Dream-Like Night with Grupo Niche
On Thursday July 22nd of 2010, I had a dream-like night at Grupo Niche Concert at Blue Agave Nightclub San Diego. Niche is the one-and-only, world-famous salsa band from Cali, Colombia. The City of Cali is located 30 minutes flight from Bogota, the Capitol city of Colombia, and is known as salsa heaven.
I leanred about the show the day before the concert. San Diego’s Salsa Meetup Group’s Organizer John sent out the email saying he has one extra ticket.
How I knew about Grupo Niche
Niche is special for me. The very first Colombian music I experienced was Niche’s. Back when I was studying Spanish in Japan, my Colombian teacher Angela brought their compilation CDs back and shared the music of her country in class. (Well, later I learned that Bogota, where she’s from, wasn’t big in salsa like Cali.) Anyway, since then I am very familiar with their music and I had to be there to experience them LIVE! He kindly offer me $10 discount. Even without that discount I would have been to the concert anyway. The country Colombia and la musica colombiana were already attractive to me, yet it was still something very far from me, but this concert changed my life with salsa and my relationship with Colombia.
Grupo Niche Concert Opening Medley
It was Thursday night and I had to wait for the group showing up and play. They showed up at 11pm. As soon as they started playing, I got super excited and emotional that I was part of the audience. I felt I made a right choice being there. Their music totally turned me on. They opened the show with some of their famous numbers, just amazing!
Una Aventura
This is one of the few videos I took during that concert. I want to go back to the past and tell myself take more videos because this original members will not be playing in the next concert I visited. It’s interesting how salsa musicians retire but not the group. They change members and the group live forever.
Experiencing the World in San Diego
The band is consist of 15 musicians. What I love living in San Diego is that this kind of top-class musicians come to play. It was a total surprise that they play at a normal, regular bars like the one they played that night. The club isn’t located in Downtown, it was a club for Latinos and I was one of the few non-Latinos in the venue. And they played right there like 8 feet away from where I stood. Such a small place.
It is a little nervous to visit a new place, especially where you don’t belong to. But I can’t stop myself taking an action- that is the only way to spice up my life and make my comfort zone larger. I know that.
Chat and Photo with Niche!!!
Lucky to be a Japanese. At the intermission, a couple of the members came down from the stage, walked towards me. They asked my name and where I was from. They greeted me in Japanese. They said they visited Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Lucky me being Japanese and speak basic Spanish.They let me take pictures with them first, then shook hand with me.
They called my name on stage “May de Japon!!”
Surprisingly while playing, he even called my name on stage like “May de Japon!” Being only Asian in the club, I felt very welcomed.
They played all the famous songs. Very satisfying.
What I liked about salsa band live is that the singers organized dance moves. I saw it the first time since last year in La Casa de La Musica in Cuba.
Live is good, and authentic music is good. The music shakes my spirit, and I can’t stop myself from moving. Music moves my body and soul. I like the feeling. I danced, danced and danced. I felt 100% of freedom and satisfaction.
Some people enjoy music, and
some people are dancing to the Niche’s live play. I did the same. I let myself move as music moved. Can’t feel better. Only the passion can move myself.
Cali Pachanguero
They played everyone’s favorite in the very end of the show.
Cali girl Alondra opened my door to Colombia Salsa
I was glad that she talked to me. Alondra is from Cali, Colombia. She told me a lot about Cali and salsa. I should visit Cali some day to feel the city of salsa. They played Cali Pachanguero as an encore. It is my (and most fans’) favorite song. The concert ended 1:20am, and I was filled with energy. On the way back, the salsa CD music sounded a little cheap.
Life is too short just to work. I will follow my intuition. I was born to be happy, I was born to love, and I was born to enjoy my life.
And at this moment, I wouldn’t imagine I would be in Cali very soon. The encounter with Alondra opened up the door to salsa and Colombia.
My favorite Grupo Niche songs
Cali Pachanguero– enjoy the music with the pics of the city of Cali.
Sin Sentimiento– I love the “estoy pensando” part so much. Sang aloud at the live.
Gotas de Lluvia– Rain drops. I kind of like the lightness of the song.
Ana Mile– I danced to the live music. I love the second half of the song. Ana Mile ownz.
Miserable– I like sad songs some how since I was little
Listo Medellin– I like how the song starts.