Careless Interpretation : The Diary of A Music-Junkie

every once in a while, a man or a group of people is born to the world to do one thing. to inspire people. the influence they assert on people will be so profound as not only to raise standards but to elevate our quality of life, which is actually the first and most important task God had given us when He put us to this world.

the energy of an inspiration is tremendous, it can push us transcend our boundaries. it can break us out of the normal frame of living. once in a while God put certain kind of people to do that task. to be the wells of inspiration. it is His gift to the world. being inspired can bring a spiritual level of highness which could never be achieved in a physical material world. in the intangible, the un-sensible comes to life. you can reach the stars in your mind, while being a mere mortal in physical reality. it is also His gift to the human kind. it is the capacity to be inspired that makes the world go round. and the feeling of "feeling" that is fantastic.

standing within a carpet of people i feel like a tiny dot in a maze of noises. if i could find serenity and quietness among the thunderous claps and screams, i would totally find the essentiality of this show.

it is a flow of energy, given by something greater than us. in-translated through a few gentlemen with a God-given noble purpose, to share the energy that had been given to them to whomever they found in their journey. it is the task to inspire that had been burdened to them deliberately and that they have to do because they had been given the gift of skills and ability to do it. a whirling hurricane of energies departing back and forth between the stage and the pedestal. humonguous. awesome. amazing to realize that such an intangible things like an inspiration causes all this. this is a mirror of how great the intangibles are, a sign that the intangibles really controls us all.. Intangibles are godly..

the ramones inspired U2, now U2 inspired us, and the chain goes on… it is a neverending cycle instilled in memories, alleviate the mind and translated into civilization and cultures. tonight, it is our turn to get inspired.

Bono came on stage with a big growl over his face, screaming inaudibly from my place to the whole arena. he purposely torched back the power in us which had been dying down of tiredness. the little scream looked like a scream of victory for Bono, for being able to brought up the huge amount of crowd down his stage, but nonetheless it also looked like a scream of joy of him being able to stand over there, centered focally amongst "his" very own people.

Edge, Clayton, Mullen Jr., went straight to their "tools" while Bono is still turning around his head and shouting the crowd. Without further ado, the band striked into Vertigo! Une, Dos, Tres, Cartoce! then slams of raw rock guitaring crushes from Edge’s hand, putting the crowd to ecstatic state and re-confirming that U2 were really the band playing in front of them. At the beginning of the song, the lighting of the stage begins to show its force, which as we will see, grows to become one of the big show elements itself.

Finished the first song, they continued in full force with a thunder tracks from their old archives: I Will Follow. Massive stadium-filling rock sounds. In the middle of the song, i was jumping all over the place careless about the immediate osilation of my bag and my camera that made it difficult to jump freely. In my heart i still cries "shit, shit, shit! im in a U2 concert!"

You just can’t believe how so many people sounds when they sings at the same time. it was truly high-making air-fisting experience! this is the point where individuality disappears and togetherness is the main concern. "WALK AWAY WALK AWAY, I WILL FOLLOW.."

the next song was Electric Co. I didn’t know what this song was actually but it didn’t come from their new album, i guess its one of the old archives that being brought back alive. it was calmer than the previous two but still kick ass rock. Next, they came in to Elevation, the introductory wah-wah guitar action from Edge was so familiar it made people claps like tomorrow is the last day on earth. The band stalls the full music intro, while Bono cited the first lyric only with Edge playing in the background, creating an agitated anticipating crowd. "high, higher than the sun…" all the way to "…soul! got my self control! taking like old now, going down excavation,.." causing the people to follow along the song creates the first real vocal-to-vocal singing together until finally the whole band joined in. crash of energies in the air! all through the singing, people’s point finger keeps on pointing either to the stage or to the air while others clap according to the tempo, such an interesting harmony to be watched and experienced.

after Elevation, the band goes directly into a classic, New Years Day!! the fans goes mad after hearing the bass’s intro. Not only this is a gem out of a long list of U2’s vault of songs, but this song contains a reminder and, parallelly, a comparison of how U2 then and now, how their songs were and now, how their band was and now. And such a delight to found that, the song is still a top song, and the band is still as raucous and effervescent as they was. In this song, Edge played double as a keyboardist. Next came Beautiful Day, another stadium rocker. What’s really interesting about it, is that as the song beautifully finished, Bono followed by a lyric of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band accompanied by the Beautiful Day chords that was reaching the end. I thought it was some kind of rememberance for the Live 8 show where the band and the creator Sir Paul McCartney sang it together as Live 8 opener tunes. Simply enjoyable, more amazing really if you look at it as artist at the level of theirs still had deep respect to history, legends, and older artist.

