Hey y'all!!!
I went to a concert at a large venue (I hadn't realized it had been so long) for the first time in 15 years last night -'Conjunto Primavera' at the Gibson (formerly Universal) Amphitheatre last night (2/9) - it was GERRRRRATE! Now, don't mistake me - I used to go to see live shows with my wife all the time up until about 5 years ago, when getting my son to do well in school took over all of my time outside of work and household duties. But these were in small halls and clubs, mostly because I love jazz and jazz fusion. It was neat to be in a large concert hall setting - and, I noted some significant differences from the last time I attended one.
(1) No smoke of any sort! This was VERY good.
(2) This was the first time I had ever been to a show by Latin (?) musicians - of course, here in L.A. the crowd was composed of 100% Spanish-speaking people. As you might imagine, out of about 7,000 people I was the only 'ink-spot' there! However, by the time the show was over (3 hours - good and long), all the people around me had gotten over their curiousity about a 6'-5", 220-lb. black man belting out Conjunto Primavera songs in passable Spanish along with everyone else (more on this below) - when we (three of my employees from our laundry service - this was their present for Feliz Navidad from me) left the arena, at least 5 people who were sitting around me came up to me and shook my hand (Mexican-style - limp grip) and told me 'You good"...very, very cool. There really IS hope for humanity, even in these depressingly dismal times. The power of music to bring people together is amazing (more on this below)!
The audience participation in the show was truly awesome - everyone in the place was singing on every song throughout the entire presentation...this was great! Not only that, on the more up-tempo tunes the security crew was having a difficult time containing the people from dancing ballroom-style in the aisles - about 3/4 of the way through, they finally gave up. Definitely a cultural experience to be shared by any Angelino!
As I mentioned above, when you have 7,000 people all singing together like this, it really makes for a unifying experience - I don't know if any of you have ever been to a real down-home Southern Baptist church on Sunday morning, but the feeling was very much the same. I could run a long way with this one - because of my interest in AI, I ran into a link somewhere on the net (I will find it for you guys sooner or later) talking about how the human mind is pre-wired for music. Researchers believe that due to the mathematical nature of music, some important discoveries can be made in the understanding of human (and thereby, artificial) intelligence by examining this apparent phenomenon.
(3) When it came time for the encores at the end of the show, the audience doesn't 'flick their BICs' in order to summon the group out for more music - they flipped open their cell phones! Not only that, I can see where a lot of "You Tube" videos originate - a digital rights managment problem is looming in the not-so-distant future as cell phone video and audio recording technology improves, I can see already. The advances of modern technology - 'what'll they think of next?'...LOL
(4) MUCHO caro (very expensive) - $90.00 for loge seats, and this is from the box office, not a ticket agency/scalper!
I had something else as well, but I can't recall what it was. That's it for right now!
-RB
Shaq #1
