Rockin' and Rollin' with Motorhead

This posting is really late. In fact I have forgotten some of the points that I want to write about my recent visit to Dubai Desert Rock Festival.

In summation, my feeling about Dubai Desert Rock Festival 2009, was like watching and listening to the evolution of music.

I regret that I missed the first two bands - Scarab and Hatred. When I arrived Nervecell was already setting up the stage for their turn. Nervecell is a Dubai's local band. They play death metal. To me death metal is characterised by damped heavy riffs and brutal growling vocal. Nervecell has all these necessary features and if they stay long enough and continue to produce good music, they will soon join the rank of respected death metal bands. Not only they are the only Dubai's well known death metal act, but they put a lot of effort to produce standard quality album, music video and merchandise. Nervecell breaks my stereotyping of Emiratis on music.

Nervecell

The next two bands called Chimaira and August Burns Red were the US bands. Chimaira's music was full of double pedals punctuated with a lot of rest. It was quite technical. August Burns Red's vocalist used a lot of high pitch growl. However I failed to appreciate the attire on stage of the members of August Burns Red. Call me old fashion but I think when it comes to stage performance, not only your playing must be tight but at least your clothes should be cool too.

Chimaira

August Burns red

Opeth? this Swedish band is legendary. I think their frontman Mikael Akerfeldt is quite a funny guy especially with his macho and gentle speech with the crowd. Or maybe he wanted to set up the gloomy ambience of doom death metal. Anyway it worked ! They had good sound quality on stage and their guitar riffs and keyboard composition were very melodic.

Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth

By the time Arch Enemy came on stage, majority of the crowd were already tired and exhausted. My back bone and calves were really in pain after standing and jumping for almost 5 hours. I saved my energy just to pogo for the song My Apocalypse. I wanted to join the mosh pit, but I scared I would get a pulled hamstrings. So better not. I was a little bit dissappointed with Arch Enemy's sound quality. It must have been due to the worn out backline system after 6 hours of overloaded decibels of death metal music. But it was great to see Mike Amott playing live in front of me.

Yeah ..Mike Amott and his ESP flying V

Angela Gossow...a lady with powerful voice !

We had a long break before Motorhead come up on stage. The organiser must have noticed the slow reaction from a very tired crowd throughout Arch Enemy' show. I managed to finish two shawarmas during the break and could not care less to lie down on the tarmac and gave my entire muscles a brief relief from any vertical pressure. I had never been to a long-hours metal festival like this in Malaysia. I was so exhausted.

rock n roll ..yeahhh..!!

Two black metal fans from Lebanon

I had never imagined to see Motorhead play live. I smirked when I see the latest look of their drummer Mr Mikkey Dee. My mental picture of him was the one he posed in King Diamond's Them album. Mr Lemmy Kilmister humbly opened his stage speech by saying "We are Motorhead and we play rock and roll". As if there were peoples who don't know them. Motorhead is the godfather of killer rock and roll riffs, period. It was the simplicity of the melody and rocking husky vocal of Lemmy Kilmister that made them legend. I was hoping they play Orgasmatron but they did not. After the first song Lemmy immediately asked the soundman to raise their amp volumes. It was really loud, really rock and roll attitude. Between the songs Mikkey Dee showed off his decades-old drumming skils. My jaw almost dropped. At the end of Mikkey's show, Lemmy simply said "Mikkey Dee, the best drummer in the world". In two of their songs, two leather clad ladies came on board the stage and did fire dance. It was spectacular !

Mr Lemmy Kilmister and his pyro dancer

Phill Campbell

Mikkey Dee...after 3 decades

It was my first experience and a great one. I never thought of seeing these legendary bands when I made a decision to move to Dubai.

I am indeed a very happy rocker now ! mashkuuuurrrr....

"There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life"

Federico Fellini Italian dramatist

Dubai Desert Rock Festival

It is the month of March and for the metal fans in Dubai, it means the time to practice that pogo dance again in an outdoor concert called Dubai Desert Rock Festival. Before I come to Dubai, I have never heard about this festival. Apparently this year's festival is going to be the 6th. The organiser is Center Stage Management who is very active in bringing various international artists to perform live in Dubai.

