Report On The Grupo Fantasma Concert in Tulsa

On Sunday, September 25th I had the pleasure of taking my son to see Grupo Fantasma in concert at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. It was sponsored by the Tulsa Children's Museum who actually don't have a building yet and instead have roaming exhibits to take around the area. The concept of the show was for children and parents to come and enjoy the music together and all were encouraged to get up and dance however the music moved them in the aisles and that advice was well followed. I've wanted to see Grupo Fantasma for some time so this was a great treat for me, especially when you factor in the very low ticket price of $10, which is insane for this Grammy Award winning latin/funk/soul/ska/whatever else you can think of band.


There was a 2PM and a 4PM show listed and since I had other commitments later in the day I chose the 2PM show. Afterwards I was lamenting that I was unable to see the second show because the band was flat out fantastic. About the 2nd song into the set my son told me that he wanted to dance so off we went. He barely moved and after about a minute he informed me that he was finished and wanted us to go back to our seats. People were dancing around all over the place and it was just a huge bunch of fun, a great atmosphere topped off by some incredible music.


Towards the end of the show some children were pulled up from the audience to play percussion instruments with the band and my son wanted to get on stage with them but he didn't want to go down front even though I told him that was the only way to get selected. Eventually he agreed to go if I went with him but by that point it was too late. All the instruments were taken. This disappointed him drastically and prompted a serious attitude problem from him. Luckily though there was a room opened up for the children to go into where they learned about making milagros, were encouraged to dance and had a change to look at rocks and other things under a magnifying glass. This uplifted his spirits and earlier bad feelings were forgotten.


All in all it was a wonderful day and I enjoyed experiencing it with my son. I just wish that they could have things like this much more often. You can bet I'll be looking more carefully to see what's happening in the area because it was a great time.



Published by Don Leach