Category: Music

Last night I got to see Imagine Dragons and Atlas Genius both perform live here in London. I was supposed to arrive at the venue two hours ahead of time so I could try and end up close to the front of the stage but in a typical Mark move I ended up arriving two hours ahead of time… at the wrong venue. The concert was being held at the O2 Academy Brixton but I ended up going to the O2 Arena so after finding out my mistake I had to spend 40 minutes in the subway heading to the correct location on the other side of town. Although I didn’t end up right up front it wasn’t bad at all since I was still pretty close to the stage.

[YouTube]

The first band to perform last night were Atlas Genius. Even though Imagine Dragons are performing in London for three nights, Atlas Genius were only opening up for them on the first night and since I’m a fan of theirs I decided to get tickets for that night. Atlas Genius aren’t that popular but they’ve got two songs I really love one of which would probably make it into my top 20 indie tracks list. They weren’t that exciting performers live but nevertheless it’s still always great to hear a favorite song being played live in front of you.

Dan Croll came on after Atlas Genius but I only knew and liked one song of his (From Nowhere) and even though his performance was better than Atlas Genius, I couldn’t wait till he finished so Imagine Dragons could come on.

[YouTube]

Imagine Dragons were the third and final act for the night and I had heard they were great live. After watching them live now I can say that is very true. I was actually surprised by their whole performance. Even though they had arrived to London from LA just 5 hours before the show, they played every song with so much passion and energy I was just blown away. My favorite song of theirs is Amsterdam (watch it here) but I think their performance last night for Radioactive which I’ve embedded above was my favorite. Oh yeah the stage was full of percussion instruments which the whole band participated in therapeutically venting out on through out the night.

Yesterday was the first time I took my GX1 camera with me to a concert. Micro 4/3 cameras like the GX1 are perfect for concerts since they look like point and shoot cameras which you’re allowed to bring in, but the quality of the shots is closer to DSLR’s which you aren’t allowed to bring into events. I was taking photos with my camera and then transferring them to my phone using the Eye-Fi card which I posted about the other day, and then uploading them to Instagram.

Two more concerts left and then it’s back to Kuwait.

[YouTube]

Last night I got to see ‘Baths‘ perform live at Oval Space in London and he was just phenomenal. I’m a huge fan of ‘Baths’ but wasn’t so sure on how the music would translate into a live performance since it’s so digital. I was worried it might just end up super boring with Will Wiesenfeld in front of a laptop but that was definitely not the case. Will came on stage wearing running shorts with a tshirt and sneakers as if he was about to take part in a marathon but once he started performing I realized why. He was literally all over the place since the music is extremely fast paced and at some points he was just jumping around from vocals to keyboard to laptop to his tech and back like he was jacked up on Molly.

I was standing right in the front row so the music was extremely loud hence why the sound in the video above is not that great. At one point during the performance they had to lower the bass since it was so powerful that it was unplugging all the cables on his setup. Will is very laid back and personal when performing. He’s very down to earth and he makes you feel like you’re in his room and he’s just jamming with you. There’s another video I uploaded which you can watch [Here] (starts past the 2 minute mark) in which you can get an idea of how he was communicating with us at the event. According to Will this was the largest audience he had gotten so far since they started headlining shows and I found that difficult to believe since we weren’t that big of a crowd. I don’t understand how Bieber can fill up a stadium and ‘Baths’ barely a small warehouse.

If you haven’t heard ‘Baths’ before but are into electronic music then I would highly recommend you buy the CD’s, download the tracks from iTunes or check them out on Spotify. Here is a link to the ‘Baths’ [Website]

If you want to listen to some really talented local musicians, Bayt Lothan is holding their popular “A Night In” event tomorrow. It’s going to be an open air event which is great since the weather is perfect right now.

Location: Bayt Lothan [Map]
Date: Wednesday, November 20th 2013
Time: 7PM to 9PM

You can book your seats now for KD10 by calling 25755866 or 25755877 or else you will have to pay KD12 at the door.