This year's Desert Rock Festival is featuring:

Motorhead
Arch Enemy
Opeth
Nervecell
Chimaira
August Burns Red
Hatred
Scarab

Sincerely I have never really listened to these bands' music except a few songs by Motorhead and 4 months ago I bought Nervecell's Preaching the Venom album after I found out about them. But I am never too old to be their new fan and enjoy their music after this.

Tomorrow morning the Malaysians community here are going for a community picnic in an island in emirate of Umm al Quwaim. I am sure it is going to be fun and exciting but I have to pass this time. What a shame..but how can I miss Motorhead !! I drew their band's logo on my geography's textbook when I was in secondary school last time. I never imagined I will get the chance to see them alive in my lifetime !

So I have chosen pogo dance and blasting guitar sound over the calm and serene beach. I will enjoy myself ...I should...I need to...I better be..

Rock on....Hell yeah !!

Music has to breathe and sweat, you have to play it live

James Brown
(1933 - 2006)

Sand, Sun and Fun

I remember when I was a child there was a pile of construction sands beside my parents' house where my brothers and I used to play with. My brothers and I always had some imagination on how to play with the sands either by riding our three wheeler bikes on it, building sand castles and caves for our small soldiers or burying our toys in it with the hope it will be a sort of pirates' treasure after a 100 years. However non of our activities around that pile of sands were ever approved by my parents and most of the time we got punished if we got caught playing with it. I knew my parents were concerned about skin rashes or disease since we were playing with construction sands. But to us, playing was more fun than worrying..

Last Friday my big boss invited all his lawyers for a casual day out at his farm. I thought, in Malaysia if I come to somebody's farm, I would expect to eat a lot of durian or rambutan fruits or catch fishes in a pond. But a farm in a desert, I could only imagine dates trees. So I accepted the invitation and hoped I could pick the freshest dates from the trees.

However I fell asleep after the Friday prayer and overslept until 3.30pm. When I woke up I quickly headed to my boss's farm which was located in an area close to Dubai-Al Ain Road. When I arrived I was already late for the lunch and my colleagues asked me to wait for them beside the main road as they were already on the move to the desert area. I felt hungry and thirsty.

And when they arrived, I was so surprised. For they didn't arrive on their proper salon cars or perfumed 4x4, but on colourful quad bikes and high rev dune buggies and jeep !! Apparently my boss were treating us for a desert ride using all his quad bikes and dune buggies. I locked my car and jumped onto my friend's jeep and our desert journey began. Heck, suddently I felt full, not hungry anymore.

I have never been surrounded by so many sands dunes and literally asked to play with it. It could never be cooler than that ! On top of that I was given a quad bike and a dune buggy to knock myself out with the dunes. I cannot describe my feeling more other than wooohooooo !!!!

This kid was about to get dangerous with his new toy

The ride with the quad bike was really crazy and dangerous. The machine was engineered to bash on the sands and it could take on any type of slopes and cliffs as long as you ride it on it. It got 3 gears, but most of the time I only need to use the first gear.

Rev it up mate !

These guys won the craziest driver title on that day.

The dunes baggy is one hell of a machine. It got only two gears, forward and reverse. It came standard with roll cage and a safety belt. But I bet it can be of any use. In fact one of my colleagues accidentally smacked his forehead on the roll cage and got himself a 2 inches cut. I like it very but I personally prefer the quad bike.

Another kid in the office

This morning, my boss sent an email to all his lawyers thanking them for coming to his farm. He also asked for any suggestion for the event as he considered it as a company's activity. I replied to him with my gratitude for the event and wrote to him that I have only one suggestion, and that is - to do it again !

When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.

Mark Twain

Up the Irons !

The Crowd.
Imagine peoples who live in those highrise apartments could just watch the concert from their balconies. But nothing beats the atmosphere of the Crowd

The Ambience of peoples who were about to rock !

