We [Stage] Dive Into the Heart of Medan's Punk Scene

Medan's Pitu Room was calm and quiet. But in a few hours it would explode as the city's punk and hardcore bands take the DIY venue's small stage.

"You must've heard of CBGBs, right?" Elisantus Sitorus said. "We adopted their concept. They were in New York. It was also a [punk] venue."

Pitu Room is the kind of place that shows how global the DIY punk scene is. Punks like Elisantus heard of the now-closed New York venue, learned that it was the home venue for legendary bands like the Cro Mags and the Ramones, and opened their own amazingly divey venue in Medan, North Sumatra, to support the local scene.

"When I came home from Jakarta, I could see a contrast between the two cities," Elisantus said. "Medan is a big city. We want to provide a space for artists for free, as long as they are discipled and consistently making art."

Before Elisantus opened Pitu Room in 2010, Medan bands were struggling to find venues that would let them play. A new spot would open up, and then close down in a few months. But Elisantus' parents owned the building, a fact that allows him to operate on razor-thin margins and guarantee local and touring bands a place to play.

"There was only few spaces to appreciate arts, especially the underground arts [in Medan]," he said. "We run this without government support or sponsors. We only make our money from ticket sales.

"We're 70 percent arts, 30 percent business. The business is to provide the space. The money is used to pay for electricity, water, and sound system maintenance. We even pay one million rupiah per month for the permit from the police. I don't get why we have to pay for 'security money.' All we make is art."

It creates space for one of Indonesia's most-active punk scenes—and a vital outlet for free speech.

"We want to express ourselves," said Ben, of the punk band SPR. "It's nothing, we know. The region chief in Medan has been accused of corruption. That's one of the things we want to discuss. We can't tell if there's an impact. But as long as freedom of expression is limited, we'll keep going. You can choose whether to listen to us, what matters is that we build the community."