Strip them of their passport and national IDs. Take away their Lebanese pride! Shame on them! Shame on the few thousand people that attended this inhumane abomination!
By all accounts, the concert was a huge success. Some people reported being disappointed but still entertained. Others called it the best concert of the year. I didn’t go but I think the best concert of the year would still be Notre Dame de Paris.
My friends have told me they were immensely professional with an amazing stage presence and spirit.
The setlist for the concert was the following:
Monarchy of Roses
Around The World
Snow (Hey Oh)
Otherside
Look Around
Throw Away Your Television
Can’t Stop
Universally Speaking
The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
She’s Only 18
Under The Bridge
Higher Ground (Stevie Wonder cover)
Californication
Goodbye Hooray
By The Way
Encore:
Chad & Mauro & Josh jam
Sir Psycho Sexy
They’re Red Hot (Robert Johnson cover)
Meet Me At the Corner
Give It Away
Now we know exactly what Mashrou3 Leila missed out on for being cowards with “principles.”
I really don’t get the BDS movement people in Lebanon. Do they think what they’re doing is democratic or do they know what they’re doing is total nonsense? Mashrou3 Leila, even though I don’t like them, are not opening for Red Hot Chili Peppers this Thursday in Lebanon.
Why? Because RHCP have a concert in Tel Aviv on September 10th. Because, you know, f*ck logic.
It seems that artists forbidden from coming to Lebanon are not only those who have performed in Israel before but those who intend to do so later on. Because, as I said, f*ck logic.
When you figuratively tell a band that if they open for someone then they might as well be traitors, how different are you from the Israeli solider you are “supposedly” fighting against?
Not very different.
The fight against Israel can take many forms. What the Lebanese branch of BDS is doing is unacceptable. What the Lebanese BDS is doing is cultural terrorism and I wonder how much more we have to put up with it. Oh wait, they probably think I’m sleeping with the enemy – fresh from France and all.
So I guess I better stop. They already think I’m a semi-traitor with me always being vehemently against them.
It’s not like opening for RHCP would be beyond great opportunity for any Lebanese band, regardless of who they are. But no. Bta3rfo, beddon y7arrero felestin. Because, as I said, f*ck logic.
As a result, no Lebanese band will get to do this without having “zionism” branded all over them. And as a result, Palestine will be liberated. Because, you know, f*ck logic.
Tickets ready, car parked, we went ahead to Biel last night for the Lebanon stop of the Notre Dame de Paris concert. The ordeal to get tickets had caused any enthusiasm we had to get sucked out of us. But man how wrong were we not to be beyond excited for this concert.
Even though it was said the concert would start at 9:00 pm, it started 40 minutes later. I guess they must have accounted for Lebanese people who can’t be on time even if their life depended on it. At 9:40 some people were still trickling in. The seats were a little crammed. Perhaps it’s the venue but a few seats less per row would have made things much more comfortable, despite it being less financially-pleasing.
I had purchased the $100 tickets and thought I had overpaid. The concert proved to me that I had actually underpaid. The orchestra took its place. The conductor struck with the motion to play and Bruno Pelletier came from the crowds to give a brilliant rendition of “Le Temps des Cathedrales.”
And that was the start of two hour long goosebumps. Garou had a rough start in the first act but he brought it back in the second. Patrick Fiori, Julie Zenatti, Helene Segara, Luck Mervil and Daniel Lavoie all gave flawless performances of every single song they sang. They basically showed how a two hour vocal show can be done without a hitch, bringing some crowds to their feet with every note they hit.
I’m not a regular concert-goer because there are very few artists which are brought to Lebanon that I would pay to watch so saying this is the best concert I’ve ever attended wouldn’t be a fair comparison. However, a friend of mine who has attended way more concerts than me said this is by far the best concert she went to.
It’s not very difficult to see why. Each performer had his group of fans rooting for him. Some had even brought out a huge banner for Julie Zenatti which they put up when she sang “La Monture.” She looked at them and smiled halfway through the song.
As the performers left the stage, the crowds started shouting for an encore of the play’s most famous song “Belle.” And that’s what happened. The crowds rushed to the stage. Phones in the air, people singing the lyrics to the song as Garou, Patrick Fiori and Daniel Lavoie gave it their all, before being joined with the rest of the cast to deliver the song’s last chorus.
If you didn’t attend Notre Dame de Paris, let me tell you something: you missed out on a concert that will not be matched any time soon. And I’ve never been more thankful I know French.
PS: I would like to thank my iPhone 4S for filming 11GB worth of videos and pictures and the battery for lasting the entirety of the concert and then some. :p
Let me know in a comment if there’s any particular performance you want me to upload.
I had a few friends go to the Evanescence concert which took place yesterday at Beirut’s new Waterfront so for those of you who couldn’t go, this is how the concert went.
It was very crowded and the crowds were so energetic that Amy Lee, Evanescence’s lead singer, was impressed and apologized to the Lebanese crowd for not coming sooner.
It’s not like they would have come before when they were much bigger and Lebanon was an irrelevant speck on their radar. But whatever, right?
The concert took around 80 minutes, which wasn’t much according to many concert goers, although that’s pretty much around the average for a set by an American band.
Proving yet again that she can deliver songs better than their original performer, Carrie Underwood took on one of Coldplay’s most famous songs “Fix You” at her UK debut concert at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall.
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Adele released a DVD late last year of her concert at the same venue.
Reporters and UK personalities present at the concert were gushing over Underwood’s vocals.
Some examples:
Dan Wooton from The Daily Mail tweeted the following:
@carrieunderwood That was one of the best performances I have ever seen. Thank you for a very special night x
ChartShowTV: Wow! @carrieunderwood was too good tonight in London! Her version of Coldplay’s Fix You was stunning!
By all accounts, the concert was a huge success. Some people reported being disappointed but still entertained. Others called it the best concert of the year. I didn’t go but I think the best concert of the year would still be Notre Dame de Paris.
The setlist for the concert was the following:
And these are the people with “principles.”
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 