On Saturday nights, crowds of youths wearing threadbare flannel shirts and dirty jeans can be seen trickling into sauna-hot warehouses in the Jakarta satellite cities of Tangerang and Bekasi to hear the sounds of their favorite local grunge bands and slam into each other in old-fashioned mosh pits.
It has been almost two decades since the whole grunge thing came into vogue in Seattle, but in parts of Indonesia and elsewhere around the world, the musical genre is still considered edgy.
Vendors have been selling bootlegged cassettes and tour T-shirts of grunge icons like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam near the pedestrian bridge to Blok M mall in South Jakarta since the late ’90s, and still they refuse to give up the grunge ghost and let it die.
Although grunge became more or less a marketing ploy to cash in on the mystique of singers like Kurt Cobain with their thoughtful lyrics and scruffy, sweaty look, it all began as something of an in-joke. Mark Arm of the Seattle band Mudhoney was one of the first to use this now-ubiquitous term, when he wrote a review (under his real name, Mark McLaughlin) of his old band, Mr. Epp and the Calculations, calling it “Pure grunge! Pure noise! Pure s***!” And by 1987, Bruce Pavitt, who cofounded Seattle record label Sub Pop with Jonathan Poneman, had also begun referring to some albums as grunge.
Petrus Saiya is the lead singer and songwriter of Toilet Sounds, a Jakarta band he has commandeered since 1993, just as the Indonesian independent scene was taking shape. In the mid-’90s, the band was so popular it played two or three gigs a week. Unfortunately, both of its major label-released albums tanked. Still, Petrus soldiered on, changing personnel along the way.
“Grunge is in my heart. It is the only type of music that can make me feel a wealth of emotions, like I did in my youth” the 31-year-old singer said.
Like many other local grunge acts, Petrus is seemingly unaware that bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana in fact disliked being lumped together as grunge.
Still, it is precisely that raw honesty that has made grunge so influential even today. After all, how many rock singers seem to have morphed into Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder? The singer’s husky drawl touched a nerve as much as Kurt Cobain’s tormented tones, and both were much emulated.
Petrus said: “I admit most local grunge bands sound like either Nirvana or Pearl Jam. But it’s not because we think it will sell albums — I mean, you know how many records I’ve sold, right? It’s because these kids relate to those bands, because if you read their [Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder] histories, they came from low-income families, not like these bands that the current independent bands are taking their cues from.”
Amar Gill from the band Besok Bubar (which loosely translates as “tomorrow the band breaks up”) concurs with Petrus, while citing Toilet Sounds as the “Godfathers of Indonesian grunge.”
Amar said: “When we started, our musical skills were obviously very basic. Those grunge bands, they gave us the conviction that we could play music that was simple but heavily emotional.”
Egy Hariri, who plays in the grunge-punk hybrid trio Bolong (Hole) boils it down to “Love.”
“The love for grunge is imbedded in these bands’ hearts. I don’t know how to explain it, but grunge fits whatever mood you’re in – whether it be frustration, anger, or happiness.”
Andre Bangun, whose band Shockbreaker lies at the heavier end of the grunge spectrum, said: “For Indonesian kids, it filled a hole at a time when more technical acts like Van Halen and Metallica were all the rage.”
Most of these Indonesian grunge bands base their sound on the simple power-chord riffs of Nirvana, while merging it with various styles. Toilet Sounds and Shockbreaker’s music combines the soft-loud dynamics of the grunge groups with the more commercial-rock sound of commercially successful bands such as the Foo Fighters. Many other bands, such as The Northside and Navicula — which has released two albums with Sony Music — inject classic rock elements from bands such as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin into their grunge.
Tubagus Eko Nurdiyanto is one of the most prevalent organizers of grunge music events in Jakarta and its surrounding areas. He said grunge shows were always crowded. But unfortunately, most of the newer bands tend to stick to playing covers.
Tubagus — who because of his facial features is also known as Bango (Stork) — said most bands tended to specialize in covering Seattle bands. Playing hits by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden guarantees a wild crowd.
“Even in the smallest venue, at least 100 people will show up” Tubagus said proudly.
Still, theses rough-and-tumble gigs do have a minus side.
Aldi Reza, who used to play drums for Toilet Sounds, said: “There are a lot of things that still need to be taken care of in the grunge scene. Things like management, venue and payment issues.”
Petrus, his ex-bandmate, said: “A lot of these bands have been playing the same things for years. And the audience just wants us to play the same old Nirvana songs we’ve been playing for 15 years.”
Nevertheless, all the bands interviewed said the grunge scene would live on.
Petrus concluded: “It’s music by frustrated guys for frustrated guys – how can it ever end?”
Upcoming Events:
Pearl Jam new album ‘Backspacer’ Listening party
Oct. 10, 7 p.m.
Skipper Café, Midpoint, Senayan
Free entrance
Info: 081310669962 (Eko) or 08129668346 (Egha)
Grunge’s Forgiving Day
Oct. 29
Magical Cafe
Depok Town Square
Jl. Margonda Raya
Entrance: Rp 20,000
Date subject to change. Info: 0856-1254-573
Tanggerang Wake Up
Nov. 22, 4 p.m.
The First Café
Jl. Raya Serpong KM 7 no.76
Serpong, Tanggerang
Featuring Besok Bubar and others
Info: 021 951-55344