mr sterile Assembly Malaysia/Java/Singapore tour 2006

Prologe:
Well, the idea to tour again had been festering away for a while. We had explored several options [Korea, Japan, Australia], but our plans took form once we wre visited by our good friends Chris and Hil, from the group Sabot - from the Czech Republic. They had arrived in NZ for their annual tour and delivered a most glowing review of their recent experiences in the country of Java. They said it was THE place to visit, warm, excouraging, excited people, & enthusiastic to have new music in their venues. Like all big decisions, we took no time at all and decided we would explore a trip to south-east Asia.

When Chris and Hil got back to CESTA, Tabor, they sent us a list of some useful contacts within the region. We promptly set forth to make ourselves known , and express our interest in organising a tour into their country.

Coincidentaly, we explored ticket prices with the local travel centre and as it turned out, flights to Java were on special, but not for much longer. Now, call us rash, but we decided to go for it. Us, the group who had not had one practice together, the group who had maybe 4-5 songs half practiced, decided to plan an international tour before we had even played once in our own town with this new lineup. Bold confidence. We asked around, and they all said yes. Jeff H, who hadn't heard own new tunes, and Dave, who hasn't yet been out of NZ. We also picked up Geoff F, who, upon recently selling and departing with a major piece of local history, decided a jaunt around S-E Asia with an aging avant-punk band is just what he needs. We figure he can take photos, shoot video, hang with the locals, learn to change guitar strings, and other useful occupations of an on-the-road rock-and-roller.

Tickets bought, with only hours to spare of the cheap deals, and heres me feeling smug that we managed to save a good amount of coin. DIY el-cheapo extrordinaire.

A cloud loomed over the horizon the following week when I opened the news paper to see in the Yogyakarta region Mount Murapi threatening to go Krakatoa on us. 'It's months away' I thought, 'please don't blow' was my other thought.

A week seemed to pass with minimal excitment on the volcanic level, and here was me thinking things were cooling down, when 6.8 on the ricter scale rocked Bantul, south of Yogyakarta. A death toll in excess of 5000 people. A terrible and tragic event. Communication went down with Ojie, the man on the ground in Yogya. It seemed things were looking pretty grim, priorities were, rightly and appropriately so, based on life support, housing, and restoring living conditions to those affected. Our trip paled greatly in significance to this event.

But a couple of weeks later, Ojie got back in touch, and he still seemed optimistic that we might be able to perform in Yogya, although, he said, most of the bars were still broken.

Back home, we realised we could also help out by raising some extra cash to help with relief and aid. So we set about organising a fundraising show, with money going to a group in Bantul, based from one of the Universities, who are helping on a grass-roots level, repairing and rebuilding, and distrobuting goods, food, and material possesions i.e. blankets etc. A show was also organised in Auckland after I asked on a local website if there is an other interest in other centres regarding helping out with this cause. Good on them. Both shows happened on the same night, August 14 2006

The organising continued, communication started to heat up, and plans looked like they were becoming formal. Then one day, after the previous day emailing everyone in the organisation loop, we recieved an email in Indonesian. We thought it was someone translating our prewvious communications, BUT, it was Piping from Surabaya, who realised that the tour was completely at the start of Ramadan. It was explained to us that because of this religious festival, people were unavble to eat between sun up and sun down, drick booze, congregate for entertainment purposes. Venues went to ground for the month, audiences dried up, and touring was a BAD idea
This was a disaster unfolding. We thought we had checked at festival/holiday dates. None of the websites we looked at evcen mention Ramadan. We were floored. Frantic tapping on the keyboard ensued to see if we could salvage the tour somehow as it looked like it was in ruin. After a couple of days though, with the choice liasing with the airline, we figured we could bring the whole trip forward and just miss the start of Ramadan. This works out for the best because [although to change the flights was costly] we ended up with more time away.

Back on track, and the tour plans developed smoothly. So far, no further disaster has appeared. So focus renewed, we got back to the task of planning and fund raising. We held a nice wee gathering, a fair in fact, at our local community center in Newtown, entailing a cake stall, stilt-walkers, lollies, lollies, lollies. We got to play a nice wee set to a roomfull of 4 year olds, and made a nice sum to help us with our travel arrangements once off-shore.

