough. It felt like the gig lacked something that was there on the first event. Hopefully the third edition and the next ones would be more exciting and able to attract larger crowd.
Reporter & photo: Zakaria Arya/Editor: Novita Widia
