From Liberty

Friday, 11 June 2004
- Step up -
It's early in the morning, 5:58 A.M to be exact, Viena, my friend in Bandung, sent me an sms, here's what she wrote 'Libert! Get ready to meet your 'bro' Bourdon! Don't forget to bring something for him, coz... YOUR NAME IS ON THE LIST OF MnG girl! CONGRAZ !!!...' I was totally speechless and hugged my sister. Man! I'm about to meet that talented band! But, for a moment, I doubt about that, then replied Viena's sms and told her to stoped teasing me. But Viena said that she didn't lie, and even swore to God for that. (Forgive me Vien!)

I still couldn't believe that thing, because I hadn't found the confirmation e-mail in my Inbox yet, but Viena said that the announcement would be given a day before the concert. What a day! I didn't prepare something to be signed by the band. Well, actually I had designed a picture for them on my computer, but I cannot print it cos the ink of my printer had dried out and my supply of glossy paper had ran off also...

It's 9 A.M; I went to the bus station to take a bus and head for Jakarta. I went together with my friend Yossie. At 10 A.M, the bus departed. It took about 8 to 9 hours from my hometown in BANDAR LAMPUNG, to JAKARTA, including two-hour journey by Ferry. What a journey! We arrived in Jakarta at 7 P.M; one of our friends in Jakarta who also want to watch the concert picked us up at the station. We spent our night at her house.

Saturday, 12 June 2004
- Numb -

I checked my e-mail, and... Voila.. yup yup yup.... I did find my name on the list of LPU MnG, kewl! Now I know it wasn't a dream. I asked Viena, who's still in Bandung, for the things that I should prepare, then she said that she'd help me. Thanks pal! We were ready to go the hotel, but before that, we and my other two friends had a little discussion about which hotel that we'd choose. At 1:00 P.M, we went to the hotel that we had decided then checked in at 1:45 P.M. we got a room with a very nice and lovely view, tennis court on the left side and swimming pool at the right side, cool huh!

When I was trying to enjoy the view, suddenly there were a lot of securities stood not too far from the swimming pool, I didn't have any idea what's going on, I even joked about it by saying 'Probably one of the president candidates in our country wants to do his campaign in this hotel, hehehe...' But then I became suspicious, those groups of securities were replaced by a bunch of journalists and cameramen that gave sign to their other friends and went to a place downstairs. Feeling curious, my friend and I directly went downstairs then... I saw six members of Linkin Park doing their first photo session for the press... oh my God! I talked to myself, those are the persons whose songs and music I always listen to everyday, and who created such healing and meaningful lyrics for me.

I tried to take their pictures from a distance by using my camera phone, and then grabbed my friend's digital camera that she didn't use (she was astonished by band). I tried to go outside through the side door, but unluckily the security forbade me, Shoot! I should've brought my room card so that they'd allow me to come in, cause I saw two foreign little girls showed their room card then passed that man. Damn! But I thought positively, maybe it wasn't my lucky day after all. I sent Viena an sms, telling her that LP probably are staying in the same hotel as ours.

After the photo shoot, Linkin Park went to the meeting room to do press conference. I followed them, but again... the guards, securities, bodyguards or whatever you call them, forbade me and other people, and told mew to stay away from the door. When they came in I called one of them, and you know whom I called?! I yelled for Brad's name. I don't have any idea, but it seemed that BRAD is the easiest name to say, huh?! (^_^). For the press conference, they permitted only the newspaper, magazine, and TV/radio media to come in. The room was locked and guarded by the securities, huh! Quite 'spooky' when it comes to that Bodyguard thing...

In front of that room, there were a lot of photographers or maybe the journalists that couldn't find their names on the official list of invited medias, or even fans like us waited and sat there. And I pretended to be one of the photographers, by holding two gadgets on my hand; my nokia hand phone and digicam. I sat and waited for about 5 minutes there, and then the door was opened. Those people, who'd been waiting outside rushed into the room, and I bravely or maybe riskily (hehehe..Do we have this vocabulary in English?) joined them and came into the room.

