He said that he first began dreaming of performing in New York City in front of a large arena, singing a particular Kazakh folk song, when he was a small child. He was visibly stunned that his dream came true. He got to sing the very song that he dreamed of in front of a nearly sold out audience at the Barclays Center. It was a touching moment.
It was kind of incredible for me too. To me, Kazakhstan seems like such a very far away place, almost unimaginable. I had seen it on the map. It never occurred to me that people there sang songs, especially not rock songs, especially not with high tech sound and light shows.
And, yet, through the miracle of YouTube, I learned about this performer, found him on Instagram, and found out that he was coming to the United States to give a concert. The Internet is a phenomenal thing.
I had previously gone to that same arena a few weeks before to see Igor Krutoy. That also seemed to me like a miracle. Here was this famous Russian composer, performing with famous Russian singers, although few Americans would ever have heard of any of them. Yet the arena was nearly sold out, with little or no publicity.
At the Dimash show, they gave me a flyer, with information about four additional shows coming up within the next two months that were oriented around Russian culture. That astounded me. I had no idea that there was such an active Russian cultural life in Brooklyn.
Dimash amply demonstrated the fabulous singing skills that we've seen on YouTube. There was the rich operatic baritone and tenor, the whistle tones, incredibly high mix/belt, and the emotional, soft whispered pop tones. There was never a moment where he wasn't fully committed to the performance, with every muscle in his body. Sometimes, as he was singing a rock song, he use that opera voice. It was very beautiful. You don't think of rock singers singing with an operatic tone. Actually, it worked very well, especially because he was running around the stage, and not just standing planted and being melodramatic, unlike regular opera singers.
There is a also a remarkable and unique liquidity to his tone, so perfectly placed in the mouth. I know I could listen forever -- well, except perhaps not all at once.
There is a also a remarkable and unique liquidity to his tone, so perfectly placed in the mouth. I know I could listen forever -- well, except perhaps not all at once.
He demonstrated incredible energy. The show was almost 3 hours long. At the end of the show he was still running around, jumping up and down, taking a swing through the mosh pit. He took a second trip to the mosh pit. You could tell he didn't want to leave that stage. A lot of us were tired. It was after 10. He wasn't tired. His voice didn't sound tired either. Hopefully, this won't be his last chance to perform in the United States in a large arena. It shouldn't be. He's an incredible singer.
There was a logistical thing that they did that was interesting to me. When Dimash was doing the dombra interlude, he went to an island, away form the main stage. When I've been to Josh Groban concerts, he also has an island. However, when Josh goes to the island, he makes the people mad who are sitting in the high priced seats near the main stage, because suddenly they're not front row any more. Here, it appeared that everyone on the floor was standing, so, when Dimash changed locations, they just walked over to the other place. Part of me wished I was down there standing on the floor, but since the concert went on for almost 3 hours, it was probably just as well that I wasn't.
There was a logistical thing that they did that was interesting to me. When Dimash was doing the dombra interlude, he went to an island, away form the main stage. When I've been to Josh Groban concerts, he also has an island. However, when Josh goes to the island, he makes the people mad who are sitting in the high priced seats near the main stage, because suddenly they're not front row any more. Here, it appeared that everyone on the floor was standing, so, when Dimash changed locations, they just walked over to the other place. Part of me wished I was down there standing on the floor, but since the concert went on for almost 3 hours, it was probably just as well that I wasn't.
The sound and light show was impressive, but also bad in some ways. In several parts of the rock numbers, the band was so loud that you couldn't hear Dimash. The sound mix was bad. I used ear plugs sometimes, when it was loud. They had the advantage, also, of filtering out some of the static in the amplification, so that I could hear Dimash's voice better with them in than with them out. There were quieter moments where I didn't use them.
They also engaged in a practice which I detest, which is to shine bright lights into the eyes of the audience. When you're sitting in a darkened arena, your eyes dark adapt. When they shine bright lights into your eyes, when your eyes are dark adapted, it's especially painful. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a class action lawsuit against the arenas and theaters that allow this. I can't imagine that it doesn't damage the retina.
