It was worth the wait!

High decibel

What Jamaican Grammy-winning dancehall and reggae artiste Sean Paul did, during his live concert in the City over the weekend, was to get Bangaloreans, literally, to dance to his tunes: the men doing a jig and women – some sensuous moves. Sean left no stone unturned to completely entertain the crowd.

While the concert hoardings erected across the City, screamed that the concert would begin at 4 pm, it was a good three hours later that the concert began and Sean showed up on stage only after 9 pm. But it looked like the wait was worth it, for he sang some of the popular tracks, in addition to a couple of new ones as well.

Sean fans started pouring in as soon as the gates opened at 5 pm and thanks to the beer and cigarette counters that opened simultaneously, girls and boys helped themselves to plenty of beer, unlimited cigarettes and food as well — all an effort to warm up, before Sean took centre stage. And a stall selling funky and exaggerated party wear such as oversized glasses, bright, colourful wigs, glower head gears, handbands and wizard hats were a rage with the youngsters who didn’t think twice before splurging on them. 

The evening began with two amateur mimic artistes, entertaining the crowd. This was followed by a freestyle, hip-hop performance by a dance troupe of Jain College. Then came a young lady, who attempted to do something similar to a belly dance but didn’t manage to impress the
audience enough.

Sean Paul was greeted with a thunderous applause with people, especially the women, screaming and swinging their hands high up in the air. Clad in baggy trousers and a black shirt, complete with sunglasses and a towel in hand, Sean opened his performance
with ‘Got to Love Ya’ and then went on to sing pieces like, ‘Get Busy’, ‘Temperature’, ‘She Doesn’t Mind’ and ‘Hold on’.

He yelled out to the crowd saying, “This is my first ever tour of India and I am loving every inch of it. Are you guys enjoying yourselves? Then make some noise.” After singing a couple more songs he paused to ask the crowd, “Do you guys know Chris Gayle? He told me to say “hello” to you all and sends his love to you all.”
His constant interaction with the crowd, really pepped them up.

It was evident that the crowd couldn’t get enough of Sean and his gimmicks on stage. Nithya and Yamini, both first PUC students of Mount Carmel College who wore colourful headgears and matching accessories, observe, “We love Sean Paul and to watch him live is a dream come true. We won the tickets through a contest and we’re excited to be here. He’s sung all our favourite songs.”

Hariharan and his friends had downloaded pictures of Sean from the internet two days before just to make a poster. “We’ve worked on this poster and we’re hoping that it would catch his attention,” he says.

There was no dearth of foreigners among the crowd. Christina, a German, says, “It was packed when Sean performed in Germany but here it seems much less crowded. I am glad that we came for he sang all the popular tracks. Concerts in India are calmer and the crowd is good. It was worth waiting for Sean.”