Underground: Curating a Sub-cultural Sound

Underground Lounge & Bar is the one of the latest additions to Cairo’s busy night life, a dynamic venue looking to provide up and coming musicians, bands and DJs with the opportunity to showcase their work within a compatible, subculture platform. The venue, run by Victor Sobki and Menerva Ezz El Din, also supports established and engaging artists who nonetheless possess distinctive qualities and relatively fall within the underground spectrum.

“All genres are welcome at our venue, we do however plan on remaining selective with our artists, and support those who aren’t necessarily commercial enough for other venues in town,” states Sobki, “Our schedule also ensures musical diversity, with every night of the week dedicated to one particular genre or the other, and we certainly intend on keeping things interesting.” Quality over popularity is perhaps Underground’s ethical standpoint when it comes to music, to guarantee its representation of valuable acts, whether fresh or established, in Cairo’s music scene.

Underground has already curated a variety of characteristic events including a Jazz night featuring Shady El Qasseer Quartet with renowned guest artists Akram El Sharkawy and Grammy award winner Fathy Salama, among others for a phenomenal spontaneous jam.

A few weekly events are set in motion, including Progressive House DJ Khaled Abdelrahman aka Dr. K on schedule, as well as a Jam Jar Night where 10 musicians are selected at random to improvise a live jam. Friday Battle is possibly the most innovative musical event curated in the country. With the rise of the DJs vs musicians debate over which pursuit possesses more skill and talent, Underground tackles the issue with a rather friendlier approach by inviting a musician and a DJ to jam together every Friday for a creative, impulsive outcome merging both parties for one pit to enjoy.

In the hopes of ensuring an enjoyable evening, venue capacity is at all times put into consideration. “People usually complain about overcrowded venues so we make sure we don’t host the same problem,” adds Sobki. With all the aforementioned aspects put in mind, it is safe to say Underground’s main focus is on music and music only; no profit-making mentality in the works there whatsoever, only the sole purpose of presenting inspiring bands, DJs, and musicians and engaging a crowd, undistracted by excessive pushing and shoving, in a spacious, musically exhilarating environment.

An all-inclusive alcohol menu at Underground’s bar offers a variety of beers, hard liquor, creative cocktails, straight up hard hitting shots and beyond, as well as fresh Mediterranean mezzah and tapas.

Underground is located at 23B Syria Street, Mohandessin. Open 7 days a week, from 9:00pm to 3:00am

Check out Underground’s Facebook page here, and Instagram here.

All non-CS watermarked photos courtesy of Underground Facebook