So huge thanks to all who helped out on the day. This is a wee vid clip to get a small idea of what the afternoon was like.

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Sep 7 Thurs Auckland,@The Odeon
Right, it's Friday morning now and I'm[kieran] sitting in the AK airport awaiting our flight to KL. The show last now was a brilliant start to the tour. A really nice show , the Klezmer/eastern European Benka Borodovsky were fantastic, and a good choice in prelude to us. We played at the Odeon, a venue that I have wanted to play at for quite a while, seeing that in its history it use to be a funneral palor. A very warm and encouraging turn out, well done Joshua for pulling it all together. And also a huige thanks to John and Lucy for letting us all, once again, crash over at your place. We also got to do a very good interview on the bfm radio station which can be listened to here due to the power of the internet. Very impressed by the interviewer, Simon, asked very good questions. Makes quite achange from the usual unprepared drival that I've dealt with in the past. Threw me a little to be honest. Lovely way to start the trip

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So what happens next is the flight, 12 uneventful hours on a plane with Many terrible films to watch, food, and the occasional nap. We arrived in KL and made it through customs with no hassles, and we went to wait for our contact Joe Kidd. We sat outside the airport and waited. Then happily, he arrived. In 2 taxis we took off to Joe's, and his partner I'Laan's, place in the center of KL. Dumped bags then off for dinner at 10PM their time, but ourbody clocls were at about 4AM . We ate at an open air market and were well fed on rice, curry, and introduced to Teh Tarik, sweet tea made with condensed milk.

Okay. I'm quite behind now in my diary, sorry, internet connection has been kinda sporadic. And the little time I've had has been catching up with the next leg of the tour.
So far , I can say nothing but that this is SUCH an amazing trip.

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Sep 9 Sat Kuala Lumpur, INDEPENDENT AS HELL #6 / HANDS THAT MOLD #2, @Tunestone Studio, Klang
Picking up where I left off, we had arrived in KL. Well, the next day it was of to a port town called Klang. Brilliant name. This is the independent as Hell show, it took an hour on the train to get to this place, squeeze sardine-style into 2 cars and off to the venue. Torchstone records, abot 3 stories up in a medium sized room. There are about 12 bands on the bill, and we were third. The show opened with a Ramones cover band, stunningly executed. Very hot space, loads of studs and the occasional floppy mohawk [might of had something to do with the torrential downpour just pre-show]. We didn't get to see all the bands playing as we had to get back to KL by train. Once back in KL we went to an amazing street FULL of amazing food, we ate very well.

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Sep 10 Sun Kuala Lumpur, AN EVENING IN PERIL, KL Jam Asia, Sri Hartamas The next day it was off to the KL suburb of Sri Hartimas. A much more traditional bar/venue one story up. Less bands on this bill, but they played from acoustic Smiths covers to the very cool and noisy Akta Angkasa. A minor drama before the show as the money machine swallowed both mine and Chrissie's money card. This dictated the following days actions before we were to catch our flight to Java. But fortunately, we retrieved the cards with no problem, caught up with the others at KLSentral train station and then caught our flight to Java.

Here's a vid from Joe Kidd's website, Ricecooker. He's our man on the ground in KL and chief organiser. Described by a shared friend as the Chris Knox of Malaysia [if your from NZ you'll know what that means]. But I think hes much cooler than that. A very active guy dedicated to the local scene, has been around since the start of punk in KL, hell, it seems he was very instrumental in the way the scene developed over the years. And partner I-laan [who actually shot the film] is a brilliant person as well, film maker, photographer, artist, lecturer. An amazing couple!!!

