Praya Tjondro Told Stories of Love
A Live Review
DISCLAIMER: This review was written to fulfil an assignment for the Music Journalism unit of study at the University of Sydney.
The stuffy city air usually pierces your skin, but tonight was different. It felt quite warm. Maybe it was the modest dancing or your breath warming up the insides of your mask. At least that was what the crowd gathered in front of Jakarta’s oldest and first skyscraper, Sarinah shopping mall. At first glance, you might’ve thought they were just gathering around to enjoy the mall’s reopening. But if you’re actually there, out in the front lobby, where food trucks stood, you can hear a soothing sound. Two boys, sitting on top of a food truck, specifically Filosofi Kopi’s, intertwining melodies together. One with his seasoned voice, and the other with his skilful guitar playing.
If you were outside by the line of food trucks, you will hear it clearly. Their tunes are the kind that makes you wonder where the source is from. In a way, they played so well that you might for a while thought that the mall is playing recorded music from speakers, but upon closer examination, you’d realize how “human” and “full of improvisations” the performance was and realize that it is a live performance. So you find yourself walking towards the source of the music and found yourself stopping and mingling with the crowd, swaying and even singing along to the tunes.
The star of that night was Praya Tjondro, a newcomer singer-songwriter from Jakarta, Indonesia, who had just released his debut single titled “Everyday People” in the first week of March 2022. The song essentially sends the message of “everyone deserves to be loved (not in an exclusively romantic way).” Knowing this, it matches perfectly with Praya’s concept in this small gig, where he gathers the crowd and casually talks to them through the speakers on top of a coffee-selling food truck in an intimate and very close sort of manner; going along well with the gig’s title, “Lebih Dekat” (Closer in Indonesian).
Praya attracts the audience in a sort of casual and friendly manner. It’s like he was just hanging out with a bunch of friends in a park who are loyally listening to his every word and tune, while he occasionally attracts bystanders by the infectious tunes. He’d also tell the stories of each song before he sings them and make the crowd guess what song he’s going to do next. Well of course, judging by the very limited discography of only having one song, Praya fills his one-hour performance with numerous popular love songs known to Indonesians, especially the people of Jakarta. The strategy worked wonders, though. The songs connected the audience members, some were dancing, while others were singing-along loud enough to get the sound through their thick masks.
The whole performance was a journey of telling the stories of love. Which of course involved craving for love (If I Ain’t Got You by Alicia Keys), missing your loved ones (Officially Missing You by Tamia), and perhaps the most famous of them all, heartbreak (Hati-Hati di Jalan by Tulus, You by Ten2Five). The whole vibe feels warm and bittersweet at the same time.
Off to speak technically, the stage set up is both a blessing and a curse. Starting off with the curses, Praya’s voice isn’t really that audible if you stand too far to the side of the “stage.” He kind of mumbles when he speaks, adding the slight reverb and the outdoor ambient, it’s hard to make out what he’s saying. But because of that, the people who were actually interested to understand his words would veer closer. Well, not too close because it would probably be a nuisance to keep your head up just to see two people sitting on top of a relatively tall truck. In a sense, it helps keep the COVID-19 distance from the unmasked performers.
Another thing that keeps the performance interesting is, of course, the element of unpredictability. Well, the unexpected should be expected when you put on a show in front of a building so close to the busy city street that never sleeps. It’s not just the unstable murmurs of the busy street, but the actions of the people. Because the food truck is put in a place where cars can pass to enter Sarinah’s lobby, you get cars occasionally blocking your view. But it can get exciting, for example, having a kid standing up and showing himself through the sunroof of their car, waving to the audience and making the show all the more interesting. Also, seeing a group of elderly people who probably wanted to reminisce the good old days at “one of the oldest malls in the city” finding themselves dancing to young people jamming on top of a truck. Either way, we all had an incredibly pleasant and warm night.
Written by Nathania S. Alexandra Siwu on April 2nd, 2022
