Knopfler in Bangalore

Seeing Mark Knopfler perform live was a dream come true for me. Yes, I know that the ticket price (at Rs. 2500) might seem expensive, but, in my opinion the concert was worth the price and then some more. To listen to him play Sultans of Swing, Walk of Life, Brothers In Arms, Romeo & Juliet, Telegraph Road, Sailing to Philadelphia, What It Is, Why Aye Man, Money for Nothing, and So Far Away, was fantastic. By my count, he played around 16 songs, about five from Shangri-La, his latest album.

Knopfler played for almost two hours and it was by far the best rock concert that I've attended. The tempos of the songs were carefully chosen, so he brought the crowd up into a frenzy and then dropped it down a notch. He rocked the crowd and even made us laugh with his tea-drinking and comments. The crowd had some amazing energy and we were was loud. There are were some die hard fans out there, even singing the lyrics to songs from Shangri-La.

Knopfler played a Fender, an Epiphone, and his trademark steel guitar, among other guitars, all through a Marshal amplifier. He changed guitars almost every song, which explains why he brought thirty six guitars to India! The thick sound and the wonderful tone was unmistakably Mark Knopfler, and the finger-picking was so effortless, you know that's come with years and years of practice. Knoplfer was ably accompanied by Glenn Worf, Chad Cromwell, Richard Bennett, Guy Fletcher (former Dire Straits keyboardist) and Matt Rollings.

The show was phenomenal, you can't put a price on such things. Live music rocks!

--Updated again 15 minutes later to correct grammar mistakes. See the strike-throughs. Sheesh!--