Infected Mushroom LIVE at the Blue Frog!

Maybe you think that they are too commercial, maybe you think they are geniuses, or maybe you just haven’t heard of them. Either way it is quite universally accepted that the members of Infected Mushroom are pioneers of the electronic sub genre they represent (I am careful not to brand them as psychedelic because that would short-sell the diversity in their music).

I wasn’t a massive Infected fan before I heard they were coming to Blue Frog in Mumbai. I had heard a couple of their tracks, some fantastic and some decent. I started familiarizing myself with their catalogue and was completely blown away by some of their stuff; the originality, the production, the progressiveness and the virtuosity. It, therefore came as no surprise to me when I later discovered that both of the main members (Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani) had considerable musical training.

I went to Blue Frog early, so I was fortunate enough to catch the opener, DJ V-Shall. Contrary to rumors of his sets usually comprising generic pseudo bollywood remixes, this guy was great; clean, heavy and original.

Infected were greeted with loud cheers and they certainly came on with a bang; I don’t remember the track they started with but they did lead into Cities of The Future, which was great. People were more excited and frenetic than those at any other gig at the Frog I had been to. Infected made sure they played the title track of their most recent record (Legend of The Black Shawarma). That, along with Becoming Insane, Converting Vegetarians and I Wish (which, incidentally they played twice, the second time as part of the Encore) was definitely one of the highlights of their set. The other stand out tracks for me were Special Place and Killing Time.

What impressed me most about the gig was the amount of energy every member of the group had; They played a non stop, close-to two hour set, which is pretty impressive (when I say non stop I mean there wasn’t a single breather; the whole set was one giant piece of music, each song flowing into the next, save for the encore). The two big Mushroom dolls were pretty awesome as well. Along with the visuals, they were congruous with and true to the abstract nature of their music.

Some were visibly disappointed that Suliman and Heavyweight weren’t played, but the majority of the crowd was content with the set. The gig ended sooner than expected (1:30 am) but everyone seemed generally happy. It wasn’t as brilliant as I expected it to be, but it was definitely more than worth the money I paid to see it. I’m sure many will agree with the latter portion of that sentiment given that Infected were sent off with louder screams than the ones that brought them in.