Skip to content
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Derek
    • Gary
    • Halley/Celeste
    • Paul
    • Ricky
    • Vik
  • Concerts
  • Reviews
    • Albums
    • Venue
    • Movies
    • Year End Reviews
  • Festivals
    • Canadian Music Week
    • Hot Docs
    • North By Northeast
    • Planet in Focus
    • Primavera
    • South By Southwest
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Derek
    • Gary
    • Halley/Celeste
    • Paul
    • Ricky
    • Vik
  • Concerts
  • Reviews
    • Albums
    • Venue
    • Movies
    • Year End Reviews
  • Festivals
    • Canadian Music Week
    • Hot Docs
    • North By Northeast
    • Planet in Focus
    • Primavera
    • South By Southwest
  • Contact Us

Concert Review: Pinanhi, June 3rd, Besiktas Anadolu Lisesi

Posted on
7 Jun 2011
by
Ricky

pinhani

Turkey – When you are on a business trip in a foreign country by yourself, it’s all fun and games until the local coworkers are all busy at night, leaving you to fend for yourself. This was the case Friday night. With no predetermined schedule and most of the country watching the Turkey-Belgium Euro qualifier, I decided to wander around the neighborhood to Besiktas, the area I was staying in. The previous night I had wandered around the more popular area of Taksim and had originally planned to see a Turkish rock band play, but when I got there, there was no one at the club. I had gone too early. Quickly realizing that staying around to wait for the band would cost me too much money In beer costs ( as well as being the only guy in the bar) I decided to abandon ship, missing what I thought was my only opportunity to experience a rock concert in Istanbul. I was wrong.

Waking around the neighborhood Friday night, I heard some rock music playing in the background. Naturally gravitating towards such noise, I stumbled upon some security guards who were at an entranceway to some large building with a large courtyard I went up to them and asked what was going on but they just waved me in.

As I descended down the pathway to the courtyard I saw a decent sized outdoor stage. On the stage was a band I later found out to be the Turkish rock band Pinhani. On their webpage, they say they are a slow grunge rock group. The band consisted of a drummer, two guitarist who also would play the occasional sax, and a few others I think. I finally got my concert.

Pinhani was a very interesting show. I think the best way to describe them would be a mixture of 80s rock with hints of traditional music sprinkled in there like paprika on lentil soup. The youngish crowd loved them and were jumping up and down on the rock numbers and on the power ballads rwere singing along word for word. The band loved their solos. Two solos dominated the night – a massive power chord guitar solo that seemingly ended every other song and a crazy saxophone solo that would start the more traditional songs. It was interesting to see the crowd adjusting their dancing to either the western or eastern influences that predominated each song. Say what you want about preconceive conservative notions about muslim crowds but I saw entire families dancin with each other at the concert and they all got rhythm. You would never see an entire family in North America go to a concert, see the kids form a dancing circle and then watch the dad dance his way into the middle and bust a move. Here, it just seemed like a normal occurrence.

The band played well over an hour and were fairly good. The musicianship was solid and the crowd loved it. Speaking of the crowd, it turned out the grounds I had stumbled into was a high school and the event was a high school celebration. I was asked if i was a foreign exchange student. The stuff that happens when u wander around.

Here’s a video!

De?irmendeki by pinhani

PrevPreviousSong of the Day: Bishop Allen – Click, Click, Click, Click
NextSong of the Day: Hooray For Earth – No LoveNext

SEARCH

FOLLOW US

Facebook Twitter Flickr Foursquare Rss Inbox

THE PAST

Archives

TAGS

Tags
British Music Embassy (10) Canadian Music Fest (11) canadian music week (20) cmf (10) cmw (42) concert (9) el mocambo (9) fringe (26) Great Lake Swimmers (10) guelph (9) horseshoe tavern (23) hot docs (103) jazz (12) Joel Plaskett (10) jukebox the ghost (15) lee's palace (27) marina and the diamonds (10) Massive Attack (10) mod club (12) NXNE (94) of monsters and men (11) Phoenix (15) play reviews (11) Pulp (11) Roskilde Festival (16) rural alberta advantage (10) sharon van etten (10) suede (12) summerworks (34) SXSW (479) SXSW 2022 (11) SXSW 2024 (11) SXSW Online (18) the antlers (11) the cure (9) the national (10) the xx (11) Tokyo Police Club (9) Toronto (25) toronto fringe (14) Toronto Jazz Festival (55) turf (13) tweeview (10) Video (9) zeus (10)
The Panic Manual

We are a collective of individuals bringing you the latest in concert reviews, indie, britpop, Canadian, twee and all sorts of other music, movies, tv and everything else you like. Follow the manual to live a pleasant and fulfilling life.

All rights reserved