Dubai: Mixtape Rewind – A walk down memory lane

I was invited to the MixTAPE Rewind concert and I received a complimentary  media pass.

Friday night I was invited to the MiXTAPE Rewind concert. The concert started with an intro video full of stuff from the 90’s to make sure that everybody got in the right mood, so when Snap! entered the stage, I was back in 6^th grade and the year was 1990 and not 2014.

Dr. Alban was the artist I had been looking forward to the most, and even though he is not a spring chicken anymore (he was born 1957), his hits have certainly aged with grace and still managed to take the crowd from expectant to euphoric in only a few beats’ time.

When I go to concerts something weird happens with my brain and I am transformed into a primal screaming teenager (I blame my Asian genes). I am always right in front of the stage and if the artists make that terrible mistake of taking a walk to greet the crowd, I am ready with my sweaty hand. I had promised Poul not to try to touch Dr. Alban, but he stayed up on the stage, in safe distance, so I didn’t get the chance either.

Without a doubt, Boney M delivered he evening’s best performance and thrilled the audience with one hit after another. They started out with “Sunny”, which I absolutely love. I had completely forgotten that it was a Boney M song, but “Sunny” has been on my Spotify ever since I saw the Korean movie with the same name last year.

I couldn’t really remember what N-Trance looked like, as I’ve mostly listened to their songs in nightclubs, when I was on holiday in Greece and Spain. Unfortunately, they didn’t perform that D.I.S.C.O. song I had hoped for, but that was made up for by lots of other hits, including their awesome cover version of “Stayin’ Alive”.

Vengaboys rounded off the evening and the 90’s with some of their biggest hits. It really takes a lot to be able to pull off lyrics such as “We’re going to Ibiza and “Uncle John from Jamaica”, but add green sequin costumes and slightly over-coordinated dance moves and everything makes perfect sense in a very 90’s-kinda-way.

It’s been a while since the 90’s and some of the original artists had been replaced with new ones through the years. At least that’s what I supposed, as they looked a lot different than I remembered them, but it could also be that they’ve just gotten older.

Music doesn’t have to be complicated (nor make sense) as long as it makes you feel good, and MiXTAPE Rewind was one long and happy walk through my teenage years. When the concert finally came to an end, I couldn’t help feeling a little sad. It was like finding a box in the back of your closet full of old postcards, pictures and other stuff from a time long gone. You dwell on the memories for a while, and then you start wondering where all the years have gone, i.e., you feel old!

Though I try to convince myself that it isn’t that bad. At least most of my teenage idols are still alive (except Kurt Cobain, but that was a special case, I guess), so I shouldn’t complain. Could be fun to attend a MiXTAPE Rewind concert in 2054, bringing my zimmer frame and a bunch of grandchildren while singing along to Vengaboys’  “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!”….See kids, when grandma was young, they knew how to make  music!

Read about another concert I have been to in Dubai: SM Town – When Dubai went K-Pop crazy

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