My experience as a 23 year old in Jakarta, Indonesia at a 1D concert
I was in my Sophomore Year at LMU when One Direction’s first hit song exploded on the radio making my ears bleed. I remember feeling nothing but disdain for those boys with shaggy hair and pierced ears. In my eyes they would never and could never come close to my beloved N’Sync. Compare Harry Styles to Justin Timberlake!? BYEEEEE
However, their bloody music continued to infiltrate my life. I had escaped most of the hype while studying abroad in Florence. Not much time to think about a boy band whining to a camera when you are surrounded by art older than Jesus. Not to mention Italian men with tan skin, perfect scruff and eyes that melt your soul, who call you ‘bella’ and ask for your hand in marriage every other day.
Unfortunately, this ‘One Direction’ nonsense came back at me full force with my best friend Jordan Nelson claiming her love for Harry, making me want to vomit. She eventually got me to warm up to the boys one fuzzy morning when I was still a bit drunk/hungover. In my morning after drunk state we created (or maybe she already had it down) a little dance to their song, ‘What Makes You Beautiful.’
It is quite the dance we have – it only comes in times of extreme drunkness
The next moment that broke my barrier came at me full speed and there was absolutely nothing I could do to avoid it.
Sorority recruitment.
One of my super creative DG sistahs replaced the lyrics to ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ to fit a song for Delta Gamma recruitment. A song I would practice with my sisters until the wee hours of the morning several nights a week leading up to recruitment.
I definitely still sing the DG version of the song.
How did I end up in Jakarta at this 1D concert (minus Zayn – ugh)?
Teaching English in Vietnam. These damn kids looOoOoOve 1D – whenever I gave them the option to listen to music, 8/10 they wanted to hear 1D. The other 2 wanted Katy Perry, which I fine. I actually really like Katy Perry.
After a month of constantly playing their music, my disdain for these five boys (I soon discovered they we share the same age, so I guess they aren’t boys) began to fade. I found myself looking up interviews and articles, creeping on Instas and Twitter pages – suddenly I was looking up tour dates and I stumbled upon this video.
The timing turned out to be perfect. The show was the end of March, which is the perfect time to be in Indonesia weather wise. I guess my biggest ‘concern’ was what the hell to wear to this show. Do I look super cute or go for the teenage fangirl look? Annnnnnnnnnd the small fact that a week before the show Zayn had gone back to the UK/completely MIA due to ‘stress.’ Annnnnnd Louis and his long time girlfriend broke up kinda had me freaked. Would they be distracted? How would the group perform without Zayn? Could this be the night a One Directioner falls in love with me? The questions were endless.
It turned out to be one of the biggest teasers, bittersweet, best moments in my 23 years of concert going.
Megan, Barrett and I bought tickets in the ‘Festival B’ section. I fully expected to be at the inner edge of the stage with full access to Harry & Niall. Thaaaaat didn’t exactly happen.
The doors opened at 3PM but 1D wasn’t scheduled to hit the stage until 8 aka 9. We planned to leave out hotel by 4, expected to arrive by 4:30, leaving us plenty of the to face palm Indonesians and get to our dream spots at the front of the stage, giving me ample amount of opportunities to woo Niall.
There was no such ‘woo-ing.’ This is where the series of unfortunate events began.
Life happens. We were a bit slow getting ready, dinner took forever – oh and THE ROAD TO GET TO THE STADIUM WAS A PARKING LOT.
By the time the driver dropped us off (more like kicked us out, he was pissed about the traffic. Like he had a concert to get to) it was 6PM. Oh, and it was raining. So we were drenched, sprinting through vendors and meandering humans, racing like maniacs to get to the show. When we finally got to the person checking tickets, the events continued to turn against us.
Apparently the tickets we had were just receipts. We were required to pick up the wristbands (OMGGGGG!!!!!!!!) at a different location. We had to leave the stadium, fight through the vendors, go to the pickup station, which was five minutes away (we ran, so it turned into two) and wait for Meg to return with the golden wristbands.
I was so damn excited when the show was about to start. I couldn’t actually believe what I was doing or where I was. I mean I was at a One Direction concert in Jakarta, Indonesia.
What is life.
Before the boys came out they played a combined sample of all of the songs from Four, which sounded pretty legit. Unfortunately, I can’t find it anywhere. So if you know where I can find the gem, holla!
They came out with Clouds (my favorite) and it was SO SICK!!! Plus Harry was on my side of the stage and his double buns were blowing my mind. However, after the first song high wore off I noticed several peculiar things.
1) HARRY WAS CHEWING GUM. wtf. I like to say I’ve been to quite a few shows, and I have never seen anyone come out chewing gum. Who missed that detail?? It definitely put me off.
The man also picked up the microphone base, hovered it over his penis and held it out to the crowd to sing into – WHAT!?!?!? Maybe I’ve become a bit of a prude.
On the positive side. Harry had his hair in not one bun, but TWO. TWO BUNS. He looked wow. Just wow.
2) During Night Changes Liam was talking to Louis IN THE MIC. Not holding it to the side. Not placing his hand over it. Nada. Not even trying to pretend that he was lip syncing. Louis eventually laughed and pushed Liam’s mic out of the way but come on.
3) Possibly my favorite moment (sarcasm, people). Louis says, “My penis hurts.” And proceeded to grab his penis area on stage. Again, I feel like I’m being a prude but I just feel like this was over the top.
Idk, maybe they were being funny, maybe they always do weird, ‘funny’ stuff like this at shows, but I feel like they wouldn’t pull half of that shit at a show somewhere else.
Maybe I’m thinking too much into it. Everyone else but me probably saw no problem with the actions. I bet if I watched every other video from past One Direction tours people probably labeled it something along the lines of ‘Funny/Best Moments From The Tour.’ Which is great. I don’t want anyone to perceive this as a One Direction bashing. Because it’s not. Just what I found….odd.
I’m sure you’re wondering about Niall. Oh Naill <3. Niall became my new favorite One Directioner by a landslide. He can do no wrong in my eyes. I like to think that we had a moment, but it could all just be in my head. He was running around with an acoustic guitar, swapping it out for an electric guitar. Doing the damn thang. Lots of love to you Niall.
Regardless if all the nonsense and shenanigans, I had an AWESOME TIME and I don’t regret going one bit. I love 1D and can not wait for their next album. Sans Zayn.
GOODLUCK ON THE REST OF YOUR TOUR!!
https://instagram.com/p/0qQMVUMITk/?taken-by=egilmer
BEST SONG EVER (FINALE)
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