You, Me and Mark Knopfler
It finally happened...Its been a bit too long time coming. But now I can sit back, relax and say... "I saw Mark Knopfler perform live". Though I'm no stranger to concerts, the real bands/guys have eluded me so far. Deep Purple decided to show up when I was in third year in college. Needless to say, money was not something I was usually associated with... Roger Waters did the same thing.
Rolling Stones tops all of God's schemes against me. The next day was my Semester exams. I was mad enough to think that I could even scoot a paper for the Stones... I mean I'd never ever be able to see them live (both the meanings)... But nobody wanted to go with me... Even now, I kick myself whenever I think about the Stones or meet people who were there on the rainy summer night which I deem as the greatest day in Indian music history.
Come 2004, and my... I was anchored safely in Bangalore with a fair collection of Gandhis in my wallet and you know what? They get Bryan Adams and Enrique (I cant spell his last name). I was left cursing destiny again but 2005 showed signs of improvement. Sting started the year but I didn't go because I already heard from reliable sources that Mark Knopfler is on his way followed by Eagles and Steve Vai (hopefully).
07/March/2005 - the day of the reckoning - we make our way to the palace grounds and my first taste of a giant concert. The parking lot, the giant equipments et al shocked me as we made our way to the stage gaping at the rich collection of beauties Bangalore manages to come up with in times of need. As they say, the stage was set and they were playing some very good blues songs to warm us up. It was 7:30PM and people were saying that they'd generally never start on schedule but suddenly, there is a deafening roar and sweet music flowed with the trademark guitar licks and the gruff Scottish drawl... I was home.
I understood why people would shell out a grand for just a two and a half hour show and why I should have gone in 2500. The lighting was very different and it matched the song sequence. Everything they did was highly professional and the man connected with each and every single soul inside. I felt he improvised every single song with different guitar licks and he went a bit more heavier than he usually is... But we all just loved it... The people where great; belting out the lyrics so loud and in so much harmony that the man himself was surprised. The temperory cloud of pot that hung in the air did help too...
For those of you who think this is a waste of money or whatever reason you have to convince yourselves for not making it, I shake my head at your misfortune. Think about what it takes for a foreign guy to go to a strange place in any part of the world, and pull a crowd of more than 20000 even with a highly priced ticket price... I'll just say that its an ultimate experience to be with such a huge crowd of young people rocking along with you for such great tunes.
By far, this is my greatest achievement in life... And i think its difficult to surpass it... unless I see the Stones somewhere...
posted by Vasanth Rao @ 7:09 pm
4 Comments:
Way to go da.
But seriously, you wouldn't have been in a position to pay for these Knoffler tickets if we'd gone to see the Stones.
A second arrear at that point would've been unaffordable for both of us.
~vijay
@ Vijay
Spoken like a true professional da. Imagine what situation we were in...Dire Straits eh?
@pradeep
This story was framed way back in second year da... we started it just to make fun of the world. Thats all. I should be going to Greenland if I wanted to cash in on the 'exoticness' of dosa. But a small problem there...er, are there people in Greenland?
Anyways, I was checking out on some concert listings in US of some popular Rock bands like Satriani, Duran Duran (who are currently touring the states) and for some reason, LA is missing while they have Providence and other unexplored areas.
@Vijay
Check Chicago listings da. I think its the house of Blues or something like that. Every band that's touring the US is doing one there.
Hmmm, did you mean 6th of March? then its over...what's the significance anyways?
Post a Comment
<< Home