Diverse range of musicians take the stage at the 9th Music Gallery

Music Gallery, an annual music festival conducted by BSO Band Universitas Indonesia is finally back on its ninth year, held at last Saturday (9/3) to also be a way to celebrate National Music Day here in Indonesia. For the first time in a long time, this festival up their game to a new height and choose Tennis Indoor Senayan, Jakarta, as their venue, rather than the ever-confusing yet generic venue of Kuningan City Ballroom. That itself really showed that they've grown, becoming an annual event that Jakartans hold dearly.

This year, the festival adopted the theme "An Undiscovered Resonance" which highlighted uniqueness, creativeness, and untapped resources within the music industry. The event was packed with local musicians such as ASD Trio, MUSPRO, Burning Cigarettes, Oscar Lolang, Rumahsakit, Dream Coterie, and even senior bands such as The Changcuters and The Upstairs. Among those is folk singer, Rizky Pamungkas or better known as Pamungkas, who mellowed down the indoor stage with his beautifully glum tunes.

The Jakartan played songs from his latest album "Walk the Talk" such as "One/Only" and continued with sax-infused "Jejak". His voice was very similar to Jamie Cullum's, a British jazz musician and even his talking accent was extremely British, it reflects on his music too. The dude seemed so grateful seeing that a lot of people showed up to hear him play.

"I know how hard it is to watch a music festival, the traffic and the weather. So thank you for coming, just two years ago I was the one down there amongst the crowd."

He then showed off his guitar skills in "Wait a Minute" and moved on to sing one of his famed tune, "I Love You But I'm Letting Go". "Sometimes when you have to let go, you just gotta do it," he exclaimed. The melancholic crowd sang along to the reff as Pamungkas bid his adieu.

The fun went on as Kurosuke took the stage. I guess you could say that Kurosuke is sort of Christianto Ario's alter-ego cause the music he made here is so far apart than the ones he sang as the lead singer of Anomalyst. He played most of the songs from Kurosuke's self-titled album such as "Snooze" and proceeded with one of their latest single, "Sweeties Salmon Roll". The music Kurosuke performed was somewhat magical, it could made you feel like you were in a 1970s Japanese cartoon of some sort. It had that warm, fuzzy, and dreamy feel to it. Ario went crazy on his guitar while singing "Intoxicated Calls" and then slow things down with "Fantasy" that made the audience sway in unison.

He took the time to honor women in regards to the International Women's Day that fell on Friday (8/3). "I dedicate this song for every women out there. They are the source of life," he said. With that being said, Ario choose to dedicate the ever-so-gloomy "Glitches" to all the ladies in the world. Although Kurosuke played beautifully that afternoon, the crowd seemed so stale and dull. The atmosphere completely changed in the next song when Ario introduced a good friend of his, Fathia Izzati AKA Kittendust, to sing their newest duet "Velvet".

Closing things off, Kurosuke finally sang the much-awaited upbeat "Tapestry" that got the crowd vibrant, although they were a little too late for it.

Next up Daramuda took the outdoor stage. Just like Kurosuke, the group, consisting of three musicians which are Rara Sekar, Danilla, and Sandrayati Fay, also took the time to celebrate Women's Day.

"I'm on my period today, who else in the crowd is having their menstruation?" Rara Sekar jokingly said, followed by cheers from women in the crowd.

Besides playing tunes from their album "Salam Kenal" such as Danilla's "Renjana" and Sandra's "Suara Dunia", the trio also presented three songs that weren't included in their album. The first song was about a temporary love, Rara said. The second tells the tale of how everything will simply perish in the end. And the last one, sang by Sandra, is about letting go. Those three song, all of which doesn't have titles yet, were more like soft spoken poetry mixed with gentle music. It felt like the ladies delivered more than a mere performance, they were delivering art in its rawest form and it was music to everyone's ears.

The party's not over yet as one of the crowd's favorite, Elephant Kind, took over the stage and rocked everyone out of their newly-polished white sneakers. Bam Mastro, Kevin Septanto, and Bayu Adisapoetra got started with "Beat the Ordinary" and moved on to easily one of their well-known tune, "With Grace". Elephant Kind also sang two of their new singles, "Sour" and "I Believe in You" with dreamy yet gloomy vibe to it. They carried on with performances of "True Love" and "Oh Well".

Kudos to the dudes for commanding the crowd pretty well when they sang the Kanye-esque "Montage". Youngsters that filled up the venue looked like they genuinely enjoyed Elephant Kind's stage and bounce off of each other’s energy during the whole performance. Wrapping it up, they presented their upcoming single "Better Days" which is filled with heartwarming positive and self-empowerment message.

As the night was getting longer, the crowd's patience was getting thinner. They screamed their lungs out when the four-piece band make their way to the stage. Yes, that's right, the main act for the night, FUR, was finally ready to perform. They performed a lot of their hits such as "Angel Eyes", "If You Know That I'm Lonely", "Not Enough", "What Would I Do?", and "Trying". Nearing the end of their set, the indie-alternative band of Brits slow things down with "Where Did All the People Go?". The quartet, made up of singer William Murray, guitarist Harry Saunders, bassist William 'Tav' Taverner, and drummer Flynn Whelan, got famous at the end of 2017 when they uploaded their song "If You Know That I'm Lonely" to YouTube.

"We've come all the way from England to your beautiful country, thank you for singing with us, Jakarta!" Murray shouted.

The crowd was uncontrollably swaying to their 60s-influenced guitar sounds with fresh and modern twist. One could say they successfully wrapped this year's Music Gallery and satisfied every ears in the room. They may even gain a couple of new fans.