Last night, I was privileged to attend heavy metal band Disturbed's first (hopefully of many) concert in Israel. And a sold-out crowd was treated to the performance of a lifetime, one where the energy at the venue spoke a story of reciprocal love.
Disclaimer: I was not really familiar with Disturbed before I became friends with lead singer David Draiman. A proud Jew and mensch, we got to know each other when he used to be on Twitter fighting the fight. He even did me the honor of a guest post some years back. Nowadays, David still fights the fight, but in different ways, and I can honestly say I am a big fan of his, and Disturbed's music.
This post is not going to be an in-depth review of the performance - I am not a music journalist and could not do such a review justice. But I will say this: when David revealed in his recent interview with me that there would some special surprises for the Israeli audience, he wasn't kidding.
I predicted he would speak in some Hebrew, but I did not realize he would speak almost exclusively in Hebrew. And we are not talking about short phrases like "Shalom", "ma nishma" and "Erev tov". We are talking minutes-long, powerful monologues. At one point, my friend and concert partner Harry turned to me and said "Dude, he has better Hebrew than you!" to which I replied with an expletive I won't repeat here. Suffice to say, I may have secretly agreed with him.
I predicted they would perform Hatikva, but I did not realize just how powerful it would be.
I can't say I predicted the sleeveless Tzahal (IDF) T-shirt but I suspected David would wear his heart and love for us on his sleeve.
His fellow Disturbed band members played off this energy and also seemed to project a genuine fondness for the audience.
But it would be remiss of me to not mention that Disturbed are damn good as musicians. They show a mastery of their instruments, and that of course includes David, whose instrument is an amazingly powerful voice.
I am not generally big on heavy metal music, but I was becoming won over watching YouTube videos of their songs. Last night sealed the deal in emphatic fashion.
I'll also add that while there were no direct comments directed at Roger Waters and BDS (or, as YouTube would call it, "hate speech"), they weren't needed. The entire performance constituted a giant F you to them.
https://twitter.com/Disturbed/status/1146242006206824448
- Disturbed
https://twitter.com/HarryR/status/1146198830318309376
- HarryR
Posted from Israellycool with SteemPress : https://www.israellycool.com/2019/07/03/a-concert-like-no-other-disturbed-rocks-israel-with-love/