Radio Tehran

My friend told me in February, that they're gonna have a gig in London. I booked my train ticket the next day. Both as a friend and a fan, I was excited to be present at their gig, knowing they had put much effort into getting it done. I wrote this report for their official website few days after the gig, but for some reason the site is not up yet. So I asked Ali if I could publish it on my blog and he was positive.

After 5 months, this cannot really be called a report! But I thought it was a way I could appreciate their effort for the album which I took pleasure in listening to.

So here is the report. The photos are taken by my friend Dominique Bader.

Chaarshanbe-suri was a good excuse to gather young Iranians in London, though not for traditional fireworks. Attendees enjoyed a blend of artistic events culminating in a special musical debut by Radio Tehran, featuring Ali Azimi, lead vocalist, and Pedram Afshin, lead guitarist. The band's drummer Payam Hashemi and bass player Hesam Garshasbi unfortunately couldn’t leave Iran in time to make it to the gig. They were very much missed.

The band put a couple of their songs on their myspace page just ten days before the gig. Around 3000 internet fans visited that week- time enough for some fans to learn the lyrics by heart and sing along during the band's performance.

They began with “Gelayeh” (Complaints). The starting guitar melody fills the aura of this song by haze and may be it wasn’t the expected opening choice. However, the rich sound of Maral's cello carried this piece with its elegant ornamentation.

Spring evokes in us a feeling of sheer delight with anticipation and we’re thrilled to hear the song “Bahar” (Spring). This song starts lively but a mysterious tone soon follows which is the prelude to Ali’s yearning for spring. He is not just waiting for Bahar as an excuse to forget the years passed. Ali fears his season is over and he hasn’t accomplished anything. He is looking for a change; “my season is colorful and this song is a prelude to it”, and thus “Bahar” is outpourings of longings, worries and hopes. The lush piano soundscape, which embellished the second verse of the song in their album version, was missing in their live performance. Still, this song was either, if not the best of the show, certainly second best , next to Eshtabah.

Then there was “Change”, the only English song in their gig, which brought smiles to the faces of some non-Iranians in the audience, curious to know about Iranian alternative music.

A mellow arpeggio played dexterously by Pedram, commences “Eshtebah” (Mistake), a magnetic song with touching lyrics. “Eshtebah” enthralled everyone, even more so when Ali started singing into a megaphone. I was reminded of Tom Waits’ “Chocolate Jesus”, not that there is any similarity between these songs but the sheer use of the megaphone was an attraction by itself, magnified by people singing the verses along with him. It was as if the microphone alone wasn’t loud enough to convey his message to the crowd. He used the megaphone to emphasize his news; he is broken hearted! “If love is a lantern, you won’t even see as much as the blinds ”. The song then advances with a brimming hook, accompanied both by the back vocals and the crowd.

“To Nemiduni” (You Don’t Know) was perhaps the catchiest song of the night, and it added some dance grooves to their performance. The exuberant crowd frolicked to the jaunty tunes. Ali’s frisky turning back to Kambiz Shaygan, the drummer, while playing with verve caused the crowd to cheer joyously.

They closed with perhaps their most rebellious song, “Tatilat” (Vacation). It starts with a mystifying timbre, gearing us up to hear the words. Ali uses a beautiful metaphor for his life, “the green apple of my life fell into the stream of water”. The mellifluous guitar melody gives way to Ali’s belting out the rest of the song starting with “forget about tomorrow, your colleagues are all insane”.

A cheer from the crowd after “Tatilat”, asked for an encore. Some asked for Bahar and some for “Payiz” (Fall). It seemed I was not the only one engrossed by Payiz. But Ali chose neither. Instead he played “Aghaye Past” (Mr Mean), with keyboard accompanied by cello. This simple composition is reminiscent of the Beatles “Mean Mr. Mustard”. Perhaps after “Khabnama” (Insomnia), which had the most Beatlish tone color, this was the only other song of this character. In spite of this resemblance, Radio Tehran has quite an original sound. Its music comes from the heart and its words are lucidly delicate. The most remarkable feature of their music is how elegantly they incorporate the simple and meaningful Persian lyrics into rock music, something which most Iranian rock bands have failed to achieve.

After buying their album, I realized that “Change” and “Aghaye Past” are not included. I am wondering how many more songs the band has in the can for their future album. Is their next album hovering on the heels of 88?