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It’s been a few months since I got introduced to the new Egyptian music magazine Rock Era magazine they cover jazz, rock and metal and I have been a big fan of their work since then.
On 5th of November in 2009 they’ve managed to organize one of the most remarkable concerts in Egypt.
That concert had the Line up of (Wyvern, downtown blues, on thrones and offbeat).
Downtown Blues : Downtown blues was the 1st band to get on stage. Their style as it shows from the name of the band is blues, sadly I didn’t have the chance to witness them perform because the killing traffic motion in Cairo but I hope next time I won’t miss it, But I Saw few Youtube videos for their performance and Now I Hate myself for missing that event. Well, I wont describe what I saw as they say an image describes more than a thousand word so here is few youtube links I found on the net Enjoy!.
Wyvern : The Egyptian heavy metal icons were up next this was the 2nd time I see Wyvern after their album release party in Cairo Jazz club and God they were just amazing I have been a fan of them since I first came across their profile in Jorzine's bands’ list their style is kind of hard to define as it got a little bit of Everything but in general they play Heavy metal with a touch of progressive and thrash on the drums and riffs a taste of oriental tunes in the solos with the amazing vocals of power metal the kind that screams your Life away .
The band started with one of a hell start with "creeping death " and it was the minute I entered the concert area (lucky me) and it was so Great I entered head banging on it, it was the perfect choice to warm up the crowd, then the band decided to pay respect to Megadeth's fans as they did with Metallica fans so they played one of the best Megadeth's classics which is " symphony of Destruction " , I Know!! The show didn’t get started yet and it already beats up most of the concerts I went in my life.
After those two covered Wyvern proved themselves,warmed the crowd up so it’s Time to give them some of the Wyvernic Metal and they Choose " Inner Warefare " which is the 7th track of their album " The Clown " the song talks about the two sides of each person the good, and the bad evil side,it was amazing as it showed how much skilled Wyvern is in both orginals and covers
The band didn’t Stop there they gave the audience another great Original my personal favorite " Kingdom of Gold " which talks about Egypt that song is an Epic song that includes a lot of oriental touches mixed with progressive and heavy metal. The band ended their wonderfull Journey on stage with anther Metallica Classic "One "and they did it perfectly it was just mind blowing.
On Thronez : On Thronez is a heavy metal band whom are from Alexandria The band took the stage with Iron maiden's cover " Fear of the Dark " then played Savatage song " Edge of Thorns" then the band got it to a little heavier track which was for Pantera " cemetery gates " if my memory served me well, I guess the band ended their list with Metallica's track " The four horsemen " from Metallica's 1st album “Kill 'Em All” which was a wonderful surprise for me since not many cover old and not well known songs for Metallica in other words any song which is not from the Black album , And justice for all… and Master of puppets.
All in all On Thronez performance was good but they were the unlucky band of the event, as they were tired of their trip from Alexandria and the Effect of that was obvious in the band’s stage appearance however the Bassist and the lead guitarist Owned the stage they did their Job 100% and took our breath away, as for the rhythm guitarist he had few problems with the sound system which didn’t allow him or any of the audience to hear his guitar clearly but he managed well in the end.
The weak point of the band was on the vocals don’t get me wrong he did his job good but he was out of tune at few points specially on Iron Maidens and Savatage covers but it wasn’t that bad, After all not anyone can get those 2 vocals .
The drummer was normal nothing impressive nothing bad I felt at few points he was out of the track but nothing that serious he did a nice drums solo but as I said nothing impressive he added the intro of Judas priest famous track " painkiller " which was a nice touch but all in all it was normal and it gave the concert an interesting touch.
OffBeat: OffBeat was the last band on the line up it took me a while to figure this band out. It was a journey through time to the 70s and the 60s of the great era of Rock N Roll, blues and classic rock.
The playlist was nice but it started a bit bad in the first 2 tracks which were very close to pop music and they were a shock to the all crowd. But soon they fired up the stage with the most unique classics covers ever such as "Johnny B goodi " by chuck berry "Born to be wild" by the old Mighty Steppn Wolf, Those great skills which appeared just drive right away to dancing they really do Deserve to be called OffBeat.
As perfect as it sound there is few comments such as: the sound system on the rhythm guitarist side wasn’t that clear and the sleepy audience which I think the band is responsible for with no live appearance been done except from the vocals side , However the skill of both the bassist and the drummer were nice, As for the vocalist is the one whom I Liked the most, Great voice that sounds like the old days of rock N roll vocals it really helped bringing back the old classics back to live .
"Sweet Home Alabama" was the song that OffBeat ended this act with. And the crowd responded well to the song they were dancing and singing along with the band.
In a conclusion, I liked the concert very much the Bands gave it their best and the Line up covered all the styles which is a very great idea so the crowd don’t get bored hearing the same genre over and over but the thing that disappointed me the most was the crowd regardless the boy in white who was Metal Disco dancing " You know doing disco dancing moves and in the same time he was doing the horns with his hands"
But you know at least he Enjoyed his time and responded to the music which is a lot more than what can I say at the most of the crowd there, imagine all the covers that the bands did and I look around no one is singing along or head banging or anything only few very few The bands felt they are on the studio recording am sure that the bands got disappointed as well as I did, C’mon Cairo, is that how you rock?! is this how you salute your bands?! , if you don’t know the lyrics at least scream!! ? First I thought that the crowd was scared to do anything because the solid Rules of El Sawy Culturewheel, But the Crowd Did few Actions like moshpiting that gave me the idea that the problem wasn’t in the rules, I Hope Next concerts be better as We owe it to our Locals to react with them and cheer for them and make them feel that They’re doing the best they could to make us enjoy the music we enjoy is appreciated .
In the end I want to thank Rock Era and the bands for this lovely concert and for the sponsors whom helped this event to be. I give the Event 7 out of 10 hope next events be better in the audience wise .
Written by: Edited By :
- Muhannad Saleh * Majd Jibril
- Khaleel H. Al-Azzeh
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