Armenia

Hovhannes Kourghinyan, Downtown Club, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005
As mentioned in a previous post, the veteran Armenian rock band Vostan Hayots reunited and performed at Yerevan’s Rocking Club last night. For those of us who have only heard of the band, it was an occasion not to be missed. […]

MDP, Puppet Theatre, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005
After meeting up with Zarchka from Life Around Me earlier yesterday I invited her to join me at a meeting arranged with Ed from MDP at the band’s studio. By chance, Ed and Vardan asked Zarchka to try singing one of MDP’s […]

I’ve been told that the “Armenian Metallica,” Vostan Hayots, are back together for at least a few gigs and will perform at Yerevan’s Rocking Club, formerly Downtown / Subway, on Friday 20 October. They apparently played at Stop Club last Friday, but I unfortunately found out too late to go. Anyway, this is really great […]

After hearing so much from Nessuna about Lilith, a local girl studying design in Russia who’s about to continue her education in the U.K., I finally got the chance to meet her last night. Not only that, but along with Nahro Zagros, the Yorkshire Kurd, I got to play my first game of Mafia.
Mafia […]

One of last week’s more pleasant experiences was receiving an ICQ message from Alexander Aslizadyan (Sasha), bassist and founding member of the young but promising local rock band, Sard. Sasha is studying graphic design in Russia and England, so ICQ has been a good way to touch base from time to time, especially about another […]

MDP, Puppet Theatre, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2005

Overhook Music have a review of Armenian rock band MDP’s Live CD that I thought worth linking to from this site. It illustrates the fact that while many continue to focus on the dreary pop music scene in Armenia, we actually have some real talent hidden underground worthy of support.

Well, it’s about time to get the first live album review to our pages. MDP is an Armenian band and they play some progressive metal, which is quite reminiscent to more known bands such as Dream Theater and Symphony X.

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I think that this band could gain lots of fans from the Western world, if people only knew about their existence and the music that they play. I sure would like to get my hands on their studio albums, but unfortunately they seem to be impossible to found. Maybe some bigger label could find MDP and bring them to the knowledge of prog fans around the world. I hope so.

Anyway, MDP have a web site at http://www.mdp.am, and there are some photos taken at a recent concert in Yerevan here, as well as an interview with the band’s keyboard player and vocalist here.

Bambir Midnight Bash, The Club, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

It was meant to start at 23.43, but this being Armenia where timekeeping is lacking to say the least, the premiere of Gyumri rock band Bambir’s new programme of music at Yerevan’s The Club started at well past midnight. Not that it mattered, perhaps. It was late, and the concert was always going to run into the early hours anyway. No wonder the band performed in their pyjamas — typical of these guys from Armenia’s second largest city, as I recently wrote for Hetq Online.

The band’s charismatic madcap antics always prove a huge success with a young, progressive audience.

“Gyumri is a city of humor,” says Barseghyan, “and our outlook is shaped by that. We’re clowns, and I’ve always wanted to make people laugh because for me, that’s a great art. In Armenia, we need that now, and especially among youth. We need to see more people smiling.”

And the new material and programme is good. Very good, in fact, although some of it had been included in their previous set that seemed to keep Yerevan alive and rocking during most of last autumn and winter. Billed as The Diary, Narek Barseghyan said it was a conceptialized programme of mainly new music that Bambir have been rehearsing for the past few months.

Regardless, the albeit small audience appeared to like the new show, and it has to be said that despite its smaller size, The Club was a nicer venue for the band to perform in than Yerevan’s Stop Club. Sound was significantly better and the illumination, mostly by candlelight, was a huge improvement on the lighting that has made concert photography somewhat of a chore in other venues.

Also interesting to note the makeup of the audience. In addition to a mainly twenty-something local crowd, there were two Diasporans from Gerard Cafesjian’s CS Media, Aram Hajian, Sam from Square One, and Arsineh Khachikian who has just arrived in Armenia from the U.S. and blogs over at Cilicia.com’s Life in Armenia page.

Anyway, if you’re in town during the summer and you get the chance to catch Bambir performing, don’t miss it. Thankfully, after a long and depressing winter, Yerevan just came alive again.

Bambir Midnight Bash, The Club, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Now that the winter has long since gone in Armenia, more and more events are taking place in Yerevan. Anyway, I received two announcements about events to be held tomorrow, so if you’re in town it’s worth posting them here.

Yellow Bird Indian Dancers

Saturday, May 27, 20:00

The Cascade, Yerevan

The US Embassy is organizing and sponsoring a Native American Indian cultural performance tour. The “Yellow Bird Indian Dancers” hail from Arizona and will tour Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In Armenia the group will travel and perform in Yerevan, Gyumri and Ararat. You are invited to attend the Yerevan concert with your family and friends. This will be an outdoor concert, open to the public, free of charge, and appropriate for all ages. No tickets are necessary; seating is on a first-come, first-served basis on the Cascade steps

The Yellow Bird Indian Dancers are respected in America and around the world for continuing the traditions of ancient cultures through their family. In their dance, in the sharing of eternal wisdom through storytelling, and in their preservation of traditional Apache craftworks, they sustain ageless Native American art forms so that they may be shared with the people of today and tomorrow. The U.S. Embassy is proud to bring the Yellow Bird Indian Dancers to Armenia so that they may mingle the ancient and beautiful traditions of the first peoples of America with the equally ancient and beautiful traditions of Armenia.

For more information about the group go to: http://www.yellowbirdindiandancers.com/

Later in the evening, at 23.43 of all times, Gyumri rock band Bambir are scheduled to perform a premiere of “The Diary” at The Club.

MDP, Puppet Theatre, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005

Ed from local rock band MDP tells me that there will be another rock concert staged at the Puppet Theatre in Yerevan toward the end of this month. The concert is being organized by another local rock band, Strife, and the British Embassy. These are the details Ed passed on.

There will be a concert-festival on May 22, again organized by British Embassy, this time under the “RockTheIntegration” title. MDP will play. I also informed Narek - Bambir will play too. Anticipating participation of Oaksenham, Aramazd, Strife, Empiray, maybe Vortan Karmir in Puppet theatre.

MDP, Puppet Theatre, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005