The Hoppin’ John String Band, a Bluegrass group, will be in Kuwait as part of a U.S. Embassy sponsored visit and they’ll be conducting public performances in several locations. All public performances will open to the public and free of charge. No tickets or seat reservations will be required. Here are the details:
The U.S. Embassy Kuwait In cooperation with the National Council for Culture, Arts & Letters presents: The Hoppin’ John String Band
Date: June 15, 2011
Time: 7:15pm to 8:30pm
Location: National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters’ Al-Dasma Theatre Mishref Theater (next to the Mishref Cooperative)
Date: June 16, 2011
Time: 9:00am to 10:00am
Location: Live on Sabah Al-Watan (Al-Watan Television)
Date: June 16, 2011
Time: 8:30pm to 9:30pm
Location: The Higher Institute for Musical Arts
Date: June 18, 2011
Time: 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Location: Live on Raykum Shabab (Al-Rai Television)
Date: June 19, 2011
Time: 7:15pm to 8:30pm
Location: The Al-Babtain Central Library for Arabic Poetry
Here is a link to the U.S. Embassy Kuwait Facebook page [Link]
Update: June 15th location was changed
13 replies on “Event: The Hoppin’ John String Band”
Nice one- We may write about this too- Thanks Mark
OOps, with a link here of course 😉
lol it’s fine no need, keep up the good work 🙂
ha, too late- did it anyway!
do Kuwaitis listen to anything besides Tiesto and 50 Cent?
Sure we do.. Have’t u ever of Cotton eyed Joe? Or Train?
I for one am gona be there, probably at both the Bab6ain and Dasman shows 🙂
Bring bands like Greenday or Linkin Park to Q8,not some Hillbilly band.
Therein lies the problem desertSky- There is way too much focus on punk rock, metal, grunge and alternative in Kuwait’s musician scene. Battle of the bands, school shows, desert rock, and all other events held with live music primarily focus on rock based genres which is strange because Kuwait such a large pool of talented musicians from so many other genres such as folk, classical, Jazz, beat box, hip Hop, industril.. so why do we focus so much on rock based genres?
This band coming to Kuwait , believe it or not, although “Hillbilly” in your opinion, is actually good for the music scene because it adds diversity, culture and intrigue to the mix and also provides a platform for education to the public about different kinds of instruments, not just your fender stratocaster and your mind blowing fender amps.
Sure, bringing another small town American band adds diversity to Kuwait. 90% of people wouldn’t ever know or even care for this band if it had come from some third world country like India or Kenya, but since it’s an American band, no matter how obscure, you’ll find flocks of people rushing to see it. Just add some luxurious seating, Starbucks coffee, dim lights and some showy pretentious guests, and you’ll attract half of Kuwait. We will get some of the best sitar players from India and have a show, and very few locals would be interested to attend, let alone the Americans or British as they are the most secluded and private community in Kuwait who virtually mix with nobody except with their own “kind.”
So the idea of getting Green Day, Linkin Park or other mainstream musicians would be far more appealing as it wouldn’t feel like people are attending just because Americans are performing. Maybe twangy bluegrass is your thing, but to assume that people are going to attend to experience another culture is doubtful.
Well, I never said people would definitely come flocking, and the presumption that an obscure american band would would attract pretentious guests who are more interested in the glamour than the music, is not a very intelligent disposition, if you had any clue as to how the music industry in Kuwait runs.
Secondly, how you classify a country that has the biggest spending middle class in the world, decades of experiences sending rockets to space, the world largest democracy , and one of the highest GDP’s in the world, as “third world” is beyond me 🙂
Yes, there are alot of celebrated Indian sitar, tabla and other forms of folk music players coming to Kuwait, but again- If you knew anything about it, you would see that they do get large turnouts, not only among Indian audiences but alot of Westerners, and Kuwaiti’s as well.
My point is not being against getting Linkin Park and the like, but simply diversifying the genres of Music that Kuwait’s music lovers are so accustomed to. It doesnt neccessarily have to be this bluegrass band, just something other than Teisto or some other metal or punk rock band.
Being a musician and rock genre lover myself, I would love to see a Linkin park perform here, but first of lets keep in perspective- They would never come here because:
1) The authorities will not tolerate their kind of stage antics and presence
2) The mass of Kuwait’s music lovers still think music is all about some DJ with headphones mixing progressive house/ club music.
If it were up to me, I would be encouraging bringing bands of various genres into thei country- from The Blues, to big band, to Smooth Jazz, to Drum n Bass, Raggae, powerpop, etc. The mass need education on music to appreciate it- Not another “american” punk rock band to come in and get shut down by the authorities.
To quote Khajoor ‘…the Americans or British as they are the most secluded and private community in Kuwait who virtually mix with nobody except with their own “kind.” ‘
What is that supposed to mean?
How about things like the PAWS dog show event at the British Embassy which attracts lots of nationalities? I think you are mistaken. Its hardly seclusion.
If you mean ‘western’ events, its largely because there is a bigger UK/US community here than say Australians, French or Germans.
I attended the French trumpet concert at Mishref earlier in the year, and the place was full of French speakers and other nationalities, British and American included – not forgeting plenty of rude individuals who sat there bleeping their expensive mobile phones.
But it would be politically incorrect of me to state which country of origin they largely came from….
Will the show be cancelled by the MOI? There are 2 women performing wearing sleeveless dresses OMG they have no shame, unlike respectable arabic singers like haifa wehebe and nancy aggram lol
Personally, I enjoyed their show. Their music was full of joy and happiness. The slow songs were good too. If I were to rate it, I’d give it 10/10 🙂