The Darkness, Sepultura, Machine Head, Within Temptation, Juliana Down and Nervecell turn the city into one big moshpit for a festival of pure rawk.
Desert Rock Festival 2005 Live Dubai
The Darkness
Extravagant, indulgent and unapologetically populist, The Darkness took the world by storm with their debut album ‘Permission To Land’. Nodding to every leopard-skin pantomime shrieker that ever put their foot on a monitor, flamboyant frontman Justin Hawkins sings like he’s in front of a mirror and no one’s watching.
Sepultura
One of the forefathers of Thrash, Sepultura trade in the kind of raw, bestial rock that enthralls devotees and petrifies their parents. Despite the departure of co-founding singer-guitarist Max Cavalera after 1996’s tribal beat-assisted ‘Roots’, the band –drummer-percussionist Igor Cavalera, guitarist Andreas Kisser, bassist Paulo Jr. and Cleveland-reared singer Derrick Green – continue to thrill, bolstering their riveting throats-and-guitar surge with an industrial pulse and gritty delivery. The most aggressive and brutal band of recent times and one not to miss.
Machine Head
‘Ask me how it feels / To feel like you’re a failure,’ Machine Head singer, Robb Flynn snarls at the opening of ‘Wipe the Tears,’ a track from their latest release, ‘Through the Ashes of Empires’. While Flynn isn’t expressly referring to his band’s recent history, he might as well be: following its widely acclaimed 1994 debut, ‘Burn My Eyes’, Machine Head veered toward then-fashionable nu-metal. ‘Crashing Around You,’ the leadoff single from the band’s last album, ‘Supercharger’, had the misfortune of hitting radio on September 10, 2001; within a year, the band lost its label deal and lead guitarist. Flynn drafted Phil Demmell, his guitar partner in the seminal late-’80s thrash-metal band Vio-lence and, freed from commercial expectations, the band are producing its most ambitious music to date.
Within Temptation A Dutch rock gothic combo (wait, come back) Within Temptation are a swirling mix of heaving bosoms and rock operatics. They’ve made a big splash in Europe and are starting to shift units over here.
Juliana Down
Dubai’s greatest rock hope, Juliana Down dabble in hook-laden rock with a hint of experimentalism. Having taken a year out from the touring scene to pen their first album, Desert Rock – with its home advantage – should be a triumphant return to the stage.
Nervecell
Excellent local death metal band comprising vocalist / bassist Rajeh ‘James’ Khazaal, and guitarists Barnaby ‘Barney’ Ribeiro and Rami Mustafa. With buzzsaw riffs, meaty backing beats and a freshly inked contract with cult underground Mexican label Atolinga Records, you can expect great things.
Date: Friday, March 25, 2005
Time: Doors open at 2pm, Show starts at 3pm
Entry Fees: Dhs 195
Band Name's:
- Sepultura,
- Machine Head,
- Within Temptation,
- Juliana Down
- Nervecell
- The Darkness,
Music Played: Rock
I attended the Desert Rock Festival on Friday an it was amazing :D I arrived at Dubai Country Club at 1pm with my friend. At 2pm the Gates opened and we went inside. When we got inside we went and got a place to stand right up front and the Local band Nervecell was busy warming up. So eventually at 4pm the gig started with Nervecell opening the show. It was amazing but some people went crazy and started jumping every where and jumping into other people so security came and kicked some ass :D Man those security Guards were BEEFED. Then after Nervecell Finished Juliana Down came on next also a local band. And that was also enjoyable.
But let me cut back to the beginning for a bit. You should have seen how some of the people dressed it was crazy. Some chic wore a mini and i mean mini skirt with what looked like nothing under when the wind blew here skirt up :D They did sell alcohol there so you can imagine quite a few people got wasted and it was funny to see the security guards carry these drunk people with weird smile's on there face away. Oh and before i forget I met the lead singer of Nervecell it was so cool.
Anyway after Juliana Down they had a break because they had to setup for the international bands. In between each international band played there was like a 30 minute break so then they would have a MX Freestyle Event which was situated right next to the Stage. It was amazing seeing all those tricks and to see one guy try and do a no seater landing and totally wiped out :D they stopped the Freestyle after he wiped out :D
Well after the MX Freestyle event Sepultura come on stage and performed. They were amazing the way there guitarist plays guitar and moves around without messing up WOW just brilliant. Each International Band plays for 1 hour where the local bands only played 5 songs each. After Sepultura, Within Temptations came on stage and that was pretty cool aswell though they got a little boring half way through there set because they started to sound to much of the same thing over and over again.
Once Within Temptations was finished they had another MX Freestyle event. And the guy who wiped out had recovered :D And this time they did amazing tricks my favorite was the KISS OF DEATH man that move looks brilliant in real life.
Once that was over Machine Head came on stage and rocked up the place which was enjoyable the lead singer really enjoys playing with the crowd :) on there last song they had the lead guitarist of Sepultura come on stage to play a guest guitarist for them and it was great :D
And then the best of all now remember this was 11 Hours later I had been standing and dancing for 11 hours and finally the best band came on The Darkness. It was amazing the crowd went crazier than they had gone with any of the other bands. And there was pyrotechnics for the darkness when they started playing it was brilliant. Justin the leader signer of the darkness was really cool he wanted to say MOTHER F****R but instead he said melon farmer ok then he would go melon and the crowd would go farmer and he did this a few times and then he went MOTHER and the crowd went F****R :lol: :lol: it was great he really knows how to please his fans. The riff's and guitar work was amazing and towards the end of there session he went and put his spandex on :lol: :lol: and towards the end he got on top of some security guards shoulders whilst still playing guitar and walk through the crowd and i was like 2 meters away from him it was so cool. And then oh yeah when they played I believe in a thing called love as soon as he played a power cord on the guitar these HUGE flames just burst upwards from the stage and from where i was standing you could feel how hot those flames were :D
I can't wait for next years Desert Rock Festival it is going to be amazing. You guys should really try and go to the next one :)
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