Tajikistan Tour Triumphant
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Images By Me and DJ City Power
White City and DJ City Power now known as the Combat Rock Collective have returned triumphant from the 10 day tour of neighboring Tajikistan. With only one contact in hand, they managed to pull off 5 unplanned concerts in Dushanbe and surrounding villages.
But before all that, members had to bribe border officials with their musical delights to get across the border by boat.
While other members flew in the comfort of a C130 French military plane!
The first gig was at a Irish bar and we played to a music thirsty crowd of locals and ex-pats who told us: "We just don't get live bands in Dushanbe!"
Our next gig was at a traditional musical museum, organised by our friends at NGO: Bactria, the idea was not to draw a big crowd, but to have an intimate jam session with local musicians and hopefully harvest some tunes for later in the week.
After all this hard work we need to chill, so we head into the mountains to a village of Khoje ab-e-Garm, famous for its healing waters. We stayed in a luxury hotel and bathed ourselves in the suana.
Next morn we were up and ready for our lunch time concert at the central Sanatorium to a crowd of 200 pensioners slurping up their daily cruel. We were a natural hit.
Back to the 'real' world of Dushanbe we had the task of sourcing costumes for our next big gig. Seeing this was the combat rock tour, what better than to get geared up in Soviet apparel.
After such a successful first gig at the Irish bar, they begged us to play again, this time we were playing tighter and looking sharper.
Later that night we retired to an under ground bunker, where DJ City power pumped out more banging tunes to a intimate crowd of 'friends of the band'.
We ended the tour with a mini music fest at the state theater. 3 local bands and White City rocked the house to a mob of screaming teenagers!
The first band was Husher, with a lead singer who is definite future pop star material.
Next up was 28 days after Tomorrow, these boys rocked so hard that we almost packed up and went home early.
The last of the Tajik bands was United: Featuring Alexander. I only found out after the gig that they were Christian rock band... Respect, they still rocked the house!
Then came the much anticipated White City. What we lacked in pure musical genius, we made up for in stage presence. Nah we rocked hard and played what I thought was the best concert since I joined the band.
DJ City Power took over from us and as he did every night and kept the crowd pumping till the lights were turned on and everyone was kicked out.
All up the tour was more than we could ever imagined and I guess they liked us, cause we have been invited back to partake in a music festival in June 2009.
RESPECT TO TAJIK ROCK!
Next week: all the high jinks of the trip.......
White City and DJ City Power now known as the Combat Rock Collective have returned triumphant from the 10 day tour of neighboring Tajikistan. With only one contact in hand, they managed to pull off 5 unplanned concerts in Dushanbe and surrounding villages.
But before all that, members had to bribe border officials with their musical delights to get across the border by boat.
While other members flew in the comfort of a C130 French military plane!
The first gig was at a Irish bar and we played to a music thirsty crowd of locals and ex-pats who told us: "We just don't get live bands in Dushanbe!"
Our next gig was at a traditional musical museum, organised by our friends at NGO: Bactria, the idea was not to draw a big crowd, but to have an intimate jam session with local musicians and hopefully harvest some tunes for later in the week.
After all this hard work we need to chill, so we head into the mountains to a village of Khoje ab-e-Garm, famous for its healing waters. We stayed in a luxury hotel and bathed ourselves in the suana.
Next morn we were up and ready for our lunch time concert at the central Sanatorium to a crowd of 200 pensioners slurping up their daily cruel. We were a natural hit.
Back to the 'real' world of Dushanbe we had the task of sourcing costumes for our next big gig. Seeing this was the combat rock tour, what better than to get geared up in Soviet apparel.
After such a successful first gig at the Irish bar, they begged us to play again, this time we were playing tighter and looking sharper.
Later that night we retired to an under ground bunker, where DJ City power pumped out more banging tunes to a intimate crowd of 'friends of the band'.
We ended the tour with a mini music fest at the state theater. 3 local bands and White City rocked the house to a mob of screaming teenagers! 
The first band was Husher, with a lead singer who is definite future pop star material.
Next up was 28 days after Tomorrow, these boys rocked so hard that we almost packed up and went home early.
The last of the Tajik bands was United: Featuring Alexander. I only found out after the gig that they were Christian rock band... Respect, they still rocked the house!
Then came the much anticipated White City. What we lacked in pure musical genius, we made up for in stage presence. Nah we rocked hard and played what I thought was the best concert since I joined the band.
DJ City Power took over from us and as he did every night and kept the crowd pumping till the lights were turned on and everyone was kicked out.
All up the tour was more than we could ever imagined and I guess they liked us, cause we have been invited back to partake in a music festival in June 2009.RESPECT TO TAJIK ROCK!
Next week: all the high jinks of the trip.......
1 Comments:
commented by 
Anonymous, 5:23 pm
Anonymous, 5:23 pm
Wish I coulda been there to rock out with you Travis.
Keep on groovin!