Lebanese band In Sanity Q played their first “official” theatrical show at Playroom in Beirut on July 3rd. It was the first Rock event at this famous “Comedy Show” venue, making way for other Rock bands to attempt to play at this fancy venue.
Here are two overviews from authors Rami Rouhana and Patrick Saad who attended the event:
“Opening band Candlends mostly performed covers of Nirvana which sounded good and took us back to the 90’s. They also performed some originals which naturally fell into the same genre – they were enjoyable and sometimes headbangable.
Main act “In Sanity Q” then took the stage with a different drums set up, with vocalist Chris wearing make up as well as hidden layers of clothing which he put on throughout the show, while the remaining members (bass and 2 guitars) settled for their classic Heavy Metal outfits. They played a mix of Circus, Prog and Heavy Metal – the songs blend smoothly and have enough creative content from several genres as to be considered good to great tracks. When it comes to live performance, the band keeps you interested and excited, catches your attention and keeps you following. They have both energetic buildups as well as the dark calm moods; their lyrics fit both approaches. The show included two actors playing roles of a taxi driver, a passenger, a sexy lady and a mime artist. It also included a dancer pop dancing on Metal music, kind of a blend of what we usually see with pop music and Metal.” – Rami Rouhana
Candlends
“This event was particularly interesting because of its venture into new territories, the first Rock/Metal show at the famous Playroom as well as the first theatrical show by local band In Sanity Q whose mostly known for frontman Chris’s fiery stage performance. Grunge band Candlends played first, and it wasn’t until later into their show that they earned the “Opening Band” title when their vocalist immaturely confronted the crowd with the rhetorical question “Does this look like an opening band to you?”, a wrong approach after their somewhat convincing 90’s Grunge flashback performance. Modesty is key.
I had high hopes going into this concert: I imagined a storyline, a theatrical performance with accompanying music, actors portraying calm and angry characters performing with a script along the band, as if Ayreon’s “The Human Equation” was a live play… I have seen In Sanity Q perform about 5 times already and while I am not an avid fan of Classic Rock and Heavy Metal, I was intrigued by them exploring art alongside music while trying to push their ideas and “existential crisis” as they named it. While their technical performance was the best I’ve seen from them as of late, my expectations of an artistic show were not met as their theatrical show ended up to be a concert with a 3 to 4 silent skits (miming) during the entire performance. In Sanity Q are still beginning to explore the artistic theatrical side which compliments their music – their first attempt is worth mentioning but they still need more time to master that combo of Theater + Rock.” – Patrick Saad
In Sanity Q
- Links
