This week, Dubai’s rock and metal musicians gathered for their final performances at The Music Room in Bur Dubai.
The venue was renowned for its incredible sound quality and atmosphere, and the closure will be a great loss to the city.
The last show, titled ‘Desert Experiment Presents: This is the End’, marked the closing chapter for the 700-capacity venue.
Over the past 12 years, The Music Room has established itself as an iconic venue in the city’s underground music scene, hosting a variety of genres and winning several awards along the way.
Loyal fans took to Twitter to bid their farewells:
"...incredibly saddened by the news."
SHOCKED!
"It’s been a huge part of our music scene."
The venue frequently hosted non-mainstream, local, regional and international acts that other venues in Dubai were only hesitant to book.
Some of the artists that performed on the Music Room's stage include Nouvelle Vague, Dam Funk, The Heavy, Yasmine Hamdan, and Mashrou’ Leila.
The cessation will surely be felt amongst Dubai’s rock and metal communities, for whom the venue had become something of a second home.
“The Music Room is like a home to musicians in Dubai,” Desert Experiment Co-founder Gorgin Asadi told StepFeed.
“For years it’s been our go-to place for good local and non-mainstream international music. It’s been a huge part of our music scene,” Asadi said.
Tuesday’s gig saw members of UAE-based bands such as Svengali, Aramaic, Alpha Kenny Buddy, Portable Mind, Point of View, As Per Casper and We Left As Humans collaborating on original songs and covers.
For Point of View frontman Nik Uzi, it’s a particularly sad occasion.
He praised the venue’s philosophy of encouraging and promoting the underground music scene in Dubai and the entire region.
“I can confidently say that no other venue in the Middle East can challenge the quality and the vibe that the Music Room offered,” he told StepFeed.
"Almost all the local bands in the UAE started their career in The Music Room..."
Carlo Javakhia, General Manager of M Management Company, the brand that launched The Music Room, is aware of the significance the venue holds for the local music scene.
“Almost all the local bands in the UAE started their career in The Music Room, or played there,” he says.
Despite all the success, operating the establishment became a challenge, particularly when it came to getting permissions for the numerous events.