The legendary guitarist, Carlos Santana, and his equally awesome SANTANA band members were in town yesterday for a rare performance as part of his Live Your Light Tour. Its been more than a decade since he last performed here in Singapore - '94 & '96 - except this time, Mr President came to have a peek.
Of course, being The Man meant that President S. R. Nathan had the privilege of frontrow seats & could cheer for Santana right in front of him. But thats not to say that my parents & I werent privileged. We could see the whole Singapore Indoor Stadium from where we were. Simply speaking, we're at the other extreme end - the 2nd last row.Now, dont get me wrong here. It was also a privilege if seen from another perspective. Being at the Eagle's Nest meant that I could see everything. EVERYTHING. You could see specks of lights among the audience, so you'd know who's recording the show on their handphones.
Occassionally, I'd nudge my parents and whisper.. Look at that couple... And they weren't the only ones up to something. There were many Caucasians dancing salsa, cha cha, or just swaying with the music!
Keyword: Caucasians. [I assure you, im not racist. It's just easier to make my point]
Most Asians were sitting down. Well-mannered. Barely cheering. A few claps to go with the music here and there. Loud, furious clapping deserves to be at the end of the song only....
PEOPLE! This is a CONCERT for crying out loud!! As Dad puts it just before I left for the Dragonforce concert last year,"In a concert, you're NOT supposed to behave".
*Criticism wont escape nobody here. My Dad didnt let loose either (though i suspect he did when Black Sabbath came by in 2007). Me? I was happily cheering and swaying to the music in my seat [Hey, parents watching... it'll be awkward if i started dancing with some stranger in front of them]. But at least my parents clapped to the tempo with me :)
It is times like these that makes me wonder what draws the line between conservative and liberalistic behaviours.
Maybe this is due to the fact that most of the crowd were mostly aged 40 and above, so they were too old to dance...? Right. Tell that to the 60-yr old Caucasian couple 10m to my right. They Boogied!
Could it be a consequence of the upbringing in our schools, where students are taught to behave and also respect the speaker? Or does our very Asian values subconciously constrain us that we should always be well-mannered?
Hell, I have absolutely no idea. And I dont see anything wrong with our culture nor our education system either. But what I do know is that "When in Rome, act like the Romans do".
And who better to give the green light than Santana himself,"Its okay, we aint gonna tell nobody"
All in all, the 3-hour event -which actually started on time - was worth every penny.
I was quite relieved to see that the Chinese couple sitting in front of me ran to the back to join some white people who got there earlier. Hip songs like Maria Maria & Smooth sent flocks of people down to the center of the stadium for a mass dance. It really was quite a grand spectacle^.
Song after song, solo after solo, salsa beats, power ballads, etc. Everybody enjoyed it. "Dance Into The Night" was the finale.
If I were to choose one word to describe that evening, it would be "Santana Magic" ;)
^ To have an idea what it was like, check out this Deep Purple concert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WX_4FNoto4
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