Categories
2006 Concerts

The Decemberists

the first time i heard The Decemberists was when they played We Both Go Down Together on Conan. the odd looking bunch of musicians and their unusual mix of instruments appealed to me and I bought a few of their songs off ITunes.

lunato found out somehow and they were going to play in Toronto on 6th of November and she got tickets for us :D The concert was at the Kool Haus in downtown Toronto.. right besides the lakeshore.

lunato had been to concerts back home in Korea and my first and only concert so far was the Junoon concert in Toronto during Pakistan’s Independence Day in 2001 or 2002.. I forget. So technically it was the first concert for both of us.

They played quite a lot of songs and interacted a LOT with the audience. It was a really enjoyable concert and they played our favourite song as well. I also liked Yankee Bayonet a lot and it is another fav song for us now. Some other notable songs: O Valencia, On The Bus Mall, The Perfect Crime, and Sixteen Military Wives.

Categories
2006 Concerts

Rock the Mic

shekhar usually rents a car and drives to toronto whenever he visits but this time he decided to carpool with some people. shweta is in india pursuing her singing career and no one else was coming with shekhar so it would be quite inefficient to rent a car for the weekend. so we decided that he’ll carpool and i would rent a car here in mississauga for the weekend.

he was visiting toronto because he wanted to meet his cousins before he went to india later this month and also because there was a concert he wanted to attend. raghav, juggy d, veronica, and thara were playing a gig in brampton. i had never heard these names before but i decided to tag along. better than staying home again for the weekend and playing counterstrike.

shekhar’s cousin, priyanka, was already at the concert along with some of her friends. we joined them and had a good time. i didnt particularly like the artists. their songs were all in punjabi and i barely understood what they were saying. the one song that i did enjoy was performed by one of the backup guitarists. she sang while playing her acoustic guitar and i thought it was wonderful. but the crowd was a desi crowd, here to listen to bhangra and punjabi songs. so half the people left the hall for a breather outside while she played. too bad. i liked it!

later on when raghav, supposedly the main attraction, started singing his backstreet boy’s oh-baby-i-love-you-dont-leave-me-whaaaaaaaa songs shekhar and i went outside. the girls were enjoying his sappy songs so they wanted to stay. in the meantime there were some indian sikh guys inside the hall who had drank more than they could handle, and had started pushing and shoving. this led to the cops escorting them outside the premises and telling them to leave.. now.

it was past 1 am by that time and the cops decided it was too late to let anyone back inside. so shekhar and i were locked outside and had to call priyanka and tell her what had happened. she came outside and tried to ask the cops to let us in but they were adamant and stood their ground. “leave, now.” i took a picture of shekhar and his cousin talking on the phone while standing on opposite sides of a glass door.. funny.

afterwar the show we went to tim hortons, won some donuts and coffee from the Roll up the rim contest, and finally everyone went home. shekhar took the car and slept at his cousins after dropping me at home. long long day but an enjoyable one.

i recorded some videos as well. juggy d is the singer in the black leather jacket and he kept making that “rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” sound.. the one thats used in “roll up the rim to win” ads. lunato has a really hard time when trying to make the continuous r sound with her tongue while it is very very easy for me to do. i think it is a special desi super power :P

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