Feature - Dubai night life
Harris
Night life in Dubai….. when I say night life in Dubai, I don't mean the dance bars or the discos or the Russians! I mean, the live music scene in Dubai. Though there are plenty of dance bars and belly dances, discos and the like.
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13 AD performing |
I was there in DXB in end July 2006. I was lucky to get 4 bands in action. Sadly missed one narrowly. Ok, here is the scene.
Hard Rock Cafe
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The place of pride, ofcourse, goes to the Hard Rock Café. There was this all white band there. The décor was class. Guitars decorating the walls all over the place. Rock paraphernalia everywhere. There's this huge car hanging upside down on the roof, a gleaming vintage convertible. Its lights are on. Sadly we reached there late. We managed to catch only 3-4 songs.
Excellent band, great sounds. Got to hear Riders of the Storm by Doors rendered flawlessly. There was this lady who got up and sang a song with the band.
The ambience is fabulous. The place and acoustics excellent. Got a souvenir t-shirt. The booze wasn't too expensive either. The Café is near the Media City. Don't miss it if/when you get to Dubai.
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Next in order of preference is 13AD at the Capitol. As the vsitors to this site may be well aware, this is my favourite Indian band by far. They were playing on a tiny stage in one of the restaurants. The place was done up in a western saloon ambience. We managed to find a seat right upfront.
The band, or rather, the main half of 13AD were there, Eloy and Paul. They were joined by Darshan on keys n vox and a Colombian female singer. She belted out the Santana songs like wow. The accent, intonation n pronunciation coming naturally to her. The band then dedicated two original songs to urs truly, namely, City Blues and Revelation.
They also sang couple of songs by Bob Marley, Clapton etc. A retro rock nite. Had heard Darshan sing in South Park, Trivandrum some 10-12 yrs ago. He has risen in prowess meteorically. The band plays without drums, so its all sequenced on keys. We shared a drink with the band later. The ambience was nice. The sounds were not very great, especially after having been to Hard Rock Café.
Then came the un-named band in Marco Polo. This too is an upmarket joint. This band is from Srilanka. A large band, some 8-9 members, all of them multi-talented.
The drummer sings, then he plays the bass, the bassists plays lead, the lead plays bass, then he plays the keys, every one taking over another duty with ease. All of them being able to sing solo.
Excellent band, could play anything and everything we requested. Clapton, GNR, Marley, Santana, Purple….. the list was endless. They too had a female vox, who did a good job. Excellent band, who played mostly classicrock and danceable numbers |
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Then we went to a joint called the Orchid, or was it Blue Orchid? There was a Philippino band playing there. The guy who took me there was all praise for the band. But frankly, it was a lousy band, and I am being kind here.
Just a lot of young females jiggling and trying to pass of songs and a guy(?!) who was all show n nothing much else. Was a waste of time really. Had heard that that there are a lot of Philippino bands who are fantastic cover bands, but this one was way below par.
We missed Laju George at the Four Points Sheraton..For those of you who don't know, he was the former front man of the erstwhile AXEWAGON. He sings solo there with a sequenced keyboard. There are other bands and other places, but didn't have the time to spend. Also visited some discos like The Lodge etc. |
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