Conducting Symphonies

Nate and I took a day trip together!  Motion City Soundtrack announced they were coming to Indonesia about 4 weeks before they came.  Of course I was going!  But of course they weren't coming to Jakarta, they came to Bandung which is about a 2 hour drive away.  It was still way easier than going to Manila which I was tempted to do.  So I bought the tickets, rented a car and driver for the day, and we were off.  I took some pictures on the road trip...

This was at the rest stop.  For all your Muslim accessories needs.  Don't see stores like this at the rest stops in the US.

And a mosque.  Pretty fancy for a rest stop.  Another thing you don't see at rest stops in America.

This was at a small mall in Bandung.  Different than the kind you find in L.A.

Saw MCS on a billboard.

We tried to do outlet shopping in Bandung because that's what we were told to do.  It is not my thing I realized.  I don't care about name brand stuff enough.  So we didn't buy anything.  So we just found a restaurant and then went to the show.

It was supposed to start at 7.  It actually started at 8.  Not surprising for Indonesia.  They were the only band playing.

We were in the front row.  It was awesome.

We were the only foreigners there, so I imagined the band coming up and talking to us, and asking us what we were doing there.  They would show us backstage, and we would invite them over for a meal before they flew to Yogyakarta the next day.  And they would perform an acoustic song or two in my living room.  It didn't happen.  I know, I was shocked too.  But we were close enough to make eye contact, and I know Justin was wondering what the heck we were doing there.

Those Indos LOVED them!  I seriously thought I was MCS's number one fan on this part of the world.  But now I'm not so sure!  They knew every word to every song, and they sung them.  They belted them.  Every heavily accented word.  I think that was my favorite part of the show.  How when it was the audience's turn to sing, the words sounded very Asian.  I would watch some of the young men, and they looked like they were singing TO the band.  They were that passionate.  I smiled a lot.

After the encore, we waited around a bit to give my fantasy one last chance to come true.  I think because we were hanging around, Nate got to do 2 interviews with local TV/newspaper.  One of them was on camera!  Hilarious.  The other one was just photos.  I was in those.  Too bad we'll never see the reports.

It was awesome.  I'm so glad they came.  I'm so glad I went.