Rednex! Rednex! Rednex!

It all started last Friday with Dahlia's insistence to go to Forum to look for '300' tickets. :P And so we went, arriving shortly after dusk. There was something going on at the entrance (as always). Group of people in t-shirts sporting the same logo, and one of them on a mike 'interviewing' a girl. We were about to hurry past them when we saw the 'Rednex' poster. Yes, they were coming to Bangalore, and yes, these people were selling tickets to the show! So, we asked a girl there when-where, and she told us it was part of an Aids-Awareness campaign, and that the passes to the show cost Rs.100 (which was a donation anyway)! Too good to be true, eh? :-)

Rednex Poster

So, we donated our Rs.200, and got 3 different passes in all - DJ Night, Parikrama & Rednex. What-a-deal.

Which brings us to tonight. After handing in the MP3 player for service, and wandering around Brigade Road, we left for Palace Grounds at around 6pm. We found the right entrance (Palace Grounds has many entrances cuz it's HUGE). We had to walk a bit before reaching the actual venue. After handing in our passes and getting stamped on the wrist, we made our way in. We headed for the gate, and stood as close as we could to the stage. It wasn't crowded yet, but we stood there anyway. :-)

Raja, the singer-guitarist came on stage, and sang some good songs; 2 of them in Spanish! He was good, and the gathering crowd liked him. And then came DJ Swing, who didn't impress us, really. I am not a DJ, so I can't say if it's easy or difficult to do the mixing-fading-beat-scratching thing, but I can say what he was doing was what we typically here from DJs. :-S Anyway, more on him later.

And then Rednex. :-) The stage was dark, and we could see Maverick with a banjo, and Snake with a guitar playing a 'Duelling Banjos' kind of tune. It could have been it, but we couldn't tell because Snake's guitar volume was very soft. That was soon corrected, and they jumped into 'Old Pop In An Oak', with Annika bursting along with the fireworks, into view. Yaaaay!

Rednex dancing to 'Old Pop In An Oak'

They then sang a new song, and then 'Riding Alone', and then another new song, and 'Cotton Eye Joe'. Snake was hilarious; making fun of Maverick, and pretending to play the violin, and shaking his bottoms on stage. :D We had some guys push us to get the front-row view, but we pushed-elbowed them back, and held our position in front. Not that we had a great view, because the volunteers (with black Amaze t-shirts), and 2 cameramen were right there in front of us.

Some time later, Snake told us they have a website, and that they would like to take a picture with us, to put on their site. And so they posed in front of the stage with their backs to us, so that a photographer at the back of the stage could take us all. We were very excited at that. But as we soon found out, it was not to be. The 'Amaze 2007' volunteers all crammed up in front of us (and behind Rednex) and virtually blocked us from the picture. As if they wouldn't have the chance to take a picture later! WE were the crowd, WE were waiting there for hours, WE are their fans!! Damn guys! There's a word that comes to my mind, but I'll leave that for another post.

'Amaze' volunteers blocking the audience from the 'audience' photo

Snake and Maverick then picked acoustic guitars up, and Annika started off with 'Wish You Were Here'. Dahlia started singing along with them, and the people blocking her realised she knew the words, and so she had to be a fan (well, more than them), and they moved aside so she could see the stage. At one point, Annika saw Dahlia singing along with her. We both said later that Annika would have been surprised to see that someone in the crowd actually knew the words to her song. :-) Why wouldn't we? 'Wish You Were Here' is one of my favourites on the album, and it holds some sentimental value for Dahlia. :-)

'Wish You Were Here'

Sad thing is we had to leave early. We could not stay out too late, because Auntie was alone at home. So, we left when they were singing 'Fee-Fi'. I wish we could have stayed anyway. :-( But well.

Dahlia & the stage

Me & the stage

Now that we're home, I see that there would have been no way to get my CD autographed, or to take a picture with them. I didn't try, but I feel the volunteers would not have allowed it, citing 'security', etc. But it's ok. We got to watch them, and it was great! It would have been better if we had a bigger crowd who actually KNEW Rednex, and their songs. That would have felt like a real concert - a band and their fans.