At this time, the sidescreen at each upper side of the stage had already turned up. It showed Bono and Clayton on the right side and Edge and Mullen Jr. on the other. More or less, it added some chemistry to the show itself.

Next, came I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. I remember specifically the suspended intro to this one, which is always a great teaser for U2 and opportunity for Bono to speak a little to the audiences. Of a usuality for U2 to follow this song with All I Want Is You, and that night they did. Superb nostalgia was all i experienced. I kinda reminded of when i was going to U2 Nite in Famestation Bandung some years ago and sing this one with the U2 tribute band, if im not mistaken, was Nine Ball. Can’t believe now I’m singing them with the original creator of the song. Feels fantastic.

Next is a highlight of the show for me, that was when the backscreen are fully used. Out of nowhere suddenly the somewhat strange huge construction turned to become a gigantic television. Showing flashes of colors that formed a picture of abstract graphic, supposedly to mimic the hecticness of city lights, to accompany that is, the next song, City of Blinding Lights. This song as i was writing this become U2 next video after Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own single. The video was recorded on one of a Vertigo tours, but i don’t know where and when. But seeing the crowd going crazy in that video explained me of how i would look like on my own concert. City of Blinding Light was such a good song from the new album, it fits perfectly with the other family of great U2 songs. I love the chorus that went like "oh! you look so beautiful toniiight". awesome. and Edge guitaring in this song is also the typical i would expect from him, a swirling reverberation on top of another.

Next is Miracle Drug, which followed by their second single Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own. This song is, as everybody know, a tribute of Bono to his father who died in 2001. To emphasize that in the show, the show designer creates a massive size figure-animation on the giant screen. The animation is a fatherly figure of matchstick man, with big stomach and rather hunch-backed, and is walking slowly with un-ending static movement. Meanwhile the animation is put on the right side of the giant screen, the live shot of Bono angled at the right direction so as to look like he was talking toward the animated "father". the effect was easily understood. during singing the song, it looked like he was talking to his imaginary father. Expressing what he was wanted to say in the song. The animation was cool and rather touching. At the end of the song, the animation, as he was walking, slowly left the frame in which he was walking staticly, kind of hinting that Bono’s father figure is already "away" now.

‘Sometimes’ was followed by a new song Love and Peace or Else. the mentioned-worthy highlight of this song is exactly at the ending. This was where the show turned to be not just a show, but a melting pot of Bono et al’s pours of ideality. Bono attacks with his first humanity doctrines. The song, as the name said it, spoke about peace, and so was the doctrine. Before the song starts, couple of roadies had fixed a drum kit near the end of the tounge of the stage that extends to the fans. Therefore, for this song, Mullen Jr. was playing near the audiences. Complete blasts for the girls who wanted to get close to him. Meanwhile for the other tounge was standing Clayton. Edge and Bono sticked in the main stage, but not for no reason. Around midway through the song, Bono suddenly produced a headband, a white headband with 3 important symbols on it, the star of David symbol of Jew, the cross symbol of Christian, and lastly the crescent moon and star symbol of Moslem. During the singing, he went on bended knee, with the headband now covering his eyes, then he straightened his arms upright and crossed them on the air at the intersection of the hand, as if he was captured by terrorists or something. the atmosphere felt intense, we knew we’re facing a much more serious content here. Then, midway through the song, he went to Mullen Jr.’s side and sang there. As the song finished, Bono stayed there while Mullen got back to the main drum kit, then Bono, said "Jesus, David, Mohammed, all sons of Abraham.." twice, reminding us the very clear and strong point of how all of us are actually connected. Then, as Sunday Bloody Sunday intro came in and Mullen Jr. played the drum, Bono followed along Mullen Jr. in every half of the beat to create a double drum on the intro of Sunday, crushing!! Bono play drums,.. where else would i see this??

Sunday was a misery, militaristic traited song. It sings about the particular Sunday when the IRA wars still hovers around the days of Irelanders and create a lot of victim went to the ground. The military-style marching drumming signature of Sunday Bloody Sunday sounded very powerful at live. I’m so happy to hear it directly. Another one of those singalong songs. This time, due to London tragedy Bono even sang "Wednesday Bloody Wednesday".