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Sep 11 Mon Jakarta- @The Eastern Promise, w/ The Wild Zeros, Jalur Pantura, A Famous, & In Memoriam. Her Spring Holiday

Now, boarder crossings always make me a little nervey. What if they turn us away??[my worst fear]. We passed through customs with greasy ease. A pointy moustache makes many smile, very handy from time to time. We are collected by Chris Holm and Tommy, the bassist in Chris's band called The Wild Zeros. We wander around for a while attempting to get a taxi for 5 mostly Very tall whiteys. In disguise? Not likely. But transport secured then it was off to the venue called Eastern Promise. Kind off odd, a gothic engilsh looking pub for ex-pats in downtown Jakarta. But a super friendly welcome, a sound check and a couple of beers.
We then went for an devine feed at a resturant made off wood and open to the environment, and the food was amazing. Insidfe the resturant was tranquil and tasty, outside, chaotic, crowded crowded crowded, and a driving style like none other - find a hole and make your vehicle fit, accompany with a liberal usage of the horn and your sweet as!
Back to the venue and the show was under way. The venue itself is an open air stage, loads of people milling around and watching the show. The highlight for me was a group [unsure of their name] performing to DJs, about 20 performers all dressed up in various costums, Im guess of local stereotype. they we all dancing to a style of music called Dungdut which, as I understand it, is music that is listened to by Javanese truck-drivers who drive along a certain route. Very weird disco, loads of vocalising going on by the performers. It was fantastic! Chris's group reminded me of a mix between 60's Brit pop and Lenord Cohen/Nick Cave with a sense if humor.

We crash the night at Chris's place, then up in the morning then into the POOL. How very rock 'n' roll. But it was brilliant and well needed as the temperature was creeping up to constant-sweating-level. We then went and had rice-porridge for breakfast, spicy,, and attracting the attention of the local kids in the kampong[sort of village/suburb]. We seem to be very ammusing. Bacj to Chris's and pack to catch our train to Bandung for a couple of days off. We're feeling like we need it, as after the Bandung show, things are solid till after the Singapore show. There is even some talk from Ika, a local in Jakarta, about perhaps another show in Jakarta when we return. So its going to be pretty full-on. It's hard to believe that that is anymore possible.
We board our train and depart, its a beautiful ride through mountains and rice fields, and very crowded dwellings, densly packed, and a vast spectrum of squallor. But it seems the there are industrios people everywhere, on every street people are attempting to eek out a living in one way or another. By have roadside food stalls, guiding cars in and out of parking spots, selling water/cigarettes/newspapers/food in the middle of the road. Hard living here for many, many people.

OK, now loading pictures is a little difficult to computer access. BUT i will do this as soon as its possible, we have heaps of pictures and some video footage so far.
Anywhos, we arrive in Bandung and are most warmly greeted by Susan, Ari, Norman, and some other who, most sorry, I have forgotten you names. We get our departure tickets to Yogyakarta, then cram into the vehicle and off to ULTIMUS bookstore which is to be our venue in a couple of days. After locking our gear away, we take off for some more of that most exellent food of which there still seems to be no shortage of taste variety...mmmmmm. We're then taken by Norman and Ari to Ari' grandmother house high in the hills somewhere. Beautifully built in a traditional Indonesian style[for Bandung I guess]. We spend some super relaxing time just hanging out with Emma, Ari, & Norman, visiting Sudanese music performances, and visiting a 300 year old coffee shop in downtown Bandung. Mountains of beans aging till there 8 years old, and machinery built in 1936. We stayed that night at Fahmi's and his wife home, closer to the city. Fahmi used to run the iFolution venue in Bandung with Susan. Beautiful hosts, and we get to taste the coffee we brought, mmmm. We're not getting to much of this sort of brew here at the moment, so its most welcome.

