I've become a music fiend over the last couple of years. I never really got into the hype surrounding a new artist and whenever I did make that unsure leap of faith and buy a new album by some unknown artist, I was usually so disappointed in my selection and the fact that I spent money I couldn't necessarily afford on music that wasn't up to my tastes, that I'd immediately sell the CD to a used CD store for a mere fraction of the price I paid upon purchase. However...skip forward a couple of years and with more travel around the world and more exposure to different sounds and opinions, I've learned that there's a lot of decent sound out there and I want in on it. I knew people in the past who would constantly be talking about some obscure UK or American band that I'd never heard of, yet was quite popular in their home country. So I started to listen and soak in what I was hearing and since I made that momentous decision to listen to music on my own and not let other opinions sway me, I've built up a fairly decent collection of Cd's and concert tickets. The last three concerts I went two are somewhat varied from each other, but nonetheless part of my growing love affair with music.
While in Osaka I saw The Beastie Boys in Osaka Jo-Coen. It's this massive, dome-shaped centre where musics from Japan and abroad come to work their musical magic. I had standing seats and found a comfortable place near the sound engineers in the middle of the almost empty stadium floor. The show was amazing. The Boys performed old favs and newer songs, dropping beats and kickin' it like only they can. However, it being Japan, and respect always being at the utmost, whenever they finished a song, the crowd would cheer politely for about five seconds, which would be followed by anticipatory silence. This however was broken by the sound of one lone woman in the back yelling "Whoo Hoo"...(that would be me). The Boys even called out to the crowd to keep the cheering going, but to no avail. Japan wouldn't listen and The Beastie Boys would be denied.
Last year while I was living in Dublin, I had the chance to see Kanye West at The Point. I just about lost it when I saw an ad in the paper for his performance. I'd been following his career since his first album appeared on the scene and was shocked to see that he was coming to Ireland, but very pleased that after such a long drought of living in a Canadian city no one ever came to (Halifax), I was getting the chance to see some cool acts. Again I had standing seats, I wore the entirely wrong footwear and ended up standing barefoot on a disgustingly dirty stadium floor by the end of the night, but Kanye's performance entirely made up for my pain. He kept up an amazing show with enthusiasm all evening and both started and ended the night with "Touch the Sky". It was brilliant and the crowd was buzzing.
I left Dublin at the beginning of July but before I left I had the momentous chance to attend the final concert of Take That's reunion tour. Yeah, so Take That isn't exactly along the same lines as the previous two performers I saw, but after a crash course in Take That and the gorgeous man that is Mark Owen by my friend Jo the previous Christmas, when the group came back to Dublin, I couldn't miss it. My friend Tara and I went to see the group at a packed outdoor stadium on a warm sunny evening. I had a basic knowledge of the band and their repertoire, but it was more than enough to be able to dance and sing along with the thousands of other screaming women. Most of the videos I'd seen prior to the concert were from their hey-day, about ten years before when we all were much younger. I laughed when Tara kept referring to Gary Barlow as being such a Dad and that Jason Orange looked like he'd be up for some serious "dirty fun". The vibe was electric and it was a fabulous way to end my time in Ireland.
I'm heading back to Canada within the next month or so, but I have tickets to see this guy, Paolo Nutini at the beginning of March. If things don't work out, I'm afraid I'll be missing out on an amazing show. I love his songs and he's too cute. He's about ten years younger than me so I feel a little dirty saying he's cute, but seriously, if we went to the same high school, I'm be completely in love. I hate that it takes so long for artists who are huge overseas to crack into the North American market, while we spend our time thinking that hip/hop, rap, metal, American indie bands are all that the world has to offer. Sure, the US is the biggest market around, but it's gotta open it's doors and ears a lot more. We'd all benefit from a little British invasion.
Finally, to end this musical diversion in blogging, the four groups I'd love to see in concert, whether or not they're still presently together, include:
1) Madonna
2) Motley Crue
3) Guns 'n Roses (the original group, including Slash)
4) Spice Girls
I saw a story on NBC Nightly News last night that seriously made me roll my eyes. The story was about the generation of teens currently enrolled in university and those slightly younger who have been deemed the most self centered and self involved generation in a whole slew of generations. It went on to talk about how because they're so much more technologically advanced than previous generations, have their own MySpace pages, blogs, cell phones, pagers, electronic items etc, that they've become a group of selfish individuals who have no care or concern for those around them. It also went on to explain that part of the blame for this trend in behaviour is the encouragement this group of teens has received since infancy about how special they are, everyone is an individual, unique, your opinion is just as important and valid as the next person's and so on. OK, so I always thought those were good things to teach your kids. God knows there are more than enough people out there who grew up not feeling confident, even into adulthood, who could easily have benefited from such selfish encouragement. At the risk of writing this and publishing it for all to see and seeming self involved and as NBC so quaintly put it, "narcissistic", F-you network news! I think the world could use a generation with some confidence and an understanding that men aren't the answer to everything, opinions do matter, and that we actually are all special!
So it's the day apres V-Day and I saw an article online that reminded me of how while living in Osaka, I constantly kept learning how backwards Japan was in relation to the rest of the world when it comes to "holidays". On February 14 the girls cater to the guys...more so. They buy their amour chocolates, treats, go out to dinner and do everything they can for their man. 
