In other news, our friends from L.A., fellow Indonesian rockers REO-G released an EP called For The Flowers last month. It’s available on iTunes and it’s pretty f’n awesome so check it out! Hope we can share the stage one of these days…

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more. peace.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to make their first show in Budovice, but we met up with them the next evening at Rock Club Kain in Prague’s Zone 3. Six grind bands were playing that night – The Arson Project, Krush, Xarox, NOXA, Hovadah, and Whoresnation – and the place was packed! We followed the sweet smell of kretek (yes, you can still smoke in bars in Prague) and found NOXA at the merch table in the back. They were accompanied by road manager and photographer Ari; Finnish filmmaker Takuya Suzuki, who is working on a documentary about the band to be released sometime next year; and Taku’s wife Intan. I’ve gotta say that the Czech Republic is not the friendliest country I’ve ever been to, but Czech extreme music fans are awesome. The pit was insane for all of the bands – so different than so many of the club shows in NYC – and plenty of people came by after NOXA’s set to buy t-shirts and meet the band. Just to show you what a small world it is, one of the guys from California band Cattle Decapitation, who had rather impressed us opening for Prong and Soulfly last year, came to ask NOXA for advice about touring in Southeast Asia. We stumbled back to our hotel rooms sometime well after midnight, thoroughly exhausted but still ready for more.

We all woke up early the next morning and took a train three hours through the Bohemian countryside to a small town called Trutnov close to the Polish border, home of the annual Obscene Extreme Festival. The festival itself is a three-day affair that takes place in outdoor venue a short walk from the center of town called Na Bojištì, which means Battlefield in Czech. It’s surrounded by trees and features a big stage with a jumbotron monitor off to one side so you can catch all the action, a large pit area, amphitheatre-style seating for anyone who has rocked too hard and needs a breather, and a camping area for the really hardcore grinders. This year’s theme was SILENCE SUCKS, which was quite appropriate.

You get a sampler CD with tracks from many of the performers with your ticket, and we opened it we found that the festival had dedicated it to Robin Hutagaol, NOXA’s founding drummer who died in a tragic accident last year.

When we made it to the Battlefield proper Czech band Eardelete was on stage, and then it was time for NOXA. Once again, they got a great response from the crowd. The pit was crazy and lots of people were crowd surfing and stage diving. Robin’s picture was shown on the jumbotron throughout the set, and at the end they dedicated it to him and raised the Indonesian flag. The whole experience was very emotional, and it was an honor just to be a part of it.

If you’ve never seen NOXA live, by the way, I highly recommend you do so as soon as you get a chance. You can check out video and more pictures on facebook.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the festival grounds talking to people and checking out the various food (we avoided the fried cheese, but tempeh with mustard is unexpectedly delicious) and merch for sale and of course the bands. Sixty-six bands were scheduled to play, like D.R.I., Misery Index, and Doom as well as tons of European bands, and I’m guessing at least a couple of thousand people were there from all over Europe, including many of the people we had seen at the club the night before! We met people from Spain, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, and of course Czech. Everyone was there to have a good time, and while we saw quite a few people passed out from too much drinking, there were no fights and none of the attitude you often get at big shows in the States. Rully was wearing a NOXA shirt, and everywhere we went people cheered when they saw it.

What a great trip. cheers to Micha the merch girl and everyone else we met, and props to NOXA for their second time in Europe. Hope to see you again in Trutnov next year, or sometime soon in New York!

You can see more photos on our myspace page.

We would like to thank all the bands who played, and extra special thanks to Gosha, Tsubasa, and the whole Uzuhi crew for making it happen!

UNIFY is now available on CDBaby and will be elsewhere soon, please check it out and tell your friends. peace.

Thanks to VOA Indonesia for their support. The program will air on RCTI and Metro soon, check your local listings!

