ARR in Dallas

On Friday, it was the first event of the weekend — ARR’s Concert.

The show started 8.30 PM, though the tickets said, the show would start at 8.00 PM, to a huge collection of audience, with all the screams, whistles, clapping and to the various kinds of noises that they were capable of making. It started with Chitra singing Jaage Hain from Guru with the next one being KhalBali from Rang De. It was a treat, a neat one well packaged with a mix of both Hindi and Tamil songs, with a solo Telugu song being the Telugu version of Kurukku Siruthavalae from Mudhalvan.

It was an awesome ride, with some 4 songs from Sivaji The Boss with 2 being my favorites, Adhiradee and Save the Fight Da with Blaaze there singing his own Rap. It was total treat and the crowd went berserk in joy. Drums Shivamani another favorite of mine, gave a solo treat of his music for some 10 minutes. The team consisted of Blaaze who did the job of anchoring the show, with Chitra, Tanvi, Hariharan, ARR himself, Sadhana Sargam, Sukwinder Singh, a Rajasthani Folk Singer—whose name I don’t remember, Naresh Iyer, Madhushree, Vijay Yesudas and many others crooning away to the applause of a fully packed hall here in Dallas.

There were songs from Dilse, Rang De Basanti, Guru, Sapnay, Taal, Yuva, Lagaan and some more. The improvisations on Lagaan was really good. An improvisation by Sadhana Sargam was equally good. Somehow, I did not like the Sukwinder Singh on his Dilse improvisation. But I like the way he sang Ramta Jogi and its improvisation from Taal. That was really good. Then there were four songs from Sivaji, which I already mentioned. Guru came up next with some 4 and so did Rang De Basanti, with the secret of success from Boys and many more of which I lost count. This is what happens when you try to remember after a couple of days with another mega event happening in-between. Sivaji was the highlight of the evening, with every song making the audience scream in ecstasy.

But the last and the second last again were in my list of all time favorites which made me leave the show on a real high. The second last was Andha Arabi Kadaloram from Bombay and we all screamed our hearts out in that song, the whole hall came up alive, my god how we screamed, Humma Humma, that was really good. And the last was Vandemataram. It was rendered by everyone of the whole team to a hall that was standing in full ovation and screaming Vandemataram right along with the singers. One of my best moments ever.

All in all an awesome evening and being my first ARR concert it indeed was one of my evenings that I may not forget that easily.