World hold on

When someone like Bob Sinclair comes to Yerevan, the whole city knows. Ever since I arrived here I've been seeing fliers everywhere advertising his concert. Admittedly, I didn't know his name but immediately recognized his most famous song "World Hold On" once I heard it. Someone described the concert as "the biggest thing happening in Yerevan all year." I don't know to what extent that's true, but the interns and volunteers were certainly excited and had decided to attend weeks ago. The day arrived, and we headed to Lover's Park to join the crowds gathered for the show.

There were several openings acts. We missed Reincarnation! But we caught The Beautified Project...

and DJ Vaksina...

and Armenoids. The front man of the group (in red) is my coworker at ACNIS! Me and the other ACNIS-ites thought it was pretty cool to tell everyone, "We work with that guy!" It garnered us a fair amount of street cred.

Then came the man we'd been waiting for (all year, perhaps?). Bob Sinclair turned up on stage, and despite the poor sound system at the beginning, the crowd was thrilled! The entire park was packed with dancing and singing people, enthusiastic to be in his gloriously cool presence. That included us interns. We were hoping to absorb some of his excellence so we pushed out way to the very front of the crowd. Needless to say, we had some pretty great views!

Bob Sinclair played some old stuff, but also sprinkled in newer compositions.

Everyone seemed to know the words to his songs and shouted them back as they were played. Then came the one we were all waiting for - "World Hold On"!

The crowd's energy intensified and anyone who wasn't already on his/her feet sprung up! The concert continued that way late into the night, with what seemed like all of Yerevan's under-40 population in attendance.