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Sep 14 Thurs Bandung, Java, @ULTIMUS book store
Next day, show day. Down to Ultimus. Its all very exciting. Ari and his crew have organised a week long microfestival, focused on activist D.I.Y skill sharing, exibition event. We at the venue at about 11. Ultimus seems to have an Islamic bookskop out front , and an activist type bookshop down the back. But all books are in Bahasa Indo, so I can't tell you much about them. Around the back of the store is a small punk distro music shop and an open courtyard which is to be the venue. There is a HUGE PA. The first act is a happy Emo-type sounding group called Sunny Sunday. Following them are local political hip hop Eye Foot Six, which was later joined by the singer from another local Hiphop act called Homocide. Homocide appear to be a big act, and a very cool CD of which we have a few copies to later stick in the skirted shop. We got ready while the flipperesque A Stone A play. the 4th band is called Punklung, a punk group using traditional Indonesian Aunklung type instruments and singing local songs of protest and resistance. A lot of crowd participation in the singing department. Then we played a pretty good set, really happy with it. And at the end of this set chrissie invited members of Punklung to come and improvised with us, the singer from Eye Foot Six and Homocide both came onto the floor and joined in as well. BRILLIANT!!!! This is totally the sort of thing we want to be doing. Again, the words sung while we improvised we know to the audience so they were all singing along as well. Fantastic. And another amazing thing was hear that as soon as we stopped, the singing started to rise out of the mosque behind us. An amazing night, so much thanks and love to the people to sorted all this out for us.
Back to Fahmis for sleep then onto the train.

Performing the song Buru at the Ultimus Bookstore, Bandung.

Punklung at Ultimus bookstore in Bandung

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Sep 15 Fri Yogyakarta, Java - @Fisipol UGM
We catch the 7AM train to Yogyakarta, and are met at the station by Ojie, Akwin, and Martinus. We get into the habit of grabing our departing tickets before we leave the station. The station is also a 5 minute walk to the hotel that Ojie has booked for us, ahhh, beds for the night. We walk just around to a cafe where we have beer and food, chips, garlic bread. There is also a fantastic photographic exhibiton here, so me and Jeff F arrange to buy a couple of piece. The cafe workers make contact with the artist, he phones us, we go to meet him, Jeff F 1, & me 2 small beautiful picture. The exhibition has an excellent dialouge thru it of the impact of modernisation , the modern times , and what the Indonesian identity is and what it means in this changing context. Im much happier to spend my money on local art rather than the tourist paraphinalia that is everywhere. TYhe other side of that though that, since the quake earlier in the year and all hyped terrorist threats, the tourist trade has really drop off, immediately affect the lives of the people who depend on it for a living in a day-to-day way. A difficult and complex, complicated situation. A craving for familiar starch. We grab our gear in preparation, then Ojie takes us to a local drinking spot for some of the local liquor, mat are lain out on the footpath and we settle to some drinking for a bit, nice tasteing but lethal if too enthusiastic. Then its onto the venue which is at one of the oldest universities in the city, so I'm told. The space is a large open air gathering area, roofed but without walls on one of the main faces of the building. LOUD the show was, sound bouncing of large. shiny objects. The sudience all hang back, then we play and there a large movement of people to the front. For me , it was a hard show, the sound was a bit difficult, so more playing by brallie. Yogya does full-on hardcore extremely well, a full-on night. Excellent intensity.
After the show, another quick meal sitting on the footpath than back to the hotel for a rapid 4 hours sleep. We need to catch the 7AM train to Surabaya. Martinus wakes us, as as we walk, get ready, and sit drinking sweet tea, he tells us of his experiences of the Yogyakarta earthquake. There are still heaps of repercussions from the quake, the government has been slow to help, and kept less of its promises in this area. Still a lot of hardship.

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Sep 16 Sat Surabaya, Java, @Food Tunnel
We catch the train to Surabaya. Its about a 6 hour trip, and uneventful. We are collected at the station by Zen, Piping, and Eva, our hosts for the next few days. We are taken to their house which has an amazing screenprinting set-up in full swing, mass production on a collective level. Very impressive. I am introduced to Avacado juice, thick, green and yummy.

So, we're in Surabaya. We're told that after we play our set at the venue, Food Tunnel, we're to catch a train to Jember. The train leaves at 10PM. And as we find out about the local tradition of rubber time, the show doesn't start to quite a bit after the advertised time. This has been fairly standard up until now, but it felt a little more tight when playing to train timetables. Also, this is the night my guts begin to sing, I've been pretty lucky up until now. So, 5 minutes before we hit the stage and I've been to the bog twice, and I'm lying prone on the floor, guts spinning, head in sympathy, and I'm doubting how I'm going to pull this off. Step 1: reach for the medication, tonight Loperimide is my friend. Times up and we need to play. The venue is, as is named, a huge tunnel. In the day it house heaps of food stalls. And tonight it houses heaps of bodies coming out to see something like 16 bands. We hit the stage at about 9:15, rip out quite a good set surprising to a fairly huge audience. I guess the place might of had about 6-700 people. We do a quick encore, and pack and RUN! We stop playing at about 9.45, pack up gear, onto the back of a ute, through downdown Surabaya, dodging the cops and get to the station in time to catch the train.

