Third Night

Nate invited me to another performance at the Townhouse, but this time it was an actual concert, not a play. In fact the headlining band was Wust Al Balad, which means "middle of the country," otherwise known as Downtown. Wust Al Balad is a very popular Egyptian band that I had actually heard of even before I came to Cairo. There were about 300 people there of all ages, with at least a third of them Westerners.

Three bands played Arabic music, with drums, guitars, vocals, flutes, and other instruments, and one band played a rock variant with Arabic lyrics.

The first band played traditional Arabic music driven by an excellent classical guitarist.



The evening's only rock band was entertaining, but not great.



This band was the best. The woman's voice was very strong and clear enough that I could make out a few words here and there, but I still had no idea what was going on. The crowd knew many of their songs, but I'm not sure if they were covers or originals.


This girl sang one song with no accompaniment.


This is Wust Al Balad, the main act. They were good, but not as great as I anticipated. The crowd loved them.



Afterward, I met a couple of Nate's friends and hung out with them for awhile before heading home a little after midnight. Downtown is safe at night, as it is well-lit, guarded by police officers, and the traffic dies down a bit.