You all know that one of the world’s best rock groups is coming to Lebanon. Well, I’ve got some extra details for the concerts that you might be interested in.
Location: Forum de Beyrouth
Date: March 30th,
Ticket prices: General Admission: 55$ or 82,500 LBP, zone A and B (Green): 100$ or 150,000 LBP, zone A (Blue): 120$ or 180,000 LBP, golden Circle: 150$ or 225,000 LBP, zone A and B (Pink): 200$ or 300,000 LB, lounge Access: 200$ or 300,000 LBP.
Ticket sale: Begins February 25th (tomorrow) from Virgin Ticketing Box Office
Bande’s lineup: Axl Rose, Dizzy Reed, Chris Pitman, Frank Ferrer, Richard Fortus, Tommy Stinson, Ron Thal, DJ Ashba.
Doors open: 6 pm.
A presale for those of you who are very interested is currently available through this website (click). You can call 70488170 or e-mail them on Info@Presella.com.
You can now buy the tickets from Virgin by clicking on this link.
Many bloggers have already posted this video of a dispute at Ziad el Rahbani’s concert which took place a few days ago:
But I’m actually baffled by the reaction of some of the people attending. There’s a limit to how much crap you can take from an artist. He was 90 minutes late, the event’s organization was a royal mess – and yet because he’s Ziad, no one is allowed to complain?
Spare me the hipstery all-hail-to-Ziad attitude. I am not a Ziad el Rahbani fan and after the above video, I will never be. I will never listen to his plays nor will I quote his useless lines nor will I be taken by his music. There are plenty of much better musicians out there that he can only dream of approaching that I’d rather listen to.
What can I make out of an artist that doesn’t respect his fanbase enough to even apologize for wasting over an hour and a half of their time while they sat and waited for him and then has the decency to actually call them out for speaking up?
That’s not an artist I can respect.
What do you make out of an artist that treats the people who were pissed because he was late so callously and is met by applause from an audience who stood by him, non-caring about the time of their life that was wasted?
I’m sure his plays have some “witty” line about apologies somewhere. I won’t bother. The only sheep here are those who blindly worship everything this man touches and who don’t give a rat’s ass about their time which was wasted and who actually call his reply as “polite.”
The sad part is his “fans” believe that people don’t have the right to complain because Ziad is sharing their art with them. They actually think the people complaining are doing so because they’re bothered by his success – as if they would have bothered snatching up those rare and pricey tickets in the first place if the only thing they wanted to do was cause a riot at the concert.
In any decent country, this delay would have warranted a refund. Except in Ziad el Rahbani land, an artist that wants your money and wants to insult you for wanting to get your money’s worth.
“Iza mannak mabsout, 3a shou ba3dak hon?”Ye2ta3 habal l 3alam yalli mfakkrin enno heik shi ma2boul.
Many of my friends went to Ziad el Rahbani’s concert yesterday and all of them had not very nice things to say about it.
Apparently the seating arrangement was a mess. Those who paid for the $40 tickets got much better seats than those who paid for $60. Some of those who paid for the pricier tickets couldn’t even see the performers.
The organization of the event was all over the place. Ziad el Rahbani and his artists were more than 90 minutes late to the concert. And to top things off, the concert itself wasn’t impressive: Ziad sang a couple of phrases in the whole concert. His artists sang the entire setlist.
I personally don’t have time to go nor am I that big of a fan. However, I would expect the artist in question and the event organizers not to take everyone who’s attending for granted and handle things much better than they did.
Two concerts remain – hopefully they’ll be better for those who can’t wait to see him. For those who couldn’t go, it looks like you’re not missing out on much, except on a serious test to your anger management.
For Ziad el Rahbani lovers, he’ll be holding a concert next week on December 20th and 21st. The event was just announced.
Nothing was announced regarding where “les artistes” fit into the whole equation. Ticket prices are $40, $60 and $90. They include an open buffet and 2 drinks. (Thanks to @_Evention for the tip). Tickets will be sold at Al-Akhbar, Boueiry Press in Kaslik and Maarouf Saad Cultural Center in Saida starting Monday.
Cue people freaking out in 3..2…
My favorite Ziad el Rahbani song is probably “Bala Wala Shi.” He has also written my favorite Fairuz song “Kifak Enta.” Yes, I may not be a fan but I am not completely ignorant.
It took Jennifer Lopez holding the Lebanese flag at her Dubai concert for some Lebanese to feel proud about their country’s independence day. They thought it was her way of wishing our country a happy independence day. And they ate it up.
Soon enough, everyone was talking about exactly how genuine a person Jennifer Lopez is and how honorable it was of her and how proud they are as Lebanese that their – our – country was recognized this way. Well, they thought wrong.
A friend of mine who went to the concert in Dubai told me that when she grabbed the Lebanese flag, Jennifer Lopez shouted “Dubai!” which meant that she thought our flag was that of the United Arab Emirates. I’m surprised no one bothered bringing that up till now actually.
It is always customary of artists going for concerts abroad to hold the flag of their hosting country. Jennifer Lopez didn’t bother with the UAE flag. Isn’t that an insult to the country that actually paid enough to bring her to sing on its grounds? And what makes Lebanon so important that she’d rather hold our flag at a concert not even held on our land?
Our sense of fake chauvinism knows no limit it seems.
Lebanon has its flaws. It’s a hopeless place to live in sometimes. It has a lot of shortcomings and I’ll be the first to point them out as I’ve done many times (here’s a sample). But I don’t need Jennifer Lopez holding my country’s flag for me to feel overwhelmingly happy about the country I live in. And frankly I find it sad that some Lebanese need this “validation” coming from a pop star of their country for them to feel some ounce of national pride which so ironically happened to be on a national day that they are too willing to dismiss as absolutely useless.
Jennifer Lopez doesn’t know what Lebanon’s flag looks like. She probably doesn’t even know we exist. The whole flag debacle is all mere irony. Now how’s that treating your silly national pride?
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 