When I was in the room, the press conference had already finished. No problemo, I thought, I'll meet them tomorrow. I took pictures in front of their conference's table and pretended to be Rob Bourdon, LOL.

One of my friends, who's a fan of Joe, grabbed a can of soft drink from Joe's table, she's sure that it's Joe's drink, LOL... my friend is so funny... I heard from the journalists and knew that LP were staying in this hotel, and they were in the 15th story. WOW, just a few stories from our room. Wicked! Then, we decided to go back to our room.

At noon, Viena said that she is heading for the hotel, and asked me to picked her up downstairs. I was waiting for her with one of my friends at the lobby; next, Viena came with a very big thing (she ever said that she drew a big picture of Joe, and wanted to give it to him). We told Viena the whole thing that had happened, although she just heard about it, she felt happy for us. Viena showed us her drawing and.. Gosh! It's so cool, I mean.. Arrgh... it would definitely make Joe thinks that she's very talented. Way to go!!!!! We're proud of you.

It was around 6:40 A.M. We did enjoy the view from our room, that's why we kept the windows opened, and felt the breeze blew into our room, while we're watching MTV (hoping that there'll be LP's video being played ^_^). Yossie, who sat near the window, pointed the tennis court and said (Guess she tried to pull our legs), 'hey! There's a guy playing tennis down there. I hope he's one of the members of LP'. My other friends laughed hearing that, but then, me, myself, and I, by using my super dupper eyes watched it carefully (Thank God I used my soft lens!) then yelled! 'It must be him! I know it! It's him! There's no doubt about that. I can see it from the way he plays tennis, he's the drummer! I wanna go there!' moreover, I saw a flash of camera. So... accompanied by two of my friends I went there. On the way to the tennis court, there's a group of girls, sat in the dark, holding their camera. I don't know what the hack they were doing there.

I tried to approach the tennis court and yup! I saw him played tennis with his Body Guard (BG). Until, one of the girls from the group that I told you came toward me. In a soft-spoken style, she asked.. which I think, totally BIZARRE... question; here's what she asked 'hey! Who's he? Is he Linkin Park' I replied (with strange facial expression) 'Yeah!!??' then she asked again 'What's his name? Who is he?' Feeling totally confused and weird, I just smiled and didn't answer her question, and paid my full attention back on the game.

I don't get it. I mean, if she doen't know anything about Linkin Park, then what were she and her friends doing there, with a camera, in a dark place, and waited to take his picture??!! I took Rob's pic using my hand phone camera, then using my friend's digital cam until... OMG... she forgot to turn off the flash. A local bodyguard came to me and said 'please..Do not take picture, if you want to see him, see him from a far okay'. I spoke to myself.... NO WAY Man! I don't want to lose this moment, seeing my favourite talented drummer plays tennis, No WAY! I'M STAYING!...

Not wanting to get my ass kicked by him, I immediately put my digicam and hand phone in my pocket, then said to that man 'OK! I won't take any other pics. I promise, but I want to see him from here, okay?!'. He said nothing and walked a bit far from where I stood.

During the game, my friends and I yelled at them by saying 'C'mon guys, you can do it!' well, I personally, yelled like this 'Come on Bourdie. You can do it!' ^_^

Rob is absolutely nice; he smiled every time we spurred at him. Finally, our supports gained the result, Rob Bourdon beat his opponent 6 to 4. Way to go Bourdie! After the game, he went to the bench to have some rest.

He did a little chat with his BG about the match. And... this moment will linger for good on my mind...yup yup yup... a little conversation with Rob Bourdon.

Me: 'Hi Bourdie!'
( I thought he would only smile and then leave just like that, but I was totally wrong, he's still there and responded to my greeting)
Rob: 'Hi!'
Me: 'How are you?'
Rob: 'I'm fine thank you, and what about you?'
Me: 'I'm fine too, thanks!' 'Hey! I'll meet you tomorrow at MnG!'
Rob: 'I'm fine thank you!'
(Oh... c'mon Rob! You could hear me clearly right?!) LOL
Me: 'No!... I said, I'll meet you tomorrow on MnG'
Rob: *smiled* 'Ooh.. Sure, that's good!'
Me:' I'm an LPUer'
Rob: *still smiling* Hey! That's cool!'
Me: 'you played tennis very well'
Rob: 'haha... no' (laughed)
Me: *with serious expression* 'Mmm.. I think you are an expert! '
Rob: 'Ah... no' (I could see that he felt really shy, it shows on his face)
(He's about leave, but suddenly, he turned back and smiled at me)
Rob: 'Bye!'
Me: :'Bye Bourdie!'
Rob: 'I'll see ya tomorrow!'
Me: 'See ya!'
He left the tennis court

