KayvanAli

For the past year, our house, my car, our conversations and our thoughts have been filled with Namjoo's music. I even changed my phone's ring-tone to a home-made version of NoBahari...
When I went back to Tehran for a visit, I ended up buying 20 copies of the released Toranj album as my main soghati back to our friends in the US.

I think it's safe to say I'm a NamjooHead, ground-up.
So is my 5 year old daughter, my wife, my 12 year old niece, my 60 year old mother, my sister and my uncle!

When we heard he would be performing in SF, we were all truly ecstatic, but concerned: "Will his live performance match the intensity of the recorded songs? Will the audience consist of NamjooHeads or curious country-men? Will the live production sound quality ruin his work? Will he choke? Will he sing all the songs we love? Even the controversial ones? Will BP let the artist shine or will they make this a marketing event for BP?"

I'm here to report that Mohsen Namjoo took it over the top. He outperformed his recorded songs, he first weaved the walls and then paved a tall and blue roof of sound around us and above us for 2 hours; he said very little, he sang just right, he went way high and went low, very low, he was khaaki, he was very humble, he was history, he was serious, he was satirical, he was deep sorrow, he was laughter, he was awesome.

Yes, I was one of those who couldn't keep quiet throughout the performance, and yes, I know it was wrong to clap and shout while he was singing, but I personally couldn't control myself. Sorry, Mohsen khaan!

I think his performance was probably the best solo performance I've ever seen. This, his first US concert.

I thought BP did a great job of leaving the spot-light solely on the artist, letting him shine on through out the night.

I stepped outside, and I wanted to make sure others shared my sentiment. As if I'd seen this 'creature' and wanted to make sure others saw him too :->
Did you see that? Did you hear that? What did you think?

Unanimously, everyone I talked to were high and dry from what they had heard. Everyone had these grins of satisfaction on their faces...

I wanted to speak a few words to Namjoo, tell him 'we went to the same university' and that 'we have friends in common', how his music speaks DIRECTLY to my generation, ask him about a couple of his songs, their roots, ask him how he felt about the concert, what comes next for him, etc...but after seeing how he was being hounded by our friends for an emza, for a picture, for a chat, for hamzaboonee, I decided to leave him alone... for now :->

Some friends complained about the overall sound quality, others about the initial video. A lot of my fellow Namjooheads didn't attend the show because they found the ticket price too high. That's fine...Maybe when Namjoo comes to our town again as a superstar and does a free concert in the GG park, we'll all go there together, I think he needs the open space to build a taller tower of song anyway.

Namjoo, all I can say is: Merci, Mersi, Merci

Mokh-less,

Kayvan