I’m Mr Brightside

At the start of last year if you mentioned to me that I would see The Kings of Leon, Aerosmith and The Killers in the UAE I would have thought you would be having me on.

But sure they all came and all were brilliant. The last to visit Abu Dhabi was The Killers. I vividly remember the first time I heard one of their songs. I was in the less than salubrious “Cherry Bar” in Laganas circa the summer of  2005 (nasty brit infested greek holiday town) when the DJ put on “Mr Brightside” the place erupted and I went slightly nuts.

Since then while not a massive follower of every one of their tracks, I am certainly keen on their big anthems and they all feature regularly on the sing star nights I go to.

Thinking ahead, we rented a minibus to enjoy a cold beverage or two on the way down to the Emirates Palace. Sadly while this made for a fun trip we did have to make an unscheduled pitstop that caused us to turn up a little late to the gig.

Walking through the main entrance they had the typical food and beverage setup going on. The one where you stand in a giant queue to buy tokens for drinks and such. Then even bigger queues for actual goodies themselves. As we were a little late The Killers kicked off with “Human” – seeing as it was one of my favourite tunes I abandoned hope of an immediate drink and ran to see the performance. They delivered with real gusto – no complaining about how hot it was. Real pro’s giving it all they were worth.

After a few songs I was really thirsty for a drink so I found a beer buddy and set off to the beverage outlets. What a mistake. For a good 30-40 minutes we stood there watching total chaos. Chaps behind the bar not knowing how to pour simple mixed drinks. Insisting every can of drink was poured in a plastic cup and having no idea how to get the food out of the warmers. It was a nightmare summed up when one more girl trying to carry six beers turned around and immediately dropped half of them. It would have been comedy had we not all felt her pain.

A little frustrated I headed back to the rest of the gang with warm over priced drinks and enjoyed the rest of the show – particularly the encore where they closed out with a stellar performance of “When you were young” that put me in a good mood for the rest of the evening.

However the highlight was Mr Brightside which they conveniently waited to play until I returned with my beer. Here is a little bit of footage I took:

Just great – I loved it. Mr Brightside someone who is an incurable optimistic. Perhaps that sums me up, without question it has been a tough year for Dubai’s economy. Tomorrow the huge edifice that is Burj Dubai will officially open, when I arrived in Dubai three and half years it was a giant construction site only 26 floors high and now it  looks like a futuristic rocket ready to shoot off to another dimension. I can only hope that the opening marks a bright side for Dubai as we bravely stride into the new decade.