After that moment, did I FAINT?! NOPE!..... Did I feel NUMB?!..YUP!... I dunno what I've just said to him, and was it some kind of CAROUSEL dream?! One thing for sure, I felt extremely lucky. I asked Yossie to pinch me, and...Ouch.... it hurts! yup! It's real!

After that, we went back to our room, I called my beloved mom, and told her about the fantastic experience that I've been through. What my friend, in States, had said is true! She said that LP members are totally humble, friendly and nice. You are definitely right my fella; I had proved it myself. He wanted to spend a little of his time, to chat with the fan, he's not corky, and really friendly. He isn't like an arrogant rock star or whatever. Down to earth!

The rest is not too different with Viena's story. At midnight, Viena and my friend went downstairs to have some fresh air outside, at one of the pubs, they saw Phoenix and Rob watching EURO 2004, there's a lot of BGs around them, so they couldn't approach both of the guys. I slept silently, peacefully, wished to have sweet dreams and prayed that everything would be okay tomorrow at the concert and MnG. Oh God! Thanks for the moment that you have given to me. I do appreciate that!

Sunday, 13 June 2004
- One Step Closer -
Whoa!!!!!!!!!!!... Morning everyone! It's the big day!!! I was about to meet LP in persons, got my poster signed by them, and also took their pics, and OF COURSE... At last... Watch their performance, Live on Stage, here on my own country! On the ticket it was written that the door would open at 11 A.M and the show would begin at 3 P.M. I doubt that it would begin at 3, because there had been an announcement before that the concert would begin at 4. I don't know why they wrote 3 PM on the tix.

I wore my favorite gray jeans n army-green t-shirt, with a small pic of a Deejay on it, huh! I couldn't find the drummer picture, LOL. Backpack..check!...towel..check!...disposable camera..check!...food+drink..check!...poster, and present for Rob..check!...Hmmm.... I guess that's all! ^_^ V We arrived there at 10 A.M it's totally torture, standing in the long queue, rowdy crowd, heat, thirst, and not a very comfy spot near the beach, we had to wait patiently till they opened the gate. If I'm not mistaken, there are 3 gates that we could enter. The committee gave us free drinks -- products from a tea company --.

Viena, one of my friends, and I got separated from my three other friends because, we must follow MnG. I was totally bloody disappointed with the committee... when three of us reported that we'd join LPU meet and greet, they looked confused about it. As a result, we had to go around the venue to see the MnG place, because according to the rules that we read, those who are going to the MnG should be at the spot, at least 45 minutes before MnG."

Until we met other LPUers, then together we explained to the committee that we are from LPU, which is the official FC of LP. OMG! They didn't seem to care about this LPU or MnG stuff, yuck!

Finally... after waiting for quite some tiring time, someone called us then checked our id, tix, and confirmation e-mail that we should bring in order to enter the MnG. I had a fun chat with the other LPU members, and exchanged our e-mail addresses. There were 17 people who joined LPU meet and Greet. Maybe, that's the reason why LPUers in Indonesia didn't have special thing, activities, moment, etc just like what other LPUers in other Southeast Asian countries.(T_T) *cryin' loudly*

Beside us, there were also more than 20 persons from different ages; from the young little one, (He was in his 2nd grade of elementary school), until the old man/woman (One of the LPUers has one child, a boy. She even said this to her son 'Hunny, mama wants to watch Linkin Park's concert, take care okay!' 'But mommy, I want to come with you' 'No, you can't! There'll be a lot of people there ( Funky mama! She likes Joe so very much! ) 2.30 P.M, we were ready for the MnG, the committee asked us to stand in line nicely, keep calm, and said that we can only bring one item to be signed. He forbade us to bring our cameras, and we couldn't take their pics, but... not long after that, he came back and said that CAMERA's ALLOWED! Yihaaa...! While waiting in line, Mark from LinkinPark.com came with his camera and shot us, asked some questions, and asked us to say 'LPU Indonesia' loudly. It's the time.... got butterflies on my stomach. Man! It's a lot worse than facing my final examination, LOL