A proper succeder to Sunday Bloody Sunday was of course Bullet the Blue Sky. Incredible! Just plain incredible. Another dose of U2-deology came on stage. This song is usually about America but this time its still about Iraq. He said "America, bring the boys home safe (referring to the soldiers in Iraq)". At the real end, the band connect directly to a couple of verse of The Hands that Built America while Bono sang correspondingly, even more bringing forward his condolences on the situation going around now in Iraq.

as a band, u2 really knows how to move the fans deep down. i don’t know whether it was Bono’s charismatic voice, or the harmonious pictures on the big screen, or the heart-wrenching accompaniment of the band, or all of them. it’s just pure emotional moment for me.

Come after it, was two new songs i wasn’t quite familiar of. Running to Stand Still and Amazing Grace. Running to Stand Still was dedicated to those who lost their lifes at the London bombing just yesterday. He said as a warning "do not turn into a monster to defeat a monster."

Right after Running to Stand Still, initiated one of the biggest highlight of the show. A showing of Declaration of Human Rights scrolled down the giant screen with a montage of a small girl pronouncing it out, articles by articles. It was genial, staggering, inspirating way indeed to influence people toward humanitarian matters, which i think become a responsibility for a band with tremendous impact capability at the scale of U2. Just when the last articles managed to escaped up the top of the screen, the atmosphere is ready for the next classic bound-to-kill, the melody of Pride kicked in..

When Pride comes to the speaker, it was a second shock therapy to me. My God, spectacular! incredible! listening to this harmony live. my senses were screaming of happiness. it was really trembling for me. the screen was divided into 4 big part, each for each members. the overall color shade was blue and white. the band was picturized with rather solarized-like effect, giving an edge to the screenshow.

I was very little when i first hear this song, maybe 7 years old. I could remember still its video. It still bears the image of what European city would look like to me even until now after i saw a real European city myself. The video color was sephia. As it turned there was two videos for this single, and what i saw was the other video than the one where Bono and the band was shown on recording. I didnt even know that what i was hearing was U2 at the first place, i just know it was a good song. I remember the vocalist, crouching on a stage, singing to only a couple of audiences sitting. He has the long back, short-sided, 80’s rock hair cut. There was something stirring about the way he sang, it seemed…effortless. He screamed, and dance, and mum-ming with this incredible outcome seemed without any real effort, like it was natural for him to do it. Years later, i found out that his name is Bono, and his band is one i would find adoring for the rest of my life til now.

This day, Pride was not on the stereo. It was sanged. By the man i saw back then on my bulky-old Sony video cassette. He was older now, somewhat fatter, short haired. But i know it was still him. It was not as effortless as it used to be when he sang in his younger years, but that was HIM. He put a space in my mind for him years ago, now as though he came to take it back, to remind me back that "im still here". It’s nice to meet him again, even as we are separated far away by mass of people and stage…Bono, nice to meet you..!

"In the naame of love! what more in the name of love!" shouted the crazy decibel of the crowd. "One man come in the name of love, one man come and goo….IN the nameee of lovee, what more in the name of love!!" i lost the means to comment anymore.

Crowds had a blast of a party that night, but theres more to come. One.

‘One’ harmony was one that creeps little by little into your nerves and senses. First twice maybe it may sounded pretty dismissable, but third and fourth would start to sound strangely disturbing, after the fifth and the next, you would find yourself amazed to the power of the song. That was my experience with the song. At lastly, like now, i find the song as monumental as any masterpieces from the best rock band. on par with stairway to heaven even.

the slow, deep, compressed anger, dissatisfaction, were what the songs breaths. it was not a regular song, you can’t really classify it as a pop song due to its depth nor a rock song for its lament characteristic. it actually transcends the necessity of being classified as a normal genre of music itself. this kind of song fill its own genre of songs. the genre that deserved to be named after a deep engraving appreciation for its strength. masterpieces.

in the crowd, One always regain life of itself. when the crowd sings them together, it was like a multitude of energy beaming from an omni-directional pattern like a big giant bird unleashing from the crowd to the space. bringing with it spirits, none one ever witnessed before he/she was part of that crowd. a little magical moment of magic that enriches a mere mortal’s life.

bringing everybody to the ground was an exit of the band, signing a time for encore.