Samsara Rehearsals

Originally set to take place on the 13th, Samsara is now taking place this coming Monday the 18th instead. Tickets are still available and can be reserved at this [Link]

This is what you need to know about the event:

In an introspective attempt to bring the world together with music, we at Camco Global Events are producing the biggest music event in Kuwait with musical composer Nawaf Gheraibah, a local Kuwaiti musician whose music is an expression of his rich multicultural influences. He preformed his composition thesis ‘Bija’ meaning ‘seed’ in Sanskrit; at the prestigious Bayt Lothan in May 2012, where the show was enthusiastically received with standing ovations by the audience and rave reviews by the press and media. After the success of ‘Bija’; Gheraibah has focused his energy on creating the sequel to his initial project.

In his new album named “Samsara”, Sanskrit for ‘rebirth’, reflecting the rebirth of the music of the past in the present. Gheraibah attempts to fuse a variety of tribal and ancestral instruments, poetries, and theories, with more modern day musical concepts. The music is a reflection of modern fusion music, which is conceived through the combination of cultures, customs, and languages; creating a resonance of new age sound.

In this case, a rebirth of Kuwait’s musical past, which is reflected in the album, as Gheraibah experiments with fusing traditional work songs from Kuwait’s golden era of pearl diving and trade with a more modern day tunes. The music carries a variety of ethnic influences such as Indian, Thai, Moroccan, African, Middle Eastern and European, blending them into an artistic interpretation of sound and song. The songs are in a variety of languages: Arabic, French, Swahili, Portuguese, Hindi, and English, and will be sung by a variety of singers.

Approximately thirty instrumentalists and singers will be performing on stage during the concert; a majority of which are Kuwaiti students from the Higher Institute of Musical Arts, Kuwait. In addition, a variety of musical students and professionals from other countries, such as Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, India, Jordan, Korea, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Sudan will be preforming as well.

Date: Monday, November 18th 2013
Time: 7:00PM
Location: GUST University Amphitheatre, Mishref [Map]

For more information visit their Facebook Page

Update: Due to the storm the event has been postponed till November 23rd.

Kuwaiti rapper Big D has a new music video out called Killah. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny it’s pretty impressive how many music videos he pumps out a year. [YouTube]

The Formula 1 weekend in Abu Dhabi is their biggest weekend of the year so it’s just crammed with things to do including concerts. This year they brought in Jay-Z, Muse and my personal favorites Depeche Mode to come and perform over 3 nights at the huge Du Arena located behind Ferrari World. I shared most of my favorite photos already on Instagram (@mark248am) but I also shot some video which I’ve shared below.

[YouTube]

Jay-Z
The first concert I attended was Jay-Z. We were at a party on a super yacht with David Hasselhoff and Maradona watching the Formula 1 practices (the yacht was parked in Yas Marina and overlooked the track) and I really didn’t want to leave. I’m not a huge fan of Jay-Z and I’ve barely heard a handful of his songs but in the end I left the yacht party and headed to the concert. Me and a friend got there around 20 minutes late but we still managed to squeeze ourselves pretty close up front since we had access to the golden circle. Strangest thing ever, I spotted Horacio Pagani in the crowd but no one knew who he was. Only reason I was able to easily recognize him was because he was on the yacht party earlier with us.

[YouTube]

Muse
I honestly hadn’t heard any of Muse’s songs until a week before the concert. They’re not really the style of music I listen to and the only reason I went to the concert was to kill time before going to O1NE by Skybar (that’s another post). But, they did put on a good show although it was just an hour long. According to a friend who is into Muse their set should have included more songs but for some reason they ended it early.

[YouTube]

Depeche Mode
Now this was actually a concert I really wanted to go to. I’ve been a huge Depeche Mode fan ever since Smashing Pumpkins did a cover for “Never Let Me Down Again” back in 1994 (which I still think sounds better than the original). While I had arrived late for the other two concerts, with Depeche Mode me and my friend headed to the arena right after the Formula 1 race had finished so we ended up there over an hour and half early. We ended up camping in front of the stage until the concert started but the wait paid off since we ended up standing second row in front of the stage. Dave Gahan the main vocalist has to be one of the most entertaining musicians I have ever seen on stage since he spent two hours spinning in circles and grinding up against other band members. Extremely entertaining to watch and from all three concerts had the most amount of participation from the audience. Everyone knew the lyrics to all the songs by heart and it was just a blast. I’ve got one video above but two more on my YouTube account which you could watch, Never Let Me Down Again and Personal Jesus.

