INDONESIA BLUES COMMUNITY with GIPSY BAND
Monday, September 4th, 2006Friday night, Sept 1st 2006, was another musical night in Bug’s Café. This time it was Indonesian Blues Community who was helding the event. I came with longtime friends Andy Julias, Ella Suud, Joga Wisaksono, Ali Gunawan, among others. The venue wasn’t as crowded as last month’s show. At least I could enjoy the stage in a more enjoyable way.
The show started late, around 9 pm with Denny Sakrie as opening host. He welcomed Odink Nasution with friends and they played several blues tunes. I wasn’t that familiar with blues, although I enjoyed many blues based-rock songs. In case you didn’t know, most 70’s rock songs were either progressive rock-based or blues-based. So if you liked Allman Brothers, Lynryd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Chicago, Jimi Hendrix, Blood Sweat and Tears, Buddy Miles, Stevie Winwood, Ten Years After, etc, then you’re into blues rock. It was just a matter of time when you explored blues.
For me blues music was more enjoyable while watching them playing. It wasn’t fun just listening to their audio, or watching their video. I enjoyed it most by watching them on stage. Odink Nasution and friends (Odink on slide guitar, Ilham Malayu on guitar and vocals, Raidy Noor on bass guitars, Tami on harmonica, Wuryanto on keys), played for almost an hour, and one of the highlights when they invited Ufie, a female vocalist. Not just because she was pretty and good looking, but more into her marvellous voice. It’s not everyday you could see an Indonesian sung blues as perfect as she did. In between Tami (also from Gipsy Band, played flute, harmonica, and sax) gave lectures about blues history.
Next Gipsy Band appeared on stage, with the same formation as last month’s. This time without Chrisye, who was recovering his health. They played Chicago’s Lowdown, Blood Sweat and Tears’ I Love You More Than You Ever Know, Jethrotull’s Nothing Is Easy, Blond’s I Will Bring You Flowers In The Morning, Procol Harum’s Shine On Brightly, Allman Brothers’ Black Hearted Woman & It’s Not My Cross Today, and many other tunes similar with last month’s setlist. It was fun watching they played perfect, since they were not youngsters anymore. I really enjoyed that night.