I just could not describe more how excited I was to see one of the godfathers of heavy metal/rock i.e Iron Maiden. I have been listening to their songs since I was in Form 3 and finally I got to see them performing live ! What a great experience, considering that these rockers are already at their 50-ish and they may not be performing again. Also for the record, that was my first attendance to an international outdoor concert (as oppose to local small concert/gigs in pub/stadium).

The show started at 8.00pm. So at 5.45pm I drove to the Dubai Media City Amphitheater alone from International City. My friend Irwan told me that he will park beside Hard Rock Cafe and walk to the venue. So I drove to Sheikh Zayed Road and was looking for an exit to Hard Rock Cafe from Sheik Zayed Road. But it was not as simple as I thought it should be. To make matter worst I missed the exit to the Cafe and from that point onward began my journey of finding the right turn/ U-turn/exit road for about an hour and ended up passing byHard Rock Cafe 3 times but still in the wrong road. Finally I parked my car at a road side in front of a hotel and to my surprise the entrance gate to the amphitheater was right behind the hotel. Cool # 1!

After I passed the entrance gate, I followed a crowd of people swarming a booth. It was an official Iron Maiden merchandise booth and they got a lot of tour merchandises on sale such as t-shirts, caps, wallets, posters and Belgrade show vcd. Fantastic offer! and I jumped in the queue and bought myself a tour t-shirt for AED80. It was a good price compared to the stock Iron Maiden t-shirts sold in Virgin Music store which are priced AED150 each. Cool # 2 !

The stage that night was opened by Lauren Harris and her band. She is none other than the daughter of my two-fingering idol Mr Steve Harris. She flared up the mood of the chilly night with her 80's styled heavy metal songs of her Calm Before The Storm album. The bassist and the guitarist were already donning tight fit jean and t-shirt with glam rock hair style. They really complement the greater aura of Eddie and did a good job of warming up the crowd who were about to rock that night. Being a young artist she constantly promoted the band's official myspace at http://www.myspace.com/laurenharrisuk. I reminded myself that in the future if Lauren Harris become legendary rocker like her father, at least I could tell my son that I have seen her act back in 2009. Cool # 3 !

Lauren Harris and band members

Iron Maiden appeared on stage sharp at 9.15pm. They played on the Winston Churchill's speech and blasted the stage with pyro flare and the song Aces High. I was amazzed with Bruce Dickinson's high pitched vocal and the band's overall sound quality which sounded exactly like in their records. But how can they don't, that was the mighty Iron Maiden I was looking at.

Kaboom ! at the end of Winston Churchill's speech


2 rockers having fun with fingers sign

Irwan and Shajil - thrilled rockers that night

Throughout the show, I just could not leave my eyes from Steve Harris's fingers running on his bass. I listened attentively to the picking, the rest, the tone and I was really flabbergasted with the consistency of it all when compared with the sounds in their album. And about the two fingers gallop technique, I think it was three fingers gallop technique which I saw that night. I liked Steve Harris's classic style of aiming his bass guitar like a gun to the audience and tumm ..tumm... fuhhh I really got shot by him.

Mr Dickinson and his leather scales trousers

It was like a live karaoke session with the audience and singer on stage, when peoples sang together with Bruce throughout the show. There was no sign of complacency or jaded attitude on each of the band members and they really worked hard in giving the best entertainment to their fans. I was thrilled to think that I had karaoke-d Fear of the Dark, Hallowed Be Thy Name and Number of the Beast with Mr Bruce Dickinson himself accompanied with live music by Adrian Smith, Steve Harris, Nicko McBrain, Dave Murray and Janick Gers. Well, thanks for the karaoke session guys ! chehh..hehe. Cool # 3 weiii

Double head guitar playing by Dave Murray

The stage and the crew during the song Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner
(Bruce dedicated the song to the ancient seafarers who came to Dubai for trade)

When the band stopped playing and threw out their drum sticks and guitar picks peoples started to scream for more songs and and chanted "Maiden".."Maiden...I thought it was the end of the show, but my friend who has seen them before, told me it was a standard Iron Maiden gimmick. So after 3 minutes the stage light lit up again with spotlights and pyro and they continued with Number of the Beast and Run to the Hills. The song Number of the Beast reminded me of Jae'i of Sil-Khannaz.

