'passes' did I say? Yes. And I had no idea that having more than enough can be so confusing. To make it fair, I held a small competition and I finally got a winner for it, a friend who's crazy about Manhattan Transfer.
On the D-day (yesterday), I got another confusion. Getting to the place. It's decided that I'd take my car and stationed it in one of the nearest hotel complex and then we continued our 'daring' journey to the festival's premises by bajaj.
We got off the bajaj a bit far from the gate. I had imagined how far we had to walk and it made me so very much lazy. And then a lady offered us a ride. A free ride!
After going through the complications of entering the building, we were finally in!The first show we saw was Elfa's Bosas. Cool performances. Great rhythm, great sounds. Great unison of voices and great dances. And great percussiooooons! I actually was hoping for songs composed by Elfa Secioria but my wait was in vain.
Then we went to Griffith Frank's sessions. Great voice, powerful and what long breaths he takes. It's like watching a combination of Il Divo and Josh Groban minus the curly part. Not much rhythm going on. Not too jazzy, I think.
We moved across the place leaving the place where we watched the handsome Griffith and made our way to the C1. That's where the Manhattan Transfer would perform. There was a long line but we didn't wait long because we were all seated in 20 minutes. There was a tight security procedure and my watchful eyes saw some men in batik uniforms and some others in the crew crowd, unsuccessfully trying to make themselves invisible. My eyes caught a small stage at the left back side with some antique Jepara carvings.
We took our place and waited. It's 19.10 already, the big band was ready. It's 19.15. It's not even started yet. And when the guest of honor arrived, the audience clapped. My guess was not to honor, but to mock and to show disappointment for making the show start late. It was the vice president.
And the show began after he's seated.
Nope.
I was wrong.
Peter F Gontha came on the stage saying a few bla bla bla. And then the show began.
Nope. Wrong again.
We all were requested to stand up and sing the national anthem. Singing it made me feel good inside.
Then, the show did actually begin.
The Manhattan Transfer. What do you expect? Lively. Perfect unison of vocals. Great band because it was a full force kind. Perfect lighting. I've got to give personal applause to the musical director who worked hard in some songs because they require sudden stops and starts.
They performed some songs that are a bit unfamiliar to my ears, not the kind of songs that are popular in Indonesia. They've mentioned some songs writers in the 1930s and the mood was dominantly jazzy swings. One of my favorites.
Two songs have very funny lyrics: She's Funny That Way and Caffeine. I laughed during the whole songs' performances. For Caffeine by Cheryl Betyne especially, her voice was unique accompanied with great stage acts and even with her clothes fully on (and of course, considering her age), she looks sexy . Each singer was given their solo moments and I think that's a great idea to give a chance to the audience to recognize the characteristics of each individual voice. Before we realized anything, it was over. And that magic 'we want more' trick worked its wonder and they gave us 2 more songs. And this time, we all stood up enjoying the final tunes. Awwww, it was superb! 
After that fabulous show, we rushed to the next special show, Baby Face's.
I thought that even though we're late, we would still be able to enter the building without having to stand in line since it's 20.30 already. The show started supposedly at 20.00. Again, I was wroooong. The line was almost 300 meters! Looking at the length, I immediately felt tired but my friend kept on giving me spirit. And so we waited in line. After 20 minutes, the line suddenly moved very fast and you know what? The committee opened the gate for public!!! Perhaps because it's too long of a wait and the show was almost over and it was the last day. People who had to buy the expensive ticket probably were disappointed.
Inside, we couldn't get anywhere close to Mr. Edmonds but we enjoyed his tunes anyhow. The part that I like best was when he sang a medley of songs he wrote for singers such as Boyz to Men and Tevin Campbell. Still remember that Can We Talk?. Or I'll Make Love to You? Of course he sang other songs like Gone Too Soon as a tribute to MJ, Change The World with a lot of percussion improvisations and many others. When it was supposedly over, the audience made that 'trick' to him and again, some more songs.We went home feeling happy. For me, the experience was worth all the effort. At times I have missed the opportunity of watching live shows. It's not always the money factor but more on my laziness in making the efforts to come. I could have refused accepting my brother's tickets but I knew some people would do whatever it takes to come and watch. And after all, it's from my brother. I had to come.
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