Rock, Stock and *air guitar* Barrel…

Lock, Stock & Barrel, together with uncle Jack and his clan of Tennessee whiskey tinklers, are once again on the hunt for the UAE’s next big thing in live music.

Battle of the Bands is back for five preliminary heats of guitar shredding, head banging, mosh-jostling, drum thrashing competition – pitting aspiring artists plectrum-to-plectrum for a chance to reach the grand final. The prize for the ultimate crownee? A mic drop cash sum of Dhs35,000.

And that should be precisely the correct sum of money to fix the school roof/buy your Stratocaster back from the pawn shop/fund the band trip to Japan or any number of other reasons Hollywood (and the cast of Pugwall) has taught us that Battle of the Bands competitions exist.

Bringing the heat

Heat One of the 2023 show line-up took place last night (Wed, July 26) at the Barsha Heights location of Lock, Stock & Barrel (LSB).

And it’s now all abord the Battle of the Bands tour bus, which will be showcasing and stage testing fresh challengers across multiple LSB locations for the remainder of the competition – with the final taking place at LSB on the JBR.

Those important dates for your death metal diaries are below. The events kick off at 8pm on all dates, at all venues.

Heat 1: Already rocked

Heat 2: Wednesday, August 2 at Lock, Stock & Barrel Business Bay

Heat 3: Wednesday, August 9 at Lock, Stock & Barrel Barsha Heights

Heat 4: Wednesday, August 16 at Lock, Stock & Barrel Business Bay

Heat 5: Wednesday, August 23 at Lock, Stock & Barrel Barsha Heights

Grand Final: Wednesday, August 30 at Lock, Stock & Barrel JBR

As always, entry to the venue is free and live music fans are encouraged to make their feelings on favourites known through incoherent screaming, mimed half-remembered song lyrics, internationally-approved rock hand gestures and just generally having a jolly old time in the audience.

Multiple locations, every Wednesday until August 23. lsbdubai.com

Images: Provided