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Sep 17 Sun Jember The train arrives, we board just after midnight and sleep till we get to the town of Jember, where we are met by Angga and his friends early, at about 0500. We then head of to his house and are able to catch a few hours sleep. We awake around 9am, and Angga is quite keen for us to start making a move, the reasons for this become obvious when he tells us that the show starts at 9AM, goes all day, and that there are 26 bands playing!!! So off we go, feeling slightly seedy, we head off to a local place to eat [which makes me think here that i haven't yet raved about the food here enough....there is some fantastic meals and heaps of good obtions for vegetarians], then off to the university hall where the show is on. Music is pumping out at 10AM and we arrive and theres loads of kids there, hardcore bands at full tilt, distros outside, and enthusiasm galore, irrepressible and infectious. At about midday, we decide to heads back to Angga's for a break, some food, the usual, and its then that we pass one of the music rooms at the 'varsity with what sounds like gamalan playing coming out. We head in to check it out. And it is, a gamalan set-up with some trad rock instruments. And they welcome us in. We get to improvise with them for a short while, and they then invite us to come back at 6pm to play further, and we eagerly accept. But before we go there are photos, photos, photos. Handshakes, and they offer us gifts of photos and illistrations. Overwhelmed we leave, chill out for a few hours and try to sort out our transport for the next few days which is going to be quite a juggle [we are exploring the option of returning to Jakarta by plane as the offer of another show there seems to be becoming a reality], and return. And we get to play with them and its brilliant, jeff on sax, chrissie on percussion and I play djembe and then later the drum kit. We play for about an hour, such a fantastic opportunity and experience. I cannot offer my thanks enough to the great people for allowing us into their space and wrapping us up so warmly

So we leave the improv space and head over to the venue where the show is heaving, , my guts is feeling a little the same way but the excitment wins over bodily function. It's a big crowd, somewhere in the hundreds, and we play last. We do our regular costume thing and make our way out. We are told that we are the first 'international' band to come and play in Jember. We set ourselves up and go, we are hampered by a few technical difficulties but we get by fine. The more amazing thing is that we are inundated with people on the stage, watching intently and just absorbing as much as possible. There was someone lying on the floor behind me for most of the show just watching my feet!!
Another thing about this show, and it seemed to be a pattern in most of the Java shows, was that our friend Angga told us each band had paid 35000 rupiah [thats roughly NZ$3] to play. This covers the organisational costs, equipment hire-such as drums and P.A. and the way the show was run was so that a door charge was in place only until all the costs had been covered and then it was free entry to whoever wanted to come in.

After the show we head across town to visit Eric, a local artist who specialises in woodcut. There was an amazingly beautifl protest flag hanging at the show inwhich Eric was one of a group of artists who had worked on this over three months. It depicted many stories and struggles of local in the face of the modern economy, very powerful. We head back to Angga by motorcycle, our main form of transportation in this town. Big us on the back of Vespa's with our guitars and drum gear in arms.
The following morning we chill out and prepare for our trip to Semarang, the start of a mad few days logistically in terms of transport and geography, we are about to zig-zag this country from south to north to south, then back East. The show in Jakarta is confirmed and after a bit of head scratching from Bandung to here, we conclude that flying back to Jakarta is the best option. We are able to buy cheap flights from here online. This will save us about 14-16 hours on a train, and means the Jakarta show is totally achievable. We visit Eric once more at his studio and get to do some woodcut printing brfore we leave. Again, another beautiful experience, we felt firmly tucked under the wing on Angga, our lovely host, who made us feel so welcome. Piping and Eva, from Surabaya, were also in Jember for the show, we make plans to meet them again in a few days in Blitar.

