MARK KNOPFLER...LIVE!!!

Please forgive me, but I absolutely must rave about the most fabulous concert we just saw.  There may be a bunch of exclamation points and capitals and lots of excessive-speak.  But it was just so GOOD!

THIS MAN CAN PLAY THE GUITAR!!  I mean he PLAYS GUITAR like no one else.  (In fact, I think he played 6 or 8 different types of guitars. I lost count.) He is GREAT!  He is mind-blowingly good.  (And his drummer and all the other musicians--most of whom have been performing with him for 20 or more years--are supremely talented, too.)  We could not have asked for a more fabulous concert.  (Did I already say fabulous?) They played for 2-1/2 hours straight; nary a break.  The fans rushed toward the stage at the end, and Mark and the band played 4 encores.  

Though we were sitting in the nose-bleed section (our only choice, even in December), the sound was perfect.  We both agreed that we weren't remotely disappointed in our seats or experience.  Our taxi driver told us this venue is considered to have the best arena acoustics in Europe, and we believe it.

This is the MK Tracker Tour.  The Dublin performance was at the 3Arena in what used to be the rather seedy Docklands area, north of the Liffy.  It's been cleaned up and largely reclaimed.  The arena holds 15,000, and there weren't many empty seats.  We bought our tickets in December and bought them because there were very few still available at that point.  We knew we needed to commit or assume we would not be able to see Knopfler, of whom we have been fans for years--though I'd say fans in a fairly passive sense.  We used to listen to his albums all the time and have a real soft spot for his music.  But we'd never gone to a concert or even talked about going to a concert.  In fact, we don't do big-arena-type concerts.  But when we saw that he would be playing in Dublin while we were there, it just seemed like a we've-got-to-do-it moment.  (Of course, the joke ended up being on us, when we later learned that Knopfler will be playing Portland later this year.  But seeing him in Dublin just felt right, and you obviously won't be hearing any complaints from us.)

MARK KNOPFLER!  SO GREAT!  I'm in love with his music and his talent all over again.  WOW!!!