Notes from the Johnny Clegg Concert

I just got back from the Johnny Clegg concert and boy was it fantastic!

The music was great. Clegg and his band played some of his best songs such as Daughter of Eden, African Sky Blue, The Revolution Will Eat Its Children, Bullets for Bafazane, Dela, Scatterlings of Africa, and Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World. The guitar work was excellent, the sax player was awesome, the choreography was coo,l and Clegg's stories between songs were both funny and fun. The concert may have started half an hour late, but once it got started it was a hoot.

I was feeling a bit down before the concert started. Hearing all the South African accents made me wish that I came from somewhere specific, rather than being the tumbleweed that I am, but I soon got over this once the music started. I guess one of the benefits of being a tumbleweed is that I can expropriate other cultures' artists, like Johnny Clegg, who have come to mean something to me.

The best part of what was an excellent concert was when the band ended the concert with Scatterlings. I have never seen such looks of pure joy as I the ones I saw on the faces of the South African ex-pats when the band began playing those familiar notes. People's faces lit up as they were reminded of Africa, friends and family, university days, and probably a host of other good thoughts. It was beautiful to see and wonderful to be a part of.