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| Junior Member |
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| 1848 Posts |
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| Hong Kong |
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| posted by beer guy 113 days ago |
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Got a kick outta this letter recently in SCMP..........
On Friday, March 7, I went to my first and last concert (to see Santana) at AsiaWorld-Arena.
My friends and I took our seats up in the nosebleed section (we're teachers, not bankers). Being typically western concert-goers, we sprang to our feet as the beat grew stronger. It is, after all, Latino music, not Barber's Adagio for Strings. At that point, the red-bereted, white-shirted "dance police" swung into action, telling us to sit down because those around us couldn't "see the music".
We apologised to fellow spectators for blocking their view, all the while not really comprehending how someone could hear this music and not get up and move, and proceeded to leave the row and take our physical jubilation to the open space behind the seats. At that point, the uniformed minions called in their black-suited leaders, walkie-talkies and all, with about 10 more white-shirts, who ordered us to return to our seats. We refused, telling them we didn't come to a Santana concert to sit down.
At about the same time, an announcement came from one of the band members on stage telling the audience: "It's OK to dance, people!"
Two minutes later, all the dancers in our growing crowd were escorted to a vacant section of seats and told we could dance there. So we did. But every time someone's foot stepped on the aisle, yet another white-shirt flew down the stairs and told the person to return to the appropriate area.
I felt really bad, not for myself, but for Santana and for Hong Kong. How lame does an audience have to be for the band to feel obliged to announce that it's OK to dance? No wonder their show was lethargic. Any entertainer's performance feeds off an audience's energy, and this house had been pronounced dead on arrival way before it reacted at long last to the closing strains of Oye Como Va!
The final indignation came as I headed to the bus stop to return home. The public restrooms at the western entrance were locked.
Those clipboard-bearing girls who did the customer satisfaction surveys before the concert should wait two hours and ask people how they feel about this venue after they've experienced its heavy handed hospitality.
Craig McKee, Tiu Keng Leng
"dance police" wonder what the word for them is in chinese?
The above comments are personal and meant for comedic purposes only and in no way reflect the thoughts, ideas or other general lunacy of HKExpats Limited.
third world city with a third world mentality
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