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Sep 19 Tue Semarang @Ours Cafe
The train takes 8 hours, first to Surabaya, a quick bus ride that connects us to a different train in a different station which then takes us to Semarang on the north cost. The second leg is a very bumpy uncomfortable ride. We arrive late, it's hot and muggy, and we're collect by Garna, our local organiser. We are taken through the streets of Semarang to our accomodation, which is a student hostel, and some of the students [who are also performing in tomorrows show] have vacated their rooms so we could have somewhere to sleep. Health issues strike the band once again. We shoot out for a quick bite to eat, then tuck up tight for the night. I'm still plagued by gripey guts but it doesn't seem to be slowing me down too much. Next day, we mooch around for a bit, attempt to sort out our tickets to Blitar. We need to catch a train tonight after the show, its just a matter of trying to figure out the availbility and times. We have a couple of choices but we're unable to book, we need to get them on arrival. Most of the coices involve swapping trains somewhere along the line, but there is one train that goes direct to Blitar. Except it leaves at 10PM and is economy class. that means no space, no air-con, no comfort. We accept.
The show was brilliant, very well organised, and at a venue called Ours Cafe. It has a juice barm gig space clothes shop, recording studio all built into this one house. Great audience, and heaps of them. But it's another play, pack and run affair. Very wonderful show. Thanks, thanks, thanks to Garna and mates for their help here. I was a little unsure about this show prior, just because of the travel complications, but I'm so glad we came and played. All my doubts melted away pretty damn fast.
At the train station the trains is late, by about an hour and a half. So we chill out on the platform chating to mountain hikers from all over Indonesia who are heading to the south-east to climb the second highest peak. It arrives eventually and we board for 8 hours of no sleep, no air-con, no comfort, jammed like sardines, balanced on top of our gear, and people strolling through ever 5 minutes trying to sell us coffee, water, or food. Jeff H. witnessed a pick-pockets bad luck at getting caught. A cheap-as-chips trip with an intense sensory element just for good measures. Masochistic I know, but I'm glad we traveled this way at least once. This is the way most travel most of the time.

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Sep 20 Wed Garum, Blitar, w/Gamelan collaboration
We survive the trip, and are collected by Pepenk. we met him in Jember, where his band Dog Boned played, great intense dual vocal hardcore. Blitar is small, and much slower than the bigger cities. We head back to Pepenk's house, some in the back of a van with the equipment, others on the backs on motorbikes. We are greated there by Pepenk's family members, including one very pregnant sister called Lestary, who has become a very good friend. But after the initial introductions, we all head of to bed again for a few hours sleep after such a sleepless night. We rise at mid-day and Pepenk takes us around to a great local eating spot, rice, tempeh, and the local special peanut sauce. Back to Pepenk's and we chill for a while, just talking and drinking coffee. The show is just down the end of the street in a large outdoor area next to the local communal hall. We can hear them sound checking from here. We all wander on down the gig-space and its a large dusty field. A stage constructed at one end with a home-made PA to one side. The stage is decked out with the traditional band instruments plus the percussion of a gamalan. This is the show I have been very excited about, it has been logistically difficult to make it all happen but we are here and it looks set to be amazing.

The show starts about 4-5 and there are a load of kids there already, they have come out after school. The first band plays and the mosh pit forms almost instantly, and I swear, it has to be one of the most intense mosh pits I have EVER SEEN! There appears to be no sense of self-preservation here at all. And it does not let up, till the end of the night it heaves and spasms, increasing in size and intensity. And when stickers are thrown into the throng its mayhem. I didn't see anybody get to hurt though, no bleeding noses noted. The crowd expands to we guess well over 1000 kids, some drinking, others taking part at the screen printing table, and hundreds taking in the music. So many hands shaken, so many photographs, so much enthusiasm.
We head back to Pepenks for a quick bite to eat then we get changed into our performance clothes, makeup on, and head on back to the show. Interest in our outlandishness only increases. We are the last band for the night. Our turn arrives and we set up, some equipment slightly disfunctional, a big thanks to the guy who stood holding the microphone to my mouth for the duration of the show. Some technical difficulties with sound had been plaguing the sound people but they made their best effort to make running repairs. We played, and there probably was 30-40 people standing on stage with us, watching, taking it in, and grinning. The mosh-pits moshed away. In all my years, I think this show has to take the prize for the most intense, full-on, and amazing event. Punk rock could not be more alive and well residing in East Java.