Not long, they came back, for the first encore. Zoo Station.

Now, did you ever wonder why they named it Zoo Station? Well it far for coincidence. Zoo Station was a name of a central station in Berlin. At length it was called Zoologischer Garten Bahnhof, which means Zoo (Garden) Station. It was named that because this station was build near the zoo in the central of Berlin. this station was picturized once in one of my dearest video of U2, the Stay (Faraway So Close) video. There picturized the bus (i think it was BUS100), with a clear writing on the bus direction indicator on top of the windshield, Zoologischer Garten.

I know the place well. It was my main point of transfer when going from somewhere to another-where in Berlin. I held the memories of the station so dearly. It was understandably touching for me to see how the city, and the station i was heavily connected to was dedicated as a name of a U2 song, which now being sang in the same city it was taken its name from, in the concert which i now experience myself. Mindblowing altogether again.

In this song, screens show a big Z letter animated with great reddish colors all over the screen as well as other things. Of particular interest was Bono wore a costume of a train-machinist, complete with the train machinist hat. in this song, he grew quite out of control (usually McPhisto, Bono’s "alter ego" would appear at the older tours), screaming to the prepared camera on top of Edge’s equipment as i had mentioned previously. Nearing the end, he shouted a interesting phrase most familiar to Berliners "Zoo Bahnhof, Zoo Bahnhof!", as if calling the last of the passengers to board the train.

Then came the cheeky, licking, The Fly. Also a reminiscent of the past and the joy of Achtung Baby! The Fly came soaring triumphantly through the show, bringing everybody to proper rock bottom stadium consciousness. The duality of Bono seems pretty apparent in the chorus. Another of those Bono’s mysterious ways!

Going from The Fly, the band flowed back to Joshue Tree days bringing us the ultra-classic, the song that must not be left of EVERY U2 CONCERT. With or Without You.

Typical U2 With or Without You scenario: A lady was lucky. She was taken out of the audiences and brought on stage to be hugged and ear singed by Bono. The same procedure here in Berlin. This time the lady was a lady from the front of the stage sporting a T-Shirt with a big The Ramones logo on it, Bono’s role model band. For a couple of minutes of the song, Bono sang by her, by her ear, like a lover whispering sweet words to his partner. Lucky indeed..

With or Without You’s anthemic characteristic as with most other U2 masterworks formed out of a big vowel singing somewhere in the song, signature and contribution of Bono to the world. in this case it was the letter was O, in Elevation the letter was U. The vowel unsurprisingly turned out to be a simple one to be followed by fans. with the vowel extreme simplicity, U2 quite fond of synthesizing this as a point of major singalong of their concert. So, as expected, With Or Without You was a big singalong song highlight of the concert. In the middle of the song, the crowd practicly sang the vowel part ‘O’ by themselves only letting Bono guided the first early part. it was amazing. appart from the notion that this is just the band’s wit to light the spirit of the fans, it was still amazing.

by this time, it was closing to the end. they made their second exit, and that means the next encore was the third appearance and that, most of the time,will be the last one.

as expected, the band showed up again, as planned. they immediately launched into another new song from their new album. All because of You. Good songs, not quite catchy enough for a single, but a conventional ol’n'pumpin rocking will do. Then comes an unfamiliar new song which later i would recognized as Yahweh. Then all of the sudden, like a bell of schooltime’s end, Vertigo came bursting again from the speaker. it was a taste of ending, and we rock it hard. As the band finishes, they came all on the front of the stage, applaused the fans, then exit. Bono said thank you repeatedly "danke danke danke" as if he really needed to do that for us. then the confirmation sign "the end" pop on the screen. unbelieveably.

as it was already the third appearance after two exits, and the disturbing the end thing keep blaring on the screen, we just had to realize it was over. it was hard to accept, that the party’s over, that it would take the next album to get them back here again performing at this scale, that it might be the last time i able to watch U2 at least in Berlin. But, life goes on, at least differently beginning from that night. as i was trying to sum it all up, i’d like to quote a message someone sent for U2 for the Berlin show that night that i think can pretty much sums up my un-said-able feelings:

"How can I live normally my life now??? This is going to be really really hard…I miss you so much already!! U2 you are sooo good so so good!! I wish you to go on as far as you want and can!! I hope I’ll see you again soon and until then I hope the world will change (in the right way) even if it’s not much still better than nothing…
Take good care you’re the BEST there can be in this world and in all possible way!!! Walk on and we’ll walk along!!"

