Review Date: 2012-01-20

Reviewed By: Carmina Khairallah

Review:

” Kick-Start The Year With Chain Reaction, Bassic Trouble And Psycho Circus” on Saturday the 14th of January at Quadrangle Hazmieh was yet another event organized by the Lebanese Youth Center. Scheduled to start at 9 pm and end at midnight, it started at 10h20 and ended at about 12h45. At the peak of the concert the Quadrangle was relatively full. The sound system was good compared to what we’re used to here in Lebanon, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get our load of technical problems as it will be described later on in the article.

As aforementioned, first up was Chain Reaction, a relatively new band covering a variety of well known 80’s Rock tunes, featuring Nadim Hitti on lead guitar, Johnny Maalouly (also known as In Sanity’s bassist) on bass, Chady Khairallah on keyboards, Alan Eid on drums and Wassim Nouwar on vocals. The band performed three songs by Bon Jovi (Living on a Prayer, Born to Be My Baby and These Days), Can’t Let You Go by Rainbow (with the keyboards intro), Superstitious by Europe, Jackie Don’t Go and Burning Heart by Survivor, Peace of Mind by Boston, Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming by Deep Purple and finally Separate Ways by Journey dedicated to the late Nadim Mansour, a family member of the LYC who sadly passed away very recently (may he rest in peace). The band was very good, the vocals were a particularly strong point, the members’ stage presence was interesting and the well known classics were played very accurately. Although, the crowd was strangely calm during Chain Reaction’s performance and apart from some people mouthing the lyrics of the songs they enjoy, there was no particular reaction by the audience. 

Then it was time for Bassic Trouble. One thing that I noticed immediately as the band started was that as soon as the first guitar not rang, the audience was up and ready to cheer for their favorite songs. With Omar Deryan on lead vocals, Wahid Shaar on lead guitar and backing vocals, Jad Nahhas on drums/percussion, Yorgo Nabhan on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, the band labeled as Hard Rock/ Alternative Rock/ Alternative Metal delivered mainly covers along with a few originals. The songs were four Alterbridge songs (Find the Real, New Way to Live, White Knuckles and finally Blackbird, also dedicated to Nadim Mansour) as well as two originals named Freedom in Chains and Something New, ending with Chapter Four by Avenged Sevenfold. It was the second time I see Bassic Trouble live and I have to say after the first two songs I apprehended writing this review. Not only did the band experience technical issues that caused a rather long time lapse between the first and second song, but I have to say that although the drums were great and both guitars and bass pretty good, the lead vocals weren’t exactly that. At some points it seemed as if the vocalist was yelling without really hitting any specific note while covering Alter Bridge and it wasn’t much better in the band’s originals. Although, two things stopped me from labeling Bassic Trouble as a downright bad band. The first one was their cover of Chapter Four. It was the second time I see them covering that song, and I have to say as an Avenged Sevenfold song the first one wasn’t what I’d call pleasing, while this time the song was played very well, although the growling could’ve been more audible. The second and most important good point that was given to this New Wave band was Omar Deryan’s vocals while performing Blackbird. It was really amazing, the change was astonishing. Maybe the emotions drove the vocalist to sing much better but this made me expect Bassic Trouble’s next concert to be excellent. Basically, a band with lots of potential.

Finally it was time for Psycho Circus, the “Kiss fanatics” as said in the event’s descriptions. This Rock band formed by Jad Abou Akar on Vocals, Charbel Sakr and Rayan Kanso on guitar, Omar Ellsayyed on drums and Tony Jreij (also known for his work with the band Tormented on vocals and guitar) on bass is really something to see. The first song was supposed to be God of Thuder by Kiss, but for some reason it didn’t seem to work with them so the order went as following: first up 3 songs by Kiss (Detroit Rock City, God of Thunder then Cold Gin), followed by Babe I’m Gonna Leave You by led Zeppelin, Rock n’ Roll All Night by Kiss, Grinder by Judas Priest (which was an interesting twist to the band’s usual playlist) and finally some more Kiss with War Machine (no wonder they call them fanatics), finishing up with an improvisation of Rock and Roll by motorhead with bassist Tony Jreij taking place on the drum kit’s chair. The band didn’t play the songs exactly as their idols did, but in my opinion the little tweaks they added were extremely interesting (although quite risky, considering how well known the songs the band performed are and how picky Rockers can be).I have to say, the whole band’s performance was very good overall but Jad Abou Akkar’s vocals placed it from very good to amazing (but the poor guy seemed to be cursed, not only did the vocal’s microphone randomly turned to vibrato mode at a few points but it just turned off during one of the songs). Also, the band’s stage presence was amazing.

In conclusion, ” Kick-Start The Year With Chain Reaction, Bassic Trouble And Psycho Circus” was a good concert for the fans of Old School and New Wave Rock music alike, and we’d definitely like to see more of that in the future (although it would be nice if it could start time someday). Good job and thank you the Lebanese Youth Center.