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View all search resultsOff the beaten track: Ali to play Australia in pre-album tour
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Unconventional trio: The members of rock band Ali (from left), John Paul “Coki” Patton, Arswandaru Cahyo and Absar Lebeh, are set to play the Crystal Sand Tour in Australia in February, unusually before releasing their debut studio album. (Courtesy of Ali) (Archive/Courtesy of Ali)
A
fter playing at Les Rencontres Trans Musicales festival in France, Jakarta’s bohemian rock band Ali is preparing to tour Australia come February with a debut studio album.
Not many Indonesian acts have tasted what it’s like to perform at one of Europe’s longest-standing festivals, like France’s Les Rencontres Trans Musicales. Yet, Jakarta-based trio Ali somehow managed to secure a slow at the festival with just three singles under their belt.
Fresh off the plane from France and before the new year, the rock band announced it would be performing on Feb. 9, 2023 in Adelaide, alongside American rock band Osees. The show would kick off Ali’s Australian tour, named after its latest single, “Crystal Sand”.
Free spirits
Ali’s approach during its early days may seem bewildering. As it shared numbered playlists with repartees heavily laden with humor that ironically referenced everything Middle East, people started second-guessing what Ali was, until the release of its first single, “Dance, Habibi”.
“Yeah, some people thought we were media,” said Arswandaru Cahyo, speaking to The Jakarta Post on Jan. 18, 2023. The band’s Instagram handle, @ali_radio, only added to the confusion.
“To shake up people,” Cahyo replied, laughing, when asked why he went with the approach. “Just to be different. Unique? It was rare to see bands with that kind of approach.”
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