Jakarta

[Marky1]

I think you might be right about the availability of these live band jazz places. There might be a few places that popped up in Google search, though I have never been to any of them, so if anyone has any feedback about these places, please share. The list include The Writers Bar, Motion Blue at Hotel Fairmont, The Cascade Lounge surprisingly in Hotel Mulia, Caf Batavia, Ecology Bistro, and SHY rooftop.

Frankly, I would not dare venture out to Tanjung Priok alone. It feels like the chances of getting robbed or worse are very high in that neighborhood.

I didn't sense any danger drinking in Tanjung Priok. Just people out having a good time. No trouble finding a Grab.

Of course you're more vulnerable than going to BATS or Classic, but felt safe enough. They have Indomarets, food carts, ojeks everywhere. I probably wouldn't travel to an area like Tanjung Priok in the Philippines.

[Offshore Swell]

Frankly, I would not dare venture out to Tanjung Priok alone. It feels like the chances of getting robbed or worse are very high in that neighborhood.

Way more chance of being robbed in Golden Crown.

The trick in Tanjung Priok is to keep moving so the mosquito's don't take advantage of you. Just now is Dengue season and Priok is a hotspot, that said, so is the area up around Kota Indah and some of those rooms can be just a buzzing. MTR bar in particular. They seem to like the mixture of pisss and shower water.

OS drove past those Priok bars on Saturday night and there's lots of bars and lots of girls. It would make a spectacular pub crawl for a couple of good buddies and don't worry about the locals. They all say the bad guys are in Sumatra.

And if you get cold feet, The relative safety of Kelapa Gading and Kings Cross is just 10 minutes away.

[KingCrimson69]

Old Indian men is the target of preference for CJs girls. It doesn't matter if you are fat.

But Smoothy, I understand most are in mid to late 20's? Prefer the nubile ones myself. And if there are a few of those, the competition must be crazy. But I just may drop in during the week for a drink or two.

[KingCrimson69]

I think you might be right about the availability of these live band jazz places. There might be a few places that popped up in Google search, though I have never been to any of them, so if anyone has any feedback about these places, please share. The list include The Writers Bar, Motion Blue at Hotel Fairmont, The Cascade Lounge surprisingly in Hotel Mulia, Caf Batavia, Ecology Bistro, and SHY rooftop.

Frankly, I would not dare venture out to Tanjung Priok alone. It feels like the chances of getting robbed or worse are very high in that neighborhood.

I knew the streets of Kalijodo, but I'll pay heed to that. Met a young local on Thibauds forum and he's proposed Fashion hotel lounge and some of the usual places. Not really underground enough. ID like to swing between Malio Club and the really local places. Of course boy scouts motto first.

[Ggekko2009]

That's surprising considering Jakarta has such a vibrant "jazz culture" I've been visiting for the past 8 years in Feb / Mar for Jva Jazz. It's incredible. The crowds, local & regional bands and some great international acts. Surely with so much love for the genre, there must be performance venues.

Personally I've not checked that out as I have a blast at the usual places. Malio, classic, King Cross, Kota Indah etc. Thanks to a few recent reports will venture out to Tanjung Priok. CJs and BATS I've avoided as I don't fancy my chances there. Over 60, fat and brown! Having said that, I find the people of Indonesia very welcoming and friendly.

I think you might be right about the availability of these live band jazz places. There might be a few places that popped up in Google search, though I have never been to any of them, so if anyone has any feedback about these places, please share. The list include The Writers Bar, Motion Blue at Hotel Fairmont, The Cascade Lounge surprisingly in Hotel Mulia, Café Batavia, Ecology Bistro, and SHY rooftop.

Frankly, I would not dare venture out to Tanjung Priok alone. It feels like the chances of getting robbed or worse are very high in that neighborhood.

[Smoothy]

CJs and BATS I've avoided as I don't fancy my chances there. Over 60, fat and brown!

Old Indian men is the target of preference for CJs girls. It doesn't matter if you are fat.

[Offshore Swell]

I mean what is the point? They are invariably far too loud and given the acoustics of every bar or club anywhere, the quality of the music, even if the band was as good as the original artists (and needless to say they aren't), will be worse than anything you could listen to on your on iPod. Or for that matter if the music was simply streamed at a reasonable volume through the bar's own sound system off YouTube.

If I want to listen to classic rock played too loud I can do that in the comfort of my car for free. I go to a bar to have a drink and a chat with my mates or if I go alone to meet someone, which again involves chatting. But how can you have any sort of conversation when you can't make yourself heard over a badly executed rendition of "Honky Tonk Woman" played through an amplification system whose volume is at Yankee Stadium setting?

Come on bands, turn the volume down, just a bit, believe me we can still hear you seated as we are only twenty feet from your speakers. And would it kill you to learn some tracks that were written some time after Ronald Reagan stood down and let us normal guys enjoy the evening too?

Couldn't agree more on the volume thing. Theres nothing more annoying than trying to have a conversation. Yep some of us actually grew up in an era where you actually talked to each other when you went out and some moron has cranked the volume up on a third rate band and you are the only people in the place.

