Cigarettes After Sex Concert in Jakarta: Rain and the Past That Never Ends

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The roar of thousands of band's concertgoers singing shook the Beach City International Stadium, North Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday night, January 17, 2025. Outside the building, the wind howled accompanying the heavy rain that poured down incessantly in the Ancol area.

As if wanting to match the thunder outside, the dream pop unit from Texas, United States sang their latest song titled "X's" from the album of the same name which was released in July 2024. Both the audience standing and those sitting in the stands began to turn their eyes to vocalist Greg Gonzalez who was highlighted in the middle of the stage.

Cigarettes After Sex's Sad and Hopeful Lyrics

After the first song, Gonzalez immediately strummed his guitar and brought the audience back to 2020 with the single "You're All I Want". The audience immediately sang the sad and hopeful lyrics while capturing the moment of the 42-year-old vocalist plucking his guitar strings.

Gonzalez then greeted the audience and thanked them for taking the time and energy to welcome him to Jakarta. Then the stage lights dimmed and he sang "Dark Vacay" from the album X's.

_{(Picture above) Vocalist of the music group Cigarettes After Sex (CAS) Greg Gonzalez performs at Beach City International Stadium, Ancol, Jakarta, January 17, 2025. ANTARA/Asprilla Dwi Adha}

Not only Gonzalez, Randy Miller consistently plucked his bass strings which added to the dark and gloomy atmosphere that night, led by Jacob Tomsky who kept the tempo regular. The single titled "Pistol" continued the sadness on Gonzalez's face when he sang it.

"Nothing Gonna Hurt You Baby" was then sung to change the mood of the audience, just temporarily. This song is popular with the audience considering it was one of the early releases of Cigarettes After Sex's career on the mini album I. with three other songs. The stage lights highlighted Miller who played the bass intro, until the light was even and Gonzalez's singing was accompanied by the audience's voices throughout this song.

Cigarettes After Sex's Latest Album Promotion

After performing their songs in the past, the band with a devotional nuance returned to singing a song from the X's album entitled "Dreams From Bunker Hill". Of course the goal was as part of promoting their latest album. The trio continued with other numbers at X's such as "Tejano Blue" which made the audience excited from the moment the intro was played.

Then "John Wayne" buzzed in the dark concert venue accompanied by black curtains and the audience singing the lyrics of one of the songs from the first album with the same title as the band's name. When the song ended, Gonzalez said, "Thank you. The next song is called Sesame Syrup," he said.

After the single released in 2018 was sung, Cigarettes After Sex performed the song “Cry” from the album of the same name in 2019. This seemed to move thousands of spectators to sing the song that was popular on social media, accompanied by a background screen showing a clip of a waterfall that added to the feeling of sadness.

Gonzalez and his two friends seemed not to want to give the audience a break to sing when they continued their action with the song “Sweet” which was no less popular than “Cry”. The two top five songs on Spotify were sung in relay.

The lights dimmed, the screen behind the stage displayed fire along with the guitar strumming of the intro to “Sunsetz” which was also included in the top five songs. When the song was finished, Gonzalez shook hands with one of the hysterical spectators following his screams echoing throughout the corners of the stadium. The other spectators laughed listening to the screams of joy.

Six lights from the foot of the stage shone upwards, the distinctive opening guitar strains of the song “K.” echoed. Thousands of spectators accompanied Gonzalez singing the lyrics to the song’s chorus. “Kristen, come right back / I’ve been waiting for you / To slip back in bed / When you light the candle.”

“We love you so much, Jakarta. The next song is called “Apocalypse”,” said Gonzalez. The audience immediately screamed and sang along to one of the most popular songs by the band that has released three full albums. Towards the end of the song, small round lights decorated the entire stadium while the audience chanted the lyrics non-stop, “Oh, when you’re all alone / I will reach for you / When you’re feeling low / I will be there too.”

The song ended, Cigarettes After Sex said goodbye while handing out song list papers. The audience shouted in unison, “We want more! We want more!” In the end, Cigarettes After Sex closed their stage action with the song “Opera House” from their first full album.

X’s World Tour 2025 Concert

Jakarta is one of the promotional venues for Cigarettes After Sex’s latest album titled X’s which was released in July 2024. In the concert, promoters Live Nation, TEM Presents, and PK Entertainment even added two ticket categories for the concert.

In his statement on Friday, November 8, 2024, the promoter provided the Festival B ticket category (standing) at a price of Rp1,050,000 and the Orange category (sitting according to seat number) at a price of Rp1,250,000. Both ticket categories can be ordered through the casinjakarta.com website.

The Ancol area was decorated with people walking around wearing all black. This is in line with the dark and gloomy nuance of the band that has been active since 2008.

Moreover, Gonzalez, Miller, and Tomsky often wear all black leather clothes when performing. That's why their fans in Indonesia imitate their style of dress, regardless of gender.

Oki Sudrajat for example, wearing a black t-shirt wrapped in a jacket of the same color said that he had watched Cigarettes After Sex twice. He got information about the concert last year, and ordered tickets in December 2024 for the Festival B category.

"Previously I watched it alone, now I'm seeing it with my partner. The songs I like such as Apocalypse, Cry, John Wayne, K., Sesame Syrup were also really good," Oki told Tempo, Friday.

is a band that often stops by in Indonesia during their World Tour sessions. Previously they performed at Establishment in 2017, We The Fest 2019, and a concert at Ancol in 2023.

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