Monoloc doing this thing
WARPED, one of Dubai's oldest electronic music institutions, celebrated 10 years (and that's a lot in Dubai years) of powering the city's techno scene, in an all-evening-all-night party at underground haven Casa Latina this weekend. A back-to-back lineup of local genre heavyweights led into a finale set by visiting German techno star Monoloc. All stops seemed to have been pulled to set up this one, and the mood was high all night. Happy birthday, WARPED.
The Dubai Chamber Orchestra celebrated their 10th anniversary on Thursday with a special free concert at Saudi German Hospital. Convenient for me, as it's right in my neighborhood, although it was strange to walk through the corridors of a hospital to find a concert venue. Acoustically and aesthetically, the hall was actually a good one, especially considering the kind of facility for which it had been built. Air conditioning, though, was somewhat insufficient, and there were a lot of people packed in there on that rather warm night.
Conductor Barnaby Priest spoke between some of the pieces about the orchestra's operation and challenges, such as being in a place with a mostly transient population. On that note, he congratulated three musicians who had been in the orchestra from its nascency, and had them cut the orchestra's birthday cake. Clarinetist Andrea Gould joined the orchestra for the second piece, and Priest's own composition, "Needs Must" was featured as the third. The piece that sounded most thoroughly-rehearsed, though, was Dmitri Shostakovich's "Chamber Symphony Op 110a", played right after the interval. Most pieces on the program that night were somewhat somber in tone, but the modern-era Percy Grainger composition "Molly on the Shore" made for a nicely folksy end to the evening, along with the uplifting encore.
The Hard Rock Cafe in Dubai celebrated its first anniversary last Wednesday. Well, first anniversary of being in Dubai Festival City anyway. I'm still somewhat bitter about what happened to the old HRC, but I guess we old timers can't keep living in the past (even if that past included a 20% discount).
So, this was my first visit to the place. The interior is vast, and I liked the high ceiling and color scheme. I did not have time to try any of the food, but I did enjoy a nice Irish coffee.
I missed a lot of the earlier portion of the festivities. including the entire performance of Darren Constable and almost all of that of Flames Reignited. I was, however, present for a good deal of the performance of the resident band, Smooth Criminals; they played rather well, and had an especially impressive lead vocalist.
