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Where love is in the air By Avirama Golan Tags: Sderot "Thank you Sderot, ahla" said Knesiyat Hasekhel vocalist Yoram Hazan when the last chord of the song "Nothing will harm us" died out, ending the performance. "You've done a wonderful thing." After enjoying the three-hour concert, the audience stood on its feet and cheered: for the bands, for the organizers, and, just maybe, for itself. Sderot, full of pride in its achievements, looked like it was starting to believe in itself again. The concert was ostensibly 20 times too big for the auditorium in the new Sderot community center. "Sderot Hamusika" (Sderot of Music), a salute to the artists of Sderot who brought about a revolution in Israeli music, could easily have taken place in the Caesarea amphitheater or in the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv. The power of the instruments, the voices and the sound system rocked the 300 seats in the small auditorium, which was filled to capacity. There was certainly a special magic to this evening. The atmosphere before the performance was almost intimate, despite the fact that famous and outstanding rock bands were about to go on stage. The Sderot artists met in the cafeteria before the concert and spoke quietly among themselves. Ran Almaliach's son had the chicken pox, and the conversation between him and Biton was more about children's ailments and anti-itching solutions and the hysterical worry of fathers than about anything else. Advertisement There was similar warm, almost familial closeness between Almaliach and Kobi Oz. Around the table where they were seated members of the two bands gathered - Tea-Packs and Knesiyat Hasekhel - and to the average onlooker they looked just like school buddies: kids from the same neighborhood, full of affection, discussing writing, art, studies and family, without a hint of arrogance and cynicism; the very opposite of the image projected of them in the gossip columns of the entertainment weeklies. Biton is coming out with a new album, "The Lighted Side," and is planning a concert with Ehud Banai at Tzavta in Tel Aviv. Knesiyat Hasekhel is working on a new album, as is Oz, who describes his new songs as "weekday piyutim" (liturgical songs usually sung on Shabbat and festivals). In the corridor, excited and dressed in festive black shirts, stood the members of the Sderot Youth Choir, who performed in the first part of the evening. At exactly 8:30 P.M., the audience was invited to enter the auditorium. The members of the veteran bands sat in the first few rows. They have been asked a thousand times why Sderot of all places, and a thousand times they have tried to explain but were unable find a satisfying answer. "The answer changes with the years," says Biton. "But it is becoming increasingly clear that there is something here, like an inborn trait. After all, other development towns and other neighborhoods had the same foundation, childhood in these open spaces, the family events with the Moroccan and local bands. The fact is that most of the people came from Netivot - our childhood star was Raymond Abecassis, she would electrify the audience. So why did this music erupt from here of all places? I've come to the conclusion that it's simply a blessed place. In everything - artists, actors, musicians, even politicians. But music is the dominant means of expression." Between agony and joy In the 1990s, there were quite a few bands in Sderot, but their reputation did not reach beyond the borders of the town. Dmaot Shel Yareah (Moon's Tears), Sfatayim (Lips), Tanara - all of whom performed in various places and produced a unique sound: the fast Moroccan beat with electric guitars, drums and an occasional violin, which at a dizzying pace slides from warm melodies to cold electrical music. All of the music is based on heart-rending texts, piyutim, moving between pure poetry and an unbridled shout for joy or cry of pain. If there is such a thing as "real" Israeli music, it must have emerged from Sderot. It is no coincidence that the moment it ventured outside the town, it exploded. "In 1991 there were two young guys, Ofer Alkabetz and Yehuda Cohen," says Biton, "who decided that they had enough music for an evening's entertainment. Up until then, there were performances here and there - in bomb shelters, at weddings, at a youth club or in pubs. And there were no funds. So these two guys went to the small businessmen in Sderot and asked for sponsorship, and each one donated between NIS 1,000 and NIS 1,500 to the band, and they made a sort of video clip with the money. From this, all at once, this thing erupted, like the first shell from the mouth of a cannon that has been loaded for years, the product of a generation that grew up in the 1960s, matured musically in the 1970s and was influenced by the rock bands of the 1980s. From here on in, everyone who came after us had an easier time, and many came after us, and are still coming." But apparently even Biton, who manages the arts center in Sderot and is familiar with the Sderot Youth Choir that performed the legendary songs of all the groups, was astonished by the musical talents of the vocal ensemble, which comprises eight boys and girls aged 14-19, children of families who immigrated from Ethiopia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as children of Sderot veterans. Noam Shlomo, a musician born in Sderot, the musical director of the ensemble and of the instrumental ensemble Shekhina, wrote the adaptations to the bands' songs. And thus, during the first hour of the show, the young people offered surprising adaptations to songs by Renaissance, Sultana, Julietta, the Sukariot, Atzulat Hake'ev, Tea-Packs, Knesiyat Hasekhel and of course Sfatayim. At the end of each song, one of the members of the youth ensemble gave a certificate of appreciation to the veteran rockers, who had difficulty concealing their excitement. But not a word was spoken until the first part ended and Itzik Abergil came onto the stage. "You have moved me," he said. "Music. For such a long time we haven't had it, music, only music." One after the other, the bands came up and aroused the enthusiasm of the audience that sang along with them: Tea-Packs with "Perah Hashkhunot" followed by a mesmerizing song performed by Knesiyat Hasekhel. Home, just home It is hard to describe such a collection of bands, whose vocalists are excited to be in Sderot, where they feel at home, surrounded by friends and family and neighbors who know all their songs by heart. Adults love them. Young people look up to them and dream of being like them. But it's just as difficult to describe the power of the musical and literary talent that took off onstage. The Hebrew that was heard on the stage of the Sderot community center was flexible, playful, profound and daring, worlds away from the paucity of language heard in other cities. Suddenly it became clear that the salute to Sderot was the most blatant antithesis to "A Star is Born" (the Israeli version of "American Idol"), despite the fact that all the voices were golden. "My dream," said Shlomo, "is to continue to put this show on every year." But can he attract an audience from the entire country to a music festival in Sderot? "Exactly," replies Shlomo, "that's my vision." "I was so surprised," said Shimon Adaf at the end of the evening. "No bigwig spoke, only music, and what a [high] level!" And after all, he himself wrote, in a sad love song that he dedicated to his city, "only loveless places receive total love." Maybe Sderot is not really loveless, but its artists have given it unconditional love, and on Tuesday they received it in return. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Hezbollah abduction How the Lebanese militia captured two IDF reservists in 2006, illustrated in pictures. Kuntar's crimes Israeli YouTube video details the 1979 terror attack perpetrated by Samir Kuntar.

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