Gig Review: Good Vibrations at DRM

Half of Beirut’s underground music scene hit the stage for one night of covers and chaos. Good chaos that is! Read below for triplew.me’s review of the latest Good Vibrations gig…

In the spirit of a Christmas charity concert, the mammoth session ‘Good Vibrations’ brought together over 40 local musicians. The idea was simple: cram as many acts into one night for a fifteen-minute slot of covers.

The result? A dash of organized chaos as the line-up responded to the crumpled piece of paper that was passed around with the timeslots.

Relative newcomer to the scene, Poly, sat behind the keyboard in a bleach blonde bob with a heavy fringe and hollers. This girl has a voice of soul and a provocative style to match. The song that really hit with emotion is her acappella version of Etta James’  ‘All I Could Do was Cry’.

Next up is Lazzy Lung’s Allan Chaaraoui, who arrived straight from Dubai after receiving The ‘Esquire Musician of the Year’ award. He played a solo acoustic set with a couple of obscure gems.

With his floppy fringe covering his eyes, promising young electronic artist, Jad Atoui plays a dark and glitchy set, which sampled the haunting vocals of Beth Gibbons.

Zeid Hamdan, one of the pioneers of Beirut’s indie scene, appeared on stage next with dark shades and Dany Baladi. This time it was Baladi’s deep oriental vocals fused with Hamdan’s electronic beats in a cover of Bendaly family’s ‘Do You Love Me?’.

Serge Yared of local band The Incompetents was the night’s organiser with all the proceeds going to Myschoolpulse and Oumnia. He told us about the collective atmosphere from Beirut bands “Everybody was on equal footing regardless of their fame and status. The artists were fantastic, waiting patiently for their turn to come on stage." Considering the first band hit the stage around 6 PM and finished in the wee hours of the morning, for some this was one long wait.

Within the excited blur of the night there was local band Sandmoon, with their folky ‘sadcore’ and Salloum of Electropop band****terhouse, who stumbled across the stage with the synth pop of Depeche Mode.

There was also a healthy slab of Lebanese hip hop from local band Fareeq el Atrash. The Banana Cognacs and Liliane Chlela exploded the synth and keys. Fantastic newcomers to the stage were Tanya Traboulsi and Tripoli’s Khaled Merheb with his punk band My Own Private State of Mind - amongst others. The night went on to prove that Beirut’s alternative scene is alive and well, with a pulsing heart and a broken beat.

Photo taken by: Cindy Saleh.

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