We finish our set of songs and depart, making way for the Gamalan to come and play some of their music before we collaborate. The collaboration randomly takes shape as we drift back onto the stage, and start to improvize along with the band, long pieces with quite a psychedelic feel. We switch instruments, playing percussion, gongs, the chimes, doing vocals, then onto drumkit. The improvising went places I didn't expect it to go, droping down to a blues type thingy at one point at the request of the local musos.

Finished, home to bed at Pepenks, exhusted. Up early, curry noddles for breakfast and then the most remarkable discussion with Chrissie, Lestary, and me[mutely] about the naming of babies. Pepenk has sorted out transport to get us back to the Surabaya airport to catch our flight to Jakarta. To ALL pile into a van, the driver, Pepenk, and us 5 plus gear. Its a squeeze for the following 5 hot hours. Mostly uneventful trip, apart from the one car crash midway, but no-one hurt so we continue on our trip. Arrived at the airport in good time, all aboard and off to Jakarta.

The hugest thanks here for the people of Blitar, to Pepenk and his family, to Piping, Eva, Zen who came to Blitar from Surabaya for the show, and all the others who made our stay such a memorable one. The warmth, the generosity, the inclusion, your commitment to your beliefs is inspiring, you are indeed amazing people and I am a better person for meeting you and being able to spend such a short, but richly precious time, with you.

Blitar, mr sterile Assembly collaboration with Gamalan, Garum Band.

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Sep Thursday 21: Jakarta - FREE SHOW
Flying was a great idea. We are met at the airport by Ika and Chris H. Were to play at the IKJ (Jakarta Arts Institute) tonight. We drop our stuf off at the IKJ, after over an hour in a taxi, the 5pm rush hour traffic Jakarta style. We go eat afterwards, more tempeh, tofu, rice, chilli. Health is hampering anothers health now, 4 down - 1 to go. And tonight my guts sing again, I thought I was on the upward slope, but nope, back down I go. It's hot tonight, and the airs thick with smog and humming with mozzies. The first band for the evening were great, although I cant remember their name. If you can imagine a sonic cross somewhere between Spongebob Squarepants and the Butthole Surfer, I think that gives a pretty good guestamate of their sound. I like. We play more by brallie tonight, the sound was hard to fathom, and I'm starting to get tired. This is the fifth night in a row with some pretty major travel inbetween. After the show we rock on back to Chris's place and sleep, sleep, sleep.
Wake for our last morning in Java, a swim in Chris's pool is divine!!!! Repack our gear for international flights then back to KL. Feeling pretty seasoned at all this jetseting by night.

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Sep Friday 22: Unclogged’s Rojak Sotong Buffet Dinner Dance Party!
Back in KL and it feels normal, was quite bewildered the fist night weeks ago, but now we swim through customs easily, get our bags, navigate the trains, and attend to our taxi need with not a drop of sweat in sight. We get ourselves a taxi and avoid geting ripped off by another offer, we're getting good at this. We're all in one cab, we decide to drop Geoff F. and Dave off at Joe's and the rest of us go to the venue, which is practically around the corner from Joe's and I-laans place. So nice to see them again. We eat and take part in beer [which my guts later protests much to my disapointment]. A very nicely set up show. The Rojac Sotong name was dubbed onto us by Joe, the NEW definition of our music:
ROJAK: It's a local disc that is made up of many different ingredients, that would not necessarily be compiled together into one single dish, and served up as a kind of stew I believe.
SOTONG: Octopus, so named after my drumming style.
A very enjoyable set by Ciplak, a bit of a local anomoly, 3 guys dressed up in trad womens muslim clothing playing fantastic semi-improv/noisy mayhem. Loved it.If they ever tour [which they should] then check them out. Jeff H. got to perform a improv sax set with the drummer from Ciplax and a couple of sax players - great. Again we played last, Chrissie invited other performers from the previous acts to come and improv with us. The sax plays, Ciplak's trumpeter, other guitars, and this guy Ben. A great cacocphony!!! A splendid last performance in KL

Vid of Ciplak, filmed by either Joe Kidd or I-Laan.

