You Just Got Cultured

 

The city of Yerevan is dripping, no, teeming with cultural events. Everywhere I look, I see top-notch band performances, dance concerts, and plays. While skype-ing with my mother, she said that Armenia, under Soviet rule, was told to place a strong emphasis on having cultural events. And we see today the vestiges of the cultural event overload. I cannot possibly keep track of all the dance concerts, plays, musicals that happen within one night. I have already attended an awesome rock concert, a comedy musical and just a couple nights ago a dance concert. Each of these events had their own flavor and I would like to go through and explain to you some of the different cultural events:

 

• The first is the musical concert, which featured the popular Armenian rock band Dorian. Some other bands included rock band Empyray Hur E and Ska/reggae band Reincarnation. The music was mainly in Armenian, but Dorian had some songs that were in English. I am no rock band expert, but I think all of the music that was played at this event can be described as sick. The talent level of these guys and gals is truly incredible including shredding on the guitar, crazy awesome vocals, and complete keyboard mastery. Although some elements of the production value fell flat (e.g. the fire that would spew out every other word during a song essentially burned the side of my face and sucked out all the oxygen in the auditorium), I really enjoyed the entire affair. My personal favorite song played at the concert was Reincarnation’s Eli Lava. I think the song has taken the role of the AAAInterns2009 anthem.  So get up off of your feet and get ready to listen to a great jam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuZqdHyb-sk 

• The lovely and hilarious play that we saw was called the ‘The Aunt from Paris.’ It was written/directed/acted by a French Armenian who was absolutely divine in the show. Although I did not understand a good 40% of it, I was able to keep up. What intrigued me in particular was the striking resemblance of this play to an Armenian play I saw in Glendale about a year ago called Batal something. Both plays involve an older male ham figure who ends up essentially having to dress in women’s clothing because of some outside circumstance. It is truly a winning comedic combination in my book. Older man + Red Women’s Dress Suit = Excellence
• A couple of evenings ago, the AAAInterns2009 (that is how I will refer to our lovely little intern crew from now on) were treated to a dance concert performed at the Opera building. The Armenian Dance Ensemble presented traditional line dances, individual dances etc. The costumes provided would make Donatella jealous that she didn’t think of it first, they all looked like works of art. Although the performance went on for a solid three hours, the talent and the athleticism of the performers was truly mesmerizing. I noticed that after the performance everyone claps in unison, not all mumble jumbled like we do at home. I like the solidarity of Armo clapping.