A Krishna Das concert, experiencing an exciting devotional music event

Last night in lieu of writing on this blog I went to the Krishna Das concert down by the Town Hall. For the last month or so I'd been vacillating. On the one hand, he's a musician I've listened to, is approachable and his concerts were reasonably priced. But then, I'd have to go alone, which feels a tad to sad, it'd be like 80 bucks for an experience it was unclear if I'd enjoy, and besides, shouldn't I go to more exciting concerts as somebody who lives in the birthplace of grunge, the hometown of Nirvana, nearby the neighborhood of Kobain's old haunts?

I ended up going. Mostly because the day had been pretty productive, and I was very satisfied with how far I'd gotten with my chores and other to do items. For the last week or so, my ship has been running tight-ish, and disruptions have been on the more minimal side. That has meant compromising on other aspects, but that's a story for a different day.

The coolest thing about entrance: I went up to one of the persons checking for tickets and told her I didn't have a ticket. She asked if I wanted one and I replied in the positive. So she GAVE me a ticket, and said off you go, welcome to the show. That's it. No payment, no experience, nothing! It was so gratifying!

The show itself was wonderful, as good as I'd hoped it'd be. The audience participation was not as strong as one might imagine, but that's perhaps the demographics of the crowd than anything else. The demographics, by the way, was mostly old white people who were into hindu music from their hippytimes I imagine, and a bunch of South Asian folks of different age groups. And some hmmm very intense young folks who one would be not incorrect to look at with some degree of skepticism.

KD (that's what he's known as in the biz, turns out) is a great teacher, and a great kirtanwaala. A word he explained. And then I realized, of course it's a profession, of course singing along with hundreds and thousands of other people is so much fun, of course you can hire some of those people to run your chants should you need to.

You cannot win over something you don't understand. You definitely cannot understand something you actively reject. To understand you have to explore, be curious, question, wonder, and limit your judgment at least until the point of understanding. Flexibility is of utmost importance. That is all one will say for the moment.