In this case, it was especially frustrating, because there were dancers. The bright lights were frequently behind the dancers. If you tried to look at the dancers, you would be blinded. What is the point of having dancers if you can't look at them? Also, the view of the dancers was frequently blocked by fireworks and steam coming out of jets around the stage. They were really trying to go all out, but sometimes it was just too much. There was too much going on to see any of it.
Also, there were absolutely beautiful images being displayed on the screens behind the stage. Again, if you looked at them, you would be blinded by bright lights flashing randomly in your eyes. What is the point of having these beautiful displays on the screen, if people aren’t going to be able to look at them?
I've been at several concerts recently where they do this thing of shining bright lights in my eyes. I've learned to bring sunglasses. Unfortunately, it's often not enough. Only the Queen concert that I went to was tolerable in its use of lights, in the sense that they used dim, diffuse light, rather than bright lights.
This show began with a pre-show that was video material about tourism in Kazakhstan. The natural landscapes were very beautiful. The white couple, who was pictured traveling in Kazakhstan, spoke with a foreign accent, presumably played by Russians. Of course, people viewing this video will not be native speakers of English, so it likely won’t matter.
If anyone involved in Kazakh [I notice that my dictation software spells this Cossack, not sure about the meaning of this] tourism is listening to this blog, I don't think I would ever travel so far. However, if I did go, I would much prefer to have a direct flight from United States, rather than having to transfer in Moscow. I once looked it up on Expedia.
Also, in the pre-show, there were videos about the many awards that Dimash has earned for his singing in Russia and Asia. It has been said that Michael Jackson was the first truly international performer. However, I feel Dimash is even more so. He's a great fan of Michael Jackson. He always has a little bit of Michael Jackson tribute in his concerts. At the end of the concert, he pulled a Michael Jackson, and threw his jacket into the audience.
There were several places in the show where there were breaks, with other performers. In some cases, it was an instrumental break. Also, he had that woman from Indonesia,who won his online contest. Then, curiously, at one point there were a group of what I initially thought were African-Americans performing (tho I think now that they were possibly just Dimash's backup dancers performing with Jordan Arakelyan). That was interesting. They were very good.
During those breaks, Dimash did costume changes. Costume changes were puzzling, because they weren't very distinctive. In each case, at least as far as I could see, he was wearing a black pants and a black jacket decorated with either white or sparkly patterns or letters. (looking on the video afterwards I see he wore a white suit at one time, but for some reason I didn't notice live) I've seen him use more colors in other concerts online.Nevertheless, a performer who's running around on stage a lot does have to do frequent costume changes, because he's going to get sweaty.
There seemed to be three sets of dancers. One set was backing up Dimash. The other set was the Astana [do I have that right?] ballet — a traditional group. Another set backed up another singing group that came.
The group that was backing up Dimash was fairly casually dressed. Sometimes they did tumbling and flips. Other times they did regular dancing. I was a little disappointed by the dancers. I know that Russian dancers, and I assume most of these people were Russian, because they were white, can be absolutely excellent. These people looked somewhat chaotic, to the extent that I could look at them at all.
The Kazakh ballet group were women wearing long dresses. I suppose this comes out of traditional Kazakh culture, which is Muslim. The long dresses have the disadvantage that you cannot see the dancers’ legs. On the other hand, it was sort of a relief. Many dancing costumes seem to me to be unnecessarily provocative — and the fabric here was much more graceful. These dancers also wore very high pointed gold hats.
The band was quite large, and there we're back up singers. I was never able to successfully count how many people were actually playing instruments. There was too much going on on stage, and too many people. Also, when Dimash was introducing them, it was a little confusing.
