From Toyota to Alan Parsons Project

You might ask yourself, Toyota? Alan Parsons Project? What?

About a month ago I received a call from Toyota that apparently I’m the lucky winner of a free repair of one of their recent car recalls. For most of the Toyota car owners this is a disadvantage, as for Toyota… well, they are in real tzores (read also trouble), but for me it actually turn out to be the beginning of some good luck.

As I turned my car in they told me it would take about 30 minutes and not more, but I should have known better after a year and a half in Israel. As I return from half an hour in the supermarket I was told that the car was almost ready (it was actually ready 20 minutes after that), as I was waiting in their rather comfortable waiting room I took a newspaper and started to read though the headlines. I then found an advertisement for many concerts among them one for Alan Parsons Project for which I kind of wanted to buy tickets but never got to it. The advertisement said that they were giving away 50 (or 100?) double tickets to see them, so I had nothing to loose and sent my text message to be part of the drawing (you know where this is going?).

I’m not sure if (a) not a lot of Israelis know about Alan Parsons project, or (b) among the people who actually read the Friday paper (Yediot Acharonot) who knows how many actually stopped to read the advertisement and (c) if they read it, who knows how many actually sent their text message, or (d) I’m a lucky guy or (e) all of the above, but a couple of weeks after that day I received a call from the ticket box office company saying that I won a pair of tickets. Of course at first I had no clue what they were talking about, but then I remembered.

Liora was not really interested in going to see him so I called my friend Dani (as seen at Paul in Tel Aviv blog post) who kindly shared with me the pair of free tickets. It was great sharing another good concert with you Dani. By the way thanks also to my friend Sebastian wherever you are (Philly?) for introducing me to this great band several years ago.

The concert was very good, even though the first half needed a little salt and pepper, for the second half as they say here “hichnisu lahem et ha-pilpel” and it turned180 degrees , the Heichal Hatarbut in Tel Aviv stood up to dance. They were actually very good, and you can’t beat the price. By the end he actually presented the bassist that turned out to be Israeli (Guy Erez). The lead singer was pretty good as well (although he needs to work on his dancing skills) PJ Olsson (to be honest I never heard of him before the concert).

Thank you Yediot Hachronot for the tickets, next one is Jethro Tull in Caesarea if (e) is also the right answer (I already sent my text message).

Even though the prohibition of Video and photograph was strictly enforced by Alan himself and his staff below are some pics and a video from others (today every cell phone is a camera).

Picture credits to Oren Amram and his music forum who managed to sneak in some photographs. Video bellow from Amit.

If you are interested in reading more about concert experiences in Israel you can take a look at:

The historical Paul McCartney in Tel-Aviv concert

The Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem

A Night at the Party – Mashina Unplugged !

D’s Salve a la Reina en Mexico (even though it was not in Israel)

I’m looking forward to A couple of good things coming up in 5770 even thought they have not confirmed.

Until the next concert…

Shabbat Shalom.