i got it hama taslaafa

pest and the symbolic crew take the stage.

the band is playing a slow bluesy tune, i don’t particularly care for it, mediocre stuff, nothing that announces itself - hey look at this, nothing on that level. just a band going through the motions, the place could definitely have looked better, the ceiling is covered in white lace, what is this, a wedding? come on, i expect better for my 150 rufiyaa. anyway, i’m not here for the decor or any of these bands, who the fuck cares, i’m here for pest. my brother ibrahimdi is somewhere around here, he is ashamed of his aging brother in a cool place like this. and it’s packed with kids, people even younger than ibrahimdi, is there no one my age, god i feel so old, i’m roaming around trying to find a familiar face but they’re all nonchalant and nondescript, faces like lace, laceface, swelling in the wind, ballooning, and receding as the tide, i find a familiar face, it’s the young filmmaker, L, and for some reason we’re getting along really nicely, i don’t often get along with filmmakers because they are the antithesis of writers, they’re collaborative people whereas i’m a control freak but L is talking about how pest should’ve done a video along with the release of his 2025 album L2, an album release is nothing without a video, and i think he’s probably right, i think he should’ve done a video for dhunthari says L, it’s lyrically a level up from oyaa, which is definitely more personal, these are L’s thoughts, he also thinks i could’ve gone deeper in my maldives independent piece, and i gave him a bunch of excuses but he is right, i could’ve, but pest and i were quite frankly exhausted by the time we were done with that. and then i walked around a bit and seated in a corner in a cool t-shirt with mccartney giving the middle finger to the world is the only other person remotely around my age, and she looks stunning in fact, it’s gabrielle and her male friend, so i say howdy and talk to her and introduce my brother to her and he’s very nonchalant and gabrielle seems a bit embarrassed, and he goes away,

two enormously skilled members of foahfihaara

and gabrielle asks me about samfa and says samfa’s dad taught her, i say her dad is a crazy man for puns, and she says like what, and i say his granddaughter was saying she saw a kangaroo in australia and he said if you hadn’t seen one it would’ve been a kant garoo, ho ho ho, gabrielle laughs putting her hand over her mouth, and she gives me some fonithoshi and i say is my breath reeking, and she laughs and says no, it’s just some fonithoshi, well, who am i to refuse, and then we just talk about work and doing a podcast together and gabrielle is like YES let’s really do it, and i say of course, and man, the lights are quite strange here, sometimes gabrielle is orange, sometimes blue, but the colours all seem nice on her, and i try to get into the music but it’s futile, some woman is singing in a smoky voice over an electric guitar, but it’s not the setting for such, i like her voice, it has character but i don’t really care for the songs, but as i move around i spot pest and go say hi to him, and he introduces me to a young woman standing next to him and it turns out it’s his wife, and i say hello, how do you do, and she says pest talks about you, and i’m like what does he say, i wanna know, i wanna know it all, and she’s like he talks about how you’d look at things from a very different perspective and he tells me you guys have heated debates, and i’m like debates? what debates, i don’t remember having any, and she laughs, and i tell her my wife likes pest very much too, and she just giggles and pest looks at me funny, maybe i shouldn’t be talking about samfa with this young woman, she seems a bit you know, and i want to introduce my brother to pest but he’s very thirsty so i get him water, and then he’s off again, he meets many friends, the place seems full of them, but anyway, soon pest goes on stage, and they have to work through some sound issues but man, he has such a relaxed presence, it’s like watching a master, he knows his presence, he owns it, and then i scream VISNAALEVEY, and pest doesn’t seem like he’s heard, and it’s not like a song that’s likely to be played because it’s soft and intimate, but my god, IT’S HIS OPENER, and it has a quiet guitar bit and then in the middle it comes alive with a powerful beat, and they rock this song out, it is subLIME, goddammit, it’s my first time seeing this man live and he’s playing my song. goddamn. pest holds back, sometimes he lets bey take centre stage, and shares the limelight with maatu, and maatu’s songs off the new album are phenomenal live, and the crowd is deep into it, singing along perfectly, line after line. i need to listen to that album again, and then it’s veringe verikan, fuck yeah, the crowd goes nuts, i am going nuts, and during the closer i go right to the front and jump up and down to this dancy beat while pest and bey perform the shit out of themselves, and then it’s over. someone calls me, and it’s ray, i say hi, howdy ho, do you wanna have a pic with pest? and we go take a pic with pest and bey, wow. rap royalty motherfucker. pest is bombarded with selfie requests and he obliges with grace, what a guy this pest is, what a cool cool guy, and then foahfihaara, the night’s headliners come on stage and my god, i have no idea who these guys are, but they start with a cover of have a cigar where the bassist just owns the riff and improvises on it with slaps and cool runs, what a guy, he’s totally manhandling the bass, and the guitarists busts his chops in the solo, they’re owning this, fuck yeah,

a mosh pit starts to emerge

then they cover molecule mouth, an important band, if you don’t know, in the country’s prog rock scene, and it’s fucking mental how tight that song is, and then…and then the bass intro to jeremy. fuck. it’s a perfect cover, they didn’t bother changing anything, it is perfect. and the crowd has gone insane, how do these kids even know pearl jam? and how do you follow this flawless cover? how about with sludge factory? cripes. their choice of song is praiseworthy, it’s one of the sludgiest grooves alice in chains came up with, and by this time i am in heaven, but they perform porcupine tree, at which point i see my bro videoing the band with his phone, and then it’s pantera, and some metalheads go berserk, shoving and crashing into one another in the mosh pit that sprang up during that insane drop, and by this time i think i’ve overdosed on the night. good god. take me.