Gran Torino

Yesterday a friend invited me to a concert, last minute, because he had a ticket left.
Jamie Cullum. Not the name of my friend, but the name of the guy who played ;)

Well, what can i say. That Jazzie stuff is not my kind of music, but the man's good. I mean, was fun, the concert and all. The guy loves the crowd and knows how to handle it.
My favourite was that he turned a sitting-concert into a standing concert. He managed by performing Cry Me A River, and whilst doing so walking into the middle of the audience with his whole band. So, obviously, people stood up to see him, first the ones around and then more or less all people. You know, game theory, like in the football stadium, the good ol' prisoner's dilemma. We all still would've seen him more or less ok if we all had remained on our seats, but just the thought 'if i get up i'll see better than the others' leads to some people standing up and then everyone has to.

Two shaky impressions from where i was sitting:


On the second one the guy's standing on his piano. Unfortunately my memory card was full when he moved into the crowd.
If you want to see a bit better what it was like, and actually the main reason for me blogging about the concert: once again, amazing how many people record concerts with their cameras, or even more so with their mobile phones. iPhones all over. So just head over to here or here to get an impression of yesterday's concert. No need that i upload any videos, youtube is already full of it, including recordings with not-even-bad microphones.

Mmmmh, technology.

Before the concert started they even projected a line on the wall asking people to upload their pics and videos to a fan section on Cullum's webpage.

And of course, since he's a Brit, they always come across sympathetic when talking. Quote: "Do whatever you feel like, jump around, throw underwear or money, talk!" or something like that.

ps: if you're wondering about the title of this blog entry: Jamie Cullum wrote the soundtrack, or at least part of it, of Gran Torino. And the title song was the last song he performed yesterday. Clint Eastwood is into Jazz, that's why he got this guy for the soundtrack.
Damn good movie. I missed it in cinemas, but now you can get the DVD for less than five Euros around here, just watched it two weeks ago. If you haven't seen it, go get it!

Cheers.