Once again, assimilated by the collective...

Well, I saw the concert and I must say that I got my money's worth. (Of course, had it been free, I'd've been even more satisfied.) It was pretty jam-packed, maybe not capacity but close. I was probably the oldest non-parent there and the only foreigner as far as I could tell (I did meet 2 others on the way out.)

And coincidentally, a half dozen of my students stood behind me (so I had to behave.) It turns out that these six are in the Rhythm Dance Club and were given freebies by my co-worker. But more about them later.

I had a very good time, but I have to admit that I was getting a little restless near the end (I didn't really care whether they encored or not, but it turned out to be worth it.) And there was a lot of banter, chatting between songs for a total of about 20 minutes. Yet, I didn't feel cheated; I found myself understanding about 30% of what they said and the audience sure appreciated the camaraderie.

As for the music, it was cool to recognize their influences. I caught some ELO, WHO, ABBA tributes and I'm sure there were more. I enjoyed most of the tunes, some of which I knew, and I bopped along with the rest of the crowd, singing along when I could. (The TEEN TITANS theme I know by heart.) This was their 10th anniversary tour and they played a medley of their hits with a video screen playing in the background. It showed clips from their TV show "Pa Pa Pa Pa Puffy", which ran a few years ago plus videos and other footage. Pretty neat. My favourite moment was when the bass player did a trademarked Rock jump and landed on his ass, causing Yumi to start corpsing (giggling) in the middle of singing.

Back to the six. They stood there throughout, applauding politely after each song, but not really getting into it. They had obviously never heard any Puffy tunes and it may have been their first concert, so they looked a bit freaked out by the display. I think one of two of the girls wanted to participate, but the glares of the others prevented them. It was interesting to see their mini-collective not swayed by the mass-collective.

All-in-all, a fun night out and I bought a "Strange Virgin" t-shirt that I'll flaunt on the site someday.