Friends & Music

It is amazing that so many of my friends are part of a band and I can watch them perform from time to time. I feel somewhat special to have my friends on the stage...doing a great performance. I can walk with a little pride in me silently communicating - "you know what, that person in the band is my friend." :)

The first invitation was from Michaela. She is part of a choir and I went to watch her choir in the Rathaus of Speyer. A really nice old building. Many of the ByD UX team members were around for this concert. The whole choir was dressed in Red and Black...I didnt know all the songs they sang as some were german. But they did sing some popular english songs too. With a twist. A 'choir-like' twist. Interesting...

With the next invite, I was more privileged. I was on the guest list of Eva Markwig - The sax player of Ngobo Ngobo. Am I honoured?? She and her band have groupies in Tokyo...and I was part of the guest list!!! how cool is that ???? :D
Ngobo Ngobo played at the Schwimmbad in Heidelberg. I had confessed to Eva that I was not aware of the genre of Ska music before I met her. She ensured me and others going for her show were prepared - she sent around some youtube videos of the famous Ska dance. I couldnt take a close look at it. For a layman, Ska is somewhat close to reggae. I was definitely looking forward to it.
Once Ngobo Ngobo started playing...man!!! I felt this was a lot more peppy than reggae. It was amazing to see the entire crowd on their feet, moving to the music. There was bunch of guys dressed in 'Ska' style, doing the 'Ska' dance...they were really really into it. Ngobo Ngobo was really cool. V and I picked up the Ska dance quite quickly...and we were doing it ourselves...we were telling ourselves, if we did this everyday, we wont need to work out. It was a lot of fun!!!
Ska definitely now features in my list of interesting music. Ngobo Ngobo ofcourse!!! I even browsed youtube for further videos of Ska music.
Unfortunately we were way too tired to stay through the concert. So we left before they finished. Needless to say, we missed the best part :( - reason enough for me to work on my 'staying up late' capabilities.

Besides Michaela, Eva...there is also Heinz who is part of the SAP Big Band, Sylvia's husband plays in a band too...I am so glad to be around such friends and in the midst of so much music :) - of different kinds.