Crisis drives singers to move into cafes

By Helly Minarti

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's crisis has forced the pop industry to find alternative ways of doing things. Instead of touring the archipelago to promote their new songs, artists are now filling the cafes around town.

Performing in cafes has become a new trend among pop artists. And they are warmly welcomed by the cafes.

Major cafes like Hard Rock Cafe and Fashion Cafe are trying to reduce the number of shows by international artists. With the current dollar rate, international artists have become quite expensive.

"Besides, overseas artists are not sure about security in Jakarta," said Hotma Tobing, Fashion Cafe's event and promotion manager.

Some bands from the Philippines have, for security reasons, just canceled their contract with the cafe, he said.

Hard Rock Cafe, which used to have a regular schedule of world artists, now only opens its doors for promotional tours of international artists, with the record companies chipping in.

The two cafes also have special nights for Indonesian artists.

Hard Rock Cafe's Assistant General Manager, Sebastian, said Hard Rock started this in 1996 -- long before the crisis -- by launching a weekly show titled I Like Monday (ILM). "It was originally meant to promote Indonesian artists and to dispel the old belief among artists that a cafe is not a serious venue for a local music performance," he said.

ILM, which is also broadcast live by Hard Rock FM radio, was created as an extension of Hard Rock's Sunday Band program. In that program, the bands play mostly cover songs of international artists with only one or two of their own compositions. In ILM, artists are encouraged to perform their own hits, while still being allowed to belt out a few world hits.

Since April, Fashion Cafe has launched a fortnightly program titled Thursday With Stars. Previously, it had occasionally put local artists on their stage-cum-runway.

"The program is more about image building because we get free promotion from print media covering the event," said Tobing.

He added that Thursday With Stars is broadcast by TVRI but this is not free because the cafe must pay "production costs".

Both Tobing and Sebastian say that the programs to stage local artists are not profit-oriented.

"We hardly hit the break-event point, but it's worth doing," Tobing said.

Hard Rock Cafe planned to put its show live on a private television station, but was forced to put it on hold because of the crisis.

Unlike Fashion Cafe, which charges customers between Rp 30,000 and Rp 40,000, which includes the first drink for Thursday with Stars, Hard Rock Cafe does not have any cover charge.

And the performances themselves?

The myth that Indonesian artists are not as good on stage as on record might be wrong but it is true that playing on stage is not always easy.

In the first year, Hard Rock Cafe gave total freedom to the artists on stage. "But the result was not always satisfying," said Sebastian. Playing in cafes is hard; singing alone is not enough; artists have to have entertainment skills to face a crowd -- which not every artist has.

In the second year, the artists were required to have a repertoire. "Some felt offended at first but a few good ones were happy and fully understood it is part of doing things professionally," said Sebastian.

Lately, Hard Rock Cafe has tried to enliven the program with interviews with special guests, to reveal their other sides. The guests do not have to be celebrities. For Vina Panduwinata's recent show, the cafe invited one of her friends from an informal arisan gathering, while for rapper Iwa K, they invited a street vendor from across his home from whom Iwa often buys things.

For rock group /rif, which has played in cafes for years, even before they got a record deal, playing in cafes is more than demonstrating musical skills.

"This also gives us a chance to find the right chemistry in setting up a group. Playing various songs and music also brought us the right band members, who play a right mixture of music," said Andy, /rif's front man. /rif went through a lot of band members before is present lineup.

Now, Rif only play is own songs. "That was our intention from the beginning, coming out with our identity. Playing in cafes was only a stage to get to where we are now."

Like /rif, senior singer Vina Panduwinata also refuses to sing songs by other artists. Once in a show a Fashion Cafe, she declined a request from the audience to sing an English song. "Why should I? I have more than a dozen hits myself," she quipped backstage.

But not every artist is as bold as that. Ironically, Fashion Cafe now even encourages Indonesian artists to put a few TOP 40 hits in their repertoire. "Not all of them have enough hits," Tobing said.

Many record artists have now joined the trend to play at cafes, but only a few have really hit success. Sometimes, the shortcoming is basic, such as failure to deliver a good song, striking wrong notes. And the lack of entertainment skill, like an inability to engage the crowd in witty conversation to keep the show flowing, is the most obvious one.