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Sep 23 Sat Singapore, @GausHaus
We wake this morning at Joes, I'm feeling a bit seedy, like I've still got a bit of Jakarta in my lungs, snotty and coughing a bit, it'll pass. We slowly get ready to head off to Singapore, while Joe's in the other room sorting out bus times for us. He comes in saying the next bus leaves in 25 minutes....rapid packing, into I-Laans ute and off. The offer ticket price was 60 ringits each return. At the station the offer price increases to 90 R each one way. Fuck it we think, find something cheaper, luckily I-Laan is still with us and we check out another ticket counter, their prieces 100 rimgit retur - heaps cheap, and they leave in an hour rather than in 5 minutes. So we get to eat before we leave.
On board, sleep and rest and sleep, it's a 5 hour trip to Singapore which takes us over 6 hours due to slow processing at customs. We are collected and taken to the venue, the Gashaus. The flashest place we have placed at. Flash PA, slick gear [though the bass amp blewup 2 bands before us]. Met some U.S marines who spend their lives deep inside a nuke sub hanging around the island of Guam, for 6 years!!! They are guite clear that they are hated by the locals and dont seem to get why. The strange lives people lead. This is our last show, we are a full set of health afffected travellers now. It's 5 for 5 .
A host of Singapore hardcore and d-beat bands play. A local group called My Precious were particularly impressive [that said, we did tend to miss other acts which we we're told were great while we we're off getting changed].
It was a good last set, we still managed to play with full energy, which I'm very pleased, in spite various levels of personal energy and health status. A huge thanks to Shaiful for being the show orgainser. He also organised us to stay at Patrick's place. A very interesting guy, very pleased to have met him. Thanks for opening up your house to us.

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Next day, hot showers all around [makes a change for bucket washes {but I dont mind them either}].Me, Chrissie, & Dave head back to KL on the midday bus, while Geoff F. & Jeff H. do a bit of shopping and catch the 5PM bus to KL. We catch a taxi back to Joe's and I-Laans where we find that they have planned a dinner party with a bunch of their friend. We meet some fantastic people, some great discussions, and a lot of learning on my part about the particular environment which these people live in- the social and contempory political, very different from our own way of life in NZ which causes a lot of reflection.
We have a day and a half to relax now till we catch our plane back to NZ, and my main interest now is to just take it easy, no plans or planning, and to enjoy the company of Joe and I-Laan for this last brief time. We mooch around, eat, talk, get a great leason in Malaysian music, and generally just enjoy the space. It is Ramadhan now, and KL has changed to accomodate this time, if your Muslim you cant eat in public, smoke, hold hands, and if you do you need to, you need to be on the look out for the religious police - a very real reality.

But, as always, the time goes to fast, and we must leave. It has been nothing short of amazing, any expectation that I may of had where easily met, and majorly surpassed. It has been an intense, eye-opening, and continually enjoyable tour in steadily upward increments. I experenced great diversity, such different ways of living to my own - in both personal and on the wider social, but also many, many points of connection and likemindednes. Travelling as a band, playing music, and networking on a D.I.Y level is the BEST way to travel. I would recommend no other way. It has been a load of hard work, taken months to plan, but it has totally been worth every moment. This is the best way! I have many to thank, many of you I have named in the above text, and again I offer thanks and love to you all, there are many, many more who I have met and, sorry, I can't remember all of your names , but collectively you have all added to the Rojak of a tour. And thanks also to all the bands who performed along side us, independent music is alive and well in SEA.
And my thanks and love here to Jeff H., Geoff F, Dave, and Chrissie for agreeing and throwing yourselves fully into these wild plans. And also to Epi, Alice, and Briaane, for putting up with such restless footed parents.
X.
kieran