Eddie made a cameo during the Iron Maiden song

The concert ended with the most anticipated cameo of Bro Eddie whilst the Band was playing Iron Maiden. Peoples screamed for his name and some hot chicks fans screamed "I love you Eddie!!". Wow you were so loved Eddie ! I just stared at that group of hot chicks and waited (almost prayed, actually) for their next "move" but they didn't do it. If you know what I meant ..hehehe



In conclusion, it was worth every fils and dirham for the ticket. At last, I had seen The Iron Maiden. yahooooo

Rock music should be gross, that's the fun of it. It gets up and drops its trousers.

Bruce Dickinson

Memory Songs

I wondered whether you guys have a particular song for a particular stage of your life. Well I do, and I kind of regret for not documenting it in any diary or notebook. This is what I am trying to do now.

I have got certain songs which I associate with certain phase of my life. The songs are memorable not because of the lyric or trend but simply because the melodies caught my attention and memory and reminded me of that part of my life.

For example, everytime I listen to the following songs:

Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice - reminds me of my life when I was in Form 3 (1991);

Hijau by Zainal Abidin - reminds me of my life and a friend named Roshidi Roslan when I was in Form 5 (1993);

Penantian by Black Rose - reminds me of my weekend routine of doing laundry in hostel while "karaoke-ing" with fellow hostel mates (1992-1993);

Boo Hoo Clapping Song by Carburetor Dung - reminds me of my early underground year and a friend Yuzli Yusof when I was in Form 5;

Anarchy in the UK by Sex Pistols - reminds me of the sudden freedom and culture shock when I first start my life as a matriculation student (1993)

The Fourth Knight of Revelation by Rotting Christ - reminds me of my first black metal band and our jamming escapes in my 'kampung' ! (1994)

Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana - reminds me of my grunge wannabe year in IIUM matriculation (1994)

In the Garage by Weezer - reminds me of my "got nothing to think of" life after graduated from IIUM matriculation and whilst thrashing my mom's Kancil car (1995)

I'll be Missing You by Puff Daddy & Faith Evans - reminds me of my "confusing" year after my first girlfriend ditched me and I got dismissed from IIUM (1996). Alhamdulillah I got readmitted and straight up my life back...God gave me a second chance !

Mirai E by Kiroro - reminds me of my chambering year and commuting to work by LRT (2001)

Tamalli ma'ak by Amr Diab - reminds me the campus life and my rental car business when I pursued 2nd degree of Bachelor of Shari'a in IIUM (2001);

Human by The Killers - reminds me of my very first week in Dubai (2008)

There are a lot of other memory songs for me circa 1996 to 2002 and 2003 - 2007 but I can't remember it now.

Looking at the songs, I myself could not figure out why these songs remind me of the above memory. I think this is a magic of melodies to a human's mind.

Hallak...Do you have your memory songs?

Without a song, the day would never end
Without a friend, a man ain't got a friend
Wihout a song, the road would never bend
Without a song..So I keep singing a song

Elvis Presley

Mental Music

Run to the hillssss..run for your live

Is there a music called Mental Music? Huh you don't know? Well I made that one up..

Ever since I came to Dubai I have not been listening to music (except the radio in my car) like I used to back home. And my ears' muscle is getting stiffed and my brain's gel is frozen because of that. It has also been proven that I don't really enjoy listening to MP3 songs through the tiny earphones of my Ipod. I wanted better sound, crispy acoustic quality and material originality !

After Jumaat prayer, I went to Virgin music store and purchased a ticket to Iron Maiden concert. This purchase has been planned since last year. So it wasn't an afterthought. But 2 hours after that whilst patrolling the floors of the Mall of Emirates, I decided to spend more on music. I thought in order to stay sane I must be able to buy and listen to quality CD again.

