Seeing Arctic Monkeys live in Jakarta, 2023
Finally got to experience the commuter crush in Jakarta. As a friend put it: "Now you know what the KRL rush hour in Jakarta feels like." Yup, that sums up seeing Arctic Monkeys live in Jakarta on 18 March 2023.
It was the same promoter as the Cigarettes After Sex concert, and some things were so similar that I ended up in the scene you see in the photo above.
As someone who used to work in events, you could call it karma. It's so normal for the crew to just disappear when a show lets out, and this is how it ends up.
Personally I didn't have high expectations for this Arctic Monkeys show, because I knew they came to Jakarta on the tour for their new album, The Car. So I knew my favourite album (Suck It and See) wouldn't make the setlist.
But apart from that, I finally got to see Alex Turner and the rest of Arctic Monkeys live.
The AM show was at Ancol International Beach City Stadium, a good fit for all of AM's many fans in Indonesia. Unlike the CAS show.
Concert recap
Too bad the promoter still made everyone exchange their tickets. So me, coming all the way from Bali, had no choice but to go back and forth to Ancol and book the hotel and flight for Friday. (I didn't want to exchange my ticket on the day.) No idea why the promoter did this, when at the CAS show you could just scan your ticket.
AM tickets were pretty expensive, though fair for AM. The shame is that with everyone paying the same price for CAT 1, getting a spot right at the front still came down to luck, because the promoter used queue numbers to let people in. Lucky those who got an early QN, since they got in first.
Same comment as last time: no alcohol on sale, and no cigarettes allowed. The cigarettes I get, since it's indoors, but still, no alcohol. Maybe that's just me, I often drink at concerts in Bali so I'm not used to it.
The venue was hot. Not sure why, even though it's indoors, you could really feel the heat. I can't imagine how hot the Arctic Monkeys crew must have been on stage, which might be why AM felt a bit rushed.
On to AM's performance: "Well let's just say that Brianstorm torn down the walls for the mosh pit." Yup, the crowd was so hyped, jumping around, that you could feel the stage shaking too. Part of me was scared it would collapse, but then I remembered that if a building sways like that, its foundations are good enough to take a lot of people jumping.
The setlist in Jakarta was the same as the other Asia tour dates:
- Sculptures of Anything Goes
- Brianstorm
- Snap Out of It
- Crying Lightning
- Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
- Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?
- Four Out of Five
- Arabella
- Cornerstone
- Do I Wanna Know?
- From the Ritz to the Rubble
- One Point Perspective
- Do Me a Favour
- Pretty Visitors
- Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
- Teddy Picker
- I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
- Body Paint
- There'd Better Be a Mirrorball
- 505
- R U Mine?
The standouts for me were Pretty Visitors and 505.
Pretty Visitors feels like it was written for concerts, so you really get the vibe hearing it live.
Shame that 505 got a special arrangement. At first I was confused about what song it was, until the lyrics came in and I realised it was 505. The arrangement also made 505 kind of lose its soul, when the chorus would have been amazing with the original arrangement.
Oh, and what impressed me most: the live sound was better than the recordings. Maybe because I listen on cheap headphones. But at this show, Alex Turner's voice was an eargasm.
On the way home I finally got my healthy 2km walk from the stadium to the east car park. It felt like walking somewhere abroad. Ancol has a beach (well, a lake) with a neat, tidy sidewalk.
Joe