a little bit more than a week ago i had a psychological remediation. it was the kind of things that entrenches deep satisfactory feeling hold true for only very few things in this short-span time of life. the bulging of emotional eruption as thousands of people are feeling the same. the sheer heat of bodies of masses of people jumping together, commanded by a unity of songs flowing from the heroes of the 21st centuries, radiating with it an atmosphere of intense joy and excitement and also escapement to a totally atypical state you would normally engage in your ordinary life.

behold ladies and gentlemen, this is a U2 concert..

it started, the adventure started at 3.30. as my amazement come to reality, i had to walk pretty far away to get to the olympia stadion. there was no direct U-line going down to Olympia Stadion that day. Schedully arriving at - at least - 3pm must be re-itinerated to 3.30, composing the constipation for the 30 minutes left-time before gate-entry. during the walk, especially nearing the big stadium, a lot of people were selling tickets, some looked like a typical fan, some looked like a homeless chap. the wheather was pretty cloudy, sensing a forthcoming rain. and near the gate, some loyal fans had already lined up producing a bunch of crowds covering the vision to the exact gate-entry.

as i was walking down, my mind was occupied about my camera. whether it is allowed to bring in there or not. i know it supposed to be allowed - at least oasis did - but a couple of days later during conversing with Amesh i just realized that there was this miniscule writing on my tickets that said, i quote: das mitbringen von….. Ton-, Film-, und Videokameras…ist untersagt. that means, the bringabout of Sound, Film, and Video Recorders are not allowed. S*it i know, but nevertheless i still keep my hopes high. until the real day that is…

i was getting increasingly nervous back then. i was wondering what to do if they won’t allow me to get past the gate if the cameras are indeed, un-compromisably not allowed. i was looking around for some shops, figuring would it be feasible to post the cameras there during the show if - just if (i didnt even want to say it our loud) - i couldn’t get in. but, looking by the hectiness of the shopkeeper and the apparent intentional mis-usage of shop service, i hold my horses. i didnt want to lose the camera after all.

so i decided just to get on with it to the gate, what the hell i think. i mean they should have prepared some place to leave these cameras right? if they’re not allowing to come through.. S*it i thought, its not the strongest logic. but, what the F**k, i didn’t have anymore ways.

my depression was increasing every minute. then suddenly a hope showed through. the announcer said: beers and foods are allowed to get it, handy’s also, and cameras..if..it doesnt have a zoom function and its qualified as compact (camera). at least some hope of bringing the camera in, i thought. at 4.00pm we sluggishly moving in. then come my part to get examined. i come to him (the examiner/gate keeper) for a body check, and - when he asked for a look inside the bag - i showed it to him, and initiatively point out that i had two electronics, one is my PDA and the other a small, amateur, harmless (=>) lttle camera. he looked at it for a while - the moment of truth -……"okay, its okay, viel spass". my smile flourish naturally.

passing inside the gate, i feel excited already seeing the sheer size of the Hertha Berlin’s mainground. it was - as any grand stadium in a big modern city - HUGE. i saw still a lot of people getting examined. they came - so many of them - with their signature indication of loyalness to the U2 cult, the T-shirt. Some were wearing an Elevation tour tees, some were Popmart tees, some were (more fanatically) Zooropa tees, and some - very few some - wears the Rattle and Hum tours which legitimately puts them on the top few of the extreme U2 freaks.

shifting away from those envying tees, my attention went to the official merchandise post. i was looking for something as a memorabilia, but i still dont know what,…rephrase, i do know what but that depends on the price =P. then, i looked at the price. s*it! maan, it was 30 euros for a T, a little bit upward, a jacket cost 70 euro! i mean thats like more than the ticket man! pheeww, calm down, maybe i should think twice on buying here. consequently, what i did was just standing there bewilderedly for a couple of minutes, then leave.

immediately i was back on course, to get as secure and fast as possible a good place to watch the biggest band on the world. i kinda half-ran to the circle building trying to find my entry (the stehplatz or the standing-area entry). it was pretty far for the initial point of insertion to the building, maybe almost 90 deg rounding the stadium. a door keeper welcomes me with english to my presumed entry. inside was the first time i looked into a stadium outside of my country.

