Knopfler was here!

He faded away into the darkness, the crowd standing still. No ending with a bang.

I was there at the Mark Knopfler concert in Mumbai. For me, it has been one of the most soothing experiences in a rock show. The crowd enjoyed every moment of it. The Dire Straits guitarist was like a storyteller and he sure knew how to pull the right strings. Of the crowd, I mean. The entire concert was like a sinusoidal wave with lots of ups and downs. A good, fast paced number here, a slow, fullstopping kind of rendition there.

He played all his famous songs, except "Tunnel of Love". And he even did a bit of drama. 2 hours into the show, he says "Good night, I love you" and walks off the stage. The crowd is dumbstruck. For 5 mins, people were in a trance, wondering what happened. But then he came out after a costume change and the crowd went berserk. Did that again after 30 minutes. And then one last time after another 30 minutes. But this time he never came back.

That was Mark Knopfler. Master entertainer, story teller and musician. There were moments when he would get the crowd jumping and clapping and there were moments when the crowd would stand silent, waiting for him to pluck that last string. You should have been there to have experienced that.

Its been a memorable one for me.