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I am still processing the M.I.A. concert I went to last night. When it was over I felt so many emotions, some of which were so very powerful. As I was watching the show, a spectacle in itself I found myself feeling guilty for taking photos/videos and even looking at her when she came to my side of the stage. I felt like I was there to hear the music I love so much vibrate through my soul, not idolize a person or their persona. So I found myself closing my eyes throughout just so I could remove myself from the experience I had deliberately put myself in, to feel it on another level that was not about the "show". I was totally disturbed by how many cameras were present and that when on stage people were taking photographs of themselves with M.I.A. and stopping to make sure that had a good one! As if the experience and memory of a great time is not sufficient, today we need the perfect photograph as proof of the great time had. I was also guilty of this pleasure but somehow see it a little differently because images are what I live and breath.
Her point last night was to break the rules, all of them. She played longer than she was suppose to, brought alcohol on stage, the crowd on stage, and climbed the speakers. She even refused the security guards assistance in helping her down at first. I believed her message was FUCK YOU, which I identify with deeply. See I think to understand M.I.A. you really have to listen to what she is saying, to try to understand what she is saying about the United States, our World, our Government- because she has done her part by packaging the information up in bright colors and fast beats you can dance to, the audience just has to listen. I left the concert thinking that I had been put on a whole new level, it was a personal experience, which I cultivated, arriving without questions but looking for answers. Some of which I am still processing...
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