Dimash spoke most of the time in English. This was impressive, because I don't think he's been studying English very long. On the other hand, he tends to speak very quietly, even though he sings very loudly. And, he has still a strong accent, so it was sometimes hard to understand him. Also he often was struggling to find words. Still it was far better than the Igor Krutoy concert, where virtually no one tried to speak English — the only exception being Dimash.
He sang in many languages. I think there were Chinese, Kazakh, Russian, Italian, French, and English. There might have been others, but I wouldn’t have recognized them. Of course, we don't really care what the words are, because we're just listening to his beautiful voice. However, I still think it would be nice if, if he comes back to the United States, if he would put some kind of captions on the screen with the words. This would be especially important in the case of the Kazakh song that was so special for him.
At one point, they had him run through fireworks falling from above, rather than from the jets around the stage. I was thinking "Please, please don't let them set his hair on fire like they did to Michael Jackson in the Pepsi commercial." Fortunately, Dimash seemed to come through unscathed.
At one point, they had him run through fireworks falling from above, rather than from the jets around the stage. I was thinking "Please, please don't let them set his hair on fire like they did to Michael Jackson in the Pepsi commercial." Fortunately, Dimash seemed to come through unscathed.
I noticed in this concert, and the Igor Krutoy concert, that there was a cameraman running around on stage full-time. This is a little distracting. It's especially frustrating, because it doesn't seem like a DVD ever comes out. If they're going to have a cameraman running around on stage, they should come out with a DVD.
Of course, we know that Dimash is fairly newly on tour. As a result, there has not been a full album of the songs he usually sings. This was unfortunate, because in many cases he wanted us to sing with him. There were some people who knew the words, but I sure didn't. I only heard some of the songs once or twice on YouTube. If there were an album I would've learned more words, maybe not all of them especially in foreign languages, but I would've been able to sing along better. He really wanted people to sing along.
I had thought I might buy some of the perfume. I was curious what it might smell like. Unfortunately the price was $95, $75 for the cologne. I wasn't *that* curious. Also, some fans organized a pre-concert dinner. I have sometimes gone to those, as a Grobanite, before Josh Groban concerts. The Grobanites tried to make sure that the dinners were reasonably priced. Here the dinner was over $100. I respectfully declined. Spending over $100 on a ticket is enough for me. Maybe at some point I’ll get curious enough to spend $95 for the perfume, though.
Thinking back on this, they really pulled out all the stops in this concert: at least 6 piece band, backup singers, at least 2 groups of dancers, upscale light show, jets of fireworks and steam, a group of dombra players, two guest solo singers. I am assuming that the reason they could do this was that the individual performers weren't paid very much --- or maybe the strong dollar made it cheap to pay them. In any case, it was pretty astounding, all the stuff they put in.
Thinking back on this, they really pulled out all the stops in this concert: at least 6 piece band, backup singers, at least 2 groups of dancers, upscale light show, jets of fireworks and steam, a group of dombra players, two guest solo singers. I am assuming that the reason they could do this was that the individual performers weren't paid very much --- or maybe the strong dollar made it cheap to pay them. In any case, it was pretty astounding, all the stuff they put in.
Here's a nice video of a long segment of this concert
#ΠΠΠΠΠ¨ # ΠΡΡ-ΠΠΎΡΠΊ
***
I"m looking at some other videos, and seeing that the people on the floor likely didn't get lights in their eyes. I was on the side, but not high up, just about 18 rows from the floor.
Here's his SOS from the concert. This was the song that originally went viral out of China and brought him to my attention. I notice that since he went to France his pronunciation of this song has improved dramatically. I'm fluent in French so I notice.
*****
It turns out that those cameras on stage were for a live Qazaq TV show, which is now up on YouTube !!!
Also, this woman who I thought was African American is apparently Jordan Arakelyan, who is an Armenian, who relocated from Georgia (central asia, not the us state) to Kazakhstan, but she was wearing corn row braids and sounded like a lot of African American singers who I have heard and spoke English with an African American accent. She apparently thought we knew who she was, but I sure never heard of her. Maybe she was talking to the Qazaq TV audience.
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