Darouse

On Saturday September 7th Mohsen Namjoo started his first American tour in San Francisco. This was to be one of a kind tour that would introduce Namjoo and his amazing talent to people all over U.S and not just the Iranian crowd. As a music fan and a huge fan of Namjoo I was so excited to to see him live and keep picturing how he will be introduced, him talking about his music and sharing some of the facts behind his poems and etc.

Even though the tour was named "Solo" I had a hard time thinking that he is going to be on the stage alone specially since we are blessed with so many talented musicians in Bay area, I was proved wrong. He did come on the stage alone, there was no introduction, his first two songs was his music being played from CD and he had to sing as if he was recording them. The rest of the concert did not get any better, don't get me wrong Namjoo is a great performer and he was able to executed all the songs perfectly while showcasing his ability to modify tunes and creating notes that are as unique as his style of music.

The problem was his lack of ability to connect with audience, not having the musical instruments (which he kept apologizing for) and not having that support to share some of the concert pressure with.

At the of the concert I had this feeling that some thing was missing, it felt like I have gone to a great restaurant and was served Burger King. This is not Namjoo's fault by any means, all the faults must be blamed on the sponsors and organizers of his tour. In the past all the concerts that were sponsored by the same group were planned perfectly and made every body counting days till the next event. After Namjoo's concert I felt that the whole event was just about making money and not about promoting perhaps one of the best modern poets of our times.

Namjoo is not a typical performer, he has his own style, makes his music , creates his poems based on real life stories and he does all that in such manner that has never been done before. Many has compared him to Jim Morrison simply because you never know what he will do next. But on that stage Namjoo was a ghost of what we has seen from him before (online) without any energy.

I can only hope that Namjoo's future concert in this tour are planned better and San Francisco was just a fluke, because he deserves to be treated with respect and dignity and on Saturday September 7th, that did not happen.