I know I know, I’m breaking the chronological order, but this show is still fresh and sizzling!
This was a Halloween party where there would be DJing by DJ Basile and DJ Margot and live music by The Incompetents and Scrambled Eggs. There would also be some VJ’ing done during the musical performances by Rachel Tabet and Ramzi Hibri.
-Before the Show: At first I took the event’s proclamation of “DISGUISE IS A MUST” lightheartedly, but I later discovered that indeed it is quite mandatory. So the Wednesday of that week I got to work on my costume. Since I knew the type of crowd that was supposed to be at this thing, I chose something a bit topical and witty. I would go as the cover of “More Songs from the Victorious City” by The Incompetents. Black cardboard and chalk were all I needed, then with some cutting and scotch taping, there you had it, a costume based on the piece Alfred Tarazi made for the cover and the concept that the band had created where you get to choose between 8 variable covers.
A friend wanted to come, but she was tired. Early on, there was not that many people there. Sound-check was being conducted by The Incompetents. The costume got their approval. I greeted some people, one of whom was Abdallah Ko, the main character of the collaborative story “Beirut Police”, leader of a double life as a prophet, and member of the improvisational-noise group XEFM. The prophet, whose face was scratched and scarred, predicted that I should do a photo series with the costume. Read on and see if the prophecy was to be fulfilled… Serge Yared and Fadi Tabbal of The Incompetents had gotten into costume by that point. Serge was an 80’s hair metal rockstar, and Fadi was something in that same domain.
The place had started to fill up, though it was still spacious. I was greeted by a gypsy, a detective, and girl from the future; a friend of a friend, and her friends. Some time passed, and indeed, the prophet’s prediction came true, a skeleton lady wanted to have her picture taken in the costume. She would be the first of many who would do such a thing, including Alfrec Tarazi himself, designer of the original piece, who was dressed as a mish mash of oddities (stripey stockings, tissue paper strips, white face-paint…), or as he said, he was simply dressed as “someone who doesn’t know what he’s dressed as”.
Haig Papazian, violinist of Mashrou3 Leila, was present. I asked about how recording for their album is going, and he said that it’s almost done, so you should all expect something to be finished for sure by December. I also discovered that those videos/ short movies you see on Youtube that use their song “Raksit Leila” use it without consulting the band. I always had this notion that the band is approached with a request to use any of their songs and they force the film makers to use “Raksit Leila” to endorse it. But that turned out to be incorrect. “Raksit Leila” is the only song available for purchase in stores, so that explains why nobody uses “Zotrine” for example, unless they get it from the band themselves. He too liked the costume. I was glad to see Sharif Sehnaoui was there as well.
-The Show: After a while, The Incompetents came on, and they were Serge and Fadi accompanied by the pianist Vladimir Kurumilian. They started off with a new song that I like very much. It is a very interesting song, bitter in a way yet cheerful in another. Then some more songs which included “Bullets Gently Flying Over My Head” and “Monster Song”. Serge sang all of the songs, Fadi played guitar, and for some songs, such as “Monster Song”, Vlagimir would join in on keyboard. For some songs, Serge would at points play the guitar while singing, while Fadi would be playing the drums, and sometimes Serge would play the drums while singing. Each also utilized some pretty neat instruments like Serge playing kazoo and somekind of percussion instrument which consisted of a stick with bells on it, and Fadi playing a mini-xylophone. They were briefly joined by Youmna Saba on drums for the last two songs I think. The last was “Urinal Blues (Part 2)”. I liked this performance, because this time they had some more variety in their instruments than the first time I had seen them. For some reason, I did not notice the VJ’ing that much.
Scrambled Eggs hadn’t shown up yet, but did eventually. At this point there was less room than before. Tony Elieh was a pirate. Malek Rizkallah was a rabbi. Charbel Haber was Charbel Haber. They got the ball rolling with “X to Be”, then “Building A Nest” I think, which I have only heard performed acoustic by Charbel on Ziad Nawfal’s “Ruptured Sessions” CD, so that was nice, hearing it with drums and bass, all electrified like that. Then they played “Russian Roulette”, a crowd favorite and one of their most well-known. A song whose name I am not really familiar with followed, and the performance was wrapped up with “Girls On Fire”, as requested by a girl in the crowd. They were very good and very energetic, but too loud. It was the first time I saw them so I didn’t really know what to expect, how to prepare myself, but it did start getting painful at a certain point, physically painful. It was quite a contrast to The Incompetents’ mellow acoustic guitar-driven sound, but in the end, very raw and gritty. The VJ’ing this time was more noticeable to me. It included such visuals as women doing aerobics and scenes from horror movies, suiting the Halloween occasion.
-After the Show: The performances did not disappoint, although they were conducted in this room that was cleared of the tables and chairs that would usually be there for the performance that was not fully open, but had a doorway, and a big opening in the wall, kinda like a huge window without glass. Thing is, for The Incompetents, Serge would sing in the doorway, and Fadi would stand behind him, somewhere in the rest of the room, with the drumset being in the back, and the keyboard in a corner, both easily visible from the big opening. This made keeping your focus on all musicians, or perhaps photographing them all in one shot, as it applied in my case, a bit difficult difficult. Same goes for Scrambled Eggs, except it was Tony who was out of view. But still, you have to take into consideration that Walimat Wardeh is more of a restaurant in the end than a place for musical performances and you can’t expect it to be perfectly suited for them, though don’t ask me under what conditions Ziad Sahhab and his band Shehdine Ya Baladna perform there every Thursday.
By the end of the Scrambled Eggs performance, there was barely enough room left to move. The place was literally packed. I managed to squeeze out of there, bid farewell to whomever I could find in that sea of disguises, and be on my way…
-Photos:
*Personal:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=340688&id=842365214&saved
-Videos:
*Personal:
I have a video of The Incompetents playing “Bullets Gently Flying Over My Head” which I will edit it whenever I can upload it.
Feel Notes 
