AMY WINEHOUSE 2011 TOUR Belgrade June 18th 2011 MOBY MOBY

In this text you will not find music critic of last night’s concert. In the first part you can find my theory about AmyAmyAmy. In the second part (only a few sentences short) I disclose that my new best friend is MOBY.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13828023

Yes, it was all like they said in the news, and even worse. She came out to the stage running in, and immediately sat on the sound monitor, with her back to the audience. She took off her shoes – they were not even high heels; try to imagine (you male readers too) how wasted you have to be not to be able to stand in flats? Godblesser 🙂 They played an intro, then started second song, during which she started presenting musicians, like singers do at the end of a concert. And from then on, until the end: she stood, with her arms crossed over her chest, in kind of state where I believe she believed she was singing the whole concert, even though she just occasionally sang a line or two. She talked with the band (my favorite moment was somewhere in the second half of the concert, when she suddenly went to the bass player, who was standing a bit behind the rest of the musicians, and told him something. He replied to her, and then he went on with the music, and she roamed across the stage a bit). She constantly talked to 1 of the 2 backing vocals. Who knows what was all that about??  I mean, try to imagine what could she have told him, during concert, when she should have been singing; is it something profane like “hey you, what is this song? What’s my next line??”, or more profound like “where are we, I mean, what is our place in this universe? Are there many universes?? What is the meaning of everything???”  

Actually, I have a theory about that. I bet that her whole crew is working against her. I bet that whoever is managing her career is benefiting more from her when she’s like this, than when she’s “plain”. “Spectacle Amy” vs. “Singer Amy”. Crowds are not easily amused. They ask for specific things, very refined ones. ”Panem et circenses”, that’s what we want. So they give it to us. I bet that when she talks to band members during concert, all they reply is somewhere in the area of “…everything is black. Everything is nothingness. The world is a terrible place. There is too much pain in the world”, and so on. And after those words, all she can do is go and soak her sorrow, and misery, and lonely. “Why on earth would they do it??” you ask. Well, in those moments w/o Amy, they shine. Maybe that is their way to finally get their breakthrough. They are using the opportunity, why not when everybody else is taking advantage of this sad little sacred cow/wasted dragon. They are great musicians, just not interesting enough to become superstars, so they use those moments (w/o Amy) to pretend it is their concert, and that all the people came to see them. They do their best, like there is no Amy. Oh, did I tell you she went missing from the stage during 5-10 minutes? Maybe she went to the toilet. Maybe she tried some of Serbian food (it can go heavy on the untrained stomach), and had to “go”. There were jokes around the crowd that she tried rakia, which is Serbian 40% alcoholic liquor, and those are the consequences.

 

Where's Amy?

Now, the funny thing is I really really love her music. If I were a bit braver, I’d say that I am number 1 fan of her music in the whole wide world. I love her music, lyrics, her stage persona. Unfortunately, it turned out that is really her. Can you imagine? In the words of “Tears Dry on Their Own”: “…stupid me.” I am honestly sincerely disappointed. I was expecting a person that is just acting crazy (because that’s what audiences want to see), and at the same time that person to be brutally professional. I mean, it is 21^st century, we have weapons of mass destruction, mutated E. Coli, tsunami (to name just a few things that have happened since beginning of the year). We have vegetarians, we have people making houses out of recycled materials, turning their minds toward space and all that. C’mon, how stupid you have to be today to do that many drugs?

I am naïve, right?

They said in the papers “Ms. Amy is coming with like 30 assistants, including … personal assistant, personal manager, personal hairstylist, stylist, make-up artist, style manager. She has a rider list of demands of 72 pages. No alcohol in the hotel.” They also said “Ms. has said she would like to see Belgrade, do some sightseeing”. Haha. Stupid, “stupid me”. Imagine you were this personal hairstylist or makeup artist, doing hair or make up on a person that is under very much of an influence of alcohol/drugs/whatever. “c’mon”, you say, “c’mon darlink, close your left eye, we have to put eyeliner…sit still, please, just one more eye and we’re done…please honey, sit still…”, try to visualise it in your heads. Would you feel ashamed, or sad, or mad, or like “hey, it pays the bills, at least I’m not selling my body, or dealing drugs on the corner to school kids”?

And one more thing: Average gross salary in Serbia is around 510 €= around 340 € net, and concert tickets were 45€. Transfer that into your country’s statistics.

On the other hand, Moby, who performed after her, was…brilliant. He is my new most favorite music in the whole wide world. He is a visionary, a poet, a hermit (with electronic music and electric guitar):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdb4NyHdFfE

(if Amy existed in the time of this video, or if this video was made now, she would appear in it, haha)