Here's the arrangement:

First table was the Glue aka Mike; he's so friendly. One thing that I regretted was that... I didn't take Mike's picture; I moved passed him, while I managed to take the others' pics. Forgive me Mike! How can I didn't get the photo of one of the main brains of the band??! -help me to overcome this remorse feeling- Second was Phoenix, he's also very friendly. When I said thank you so very much, he said 'ah...No Problem'. He waved his hand when I took his pic. Thanks Phi! He really has that down to earth personality.

Folks! For number three, I'd like to introduce… the Great Mr. Hahn. He is really funny, he asked me where to sign; 'Where?! Here?..here?'. I nodded. Wherever Joe! As long as you sign my poster, that'll be OK ^_^. I managed to take his 'confused' pose when he was listening to Viena's explanation about her drawing. 'Did you make it yourself?' asked Joe to her. I could hear their conversation while waiting for Brad to sign my poster. There's a funny thing, when Vien said that she used Rotring (one of the brands of pen) to draw the lines, Hahn looked confused…(see my picture) hahaha…actually, what she meant was a very small-eyed pen that an architect usually uses.

Fourth was BBB aka Big Bad Brad. He looked different with his new hairstyle. The funny moment was when I asked for his signature, he didn't listen to me but held my poster then signed it really slowly without looking at the paper. Did you know why?! Because he was listening to Joe talking with my pal Viena. At that time, Joe asked 'bout the drawing that she made. I asked Brad 'Brad! Are you okay?!' realized that I was waiting for him, he smiled, then... when I wanted to take his photo (maybe he wanted to pay his mistake for ignoring me, LOL) he smiled to me twice, smiled, nodded, then smiled again, this time, a really.... big happy smile! Thanks B!

Fifth was Rob. I asked him 'do you still remember me?!' and he answered with smiling face 'Of course!' I said to him 'Hey! I saw you played tennis very well. You beat that man 6 to 4! Way to go!'. Rob laughed then replied 'Haha... yup! Hey you know what?! Yeah, I played with him' *pointed a baldy man who were standing near Chaz* -- Yup! He's the man who played tennis with Rob last night -- I thought... (He looked scary!) and then said to that man 'Yah! I remember you!'. When Rob wanted to sign my poster, I asked him to write my name, then he asked me 'Okay! What's your name?' I mentioned my name, and then he said 'Like this?!'.

Frankly speaking, I like when Rob's speaking, I mean he's the quiet one in the band, in every interview, he doesn't really get much chance to talk because of his shyness, and now, he talked to me! Yeah! I maganed to make him talk! yeah!!! LOL. And I am so happy that he still remembers me. Thx! And the last one was... the Lead singer of the band ^_^ Mr. Chazzy Chaz. When I said 'Smile Chaz!', he gave me this expression (see the pic), hahaha... bored with the smile-style huh? Anyway, I think, Chester's not that too skinny, well at least for Asian size, LOL.

Finished with the Meet and Greet activity, some people guided us to the entrance, based on the ticket that we had, whether it's VIP A, VIP B, or Festival. I was in VIP A. the other fans were already in the venue, that's why my friends and I should run to find the strategic position. Suddenly, one of my friends who also joined the MnG said that she lost her cell phone. What can I do? I knew nothing about it, she's the one who held her own mobile during the MnG. I told her to stay calm, and who knows we might find it later. Hurry! Cause we must rush to the venue. The show would start in an hour. So, we killed the time by sharing the things that happened during the MnG.

