Mark Knopfler Concert : 7th March, Bangalore

Mark Knopfler rocked Bangalore on Monday, 7th March 2005.
DNA Network which produced the show, billed it as “Mark Knopfler, the voice and guitar of Dire Straits” and kind of cheated a lot of people who came there expecting Mark to play only Dire Straits standards… The producers also deprived the hapless people who paid a 1000 bucks to watch and listen to him, of a great experience by not having speakers for that section, which was very sad as the music sometimes did not reach all parts of the concert arena effectively, especially the subtler notes. And I had made the wrong choice for KCU and myself when I picked up the 1000 bucks ticket because I went by my previous concert experiences…
Having got that thought off my chest let me get to the actual concert. This concert was on of the best experiences I’ve had in a long time. . The musicians for the concert were Glenn Worf [ Bass ], Chad Cromwell [ Drums ], Richard Bennett [ Electric and rhythm guitars ], Guy Fletcher, Matt Rollings [ Keyboards ; Hammond B-3, Wurlitzer and accordion ].
The evening kicked off with an absolute beauty from The Ragpicker’s dream : ‘Why aye man’. Mark along with guitarist Richard Bennet [ remember him on Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night? ] created the right start for an evening that even people who had no idea of Mark’s solo efforts enjoyed it.
Mark had spaced the concert beautifully, alternating between the crowd-sing-along Dire Straits numbers with solo numbers that went unrecognized most of the times… So we had a evenly paced concert with a brilliant bluesy ‘Song for Sonny Liston’ alternating with a rocking ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The set list for the time span of the concert was comprehensive though hard-core Dire Straits fans who came expecting were missing ‘Heavy Fuel’ and ‘Calling Elvis’…
With a formidable backing band Mark was in the groove even with a sore throat that he tried to calm with a cuppa hot ‘Indian Tea’. Mark hit the bull’s eye with some superb renditions of ‘Walk of life’, ‘Sailing to Philadelphia’, a very neat acoustic version of “Done with Bonaparte” from the classy Golden Heart album, ‘Brothers in Arms’ [ Guy Fletcher’s B-3 solo on this song was one of the top moments of the concert ] and finally ‘So far away’…
‘Telegraph Road’ with it’s awesome lyrics is a statement on “progress” and Mark has been known to improvise on this song when performing live. And boy did he improvise here? He pulled the right strings and the crowd howled for more… One of the finest improvisations in live performances Bangalore has seen, this concert was an unforgettable experience for just that one song.
Walking back outside, KCU and I decided that we will not make the same mistake twice… will pick up the most expensive ticket when Mark is around in Bangalore next.
Hope he’ll make it soon…