Crazy Celebrity Situations 2: RAN

RAN was easily the first Indonesian band I ever fell in love with. It happened one day back when I was still living in Australia when a friend got into my car to take a road trip to Bendigo bringing with him RAN's music. Since then I have listened to their music a lot. 

When I was in Surabaya doing my teaching training I saw that RAN was set to appear in Sutos and jumped at the opportunity to see them. On the day of the event I was so excited about it. When they came out on stage I was mesmerised. It was so much fun and they were so cool. At the end of the concert Nino gave me (and lots of other fans) a high five. I got really nervous and excited and when he gave me a high five and grabbed his hand and when he tried to walk away I didn't want to let go so I just kept holding on and he couldn't walk away... That was a bit awkward I guess.

the best photo I got on the day

The next time I watched them was three years later at Colours pub (aka my least favorite place in the world). The billboards advertising the concert said that it started at "10pm sharps" so after I finished work at 9pm, I went straight over completely skipping dinner. There's something terrible about being in Colours sober so I decided to have a few beers, but three glasses of beer on an empty stomach proved to be quite disastrous. 

By the time RAN came on stage I was pretty drunk! I stopped caring about being normal. At one stage I yelled out "I love you" which is probably perfectly reasonable concert behavior but doesn't really look so cool. Later I yelled out at Rayi, "Rayi! Rayi" Rayi!" and when Rayi looked over I just said "hi" because I didn't know what to say. Then he asked "where are you from?" which I replied with "Australia, America and England" which is an extremely unclear way of answering the question (I was actually at the concert with an American and an Englishman so it kind of makes sense). 

That night was the first (and last) time I rode a motorbike drunk because I didn't really think about what I was doing. But while I was riding I realised that I was too drunk to be riding home so it ended up that I was sitting at some traffic lights giving myself a pep talk in my head "Don't crash, you're almost home, there's no traffic, just drive properly" etc. But after awhile  when I noticed that lots of other motorists were staring at me, I realised I was talking out loud. Don't ride a motorbike while drinking! 

Anyway, a few weeks after that RAN were to come back to Surabaya for another event. Because it was there 9 year anniversary of playing together they organised an event called traktiRAN (traktiran means "to treat someone/ pay for their food") in 9 different cities with 9 winners in each city. Of course when I found out Surabaya was included I started working on my entry immediately. I had to make a collage using pictures from their music videos and write a caption. I spent hours on it over the course of two weeks and even after working on it every day I still wasn't satisfied with it in the end.

Seriously my caption was this long and probably full of mistakes but I don't even care because I love bad English grammar and I hope others appreciate my bad Indonesian :D

Somehow, I got kind of cocky about it at one stage and even spent $100 on a new outfit to wear to meet them (this was several days before I could even enter the competition). At the time I thought of that expression "don't count your chickens before they hatch" but I realised that counting chickens was good fun. I told myself if I believed I was going to get it I'd be more ready to deal with it when I got to the day. I was quite confident until the moment my entry was actually submitted at which point I felt extremely anxious. Lucky I taught 6 classes in the just over 24 hour period that they were accepting entries or I would have spent the whole time on Instagram checking if there were 9 entries better than mine. I wondered if I had written enough, if I had written too much (probably) or if my entry would even be noticed in a sea of other excellent entries. Finally when I got the message saying I'd won, I felt like I could get back to my normal activities (why am I so dramatic?). 

My entry

On the Sunday RAN were set to appear at an event with Sheila on 7 and Raditya Dika which I was super excited about because I love Sheila on 7 too and I have read all of Raditya Dika's books and love them too. I didn't really know what the event was about or how it worked (I'm constantly confused in this country) but I went anyway. I'm going to put the events of the day in point form because it's easier that way. 

• The place was so full of people that it was hard to move around (typical Indonesia though).
• We went into a big hall (actually a basketball court) and heaps of people were squished in there.
• I ran into one of my students there and he asked if I was alone and I didn't want to say I was alone but I obviously was. Slightly awkward.
• I quickly started to feel like I was the oldest person there... I may have been.
• After awhile the MC's came on and told everyone to sit down. They spent 15 minutes telling people to sit down. There was literally not enough room for people to sit comfortably.
• I had to sit uncomfortably for 4 hours because the room was so full it would literally be impossible to get out. Literally was in pain for the next two days.
• I hadn't eaten or drunk anything all day and I was kind worried I'd pass out.
• About 30% of that 4 hours was actually interesting- the talks by Pandji Pragiwaksono and RAN were interesting but by the time Raditya Dika came on I was too tired and dehydrated to even concentrate on what he was saying enough to understand it.
• Finally RAN came on the perform and we were allowed to stand up and I felt 10 times better. 

After RAN's performance I left. I felt like I should go home and have a quick shower because I felt pretty gross after being in that room all day and didn't want to meet anyone looking/ smelling like that. I even had to change my clothes! So I didn't even get to wear my new outfit to meet them but luckily months before I bought an outfit for another future plan (that I've realised is never going to happen), so I wore that instead. 

I met RAN at Soto Cak Har. As soon as I saw them I felt so much more nervous than I had anticipated. I felt like I couldn't even talk in the beginning, there were things I wanted to say but trying to get the words out of my mouth felt impossible. The other girls who won the competition were very nice too and far more confident than me. I eventually convinced myself that I had only one chance and that I shouldn't waste it and managed to say a few things. 

Obligatory celebrity selfies.

RAN were really chilled and down-to-earth and the experience made me feel happy to be a fan of theirs. My top three favorite things about the experience were:

1. None of them said anything dodgy or sleazy or weird. For those people who are interested in people saying sleazy things just wait for Crazy Celebrity Situations part 3  (which in reality I can probably never write because I'll get into too much trouble).

2. They mentioned that they like to use Go-jek which to me was really cool because I'm quite bored of rich/successful people bragging about their drivers and fancy cars and lifestyles. So when Asta said "Yea I just use Gojek in Jakarta because it's quicker" I realised he was about 10 times cooler than I originally thought.

3. The other girls at the event asked for a few things- "can you make a video for my friend to wish her good luck on her exam?"/ "can you write me a long letter in this book?"/ "can you guess the password on my phone?". The RAN guys never said no which I thought was really cool because I'm certain those things made those girls really really happy. 

A couple of months back RAN appeared in Surabaya again. I only found out the night before when I was already kind of drunk. When I woke up the next day I was super hungover and almost didn't go to the show. I told myself it may be my last chance ever to see them (it probably won't), took some painkillers and left. 

By the time I got there I felt better and I really enjoyed watching them. The best part was that I didn't have to endure 4 hours of sitting uncomfortably on a basketball court. Towards the end of the show Asta handed me his guitar pick. You know how guitarists usually throw their guitar pick into the crowd? He walked over and put it straight into my hand! That was pretty cool.

His face is even on it!

I'm not sure if/ when I will get to see RAN again but I really hope I do. I just hope I can see them in places that are a bit more relaxing than that time at the basketball arena. But it's often a lot of effort to see concerts here and you've just got to hope it's worth the trouble. But overall, I feel good knowing that the guys in RAN are good people which makes me enjoy their music even more.