An encounter with Omar Souleyman

It’s June 3rd and it is my birthday. Tiffany and  I were in Paris for a couple shows. Our scheduled show on the 3rd with Wavves and Lemonade was cancelled last minute due to Wavves cancelling the remainder of their tour. But this was a blessing in disguise cuz we knew that Omar Souleyman had a gig in Paris that night.

So, us and our friend, Clemence, planned for a night of middle eastern music and food. We arrived just in time for the last 10 tickets at this small performing arts center. Alan Bishop and Mark Gergis from Sublime Frequencies were Djing sick shit before Omar hit the stage. The local Parisiens looked pumped for the show along with myself and Tiffany. I don’t think Clemence knew what she was getting into.

Then, Omar was introduced to the stage by Mark Gergis and the party began. About an hour of Debke party beats, sick saz solos, micro tonal keyboard heaven and chants and rhymes by Omar. After the show, the Djs continued playing sick shit. We hung around hoping to meet the band. Our hopes came true when we first met the sick keyboard player and had someone translate to him that he was rad. We then met the saz player and the poet and I had everyone sign my vinyl copy of Omar’s record. But still no sign of Omar. But decided to hang around longer.

Then about a half an hour later the keyboard player wrangled us up and said we can go upstairs to meet Omar. We were super exciting but nervous too. We climbed the stairs passing Alan and Mark, which I hit up for autographs as well, cuz they are rad for everything they’ve done.  Entering the room we see Omar sitting down on an old lazy boy chair. We were shitting. We didn’t know what to do.  There was another fan in the room who spoke arabic.  So, I had him translate to Omar that he’s the reason we started Rainbow Arabia. Omar then reached out to us and pulled us in his arms. We felt great love and appreciation from him. It was amazing. The picture explains the rest.

I will add some video footage of the show soon.

~ by wiskey7 on June 24, 2009.