I went to look for a nice Discman first. But Dubai is all about anything trendy and fashionable and gadget like Discman is considered obsolete already. Next in the search is a mini hifi components. After listened to a few models and brands I found that the price was not worth the quality of the sound. I also thought rather than buying a small off-the-shelf mini hifi (small because of the price), maybe I should look for a quality home theater system, which I found out produce better EQ and offer superb features. Plus the landlord's DVD player that I have at the my apartment has started to play hide and seek with me when it comes to pictures !

At the end I bought a new model of LG DVD + Receiver + 6 ways home theater system. The price was affordable and I like it sounds quality. To complement the purchase I also bought the Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back In Time and Nervecell's Preaching Venom CDs.



That night I fell asleep on my 2nd round of the Iron Maiden's CD. Now I look forward to build up a new collection of CDs in this city.

"Puas hati aku !"

me

Transit

Well actually I ran out of idea on what should be the title for this post. For the past couple of weeks I have been in deep thinking with myself on my life direction now. It has been 3 months now since I left Kuala Lumpur for Dubai. It has not been an easy choice for me to take and I am glad to know that so far I have managed to overcome all the challenges that came following the move here.

My wife now is in dilemma whether to quit the government job and join me in Dubai for good or keep her job and visit me during long holidays in a year. My wife and I have been discussing a lot about this topic and so far we have not reached a confirmed final conclusion yet. One thing for sure is that the current market condition and news about staffs lay off in all over the world is not helping us at all. But I can say that I am getting busier day by day in the office and for the first time in my career life, I felt grateful and happy for the workload.

One of the issues that keep on bugging us is the security of a government job versus the high return of unsecured expatriate job. To my Malaysians friends, I guess all of you are aware on how secure a government job is, plus the benefits and the pension scheme. On the other hand my job as an expatriate lawyer in UAE gives me the salary that my wife and I have been dreaming all the while. However being a new expatriate and a foreigner, my heart thumps everytime I read the news about lay off around the world, especially in Dubai.

But despite all the uncertainties I think I can rest on a notion that our life after all is just a brief transit in this world. Say that I am destined to live until 70 years old, I have only 38 years to live now. If I know this for a fact I will not in any way choose security over opportunity. I mean what the security is for? Why should I stay in my comfort zone and not see the vast world and its creatures created by Allah? In my opinion there is no security in this world but only opportunity. In my short experience in Dubai so far, I have met a lot of people who have been in any sort of situations in their pursuit of a better opportunity in this world. And they survive ! An opportunity in Dubai has come to me and I grabbed it. Next year or year after it, I dont know whether the same opportunity is still there or I will see a better one. My life is short but sure is long enough to be enjoyed.

Out of respect of one's career I will let my wife to decide about her job. As a husband I can always exercise my prerogative but I don't want to do it yet. Maybe my wife is also seeing a better opportunity by keeping her job..hahaha what do I know. But there are other factors to consider. I hope she knows...

Talking about Transit, 2 weeks ago I received a call from an unknown numbers at 12.30 a.m. I thought it was my alarm ring. It turned out to be an SOS call from a long time friend. He and a wife and 2 children were on their trip to Kuala Lumpur from Newcastle. They transit in Dubai for 24 hours and booked an airport hotel through online booking. However they didn't realise that the hotel is inside the airport before the immigration gate. As they wanted to see Dubai during the day they went throught the immigration counter and got their visit visa. But then they could not check in to the hotel unless they cancel the visit visa.

Syahmi, Shukriah and their 2 lovely angels
(the kids' English were better than mine)

Soon I have to address him Dr Syahmi..

Luckily my friend had my numbers and informed me 2 days before their departure that they intended to meet up with me in Dubai. So after he called, I came to their rescue and booked them another hotel. I could not spent more time entertaining them in Dubai because of the working day, which was regreted, but we managed to catch up for about an hour in the airport when I sent them off the next day. I wish them good luck for their Phd and pray that they will get more good opportunities in the future.

"Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people, they're just acquaintances"

Jay Leno
American TV Host, Comedian