dream come true!!

As you may recall from an earlier post, the Skatalites have been Elvis´s favorite band for many many years. They invented the genre of ska back in the ´50s in Jamaica.

So, our dream really was just to see the Skatalites in concert. We were so pumped when we found out they were coming to our little tiny country!! And to top it off, who knew I would get to play on the same stage, opening for them, and that we would even get to meet them?!

Oh, where do we start?? First i want you to see that Elvis broke out his "rude boy" shoes for the occasion......now how do i describe to you what a rude boy is? As Wikipedia says: "The first rude boys in the 1960s were associated with the poorer sections of Kingston, Jamaica, where rocksteady was the most popular form of music. They dressed in the latest fashions at dancehalls and on the streets. Many of these rude boys started wearing sharp suits, thin ties, and pork pie or Trilby hats; inspired by United States gangster movies, jazz musicians and soul music artists."

The fun thing about the concert was that there were probably around 1,500 people there, and most of them were dressed as rude boys(you ´ll seee that in the videos to follow), and everybody was dancing.

Here´s our band, Groovy Time:

Yes, in this picture i am actually singing back-up vocals in front of all those people...who woulda thunk it??Really the funnest part was when one guy dressed like a rude boy got past the security gate and jumped up on stage to dance... watch him dance on the video!

And then, like 6 more came on stage!

As soon as we were getting off of the stage after playing, the Skatalites drove up so we got to meet them behindstage before they were whisked off to a separate area. 3 or 4 of the ones that came were original Skatalite members (including the little old lady from the video i put up last month! she´s my fave!) ...i mean, these guys have been playing together for 50 years! i mean, they had to help the drummer walk if that tells you anything. but boy, the ones that could walk danced alll night long!! they were so cute i wanted to take them home with us! I love the fact that the sax player on the left in the picture is named Lester. So appropriate =) He is one of the original members.

It was really all we had dreamed of and more.

After the concert, something random happened to us (what a surprise!) We were with our friends Efra and Tania, looking for pupusas because we hadnt had dinner yet. Now, keep in mind that it´s about 1:30 am at this point. Luckily, there is a street that is open all night long, where you can buy pupusas, steak, etc etc. As we were getting close, we see something odd going down the street...and realize that it´s a guy riding a unicycle down the middle of the road. He said he was just practicing! See if you can catch him in this picture, even though it´s a little dark: