My goodness that was a late night! The concert started late (shocker), and then ended around 11pm. I was giving my friend a ride home so I didn’t get home myself until 1am. And then, and the Upstairs People are very proud of me for this because it is so indulgent and youthful, I ordered White Castle at 1am because I was STARVING. And then I went to sleep and then I woke up and then I went to sleep again, and now here we are.

Okay, you ready for the 3 things I learned from the concert last night? All of which I really should have already known?

1. Bhangra drummers are amazing. I’m used to drummers being kind of a joke, like, “who do you call someone who hangs out with a lot of musicians? A drummer”. But in Bhangra and Bhangra related hip-hop (did you know this?), the drummer is, like, THE WHOLE BAND!!! Blew my little mind.
2. You may be two of the top modern hip-hop performers, performing your biggest hits, but you know what will guaranteed get the most excitement and the most dancing? RD Burman remixes. Every time. Kanika did “Dum Maro Dum” and Guru did “Gulabi Aankhen” and people lost their MINDS. Burman, still and forever king of the party song.
3. I don’t think I would be good as a performer. They did this incredibly high energy show in Chicago, and they are doing one tomorrow in Dallas, and one on Sunday in some other city. I just wanted to go home and eat junk food and spend the day in pajamas! And they have to practice with a new group of back up dancers and do sound checks and put on costumes and BLECH. I wouldn’t wanna do it.

Other things I already knew:

1. Local dance troupe children who volunteer to do back-up dancing for big stars are ADORABLE. There was one teenage boy in particular who stole my heart, he was freakin’ SELLING his dance.
2. Iula Vantur was also there and is not, as we say, “talented”. She just sort of strolled around as the opening act lipsynching to things in a weird outfit and then disappeared never to be seen again.
3. Guru isn’t as good as Badshah and Honey Singh. I’m sorry, he just ISN’T!!!! His songs are fun in isolation as a special in a movie, but I can’t deal with a whole concert of them. And, even more controversal, Vishal-Shekhar are better than ALL of them. Also saw them live, and as composers and entertainers, way WAY better.

Oh right, and one other thing I learned. If you are going to write a big dance party hit, try to use the word “Naach” as much as humanly possible.