it was grand. a big field stretching and fixating the focal point of a incredible of mass of seats. this is probably how it would feel to see the Circus Maximus of the Roman era. i was walking astoundedly, when i saw this rush of people running to the stairs down and toward the field. i thought whatta…then i realized..the field was divided into two parts, the inner parts and the outer parts, both are bounded by a double barrier fence and hefty amounts of security guards. and people i saw was running, naturally, to the inner part. this place was fixed in amount of people and provide the best spotting place for the band, just the kind of place i came here for. woop better run now!

congested a bit in the inner part entry, i managed to get into the inner circle, there were a lot of people lying there, sitting, drinking, some even sleeping. just like your ordinary normal Woodstock event. i hang around by the inner fence for a while just to get the hang of "hanging" around before concert, and also predicting carefully where i would position myself during the show.

time passes by really slowly to 1800 hrs - when the show supposed to start. i felt it, others are too. to cope with it, they made a silly and simply fun-loving behavior. they make "waves".. and when i mean ‘they’ here means around 50 thousand people, standing when they are supposed to and waving their hands in the air as their foregoing counterparts finished. in the end it was simply mindblowing. as if all these people are one giant family. after the last part of the audience finished the wave in total, they clapped their hands hinting a respect for the good show that They themselves made. this..is what i called the highest level of honor and respect to others. a sign of a great civilization.

closing to 1800 hrs, finally we saw some signs of real activity up there on the stage. the first opening band is about to play. now, i don’t really know anything about Kaiser Chef beside its strange name that sound like a retail chain in Germany but hell theyre hot..and funny. the vocalist sporting this somewhat bohemian suit and damn-short tie, were really funny chap that knew how to communicate with people. at one part of the show, he asked the audiences to clap together following his silly-face-and-hat keyboardist Peanut. then Peanut started to clap at every 4th beat of a song, followed by the loud clapping of crowds, signalling the crowd-participation trick worked. He was fun - the vocalist whom named im not familliar of. With the arsenal of contemporary punk songs, he can really scream and made fun at the same time by going back forth between left and right of the stage super-energetically. Pretty soon, the 6-7 songs set was over. before signing off, the band shouted: give it up for U2!!!!

much to my and everybody else’s annoyance, before the next band showed up (which didnt exactly very needed since we’re getting really impatient right now), we had to wait for another dismantle and disassemble of band equipment. oh it was so boring! people are sitting down, careless about the floor that was real dirty after being poured by rain and stumbled below hundreds of dirty footsoles. then was around 1900 hrs. at about 1930, Snow Patrol came up.

Snow Patrol appearance quite startled me. Since i knew this band for his induction in our Hard Rock FM top 41 during my occupation in HRFM Bandung. His signature song Chocolate is my point of remembrance to this band. A sense of exciting britrock came playing in my ear. Sheer lot of fun. As the bands last song, they played their signature Run. i loved it immediately. i remember this song was the closing song in one of the Live 8 concert commercial that assembles lyrics from a lot of artists as text written over the length of commercial while pictures of dying Africans was shown.

enough for the opening bands, we’re in the stage of craving right now. another waiting has to be faced. while the Snow Patrol’s equipment had to be disassembled, my feet was killing me already, urging me to do the inevitable, sit on the already dirty floor. long faces were seen everywhere even more than before. some people are trying to summon their friends closer together by waving some coloured thing they could find, while informing their friend through handy to look around for it.

closing to 2030 hrs, the stage is already cleared. leaving only equipments for U2. there was this big umbrella for Mullen Jr., a set of amp (usu. Vox AC30) belongs to Edge, the guitars and basses are already there. there’s an interesting little camera installed on an equipment, carefully aligned to focus at the center stage area, presumably for Bono. the last guy, maybe the equipment manager, a chap looking experienced, checking and going around here and there repeatedly around the stage. we somehow knew this would be the last checking but still we insist on being impatient.

I still remember the scenes from U2 Popmart Tour whom videos i had for years. And on that video i saw the band making entrance to the stage by way of going through the people. it was truly awesome, and the intention of the band going through people is just jaw-dropping. i wanted that to happen now. =) wishing…. hmm,….though there is no sign of whatever routing through the audiences made available. naaah, i guess that wouldn’t happen, i wasnt that lucky to experience Popmart and that kind of megashow only happens once in U2’s life, so i let it go.

