Dubai Country Club, Dubai,
Set-List:
(Included) Tin Pan Valley, Shine It All Around, 7 & 7 Is, Black Dog, Freedom Fries, Going To California, Ramble On, Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, Four Sticks, Gallows Pole, The Enchanter, Whole Lotta Love
Reviews:
The Emirates Evening Post had an overview of the two-day festival, with this on Robert.
As the last act geared up to play, one noticed a much older crowd that began to band together close to the stage. 43 year old Anand Sharma, a marketing manager who works in Dubai said that his friends and him had been waiting for a long time to watch Plant play.
“When we were younger, we’d listen to the music on the radio or on tapes that friends who’d traveled abroad would bring back to India. We never dreamed that we’d watch him live, because when we were young, foreign live acts weren’t plentiful in India,” said Sharma who donned a Led Zeppelin t-shirt.
Rock guru Plant tried out a bunch of Arabic phrases onstage that met with raucous applause (‘Salaam alaikoum, Dubai’ and ‘Shukran’). The band also performed other singles such as Freedom Fries and Led Zeppelin classic Black Dog.
Other reviews on various web sites included these reviews
“Iron Maiden, Prodigy, Incubus, Robert Plant, Inflames, Stone Sour, Mastodon, Prime Circle, The Bravery, Lauren Harris and Junkyard Groove. This is the bill that Desert Rock Festival 2007 offered to the thousand of fans turning up at the Dubai Country Club on March 9 and 10. And it surely lived up to its name; it just wasn’t a usual rock show, it was a festival – an event which had two days of pure mind-blowing music.
Both days were sold out. Fans had turned up not just from Dubai or Middle Eastern countries but from all parts of the world. Music surely knows no language and it was quite evident after watching people of all castes, colour and religion packed into one ground singing along to their favorite bands.
The first day kicked off with our very own Chennai band Junkyard Groove and went on to other hardcore metal acts like Lauren Harris, Mastodon, Inflames and Stone Sour. All of these bands had their own fan following and got the crowd headbanging and moshing. But it was obvious that crowd was waiting for The Prodigy and Iron Maiden.
What followed was something which can’t be described. The stage got a complete makeover for The Prodigy. They belted out tracks like ‘Breathe’, ‘Firestarter’ and ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ which had the crowd jumping, dancing, grooving and everything else that one can think off. And then if the fans thought of catching their breath at the end of Prodigy’s set, Iron Maiden took the stage who had the crowd eating out of their palms.
The second day had nothing less to offer. Incubus is a favourite from the new era of rock artists and Robert Plant is the name which revolutionised music in the early ‘60s and ‘70s. The day again kicked off with Junkyard Groove followed by Prime Circle and The Bravery.
Next up were Incubus. They kicked off their set with ‘A Kiss to Send Us Off’ and went on to play tracks like ‘Anna Molly’ and ‘Earth to Bella’ from their latest album ‘Light Grenades’ along with other singles. And again there was no time to catch one’s breath; next up was one of the legends of rock history.
Robert Plant has grown old physically but not musically. He churned out few Led Zeppelin tracks like ‘Going to California’, ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ and ‘Whole Lotta Love’ along with new originals composed with his band Strange Sensation.
As every good thing comes to an end, this festival did too. But I’m glad it’s given me two days to remember for my lifetime and the most insane musical experience.
And this review
“still blown away from last night.Best gig I have ever been to, with an unbelievable rendition of Gallows Pole, the Enchanter,Black Dog,Tin Pan Valley, Four Sticks,Going to California, Shine it all around, Freedom Fries,(this isn’t in order;my brains are also still fried!) Babe i’m gonna leave you, Ramble On,doubtless more but I have to gather my thoughts! with the final encore being Whole Lotta Love. And to think I had worried about an indifferent reception from a Dubai audience. You should have heard the screams! Despite Bonham’s unfortunate remarks about “ragheads” in another thread, Robert shows nothing but respect for all cultures and spoke in Arabic and Hindi, and the multicultural audience gave him the respect he so richly deserves. I can’t get over how glorious his voice still is. I feel very lucky. All I have to look forward to now is Aerosmith on May 31st! (By the way, Incubus were OK but I preferred the Bravery. Iron Maiden were a snore but Prodigy entertained. A great festival. Bye, all”
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