After grabbing lunch on Florida Street, we met back at the bus to ride to the amphitheater where we'd be performing our second concert. We ran a quick sound check, apprehensive of how this outdoor venue would be freezing during our evening concert. We then reloaded the bus and drove to the Metropolitan Cathedral, where we would be singing our first concert. The neoclassical portico belied the exquisite interior.
After a short warm up, we began the concert. Though it wasn't the best concert of the tour, it certainly wasn't bad. Like several of our previous concert venues, this cathedral reverberated nicely (big, fancy, old churches tend to do that, though…).
We then had to run to the bus to transfer back to the amphitheater for our second concert. When we arrived onstage, Coro Kennedy, a popular show choir from Argentina, was already performing their lineup of Beatles hits. They dragged both us and the Dukes onstage to sing "Hey, Jude" with them. Though most of us knew the song, we weren't sure how to sing along as we hadn't learned their harmonies and didn't want to detract from the quartet singing the melody. Thus, we stood there awkwardly making deer-in-the-headlights faces until the "Na na na na na na na" parts. But it was all in good fun…
After Coro Kennedy finished, we performed our part of the concert, finally able to sing secular songs again. We even retaliated at Coro Kennedy with a rendition of the Beatles' "Blackbird." The Dukes performed after us as we watched from backstage.
Once the Dukes had finished their set, we joined them onstage to sing "Abanije." Then, we pulled Coro Kennedy back onstage and made them sing "Singabahambayo" with us. It was great fun singing with such a large group of people from diverse backgrounds (several of whom we had just met).
Things only got better after the concert. We three choirs formed a cluster (a bit of a mosh pit, if you are familiar with the term) and started singing quite the eclectic assortment of songs, including a popular South African folksong that both the other choirs knew but that we failed be aware of.
We were finally shooed out of the amphitheater and onto the bus. From there, we went to a sports bar (fútbol, not football) to have our farewell dinner with the Dukes. We were served inordinate amounts of cheese and/or margherita pizza (all with whole olives on top, of course), and Hernan kept walking around trying to shove more down our throats. As both of these types of pizza were vegetarian, we were glad to escape all the red meat that had plagued us throughout the trip, though it seemed like pizza was the only other meal we ever managed to come up with…
After stuffing ourselves with pizza and several rounds of the Cup Game, we returned to the hotel for the evening.
BUT
The night wasn't over yet. The Dukes invited us to their nightly meeting, which (instead of being more business-oriented) was more of a close to the trip. The Dukes even allowed us to sign an Argentine flag that they brought. As flag signing is one of their tour traditions, we were greatly moved to be included. Then, we sat and talked and even played a noisy round of a hand-slapping game that I don't really feel like explaining all the rules of.
Since it had gotten pretty late, we were ushered to bed and I didn't write this blog until a week later.
No comments:
Post a Comment