Around 3.30 P.M a local Dee Jay opened the show. He's not bad, but of course DJ Hahn is still our Numero Uno DJ. Hehehe… 4.05 P.M. LET'S GET THE PARTY STARTED!!!! Hahn and Rob came first, then one by one the whole members appeared, the intro of Don't Stay began, the crowds were getting crazy. We all jumped, jumped, jumped into the rhythms. LP is in the house yo! There are 15 songs (if I'm not mistaken) brought by them, from Hybrid Theory album, Reanimation, until Meteora. Not to forget, a track taken from Hybrid Theory EP 'Step up'. When Mike said that he's about to play a song from EP album, I did hope that it would be Step Up, my fave, so… when he mentioned the title, I yelled loudly 'YEAH !!!!…' and… here's the embarrassing part, the people around me looked at me with their weird facial expression, maybe they thought I am a lunatic or something. None of them knew the song. I was blushing, but didn't give a damn about that, and joined with Mike to do the rap! 'Who can rock a rhyme like this?! Bring it to you every time like this?! Step step up, step step up!'

Linkin Park also played 'Wish' from Nine Inch Nails. I heard this song before; my uncle played their cassette. Rob played drum very awesome for this special track, thumbs up bro!

In the middle of 'With you' suddenly Chaz stop singing, he warned the audience to help others if they see someone falls. 'We're all here to have fun right?!. We're all friends right?!'. Here's another proof that they do really care about their fans' safety and condition. I salute you guys! I could hardly hear Chester and Mike's voices. The audience totally did a very great Karaoke for the whole songs. Yossie said that, when we're all singing, including the rap parts, Mike often smiled to Chester and felt happy about it. Maybe he wondered, how come a non-English-speaking country like Indonesia, could remember the whole lines nicely, LOL.

In 'Breaking the Habit', Mike showed us his capability to play piano. It's so awesome. Think I got goose bumps when I heard that. In the end, as the closing or I must say, the peak of the show, they played ONE STEP CLOSER, not to be forgotten they mixed it with the re-animation style.

The show ended at 5.45 P.M. I rushed to the front of the stage, and took pictures of Joe's turntables, and Rob's drums set. What a surprise! Joe came out and took our pictures using his professional camera. We called him, but he ignored us and then left just like that, haha… that's the real Joe! I managed to take his picture using my camera phone.

LP crews were ready and they settled the whole instruments. I saw many fans next to me tried to persuade the securities, so that they could go back stage, or at least take something that LP left on the stage. One girl jumped out the fence then took LP's songs play list. Some teenagers even called one of the LP crews then asked him to give their CDs signed by the band. But it's useless, he rejected their request, and the band had left the venue anyway. I watched the crews packed the whole stuff. I still couldn't believe that I've finally seen, my great band performed live in front of my eyes, I mean, I never thought that they wanted to visit my country despite the travel warning that U.S. announced.

Suddenly Viena sent me an sms and said that she was alone near the gate and got separated from my other friends. So I went to her place. Yup! During the concert, I was pushed by the crowd and caused me separated from them.

Viena stood alone there. We decided to look for drinks. We tried to contact Yossie, but failed, so did with my other friends' mobile. What's going on?! Until, I remembered that my friend said she lost her cell phone, so I tried to call her hoping that she's the one who had found her phone. But…. A male over there answered the phone, so I told him that my friend had lost it. He said he's from Linkin Park crew, and he's waiting for us at the hotel, where LP stayed, to take the phone which coincidently happened to be the same hotel as ours. Bloody lucky moment! We had brisk walk, and felt happy about it. The man kept calling us and said that he didn't want to give the cell phone to other people (I asked them to give it the receptionist, then later on I'd take it. I hate to make someone waits) and insisted to wait for us.

The traffic jam was absolutely insane, we had difficulty finding a taxi, the driver asked for very expensive cost. Viena and I didn't care about it, so we took that taxi. We were also worried about our other friends.

When we arrived at the hotel, my mobile battery was low, so I had to switch my phone with Viena. Remember, the man only recognizes my number, that's why I didn't want to use Vien's number. The man said that he'd go downstairs and asked us to wait near the elevator. While waiting for him we saw Yossie and one of my friend arrived. Phew…! Finally they're okay. I asked them to go to the room first because we had to wait for someone.

