Feist – Metals Tour: Playground, February 15, 2012

When I heard that Feist would also be coming to Jakarta, I thought naaah… But I was tempted after the impressive Laneway’s performance. So I went again. Though it was still good, I’d say it’s no comparison to the previous one I went to. This one felt dragging and went on for too long.

Then there’s this Erlend Øye of Kings of Convenience who is known to come a lot to Jakarta doing I don’t know what as a guest star. It was about more than 2  hours I think…? I couldn’t remember. Too much chatting between them also made the show somehow felt anti-climax.

1. Undiscovered First
2. A Commotion
3. How Come You Never Go There
4. Graveyard
5. Mushaboom
6. The Circle Married the Line
7. So Sorry
8. Anti-Pioneer
9. My Moon My Man
10. I Feel It All
11. The Bad in Each Other
12. Honey Honey
13. Bright Morning Stars (Mountain Man solo)
14. Comfort Me
15. Caught a Long Wind
16. Get It Wrong, Get It Right

Encore:

17. Sealion (Nina Simone cover)
18. Let It Die

Encore 2:

19. The Build Up (with Erlend Øye)
20. Intuition
21. When I Was a Young Girl

Feist – Metals Tour: Playground

Feist – Metals Tour: Playground

Feist – Metals Tour: Playground

Feist – Metals Tour: Playground

Feist – Metals Tour: Playground

Feist – Metals Tour: Playground

Feist – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, February 5, 2012

Other than Laura Marling, I got to see Feist in Laneway Music Festival. Not the biggest fan, but I like her latest album (then), Metals.

She performed after Marling and The Panics, so I just hung around the stage area to get a better spot, hence the quite close-up shots.

With only 9 songs, Feist rocked out her performance with an intensity I almost had no time to catch a breath, which actually kind of perfect. The short time slot was packed with hard-hitting songs it made the Jakarta performance felt kind of dragging.

1. A Commotion
2. My Moon My Man
3. How Come You Never Go There
4. Graveyard
5. Undiscovered First
6. Mushaboom
7. Comfort Me
8. The Bad in Each Other
9. Feel It All

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House, February 9, 2012

So, this is the last installment of the series. I especially really wanted to see this one, but the tickets that were left did not have the best viewing angle (since I found about it a little too late). Then they were all sold out.

And I was also indecisive because at the same date, there would be a Seal concert too in Canberra. I decided to go with the latter. But what do you know, the concert was cancelled at the last minute because Seal was going through the divorce process with then wife, Heidi Klum (insert Daily Mirror here). So I also cancelled the trip to Canberra.

That day, I just planned to see the Sydney Opera House. Without any expectation and just because, I checked the seat for Marling’s concert. Well, what do you know, there were two seats available again, positioned right in the centre of the row, eye level. Perfect!

I was hesitant at first, but then my cousin Dera said, “Well, better grab it than regret it.” So I ran back up and bought the ticket. I guess if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.

Stupid story. Since I bought it at the last minute, I didn’t check again how the concert was going to be. Apparently it was a two-act concert. In the first half she performed all her songs from “A Creature I Don’t Know” and in the second half she sang other songs from previous and upcoming albums. Ey! I almost left after the first half. Good thing I wondered why nobody seemed to be leaving the building, then asked one of the officers, otherwise…

A Creature I Don’t Know

1. The Muse
2. I Was Just a Card
3. Don’t Ask Me Why
4. Salinas
5. The Beast
6. Night After Night
7. My Friends
8. Rest in the Bed
9. Sophia
10. All My Rage

Encore

11. Ghosts
12. My Manic & I
13. Alas I Cannot Swim
14. New Song
15. Goodbye England (Covered in Snow)
16. What He Wrote
17. Rambling Man
18. Alpha Shallows
19. Blackberry Stone
20. Made by Maid
21. I Speak Because I Can

With this one, she exuded a different aura, a more mature and graceful vibe. She does feel a lot older then most of her peers, in a good way. It’s fascinating that all three shows gave a different feeling.

Since audience were not allowed to bring cameras or other recording devices, these are the only photos I could get with iPhone’s very poor low light camera performance.

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Pardon my selfie :p

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – Sydney Opera House

Laura Marling – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, Sydney, February 5, 2012

The initial plan was to go see her in Singapore’s Laneway Festival (little did I know that Laneway was the rising “it” music festival for the hipsters, puhaha), but somehow I ended up going to Australia instead.

I was so crazy about Marling (I still do), the moment I heard that she was going to take part in that year’s Singapore’s Laneway Festival, I started making a backup plan in case I couldn’t catch her there. Eventually, it was the backup plan that worked.

Still feeling tired from previous flights, I almost missed her performance. Not to mention those ignorant college kids who were not so friendly so I was reluctant to ask for directions which led to me getting down in the wrong stop and waited 45 minutes for another bus, zzzz… And thanks to those hipsters, I missed “Devil’s Spoke”! The only time she performed it in those three shows.

1. Devil’s Spoke
2. Rambling Man
3. Alpha Shallows
4. I Speak Because I Can
5. I Was Just a Card
6. Ghosts
7. Alas I Cannot Swim
8. Sophia
9. All My Rage

With this one, she made less conversations with the audience, which I think was probably best considering the short time slot. Otherwise the show would have been an anti-climax.

Laura Marling – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival

Laura Marling – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival

Laura Marling – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival

Laura Marling – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival

Laura Marling – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival

Laura Marling – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival

Laura Marling – St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne, February 2, 2012

In 2012, I got a chance to watch Laura Marling’s shows. Not once, not twice, but three times! The Forum was the first of three. While the initial plan was only to watch her in Sydney’s Laneway Festival, but thanks to (insert sarcasm here) my dear friend Rama, I was tempted to go to Melbourne as well to catch her other show. So glad that I did. The third was accidental though (well, that’s another story). All these shows were part of Marling’s tour following the release of her third album, “A Creature I Don’t Know”.

Cleared out the whole day from anything that could fail me from getting the front and strategic spot which got me end up queueing from 5pm when the show itself started at 9pm *cries*. Dapet salam dari ngantri bengong sendirian dan kelaperan!

The Forum is a quite small theatre and live music venue with its mock Moorish turrets, elaborate facade, opulent lobby and exotic, faux Greco-Roman theatre. What felt somewhat weird, strangely fit almost perfectly with the haunting ambience of Marling’s music. The atmosphere was so serene you could hear a pin drop or the breath of the person standing next to you.

Marling was magnetising. She didn’t need to do a lot. She didn’t even need to talk, though her effort to make jokes here and there, despite her awkward self, did add a surprising bubbly element to her performance and another layer to her ice queen image. Most of the times she sang looking up, as if trying to avoid eye contact with anyone which made her look like she was lost in her own world. Her being so absorb in her own thoughts made me so absorb in watching her. Definitely one of the most captivating artists and performances I’ve ever seen. Hauntingly beautiful.

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Laura Marling – Forum Theatre, Melbourne