You can also purchase your copy directly from the band at Suaka’s Spread Your Wings Summer Show next Sunday, June 27 at Lulu’s in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with Bangladeafy!, Windy Setiadi, and VERMEFÜG. See the Gigs section for all details, but the important things to know are: no cover, cheap beer, and free pizza with drink purchase. This will be Suaka’s last show until the fall, so don’t miss it!

Thanks as always for your support. peace.

Suaka’s next show is Sunday, June 27 at Lulu’s in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It will probably be their last show until September, so don’t miss it! Details coming soon, stay tuned for updates.

Thanks as always for your support. peace.

Just the number of people who came down to the show that night totally made the evening fun. To be honest I was kinda nervous in the beginning, but it turned out to be an awesome show. There’s nothing greater than seeing how new people who are mostly fans of the other bands that played that night ([geist], Entertainment System, and Middle Child Syndrome) reacted to our songs. The audience was chanting during the intro of “Corporatocracy” and the mosh pit broke out when we played the pentatonic thrash tune “Capitalist Blues” and on the last song of the evening “Amarah.”

We would like to thank [geist] and management, Entertainment System, and Middle Child Syndrome for their hospitality and making us feel at home; John for driving us back and forth; and Kat for helping us.

In other news, the CD release party April 18 was quite a success, and we just finished a mini-tour of East Coast cities. More to come soon, don’t touch that dial!

Peace!

- roots rocka-

Related show

• Artist: Suaka
• Date: Friday, March 26th 2010
• City: Suaka in Baltimore
• Venue: The Sidebar Tavern
• Address: 218 E. Lexington St., Baltimore, MD 21202
• Country: US
• Admission: $9 & $7
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Notes:

  Schedule:

  9:30-10:00 Middle Child Syndrome
  10:15-10:55 Entertainment System
  11:10-11:50 Suaka
  12:05-12:45 [geist]
  
  
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

Back on our home turf, we attended a thrash metal extravaganza with legends Voivod and Kreator. I don’t know what kind of show starts at 6pm on a Saturday night in New York City, but apologies to Lazarus A.D. for missing their opening set. British thrashers Evile were on stage when we arrived. The singer was far more goofy and charming than one might expect for a band with song titles like “Bathe In Blood” that has been compared to Slayer, and the band was solid. Chicago’s Nachtmystium were up next. Their sound is more on the stoner end of things, with clear Sabbath, Floyd, and black metal influences. The first song they played was a little slow and ponderous for my taste, but once they sped things up a little and hit a groove they turned out to be quite good.

Voivod need no introduction, and they were a sheer delight. They seemed genuinely happy to be on stage reveling in the love from the crowd – drummer Michel ‘Away’ Langevin had a huge smile on his face for much of their set – and they sounded amazing. They played a bunch of favorites like “Missing Sequences” and “Tribal Convictions,” and closed with their cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” dedicated to late guitarist Denis ‘Piggy’ D’Amour.

Kreator were awesome. It took me back to 1989 when i bought their succesful album Extreme Aggression on the cassette This tour is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the band. After surviving their experimentation era in the early 90′s that’s clearly shown in albums like Renewal, Endorama, and Outcast, which made all the old fans consider the band as sell outs, Kreator returned with the album Violent Revolution in 2001 with new lead guitar player Sami Yli-Sirniö and bassist Christian Giesler and at last but not least the co founder Ventor on the drums.

Tonite’s show was really amazing, not only playing new tracks from the last two album Enemy of God and Hordes of Chaos they pleased the old school fans by playing “Flag of Hate,” “Tormentor,” “Endless Pain,” etc.
And in result the big mosh pit broke out, can’t help it but joining that big circle which you can see in the pictures.

And the highlight was meeting Denis ‘Snake’ Belanger of Voivod – that made this tour like reunion for both bands that previously toured together in the past – after the show, and handed him my band’s cd which to me is priceless. Hope you re going to call us

Now, it’s time to focus on Suaka again because we have a lot planned for the spring. Thank you guys for reading, and see you around.