JavaRockinLand 2011 – Cranberries & Neon Trees

Have you been to any JavaRockinLand concert ? if you did, bless you! if not, you should at least have a plan to go for one because i tell you, its so friggin rockin. Eventhough in my experience, Soundrenaline was the craziest concert in Indonesia but JRL have a reputation bringing mega rock star headliner which Soundrenaline cant compete with on the same ground, yet. This year, the headliner were  30 second to Mars, Neon Trees, Halloween, Good Charlotte, Frente, Ed Kowalzcik and The Cranberries split in a 3 day concert. What a line up huh ? but for me it was an easy choice. I went on Saturday and my primary objective was to hear heavenly voice of Dolores Oriordan.

This year JRL was held in Carnival Beach, Ancol which is quite far from downton Jakarta. Went there with Angga and Wieke, took us around one hour by TransJakarta bus from Plasa Semanggi. Journey didnt stop there, we have to walk like 1 KM straight to go from Ancol entrance to the Carnival Beach. Exciting when we went for the show, torturing when we walked back home.

Entered the gate at around 8 PM and Ed Kowalzcik already play his signature song, I Alone. FYI if you wonder who this guy is, he was frontman of a band called Live. Quite big in the 90’s. just check any 90’s playlist in youtube or internet radio. Im sure their single, Lightning Crashes was on the list. Pretty impressive performance, his voice sounded so flawless. Unfortunately could get close to the stage to take pic as i was securing my spot for the next performance, danceable rock band called Neon Trees.

At first i thought this was like another hipster band which reach a mediocrity in rocking your crowd out. Turns out to be, partially true. They was giving a solid dance-your-body out performance at first. I only know one song of theirs but i enjoyed their performance. Especially the lady drummer, man she was smacking the set like nobody business. Plus the frontman threw some dance move which makes the crowd mood gone up. But unfortunately, the tempo quite slow down after they performed their hit singles Animal. Should put it as encore, IMHO.

While neon trees were still playin, i sneaked out of the crowd and squeeze myself infront of main stage where Dolores Oriordan and the friggin Cranberries will rock the crowd in couple of minutes.

So hows the Cranberries performance ? it was…wait for it… LEGENDARY! Dolores voice sounded so heavenly and the band performed rockingly. They opened it up with Analyse, with its signature drum intro. Dolores then walked down the stage and start rocking the stage. After analyse, next on their list was Animal Instinct which gave me the goosebumps. Man, never thought that this song could be so rocking when performed live.

They started with slow to midtempo songs such as Analyse, animal instinct, free to decide, ode to my family, ridiculous thoughts, linger and i cant be with you. After that, they begin to introduce their singles from the upcoming album Roses. Bear in mind that their last album is Wake Up and Smell The Coffee which released 2001, friggin 10 years ago. One of the new singles was Schizofrenic Playboys which you can hear it here. Dark and powerful, 20 years and they havent lost their touch i guess.

Just before the encore they played Salvation and Zombie, which make the crowd go crazy. After the encore, Dolores came up wearing long black dress, guitar and start humming. Promises my friend, was the best song that night. I scream my heart out to its verses, WHY CAN YOU STAY, HERE A WHILE!! Freak yeah, Cranberries rock \m/!. They close their night at Java Rockin Land with their first singles from the 80’s  : Dreams.

In conclusions, Java RockinLand 2011 was indeed rockin! Thanks to the cranberries, neon trees and Ed Kowalzcik, i can go home sweaty. bit deaf and feeling good. Thats the signs that the concert was great. Will excitedly waiting for next year JRL.