Real Thing tries tom heat up frozen Jakarta audience
By M. Arief Suditomo
JAKARTA (JP): Real Thing, the pop-funk band from Liverpool, England, finally succeeded in making hundreds of Jakarta's usually courteous and well mannered people join in and groove under the influence of their old hits You To Me Are Everything and Can't Get By Without You.
The band started their Friday (Oct. 28) performance at 9:20 p.m., 20 minutes late, at Topaz, the Ultimate Club, Wisma Bakrie, South Jakarta, with a funky tune titled Can You Feel the Force
Unfortunately, the fast rhythm of the song and high energy dancing of the three singers were not strong enough to make the audience -- especially those in the front row -- feel the band's force.
The only force they might have felt was the ticket prices which were set between Rp 25,000 (US$11.5) and Rp 150,000.
But thanks to lead singer Christopher Amoo's tireless efforts in getting a reaction from the audience and making many ladies with Channel quilted leather handbags join him in singing while the other singers Eddie Amoo, Chris's little brother, and Dave Smith, tried to do the same.
Is that all you can do?" or "That's so sweet" were two of Chris's various challenges to the audience as he asked them to repeat some of the lyrics of the songs.
The three singers never showed their disappointment in the audience's cold respond. They kept trying, especially when they sang their fourth song, You'll Never Know What You're Missing.
The lyrics gradually pumped up the front seaters' adrenalin; perhaps they realized they should what they were missing because the people in the backseats had already decided that they did not want to miss anything from the show.
Among the people sitting in the front row was TV news anchorperson, Ria Moerdani, looking very gracious. She expressed her admiration of the band by smiling, she rarely clapped her hands in the air or moved her head to the rhythm. Other celebs, like top runway model Okky Asokawati, politician Haris Ali Murfi, teen model Gabby Djorghi and singer Astri Ivo, also chose to keep their best poise.
It was the people in the back -- mostly teenagers -- who helped the band create a fun atmosphere and it was those people who finally stimulated the front seaters into singing along with Chris, Eddie and Dave.
The front seaters joined in the crowd's hysteria as the band started to play the intro of Can't Get By Without You, one of their hits which was played repeatedly by every disc jockey in this country in 1986 and remains a favorite to this day.
The beat even made the top runway model sing along, moving her head while the others clapped their hands.
Husky voice
The band played the song once more, this time without instrumental backing. It was great to hear the husky voice of Chris Amoo blend with the loud crowd choir.
After finishing Can't Get by Without You the band played two other songs, Children of the Ghetto and Baby Don't Go. The songs were good but it was not enough to maintain the audience's growing enthusiasm. The slow beat of Children of the Ghetto made the audience's spirit cool down.
However, Real Thing showed the audience this was not yet an anti-climax and they proved it by boosting the audience's waning enthusiasm with their next song You To Me Are Everything.
The song, which is also familiar to Indonesian people, succeeded in making everybody stand up and start singing and dancing.
After finishing the song, the band played Can You Feel the Force once more and ask the audience whether or not they felt the force. Their question was answered with a broad smile of satisfaction.
"Yes, we feel your force Real Thing," that was the unheard answer of the people who left the club in their latest model BMW or Mercedes Benz.
The band is scheduled to perform in Bandung (Oct. 30), Semarang, Central Java (Nov. 1), Yogyakarta (Nov. 2), Surabaya, East Java (Nov. 4), Denpasar, Bali (Nov. 5), Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi (Nov. 7) and the last concert will be held in Medan, North Sumatra (Nov. 9).