The year 2010 has been awesome for several reasons - we traveled to many different places in the US and to Canada, visited and hosted several friends and family, celebrated the arrival of our nephews, moved into and furnished our new apartment and I can keep going on and on. While counting my blessings for this year, the two other unexpected and major events that made it to the list were hearing my favorite musician A. R. Rahman and my favorite band Euphoria live in concert!
Rahman's concert was announced in May and I was both overjoyed and disappointed. After years I thought I had the chance to fulfill my dream of hearing the maestro live but among the locations where he would perform, Seattle was not listed. However my gloom turned into glee when I saw the gift of my tickets booked for his concert in San Francisco. My emotions were filled with excitement with each passing day counting down up to the concert till they were drowned in sorrow with the news of the cancellation of the event. After several such hiccups, I had very little hope left, but I think I was destined to attend the concert this year and so on a beautiful sunny September afternoon in Vancouver my long wait ended. The stage was the grandest of all that I have ever seen. He started the concert with a fusion of "O Saya" and "Maa Tuje Salaam", one of my favorite songs. I was at the edge of my seat for each of his songs and often jumping like a frog only to amuse those sitting around me. The one thing that I would have loved to change about my experience was the passiveness of the crowd around me. Each time I screamed my heart out, leaped out of my seat to applaud and whistled and waved, all I saw around me were some raised eyebrows.. but who cares!! I did what I wanted to! Focusing back on the concert, the stage, lights, sound, choreography, his entire crew of singers and performers were flawless. The stage was so dynamic, it changed structure with each performance and the variety ranged from classical and historical touch to acrobatic, western and digital wonders (3D projection of Lata Mangeskar to accompany Rahman for the song "Luka chupi"). Among the other popular singers in his team were Hariharan, who stole our hearts with his "Bharat humko" and Shaan. But words fail to describe my feelings hearing classics like "Yeh jo des hai tera" and "Dil Se" from the man himself. He also surprised us by singing one song from the center of the auditorium just few feet away from our seats. The grand finale to this unforgettable evening was expectedly "Jai Ho"!!!
Our response to the next announcement of the Euphoria concert in Seattle in November was a no-brainer. We booked tickets immediately and were pleasantly surprised to get to know on the day of the concert that we were the first ones to book for that concert! I love the songs Maeri, Kabhi aana tu meri gully and Dhoom Pichuk and have been a huge fan of Palash in my undergrad days. I attended their concert few years ago at a college festival during my undergrad days in Mumbai. And I was pleasantly surprised to experience the same sort of energy, and attitude in their performance even after so many years and in a different set up altogether. I could not stay put in my seat after 1 song and jumped out of my seat into the "standing" area closer to the stage. From then onwards there was no moving back from there! Every song pumped in more energy that the previous one and made me nostalgic as I relived the concert time spent with my buddies from undergrad days. The performance almost seems like a one-man show since Palash is only lead singer and the only one who literally keeps everyone on their toes. The same reason was a cause of disappointment for some who expected the whole band to be sharing the limelight on stage. Others were a bit taken aback by Palash's repeated sarcastic remarks to those comfortable in their seats to try shaking a leg and let go of the seat that they paid for. Since this was not a college concert setting they were justified in their disgruntle however I personally got more than what I expected from this concert and returned home nostalgic and ecstatic with refreshed memories and renewed enthusiasm!!!
So 2010 goes down as the year of watching my stars "Live" :)
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| A. R. Rahman |
Our response to the next announcement of the Euphoria concert in Seattle in November was a no-brainer. We booked tickets immediately and were pleasantly surprised to get to know on the day of the concert that we were the first ones to book for that concert! I love the songs Maeri, Kabhi aana tu meri gully and Dhoom Pichuk and have been a huge fan of Palash in my undergrad days. I attended their concert few years ago at a college festival during my undergrad days in Mumbai. And I was pleasantly surprised to experience the same sort of energy, and attitude in their performance even after so many years and in a different set up altogether. I could not stay put in my seat after 1 song and jumped out of my seat into the "standing" area closer to the stage. From then onwards there was no moving back from there! Every song pumped in more energy that the previous one and made me nostalgic as I relived the concert time spent with my buddies from undergrad days. The performance almost seems like a one-man show since Palash is only lead singer and the only one who literally keeps everyone on their toes. The same reason was a cause of disappointment for some who expected the whole band to be sharing the limelight on stage. Others were a bit taken aback by Palash's repeated sarcastic remarks to those comfortable in their seats to try shaking a leg and let go of the seat that they paid for. Since this was not a college concert setting they were justified in their disgruntle however I personally got more than what I expected from this concert and returned home nostalgic and ecstatic with refreshed memories and renewed enthusiasm!!!
So 2010 goes down as the year of watching my stars "Live" :)
1 comment:
:) As you said yesterday, we MUST watch a concert together sometime.
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