One thing you quickly realise as you travel through Central America on public transport, is that these countries seem to have a bit of an obsession with Air Supply – an Australian band from the 1970s and 80s. You are almost guaranteed to hear at least one of their songs on any bus you travel on, and there was this weird experience I had in Nicaragua where they were the subject of one of the questions in a Pub Quiz! You almost never hear about them in Australia, and haven’t done so for probably 20 years, but in Latin America…
Now, I admit, I was a massive Air Supply fan when I was a kid, and I spent innumerable hours karaokeing to my “Air Supply’s Greatest Hits” cassette tape in my bedroom, way before karaoke was even a thing! So when I saw they were playing in Santiago only a few days after I was originally going to leave town, I decided to extend my stay so I could go see them live. Because, well, why not 🙂
There was actually quite a decent crowd at the Movistar Arena for the concert – not quite full, but not far off it. And they went waaaaaay crazier than I expected when Russell and Graham came onto the stage. After all, Air Supply sing love ballads – they aren’t exactly a rock band.
But the crowd was totally into it! And not necessarily who you might think. For example, of the couple on my left-hand side – the woman was clearly enjoying the concert but it was her husband that was singing his heart out at the top of his lungs 🙂
And why not – despite Russell and Graham being pretty decently old these days (it is the 41st year of Air Supply) it was a great concert! I’d actually forgotten how many incredible songs they had – and it turned out I could still remember every single lyric even though I hadn’t really listened to them for ages.
One of the funny things for me was to check out who was in their band. I don’t think any of the guys could have been older than their early 30s, which means they weren’t even born when Air Supply was at its peak. And one of them had a mohawk – not quite what you’d expect for love ballads…
There was a point about 3/4 the way into the show where they both came down into the audience while they were singing. The crowd went crazy! And many of the people in the expensive seats actually raced around to follow them as they moved through the crowd.
It was also fascinating to look around and see how many people were recording bits of the concert. I guess this is a very common sight no matter which concert you are at these days…
Had an absolute blast re-living my childhood and singing along with the rest of the Chileans at the concert. Absolutely worth spending the extra days in Santiago 🙂