I kept watching the lift carefully, which door that would opened, until… right exactly in front of my eyes 'Ting!!!!' (hehehe… I mean the sound of lift opened) then came out Bourdie and that baldy man again. Rob smiled at me, and that baldy man said no. What the…. I said to myself relax guys I won't bother you!. They wanted to play tennis again. What a zest that Bourdie has! Didn't he take some rest?! What a sport addict! ^_^ Not long after that, the man came out and smiled at us, he gave us the phone. He told us that my friend left her hand phone on meet and greet, inside a bag of present that he gave to Chester, and Chaz found that. Three of us had a long conversation about LP. We talked about the meet and greet, the concert, and lots of things. He's so nice. He said actually we can have picture together with the band, but it depends on their BGs permission.

There's another thing that I regretted, I forgot to asked his name, although I said thank you to him. He also reminded us not to be careless with our cell phone. We felt tired and could hardly wait to have a nice warm shower. But then three LP crews that I saw busy on the stage this evening came toward the lift with a lot of stuff they're carrying. I just saw them at a glance, and then ready to enter the opened elevator, but Viena pulled my T-shirt asked me to wait for her. What another coincidence, they came into the same elevator as us. But one crew (we can see him on LIT vcd, the man with the big body and long beard, with black hat) couldn't enter because the elevator had already overloaded. Viena and I apologized to him 'Please forgive us!!!'. One of the crews said 'don't worry. It wasn't your fault'.

Wait a minute! I knew them; they're the ones who took care of Mike, Rob, and Joe's stuff. I asked them 'Hey! Are you guys from LP crews?'. They answered 'Are you kidding?! We worked for them!'.'Did you watch the concert'. Both of us nodded and told them that we did watched it on the back. Then I said 'Just wanna tell you. The show was totally awesome! Send our best regards to them will you!'. Then Viena said 'We're from LPU'. 'Yeah!' I said and showed rock sign using my hands 'We're LPUers!'. They laughed happily, then one of them whom I saw busy with Rob's drums, picked something from his pocket. 'Here, these are for you… one, two, three, four'. Four guitar picks, officially and originally signed by, made for and used only by the one and only MIKE SHINODA. Wow! We're so speechless 'Oh my Gosh! Thank you so very much' we said to them. The elevator door opened, he asked 'are you on this floor?!'. Panicky we forgot to get out of the elevator 'Yes! Thank you!'. They helped us by holding the door. We got out of the lift, thanked them, and waved goodbye. We ran quickly to our rooms, we are definitely two F****** Luckiest Leos ever! (Both of us were born under the sign of Leo).

I met two out of those three men again at the lobby when I wanted to go to the swimming pool. He waved his hand to me, replied my greeting, and then smiled at me, while one of them busy making a phone call. I couldn't, won't, and will never ever want to forget of the things that happened today. This is the best day of my life. If God didn't permit us, we won't be as lucky as today. THANK YOU!

Monday, 14 June 2004
- In the End -

Early in the morning, I decided to jog around the hotel with Viena before we went to the sauna. She loves basketball, so she rented a ball then asked me to play. Then, we went to our room and asked the others to join us. We played for about 15-20 minutes. Next, the others went back to our room, while Viena and I headed for the sauna. At 8.00 A.M, I felt worry, and asked her to finish, but she asked for more time. At 8.30, we went back to the room. One of our friends wanted to play some trick at us, I could smell something fishy that they planned ^_^. She told Viena that there's something wrong with her family. Viena got worried. But I know that she lied to us, so I busy myself dried out my hair in the bathroom. U huh! I am a good guesser! They finally laughed and told us that LP had already checked out from the hotel around 8 o'clock this morning, and both of us had missed that chance. It's not a big deal after all. We got to go to the MnG, and met LP yesterday, and now it's their turn to meet them. It's all FAIR. I am so happy that my friends got a lot of their pictures, and Mike even signed my friend's ticket. And still, they're so friendly and humble.

And now, everyone was happy and excited. We got to see our favorite band, which we admire for their masterpieces and talents. Thank you God for everything! These four days are extremelly the best days of my entire life ever! Yihaaa…!!! Linkin Park Rocks!!!