Las Vegas Concert Invasion

Every Iranian and their mom (literally) is going to be in Vegas this Christmas to catch the annual tradition of Persian pop going down over the holidays. Namak Magazine has the full schedule on their homepage with a handy breakdown of ticket prices. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re going for the seriously romantic guitar ballads of Faramarz Aslani or want to dance along to poppy sexpot Sepideh (she reminds me of Shakira, which is cool because Iranians deserve a bottle-blonde pop star with nice abs of our own, even if I do have to share a name with her). My money’s on the 12/22 concert at the Mandalay Bay, poster above (don’t you love the glow around every artist and the mention of the stage designer at the bottom? What were they thinking?!). It has the most diverse lineup, with melancholy poet/composer/singer Siavash Ghomeishi (I saw him buying wine and cheese at the Woodland Hills Trader Joe’s once and nearly peed myself from excitement, no joke), really fun pop legend Andy (saw him at the Hollywood Bowl a couple of years ago, and met him a couple of times when I was a kid), and relative newcomer Farshid Amin, who is, admittedly, more than a tad metro, but he has a song called “Sepideh,” so how could I resist? That’s right, I can’t. Some of the other notables that will probably put on sweet shows on other nights are master of the white electric violin, Bijan Mortazavi (he was at my church on the day I was baptised), and “King of Persian Pop” Shahram Shabpareh (who I saw once walking past the makeup department of a Robinson’s May in the Valley – he was very short and wearing a track suit, and his hair looks just like that in real life).

Sadly, I can’t make it this year, but in writing this post I realized I’ve “seen” a lot of these people already. So weird. Tickets can be purchased here. Looks like it’s going to be awesome… and hilarious. Get ready for all the Benzes and Beamers, Vegas!