salty soul.

on saturday night I went to a concert. maureen, a kenyan friend, said a really good band was playing near the museum, so my roommates and I decided to check it out.

our plan was to find a restaurant near city centre and grab some dinner first. indian was the plan. of course seeing as how my guidebook is three years old I should've known the likelihood of the restaurant being there was slim. we didn't find it, and after walking through a very sketchy part of nairobi settled on a very kenyan establishment. mmmhmmm nothing like a greasy omelet and chapati when you were banking on chicken tikka masala.

after a somewhat disappointing dinner we cabbed over to museum hill and club galileo. I should've guessed when we stepped out of the cab and everyone was dressed to nines that this was a bigger deal than I'd anticipated.

we bought our tickets and walked it, failing to notice the red carpet to our right. just as we'd entered the place and were about to buy a few tuskers a woman asked if she could interview us... on the red carpet.

of course keep in mind we had NO idea who the band was, what kind of music they played or anything.

but who passes up an opportunity to be interviewed on tv, on a red carpet no less? not me.

as we walked over to the red carpet we quietly asked a man sitting at a table the name of the band. his response, "wait, you've never heard of them?" well, clearly not, if we're asking. what he said sounded like "salty soul." and then we were on the red carpet.

kiss tv is like the kenyan equivalent of what mtv used to be in the states. they show music videos 24/7. so there we were, standing on the red carpet, in front of a giant kiss tv billboard, being interviewed for television about something we knew nothing about.

the interview went something like this:

interviewer: so have you heard of the band?

us: yeah, "salty soul" (name drop for authenticity) is great.

interviewer: which song are you most excited to hear?

us: all of them. we hear they're great live.

interviewer: you're not from here right?

us: no. (really? is it that obvious?) we're from the states.

interviewer: what other kenyan acts do you like?

us: nameless is great. (nameless is also the only other kenyan artist any of us could name... and he's not that good.)

interviewer: well enjoy the show.

us: thanks.

of course we find out later the band is called "sauti sol," but my hope is we said it fast enough no one in viewing audience could tell we had no idea what we were talking about.

the band played. they sounded a bit like boyz 2 men but were all dressed like kanye west... glasses, red pants, suspenders... go figure. but definitely entertaining.

plus I'm well on my way to becoming a kenyan celeb.