MUSIC

After a lot of anticipation, Kiosk went on stage in Toronto to perform for a sold out crowd of 850.

Barzin and his band performed first. There was no introduction and Barzin didn’t talk to the crowd to break the ice, either. It took some time before people started paying attention. The crowd started to respond to Barzin during the last few songs, especially after he spoke to the crowd in Farsi. The sound system was not set up properly and there was too much bass.

Kiosk didn’t have any better luck for their introduction either, the announcer could not be heard but the crowd was so anxious for Kiosk to perform that it didn’t really matter. The crowd went wild as soon as Kiosk started playing.

Kiosk members who performed in Toronto were: Ali Kamali, Anoush Khazeni, Babak Khiavchi, Shahrouz Molaee, Ardalan Payvar and Arash Sobhani. They played most of the songs from their two albums: Adam Ma’mooli and Eshghe Sor'at. They also performed “Ay Yarom Bia” but in a completely new way, Reggae style, which was received well by the audience.

The crowd knew all the Kiosk songs by heart and sang along with each and every song. In Arash’s own words: “The energy level was very high and I felt like a puppet that is being controlled by the crowd! I was not directing the event in anyway, it was the audience who was performing and we were watching!”

The song sequence had a very good flow and selecting Zoghale Khoob as the first encore was great, so Arash and Anoush started the encore and then the rest of the band joined them to play “To Kojaee”.

At times, the crowd’s noise overwhelmed the huge amplifiers and the sound system. It was unbelievable! There was a lot of good energy but it seemed that Kiosk didn’t expect such an active crowd and lost focus here and there. Overall, they played very well and performed the songs differently from their studio version. There were very good solo performances by almost all of the band members, especially Babak who knocked the socks off the crowd with his guitar solos.

Arash and the rest of the band members were visibly happy and enjoying the concert. Ahmad Kiarostami projected video clips on a backdrop on the stage, relevant to each song which was very interesting and hopefully we will get to see those clips on Youtube eventually.

The band members mingled with their fans after the show and there was a very special feeling about the whole event. Everybody felt that there was something special happening and a new chapter in Iranian music culture is beginning to unfold.