Mr. Dogs & Me

A friend asked if Danielle and I wanted to go to a concert and we surprised her by actually saying yes. So the next night found us rushing to get to there on time. Silly us. We are in Mongolia. When we arrived, the doors were still closed, and closed they remained for another 30 minutes. When they finally were broken down opened, a ruckus ensued—never mind that the seats were assigned. Everyone wanted to enter at once, and Danielle and I foolishly forgot that we had the option of waiting for everyone else to push and shove through… There is nothing quite equal to being packed like cattle, on steps, in heels, while trying to avoid stepping on people (an offensive thing to do in Mongolian culture). We made it to our seats without any major blood loss and waited for the show to begin.

The concert was T. Delgermurun and the group Mr. Dogs. T. Delgermurun is famous for being a member of Nomin Talst (a well known Mongolian group) and Mr. Dogs is made up of some of his childhood friends. The hip-hop/rap music wasn’t bad but it was very loud. It was my first real concert in Mongolia (I know, I know, I’ve been here how many years?!) and I was surprised to notice that the other people in the audience, while they knew and enjoyed the music, didn’t even bob their heads. In fact, I’m not sure they were even blinking. Since there were only a couple hundred people there, I’m sure Danielle and I entertained the people around us entire audience as well as the singers, with our inability to sit still with the music going. They kept encouraging people in the audience, especially the kids, to get up and dance, but no one moved. Then they resorted to bribery and coercion. They offered a signed hat (that both Danielle and I secretly wanted) to the first person up dancing (but we didn’t want it that badly…) and their back-up dancers started pulling people up from the audience. Of course, since Danielle and I sort of totally stand out in any crowd here, and since our seats were next to the aisle, they made us dance—with all the kids—who came up to our waists. (Did I mention that we are tall compared to most Mongolian women?) Of about 20 people dancing, only four were adults... Both Danielle and I had adult students in the audience and were somewhat embarrassed for them to see us; however, most of our students are under the misconception that we dance well, so perhaps this “dancing at the concert” experience just made them think we were a little cooler. After one song we slipped back into our seats to continue our simple head bobbing and foot tapping for the rest of the show.

On the way home we decided that we should go to concerts every week more often.