An Emo Scream rock band called Your Prince Harming is headlining a gig at Rio on the Maadi corniche this Thursday to help raise money for cancer research.
“Set the Stage on Fire will feature five Cairo bands in a club built for music, with a Nile breeze that will just add to the cool!
A charity event to raise money for the Egyptian Cancer Institute and the British Lupus Foundation, “Set the Stage on Fire is being promoted and produced by students, Amanda Collins and Issra Mosdiq as their community service component for the International Baccalaureate program. Mixing their academic requirements with a love of music, they have created what promises to be a smokin’ night of electric chords and ramming base guitars.
“The Kids Are Alright is what, arguably, the first punk band The Who sang in the 1960s. And it is good to see today’s i-Tunes retro rubbish hasn’t corrupted the youth completely.
I have been watching the nucleus of the headline act, Your Prince Harming, evolve over the past two years. Shady Ayman Nour, who is the lead singer and songwriter of this Emo Scream act, has a stage presence beyond his years.
The 16-year-old Nour is not quite Michael Hutchence from INXS or Matthew Bellamy of Muse, but with the stylized post punk fashion of Emo and that genres’ classic driving guitar, bass and drums, he is laying a solid foundation from where many a music career began.
“Set the Stage on Fire is an all ages gig, with tickets going for LE 40 at the door, which makes it the best patch for kids in Cairo to unleash their teenage angst this spring break.
Also on the bill are the punk rock acts, Faking It, Brain Candy, Over Dub and Stinkin’ Skunk, who all play a mix of original material and covers.
The event organizers, Amanda and Issra, aim to sell 300 tickets to Thursday night’s party and it will be very much a gathering of Cairo’s Facebook generation, who will be turning up their amplifiers to let their screams be heard.
Two of the more well known exponents of Emo are Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional – both names that I kind of like actually. I think also Your Prince Harming is growing on me.
I will not attempt to define Emo Scream for the simple reason that I am more about my new baby son’s midnight screams than adolescent ones, though I can tell you that Emo takes its name from emotional.
Emotional, from a psychological perspective, that is. Looking at the world or immediate environment from a more analytical viewpoint and asking why people get themselves into such a mess. And on another level I believe, empathizing with the conscious and unconscious mind. Well that could explain the screaming part.
This psychological approach to writing lyrics is opposed to the aggression of music defined as metal or the utopian relationships sung in pop songs.
So, I will give it a shot. For heaven’s sake, I went to the Abba revival concert at the Nile Hilton last year. It couldn’t be any worse than that.
Emo Scream, like the rest of the fast loud and furious rock genes it is not linked to devil worship. Nor is the record “Hotel California when played backwards a rhyme for Satan. At the end of the day, like the Rolling Stones said, “Its only rock ‘n’ roll but I like it, like it, yes I do.
But of course, if teenage angst and rock gods isn’t your thing, then maybe you might fancy something Indian? For all events staged by the Indian Community Association in Egypt, visit the new website: www.icae-egypt.org
Menna House Cricket League, India vs. Pakistan, March 28; Tel: 010 101 0606
Set the Stage on Fire, Thursday March 27, Rio, Maadi Corniche; Tel: 012 224 2124 Facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10699082180
