The Beatles Tribute – Celebrating 40 years of great music at the Hardrock Cafe

Some of the most renowned musicians from down South pay tribute to one of the greatest bands in the history of music (courtesy Rolling Stone Magazine and Jack Daniel’s).

Four decades after the success of the legendary ’ White Album ‘, Rolling Stone Magazine (India), paid a tribute to one of the finest, most ground-breaking acts of their times and ours, the big-daddy’s of music and pop-culture, The Beatles. An eclectic, very talented mix of musicians belting out one hit after another, a rare audience, singing along, cheering, clapping and dancing along to almost every tune and lots of J.D going around — -this one gig was an experience of sorts. And well, calling this an’ experience ’ might seem like an exaggeration to most but I can’t seem to find another word that would fit perfectly enough.

It might sound dismal at first to hear that Luke Kenny hosted the night, but fortunately he didn’t go overboard with the “Rock On Revolution” this time ‘round. Opening the show with their very own rendition of ’ Come Together ‘, vocalist Arjun Thomas seemed to exude an abundance of energy and quite obviously, the audience fed off it. Somehow though, their rendition of the classic was a tad heavy on my ears. Certain tracks should be performed as is, no meddling — -and Come Together is definitely one of them. But it was just this one song that had me a wee-bit disappointed. What followed was something I had least expected. Arjun belted out a couple more of those timeless hits.’ Day Tripper ’ went out to the ladies whereas he created a rather trippy atmosphere with ’ Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds ‘. ’ Twist and Shout ’ saw the most random people (and may I mention, some that had two left -feet as well) jiving to the music and the threshold of the chorus trying a hand or shall I say ’ leg or two ’ at Salsa, Tango and their own, personalized dance-forms as well! In the midst of all this, a guest performance by Suraj Jaggan of Dream Out Loud fame was thrown in for good measure! Raw, grungy and powerful vocals, Suraj successfully pulled off his interpretation of ’ A Hard Days Night ‘. Impressive indeed. Creating a happy, playful vibe was guest artist Shazneen Arethna (ex-Zero and currently No Quarter front-woman) that followed after Suraj.

They affectionately call him ’ Sid ‘. Yes, that’s Siddharth Srinivasan guitarist of the famed, Junkyard Groove and also guitarist for the nights’ performance came on next. Sid has this advantage of connecting with the audience almost instantaneously with his coy, yet open countenance, which when accompanied by him singing ’ Across the Universe ’ seemed to send people into an internal frenzy, much like a trance. Literally speaking, he chanted out the chorus ’ Jai Guru Deva Om’, not with a Brit ” Morning DAH-LING” accent but with the simplicity, softness and originality of his voice. Kavitha Thomas entertained with much ease singing ’ Let It Be ’ amongst others. She also accompanied Priyanka Krishnamohan, singing seconds on a couple of tracks.

Taking stage once again was Arjun, singing and humming on Joe Cocker’s version of ’ With A Little Help From My Friends ’ and ’ Can’t Buy Me Love ’ towards the end. Arjun’s got this innate childish-ness about him that worked really well for the band and him, in this case simply because it helped greatly in avoiding a ’ boring ’ performance.

A ton of other songs were part of the set, Eleanor Rigby, Something, From Me To You, hey Jude etc. but the ones I’ve mentioned earlier genuinely stood out. Not that the others didn’t, just that I enjoyed these the most. Each song was performed with perfection, class and everything that goes into putting up a great Tribute Concert. Also, not intending to take away anything from the female vocalists, I think the band could have very well done without them. Annoying paparazzi were also part of the event but luckily there weren’t Page 3 celebrities promoting their films at the gig. While leaving the Hardrock Cafe, I overheard a girl from the audience say, “Us Bombay people genuinely deserved this gig”. I couldn’t agree more.