The event started after 9:30, so organizers kept us waiting for 30 minutes which is something we hate. There was a video playing about past GBOBs in other countries and it was so boring. After that, Revery went on stage and believes me these guys make nothing close to a band, the music was unbearable and I almost fell asleep. After Revery came Homemade and I can’t tell you how bad Lebanese bands are becoming, the drummer did not know how to set up his drums and the guitarist played almost one complete track off scale. Next on stage were The Coolcumbers and yes they looked like cucumbers and weren’t cool at all. They should call themselves Noisecumbers because I couldn’t hear a thing and the bad sound system didn’t help at all, In case there was someone on the mixer, he should know how to better use a mixer. The winner of Heat #7 was ‘HomeMade’ although no one deserved to win a thing.
This, my friends, was an official “BASHING” review, just to give you an example of how bashing goes. The first paragraph of this article is not a “REAL REVIEW”.
Now here’s the real Review
The event started few minutes before 9 pm with a video documentary of past GBOB events in the world, including band members talking about their experience in GBOB.
First on stage were Revery, playing bluesy rock with both soft and heavy parts. They had a good performance and they surely improved a lot since the GBOB promo event a few months back.
Second on stage were Homemade: this band quickly grabbed the attention of the crowd and judges with their lead singer and keyboard player’s talent. They had a distinctive style compared to the other competing bands in GBOB. I think we’ve got our own Justin Bieber, as in vocal talent, but luckily there is some nice music playing along.
Third on stage were The Coolcumbers, with another ‘attractive’ element, a lady on drums. They performed well but they lacked experience and I encourage them to keep going. They are COOL.
Fourth on stage were Vintage Century. They had their own way of making the music; it is different and interesting but didn’t impress much the judges. Again we noticed that they should gather more experience and come back for GBOB 2012.
Two bands were chosen for the second round: ‘Homemade’ and ‘The Coolcumbers’: both bands performed very well, making it hard for the judges to pick a winner. In the end, the winner band was chosen to be “Homemade” so best of luck for them at the finals.
Being the final heat before the finals and Having Mr. Bassem Deaibess among us as member of ‘Blaakyum’, ‘The Hourglass’ and the 7th placed band at the international GBOB 2007 competition, Bassem was asked to come up on stage and give a short motivational speech which ended with the words “Music is not a game but it is fun”.
Throughout all heats, we have interviewed the jury members so that participating bands would know ‘the kind of band this competition is looking for’. We have constantly expressed this in our reviews, hoping that bands would take advantage of that information. With heat 7, it was evident that the judges have found what they’ve been looking for, a well equipped and talented band under the name Homemade. The band not only fuses jazz elements in its pop / rock song structures, but shows great experience by blending different time signatures with catchy choruses and tasteful solos. The finals are going to be extremely difficult to judge, after all, all qualifying bands are good at what they do. It’ll come down to stage performance, crowd interaction, musicianship and most importantly, having an international appeal, a band that the jury members can faithfully send to represent us all at the international GBOB stage. – Patrick Saad
Here are the qualified bands that are set to play at the local GBOB 2011 finals:
