21st to 28th Feb 2010 - A Week of Many Nice, Little Gigs

Bands seen : Airport, Blakc (Acoustic), The Works, Something Relevant
Where: Bonobo (Bandra), Cafe Goa (Bandra), Gadda da Vida (Juhu), Hanging Gardens (Malabar Hill) respectively
When: 21^st, 24^th, 26^th, 27^th respectively

Ok, I’m going to do something a little different this week. There were just too many gigs and too little time to write about them. So rather than pfaff out five full-length reviews, I’m just gonna write about all of them in one weekly review. Smart, eh? If Philip Kotler had thought of that a few years ago, the lives of marketing students would have been so much simpler. Anyway. The gigs.

First up – Airport on Sunday (21^st). This is the new project involving Siddharth Coutto (wait, where have you heard that name before? That’s right, here. And here. And here.), Vinay Lobo (who’s been a popular guitarist in the Mumbai Indie scene for a while, most recently at the Blue Frog RHCP tribute). Completing the lineup are Morrison-lookalike Arijit Datta and Amit Ahuja, the happiest bassist in town (plays for Sridhar+Thayil). They play a mellow Hindi pop-rock but one should not make the mistake of dismissing them as a sellout act.

The venue, Bonobo, is this nice little rooftop pub tucked away behind KFC on Linkin Road, a surprisingly nice venue for live music. I forsee many more gigs happening here. Getting back to the music, it’s very easy on the ear – and being in a language that most of the country can identify with, I can imagine these guys going mainstream soon. Or atleast get a few Bollywood breaks, like Radio (may not be metchul, but atleast they’re a good bridge between Himesh and Sceptre)

Their list of songs – played to the public for the first time, apparently, consisted of nice easy stuff – including Raat, Jaane Bhi Do Yaar, Malal (which means regret), Yahan, Seher, Is Kadar and a very nice Baatein. While I enjoyed every minute of it, I couldn’t remember any of it, it all sounded similar. No one standout track. Highlights: Vinay Lobo’s effects and Coutto’s drumming.

Next up: Blakc on Wednesday (24^th). Who doesn’t love this happy grunge-punk band? Five super-talented guys whose first album, Choking On A Dream, is selling extremely well. A huge fanbase. Good originals. And in this little corner in Bandra called Cafe Goa, the boys continued to innovate with an all-acoustic (well, almost) set.

The mellowed-down tone, intimate and relaxed atmosphere led to one of the most fun gigs I’ve been at. There were no judges to impress or any critics to watch out for (I don’t count), the boys just wanted to have fun. There were jokes, cases taken (“this is Shishir and Jeremy on Djembe, they have no clue what the fuck they’re doing”), improvisations. But all throughout, what was fantastic is that the songs were excellent, the band was tight, and they took their music very, very seriously. Good to see.

People familiar with Blakc would have enjoyed the acoustic version of their popular songs – Sold, Field of Thought, Blacklisted (my favourite!), Paper Doll, Newspaper Boy, and others. My only complaint was on Rift – it sounded way less potent without the signature riff, playing chords was a poor substitute. But no matter – was still fun. We look forward to more from this band, whose second album has been promised to be ‘darker’.

But despite Blakc’s efforts though, 24^th February 2010 will still be remembered for something else.

What happened next? Ah yes, The Works played at Gadda da Vida. Another nice intimate gig (the alleged Tweetup didn’t have the Apple-releasing-new-product effect). Some classic rock from these five gents – ranging from Aerosmith to Deep Purple, and some nice deviations with Elvis and Michael Jackson. ‘Musicman’ Mihir Joshi, the lead vocalist is a showman of the highest order and you couldn’t help but hoping there were more people. Heard the shows at HRC were crazy.

But the highlight – without a doubt were the guitarists Shannon and Partho – the youngest Indians to sign exclusive deals with Gibson (with a B, yes. Stop rubbing your eyes). Shannon was stunning – one of the quickest guitarists I’ve seen so far – pulling off taps, MAB-type over-the-neck fingering with consummate ease. Stunning stuff. Though Mihir tapered off a bit at the high pitches and the guitar tone on some of the songs could have been better, I was fairly impressed with this bunch. Hope they play more, much more.

The gig of week for me was at a venue I’ve never been to before – Hanging Gardens at Malabar Hill. In part of the drive to bring back the ‘bandstand culture’ to Mumbai, bands will be playing here every week. On Saturday, good ol’ jam band Something Relevant played with, surprise surprise, the Mumbai Police Band. The latter started off and played stuff like My Heart Will Go On instrumental (Before you jump to criticise, ask yourself if your metchul heroes can control traffic and fight crime.). They also combined with STR on one of their songs, a fantastic medley.

STR’s always impressed me, with their careful song construction, use of percussion and sax, complex song structure and incredible tightness. Lots of stuff from their new album, Feels Good 2B Live, and to be honest I didn’t catch any of the names of the songs, was just too busy enjoying the music. And the flora of the place. And the fauna. Ahem.

These gigs happen every week, so keep an eye out. Hanging Gardens is a superb venue, and it should be fun to see which bands play there.

Well there you have it. 7 days, 4 gigs (Wish I could’ve made it 5 with Shaiir+Func, but ah). Good fun. I could use more weeks like this.