If you want to listen to some really talented local musicians, Bayt Lothan is holding their popular “A Night In” event tomorrow. It’s going to be an open air event which is great since the weather is perfect right now.

Location: Bayt Lothan [Map]
Date: Wednesday, October 30th 2013
Time: 7PM to 9PM

You can book your seats now for KD10 by calling 25755866 or 25755877 or else you will have to pay KD12 at the door.

Last night I attended “Last Night(s) of the Proms” by the Ahmadi Music Group which was held at the British Embassy. It was my first time attending an event by the Ahmadi Music Group and I left not only impressed but the first thing I did once I got back home was to try to sign up to their mailing list (it’s not working) so I would be informed on all their upcoming events.

The event was held outdoors inside the British Embassy where a stage and seating area were beautifully set up in their garden. The Ahmadi Music Group last night consisted of 46 members of the orchestra performing alongside 79 members of the choir so the stage was pretty packed. The conductor Richard Bushman did an incredible job introducing every piece to the audience before it was played explaining what we were going to hear and why it was important. He was very entertaining to listen to and I think he helped make the event more accessible to people like me who don’t know much about operas or orchestras. My only criticism would have to be with the sound setup. The majority of the sound was coming from one speaker on the right side in back which made the whole thing uncomfortable to watch.

Next year will be the Ahmadi Music Group 60 year anniversary which is an incredible accomplishment. I would have posted about this event ahead of time but a friend got me my ticket while I was in London and I honestly only found out what I was there to watch as I was walking into the embassy. I will be posting about their future events from now on and here is a list of their upcoming events that was listed at the back of yesterdays program:

December 6, 7: Family Seasonal Concert
February 20, 21, 22: George Frideric Handel, Acis and Galatea
April 10, 11, 12: Gloria! Music by Vivaldi, Mozart and Rutter

For more information on the Ahmadi Music Group and their events, check out their website [Here]

Note: No cameras or electronics were allowed into the embassy so the pictures above are from their 2012 performance.

[YouTube]

I saw the video above of the “Sheyaab” performing at Arabs Got Talent on 7ajidude and I recognized them as the people who were dressing up like old men and going around Kuwait dancing Gangnam Style.

[YouTube]

Their videos were going viral and I guess they decided to take what they were doing and perform it on Arabs Got Talent. Smart although if I hear Gangnam Style playing one more time I’m going to go on a rampage.

Local rappers Sons Of Yusuf have released a new music video called “Now’s the Time”. Their video “Arabs in Paris” is still my favorite one of theirs. [Vimeo]

I honestly have no clue what this is, but I can’t help but feel very intrigued. It sounds beautiful. [Vimeo]

Update: Turns out Samsara is a concert taking place next month at GUST. The below is from the Samsara Facebook page:

Please join us this November for Nawaf Gheraibah’s Samsara; A night of live music under the stars, featuring a talented orchestra of musicians and vocalists; Wednesday 13th November, 8PM @ GUST University Amphitheatre, Mishref.

The show is free of charge & invitations will be available for pick up ten days prior to the concert.

[YouTube]

Yousef Al-Haddad is a Kuwaiti musician who lives in the States. He plays a bunch of instruments but guitar is his main thing. He graduated from University of Southern California back in 2009 and now lives and works in Santa Monica. He basically works at Trader Joe’s and plays his guitar all day. I’ve watched a bunch of his videos and I think he’s extremely entertaining to watch and listen to. For example in the video above he talks with a Jamaican accent and sings Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”.

Below are two more videos I liked but you can check out all his other videos on [YouTube] as well as a few tracks on [Soundcloud]

[YouTube]

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[Source]

At least the color matches with her backup dancers.

Thanks Ahmed via

Bandaid is a local country/rock band composed of medical students including Kuwait country musician Ibrahim Al-Mazeedi whom I first posted about back in 2010. He’s come a lonngggg way since then since their single Break Free is actually pretty good, check it out. [YouTube]

Follow them on twitter @bandaidq8

RMDN by +Aziz, a Kuwaiti songwriter living in New York. [Vimeo]