One of the ubiquitous sounds of Indonesia is ' Azan", the call to prayer. Properly done it can be hauntingly beautiful but too often it gets belted out through a $10 "corong" at 120 watts of amplification and just dumbs down to nothing the whole experience. You may as well just set an alarm clock to remember to pray.

The same with those bands. It's just the dumbing down of things to a formula to meet the risk averse needs of Mr Average. It's why chefs all want to cook with salmon and we all want our kids to be doctors and lawyers. It's low risk. Same for why 90 % of the reports here are about the same four venues of Classic, Malioboro, CJ's or Blok M. Everybody is assured of getting 60% of what they wanted 60% of the time and they're happy to pay for it. OS is like HL77. Just wants to throw a fucking brick at them.

YY Bar in Grogol can sometimes have some interesting dangdut. It's a seedy, smoky dive of a bar one alley over from New Medika. If the singer still has the microphone it can be enjoyable but too often some drunk local ends up on the podium. But then there's girls, lots of them, young, half of them hostile to bules. 250 thousand will get you fun times upstairs if you can convince the mama, who is a real biitch to bring you the girl you want.

But it sure beats eyeing up some overpriced old boiler at CJ's while listening to all those 70's covers.

[Smoothy]

Moliendo Cafe,

Been hearing that song in the Jakarta bars since the 60's. Julio Iglesias sings dangdut bro.

Haha, you are so right, almost every band in Jakarta plays that song every night. It was also a number one hit in Japan in 1961.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtYwedMuPyo

[KingCrimson69]

I would be very interested to know too, especially those that play live jazz music. There used to be such a lounge a few years back called Top Cat if not mistaken, but I think it has gone out of business. I noticed many such lounges go out of business, maybe due to high operating costs.

That's surprising considering Jakarta has such a vibrant "jazz culture" I've been visiting for the past 8 years in Feb / Mar for Jva Jazz. It's incredible. The crowds, local & regional bands and some great international acts. Surely with so much love for the genre, there must be performance venues.

Personally I've not checked that out as I have a blast at the usual places. Malio, classic, King Cross, Kota Indah etc. Thanks to a few recent reports will venture out to Tanjung Priok. CJs and BATS I've avoided as I don't fancy my chances there. Over 60, fat and brown! Having said that, I find the people of Indonesia very welcoming and friendly.

[Hilo77]

What music are they allowed to enjoy then?

Whatever music they like old chum, whatever music they like.

And I am equally "allowed" to have an opinion on the music, as I am also a customer there.

See how it works?

[UsPete]

What music are they allowed to enjoy then?

Moliendo Cafe,

Been hearing that song in the Jakarta bars since the 60's. Julio Iglesias sings dangdut bro.

[Uncle Volodya]

Not sure if I'm allowed to do that but if you search under Jakarta street girls, one of the top hits will be Freelancers at daytime. At. 025 secs you will see the mamasan I met. None of the girls in the vid were seen by me BTW.

Thanks! As far as I know you are allowed to post links here if strictly informative. But probably bad form to post links to another monger site or for self promotion.

[Marky1]

Yeah perhaps it's the places I frequent but the sight of a table of blokes clearly old enough to be grandfathers but still too young to have been there for the music when it first got an airing, cheering and raising their beers in salute, heads swinging along in closed-eye tribute to the finely honed lyrics of "Bad Moon Rising", just makes me want to launch my glass at the lead singer. Did they not listen to any music in the past 40 years?

It's as bizarre as going into a club in the 1990's and finding it full of hep cats jiving to "Chatanooga Choochoo" with their bobby-soxer best girls. All that music since 1970 and still Proud Mary keeps on turning. Rolling, rolling.

I heard Mick and Keith expressing the same worries about you mate.

What music are they allowed to enjoy then?

[Hilo77]

I know you used to visit blok m frequently and those bands did play the oldies. However, the bands at CJs and BATS absolutely do play current music. Too damn current for me! I actually preferred the bands that played the oldies at Top Gun and Oscars. Jaya Pub still does have bands that play those old songs.

Yeah perhaps it's the places I frequent but the sight of a table of blokes clearly old enough to be grandfathers but still too young to have been there for the music when it first got an airing, cheering and raising their beers in salute, heads swinging along in closed-eye tribute to the finely honed lyrics of "Bad Moon Rising", just makes me want to launch my glass at the lead singer. Did they not listen to any music in the past 40 years?

It's as bizarre as going into a club in the 1990's and finding it full of hep cats jiving to "Chatanooga Choochoo" with their bobby-soxer best girls. All that music since 1970 and still Proud Mary keeps on turning. Rolling, rolling.

as long as they all stay healthy for the next few months.

I heard Mick and Keith expressing the same worries about you mate.

[RakeSeries2]

Great report. Off the beaten path. Though ironically in the center of old town. Can you post a link to the guy's youtube video that you refer to?

Not sure if I'm allowed to do that but if you search under Jakarta street girls, one of the top hits will be Freelancers at daytime. At. 025 secs you will see the mamasan I met. None of the girls in the vid were seen by me BTW.