At 2050 hrs, after a second series of "waves" among the fans, and tiresome longfaces. an eruption came among the audiences. a loud very loud claps turned up. i was trying to make sense of what happen. next thing i know, without any sound nor any visuals, Bono, Edge, Mullen Jr., Clayton one by one went into the stage from the back, then start saluting the crowd.

wow..looking at them in person for the first time in my whole life, ultra cool maan! cheers U2….!

to be continued…

SOMEBODY SHOULD TAKE NOTICE ON LABELS!!!!

more than ever now, the means of categorizing music is growing larger. not only you look music at their artist only, their genres only, or their participation in a certain compilation only, now you can look on an artist from the label it was sheltering in.

this is very important, at least for you music lovers out there. why? because it gives you new perspective in seeing and seeking music. labels, now, is the manifestation of the founders idea translated into a collection of artists that generates between them a red line. if you can find that red line, may it as simple categorization as just "good electronic" in your mind, you will conjure the knowledge of understanding the whole spectrum of the music of the artists united under the label. the direct consequence usually is, due to understanding, you get an injection of true self-founded new knowledge in music.

here is a couple of points good in understanding a label’s "red line":

1. you’re easier to recognize the flavor of the new artists breeded by the label.
2. you have a largest chance and less risk in finding good music, especially when youre just blindly pinpointing an artist in a label, by generally knowing what kind of music the label proposed.
3. you can categorize labels, and map the current on-the-market label. more expertise.
4. you will grow a certain personal empathical relationship with the label due to understanding of its journey as newer and newer breed of the labels born out. this translates to growing loyalty that brought you continous attention to the label.
5. and if, on very seldom occasion, you find the label which "red line" fits you, it feels like finding a soulmate…

understanding label would be a higher level of appreciation of music. its a more advance way to explore music and understanding music. labels are growing as the aspirations of people keep developing. there is a massive hot pot in the middle of the underground music that creates a spiralling mutualistic support to the members attributed to it, to keep and continually evolve and produce MUSIC, promising to us all the listener an ever growing ever continuing birth of new music and production.

if you can grasp the mental red line of one of these labels, means youre finding out first hand what the evolution and movement is all about. im talking about the evolution and movement of underground non-commercialization music which are based on people with true love for music not money. im talking about the silent revolution of underground music. the revolution that is now, right at this minute, expanding its wing under our nose beyond our consciousness to ubiquituously fill every space in our social life, even the closest smallest living space most familiar to us, our living room. im talking about electronica.

want me to proove how important is this revolution will or have been:

1. every store or cafe or malls now plays the ubiquitously available so called "lounge" cds
2. numerous commercials are extorting "lounge" music to leverages up their state of hip and coolness, determined subjectively of course but you get the sense.
3. the rise of small bars and cafes with "lounge concepts" into a behemoth and totally respected name in the society, take for instance buddha bar
4. the ridiculous sale and exposure of Hed Kandi releases to the world, accompanied by its ultra cool and unimitable Hed Kandi woman + man posing cartoon, just look at your nearest distributors, they’re there.
5. the design impact Hed Kandi’s cover designer Jason Brooks to every hip-trying shop designers and mall decorators. sometimes so much they take, they make me feel pretty ill.
6. the ubiquity of lounge cds
7. the radios are creating a special own show playing heavily "lounge" music
8. the jargons and the sudden preference of people, even attribution of people to lounge music. sometimes makes me sick also, followers!
9. the very surprising emergence of a certain "lounge" deep house artists such as Sova, and not forgetting the long gruelling prophets of funk in Indonesia such as Humania. the Sova appearance triggers our memories back from old much more advance than their time electronica group, Electronic Groove
10. the list will go on….

i hope that list was enough to confirm you that something is "moving", and its "moving" fast. and labels….are the ultimate advocate and defender of this movement. if you can grasp them, in terms of understanding the labels conception, by finding out by yourself and not by reading through the labels promotional description, you can get yourself to the forefront of the movement, be the enlightened people, realize the immense but gripping powers these labels have through their portfolios of artist, and acknowledge how these labels are the interface of the future. a new way of classifying good music.

forget about sony, forget about universal, forget about bmg, forget about emi. they are just take-all labels. even if they were once great, now they are trapped by the notion of "MONEY". they dont have any red lines, whatever makes good money thats what matter. so dont bother finding any red lines on these labels. there are none.

