Earlier this month, Raffy and I went to this Extreme Sport Exhibition place in the city. Raffy, being a part of a Parkour/Freerunning group, got his friend Patrick to come check it out. When I got there I was sorely disappointed. Maybe because I'm from California where "extreme" literally means extreme. Skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, in-line skating, BMX riding, surfing, windsurfing, wakeboarding, skiing, water skiing, etc. are the types of sports where people can get pretty wild and do crazy stunts.
Yet, when I got there, all I saw really were skateboarders, mountain and rock climbing demonstrations and this tight rope walking demonstration. That was about it. I met Patrick and his girlfriend Anja, who I spent most of the time with, at the event. It was really small and the half-pipe wasn't that great either. They didn't even have any professional skateboarders doing awesome demonstrations or showing the posers this is real skateboarding. There were a lot of guys who looked like rejects from the movie "Lords of Dogtown." Nothing too exciting.
So Anja, the genius that she is, told Patrick to talk to the manager of the event to get him to have parkour for next year. The guy wanted a demonstration that same day and so the guys had to scramble to get the other two guys of the team to come. Peter, who I met in tricking class, couldn't make it but Nico said he could come but later. That meant most of the day we were waiting for Nico as the boys had to keep warmed up.
When Nico arrived the boys had to find stuff to jump off of while Anja and I got set up with our cameras. The boys did a few moves and did a few demos but not many people were looking so Nico went to the microphone and announced that they, Ape Connection, will be doing a few basic moves of parkour and freerunning. People watched and I got another Austrian culture lesson: Austrian people like to watch and don't do much if someone does a cool trick. So Anja and I had to get the crowd excited for the guys by cheering and whooping after the trick was done. Luckily, they responded. :)
In the end, the manager said that he would like the guys to come next year and then a journalist from an entertainment magazine was interested in doing an article about the guys. Not bad for impromptu performance.
The DJ/hip-hop group Asian Dub Foundation is one of Robbie and Raffy's favourite bands. So when the group came to Vienna, I knew that the boys were going and they brought me along too. Free ticket, why not?
A whole bunch of people came to the show. Some of the old crew that I knew such as Andi, Theresa, Karin, Maxi and Janna. Then there were new guys like Will and Kristoff. Honestly, I have not heard much of this band's music and from what I've heard they are supposed to be really good in concert. So I've heard.
We got there around 8:30PM and the guys came on close to 9PM. The crowd wasn't that big, which was sad to me. Maybe because it was a weekday when the show was playing. Overall, the music was alright. Not something I would listen to on my iPod. There were some dance worthy songs. And I love how they have the Bhangra drum influence. Apparently, the band are Indian guys from London. I definitely heard a lot of Indian influence in the music.
All the guys went to the front to join the mosh pit while I hung out in the back. I was not in the mood to get into a fight with some random drunk guy and then all the guys I was with might get into it too. That wouldn't be a pretty sight. Although, when the guys came out of the mosh pit they were soaking wet with sweat. As if they were doused with water. Eww! Luckily they had extra clothes in the car.
Surprisingly, the concert was short. Although the band did like two encores we still got out of the concert early. By the time we got out, it was only 10 minutes or so after midnight. The boys wanted something to eat so we went to their favorite wurstelstand (hot dog stand) and they got something to eat. After that, we headed home.
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