Somewhere around five years ago I watched the 2Cellos music video for “Smooth Criminal” and I knew I needed to see them perform live. If you don’t know who 2Cellos are, stop reading this, get your booty on YouTube, and watch their “Smooth Criminal” video. Then, watch their “Welcome to the Jungle” video. And if you don’t know the originals for either of those songs, we can’t be friends.*
*I’m kidding. We can still be friends, we just won’t get along very well.
This was before the blogs, before all the traveling, and though I was somewhat familiar with New York City at the time, it was before I was brave enough to venture to a part of the city I had never been to at night.
The point? I passed up on the opportunity to see them play live at a bar downtown because I was being a Nervous Nelly.
By the time the opportunity came around again, they were no longer playing at bars.
Friends, don’t be like me.
You might note the date on the above tickets is April, 2015.
No, I have not taken nearly a year to write about the experience.
The day before our show, I received an email saying that Stjepan Hauser had injured his neck and the show would need to be rescheduled. It was nearly a year in waiting, but finally, I got to see these boys perform Saturday night.
Though this post will certainly discuss the phenomenal talent raging between these two men, I’m going to have to tell you even more about how baffled I was by the kind of audience their music draws.
Hang on. It’s going to be a wild ride.
I can’t get used to the fact that pictures and videos are allowed, even encouraged, during concerts these days. It wasn’t until Luka Šulić paused from playing to tell the audience to feel free to get up, take pictures, jump up, sing along, etc. that I joined in with the madness.
Even then I was much more reserved than most.
Like this dude (pictured in the poor quality snapshot above) who decided to stand in the aisle and get a quick a selfie.
To be fair, he saw another much younger guy do it immediately after Luka invited the audience to take pictures. Security was standing by and ready to pounce on him if he stayed up there much longer.
The people in front of and next to me had their phones out at least seventy-five percent of the time.
Me, I was there to enjoy the show. I knew I would need to snap a few pictures for your enjoyment, but first and foremost I was there to take in the exceptional musical abilities on stage before me.
In case you didn’t heed my advice and watch the two music videos, 2Cellos plays mainly instrumental arrangements of rock and roll classics like Highway to Hell, Welcome to the Jungle, and Smells Like Teen Spirit. Rock and Roll classics that most people already love become even more lovable with an electric cello and animated personality performing them.
Somewhere around the middle of the performance, their drummer came out, and so did all the rock and rollers at heart. People had their hands in the air, girls were screaming out ‘Take your shirt off”, and the walls were lined with people whose seats could no longer contain them.
I know it’s poor quality, but I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of them because I found it so extremely odd.
I also couldn’t resist this one of the audience standing, cell phones ready dare they miss to record a single moment of this concert.
It was about this time that I was really regretting missing them perform five years ago.
Even so, it was an incredible performance mixed with humor, classics we can all sing along with, and even current songs like “I Will Wait” and “We Found Love”.
The two songs that had the entire audience out of their seats were Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction…
and AC/DC’s Highway to Hell.
Before their final encore, the guys took a selfie with their drummer…and the entire audience.
What I loved best was that even though it was easy to tell they love performing rock and roll classics, they still clearly crave classical music. The final piece, to my delight, was Air on the G String by Bach.
I thought it was the perfect ending to a perfect night.
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