to understand more the difference between those kind of labels (sony, bmg, etc) and the so-called underground labels, you have to incorporate the notion of passion and idealism in here, something which the big labels wouldnt have due to their over-arching, sometimes disgusting, indulgence to cash flow and filling shareholders expectations. the underground labels started with the intention of bringing good music out to the world. they intent to because they feel the need to. not because anybody or any shareholders pushed them too. they feel the need to because they know theyve got something in their hand to be shared to other people. why would they want to share to other people? because it is such a beautiful thing….  as you can see it all comes down to a very simple thing, a beauty, a love, a passion to share. it is the essence of art, to be shared, to be cherished together..

im a big worshipper of naked music label (home of lovetronic, blue six, miguel migs, andy caldwell, aquanote, gaelle), im a big addict of acid jazz records which now have, as far as i know, dont put out anymore releases, causing the old releases to become raritites and collectables, im a big admirer of the electic and dub-inflected eighteen street lounge label (thievery corporation) label, im a big heavy thumbs-upper to the irma label in italy, known for exporting its heavy funky, soulful, and sometimes sophisticated electronica compilation. im an accessory to the label mole listening pearls for introducing me to a whole new world of electronica, so advance, so ominuously gripping parts from other genres, it totally blows my mind. other things need to mention here are my big respect to nuphonic label, astoundingly blurring also the boundaries of funk and electronica, the om records for being the early founders of deep house and lounge compilation and lastly, the little known ultra bachelor-mansionly hip and chilling italian schema records.

today just had my another one of my final test for this second semester. it had been a couple of days waiting, and now its over. i feel pretty relieve.

the course name is multicultural management. it taught us something about cultures, its fundamental theories and jargons, and how to handle whenever times these culture difference become a problem.

the thing about the test about this things are, among other social studies, could be heavily subjective. yeah, i mean everybody could have their own thought when asked for instance, "what do you think that this guy inner reaction when the woman keep saying no?" therefore, its a tricky test. On one hand you got a hell of liberty to write whatever comes in your mind, but on the other hand, you got absolutely no idea what the teacher is looking for in our answer. because simply there are no basic right or wrong. in studies such as cultural, it all about perception and man is allowed to have different opinion because he has a perception that is uniquely different that anybody else. if you get what i mean..

yesterday, actually two days ago, i watched probably the biggest concert in history watched by probably 3 billion people across the globe. the live8.

it was staggering and i almost missed it. if not for some my friends who said yes they wanna come and accompany me, i would probably just stay at home cooking, and missing probably one of the closest event global people has come to make a revolution.

its like the french revolution man! its like any revolution for that matter. it literally involve millions of people in 8 biggest cities and doctrinize them with one single concept : Make Poverty History! this is a massive undertaking and its totally a poor thing if you miss the party cause i tell you something, you wanna be a part of this.

you know their reason is right. you know it deep inside your heart. you know that asking debt for a country who could barely feed its people is nonsense, and nothing more than greed and lust for money. you couldn’t justify that, but those people who works for you at the top which you call your leader can..and why?? because they need more and more and more money to get them to keep elected for one thing. its political man..you know it, and its your turn to say..

being there, along with the other 250 thousand people in Brandenburger Tor, and another millions in other major cities, directly linked by satellite, really really stirs you the feeling that probably Bob Geldof had felt it a lot earlier and therefore brought him to build this mega-concert for humanity..that is the feeling of pity, sympathy, and urge to help the African countries.

if i got to feel that way, then i would say: Sir Bob Geldof, you did it! you had influence people..

its just simply amazing to see what could happen if people focus their mind on something.

brad pitt in london, will smith in philadelphia, a-ha in berlin, paul mccartney in london, nelson mandela in johannesburg, all shouting the same words: destroy poverty! its a transcendental cooperation across boundaries of professional and entertainer and celebrities. i mean if all of them are saying the same thing, then there’s gotta be something right?

you can’t keep thinking nothings wrong….

by this theme, the party’s happiness and hoopla suddenly got an extensive injection of meaning. it levers up the intensity of this event, from just a mere collection of millions of people partying at the same time (which that itself already extraordinary) to a sacred purposeful event of humanity. suddenly theres another reason to yell and shout and scream. to move those G8 leaders’ ass to do something for africa.

however the outcome of this massive event, that is whether the leaders will get moved by this humongous concentration of the will of the people, it does prove one thing, people could be moved to such extent. and if the leaders knew the consequence of ignoring this, then they wouldnt ignore it, they shouldn’t..