Date: 11 October 2013 (Friday)
VIDEOS:
Venue: Nasimi Beach, Atlantis The Palm, Dubai
Line-up: The Wailers, Of Monsters and Men, The Killers
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Ok, I’ve been to several Sandance fests in the past, but
this is the only time I ever made it early! (that’s before 6pm-
congratulations to me, yay!)… and that's only because I wanted to make sure I don’t miss “Of Monsters and Men”!
I was thinking if I make it to “The Wailers” set, it would be cool! I wasn’t that eager about it, as I wasn’t sure if they’re the same guys who play Bob Marley (& the Wailers) tunes or just some other band who happened to have the same name and play crappy pop music or whatever (I didn’t bother checking).
I just couldn’t risk missing so many of the acts (I once arrived so late during a “Travis” sandance concert that I only caught the last song- “Why does it always Rain on me” while on queue at the gate. By the time I reached mid-way, closer to the stage, they were finished. I was already kicking myself then! Argh! Lesson learned.)
I was thinking if I make it to “The Wailers” set, it would be cool! I wasn’t that eager about it, as I wasn’t sure if they’re the same guys who play Bob Marley (& the Wailers) tunes or just some other band who happened to have the same name and play crappy pop music or whatever (I didn’t bother checking).
I just couldn’t risk missing so many of the acts (I once arrived so late during a “Travis” sandance concert that I only caught the last song- “Why does it always Rain on me” while on queue at the gate. By the time I reached mid-way, closer to the stage, they were finished. I was already kicking myself then! Argh! Lesson learned.)
Anyhow, what a delight it was to discover that “The Wailers” are indeed the “reggae”
band I was hoping for. Hooray! Of course, they played Bob Marley
(& the Wailers) classic tunes then such as “I
Shot the Sheriff”, “Buffalo Soldier”
“Could you be Loved”, “Jamming”, “Exodus” and so on… as the sweaty crowd danced and sang
along, you could strongly feel the festive mood building up... and at one
point, an image of Bob Marley was flashed on the screen! Nice.
“Of Monsters and Men”
appeared onstage at around 07:45pm. They belted out melodic folk-inspired ethereal
indie rock goodness, opening up with “Dirty
Paws” off their lovely debut album “My
Head is an Animal”. I must mention how good they sound live, I dare say, even better than their studio-recorded songs!, and it was great to see the crowd heartily appreciating their songs- most notably “From Finner”,
“Yellow Light”, “Mountain Sound”, and of course, “Little Talks”.
Looking at Nana, images of Bjork started swimming in my head. It must be that Icelandic beauty and atmospheric vocals they have in common (makes me then wonder if I’ll ever get to see Bjork play live! )
Looking at Nana, images of Bjork started swimming in my head. It must be that Icelandic beauty and atmospheric vocals they have in common (makes me then wonder if I’ll ever get to see Bjork play live! )
By the time OMM was done, it was not even 09:00pm
yet, so we were told that ‘The Killers” will follow in 45 minutes more! Ouch. What a
long wait…!, and music playing in the background wasn’t all that great- but that's probably just me (I did like it when the DJ played “Erasure’s A
little Respect”; made me want to dance!)
Fast forward. Enter the band, kick-starting with “Mr. Brightside”, Brandon Flowers sporting a leather jacket. The now-drunk and some-of-them-getting-unruly
crowd, even more so- the women!, in such high spirits (pun intended!) and more of them forcibly pushing to the front, with this one girl even leaning
towards me and getting unreasonably erratic, messing up my video-recording, the b*tch! I wanted to punch her! (LOL, excuse me, I'm just human!)
As expected, “The
Killers” killed it! I’ve seen them play in Abu Dhabi in 2009 and they
were unquestionably oh so awesome! Brandon’s vocal prowess
and strong stage presence is mesmerizing. He definitely knows how to please the crowd and inspire them to put on their "dancing shoes", so to speak.
Both Dave Keuning’s (lead) and Mark Stoermer’s (bass) high-calibre guitar-playing add to that distinctive Killers sound (despite the glam rock look, unfortunately ;p)… not to mention Ronnie Vannucci Jr.’s masterful drumming and unwavering stamina (he reminds me of an actor I just can't quite put a finger on ;p). Thumbs up to the excellent session guitarist as well.
Both Dave Keuning’s (lead) and Mark Stoermer’s (bass) high-calibre guitar-playing add to that distinctive Killers sound (despite the glam rock look, unfortunately ;p)… not to mention Ronnie Vannucci Jr.’s masterful drumming and unwavering stamina (he reminds me of an actor I just can't quite put a finger on ;p). Thumbs up to the excellent session guitarist as well.
Other songs they played, as much as I could remember (I'm missing 3-4 songs or so), were “Spaceman” (this is where Brandon
finally got rid of his jacket, whew!), “Smile
like you mean it”, “Somebody told Me”,
“Human”,
“From Here on Out”, “Can you Read my Mind”, “All these Things that I’ve done”, “Dustland
Fairytale”, Encore- “Jenny was a
friend of mine” and “When you were
Young“.
2 cover songs- Joy Division’s “Shadowplay” and Tiffany’s “I think we’re Alone Now” (ok, the original was really by “Tommy James & the Shondells”, which I just found out recently! :p)… I love the way they covered those 2 songs but somehow made them their own, creating a masterful effect that bears the Killers stamp. Purrfect!
2 cover songs- Joy Division’s “Shadowplay” and Tiffany’s “I think we’re Alone Now” (ok, the original was really by “Tommy James & the Shondells”, which I just found out recently! :p)… I love the way they covered those 2 songs but somehow made them their own, creating a masterful effect that bears the Killers stamp. Purrfect!
Photos:
*photo grabbed from Sandance page, with thanks!
*photo grabbed from Dubai night, with thanks!
VIDEOS:
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