CAIRO: Eight bands shared a stage at the Gezira Youth Center Friday night in the first concert hosted by UMF, the Underground Music Federation. The show featured seven Egyptian bands and one American band finishing a tour in Egypt. The bands included: Ahmed al-Haggar, Fo2 El Setou7, Shady Ahmed, Jonny Rodgers, Egoz, SimpleXity, Salalem, and Cairokee. The eight bands ranged the music spectrum from Salalem's “sarcastically humorous” music to SimpleXity's prog rock to Ahmed al-Haggar's oriental jazz flavor. Both Shady Ahmed and SimpleXity have won various awards over the past few years. Shady Ahmed won the Dubai-based Makshoof Music Competition in 2008, and SimpleXity won best rock bank in 2008's Nokia Express Music Festival and later placed second in El-Sawy Culture Wheel's rock festival. Johnny of the Johnny Rodgers Band told Youm7 that Friday night's concert in Cairo was his favorite of all the concerts the band has played across Egypt in the last five days. The band played shows in Alexandria, Port Said, and Luxor, among other places. “It has been such an honor and so much fun to play here,” said Johnny. He said he had really enjoyed talking music backstage with some of the Egyptian musicians he shared the stage with. Despite a few technical glitches and delays caused by licensing issues, the bands were well-received. One musician told Youm7 that 750 tickets were sold for the show, although numbers at any given time never appeared to surpass 350.
