Gig Review: Galeej Gurus U2 Tribute at HRC B'lore

I’m running through a lot of disappointed emotions while writing this review. I have just way too many negative adjectives running through my mind to put down at the moment. But I've got to start somewhere. I've always been very skeptical about bands doing tributes to other artists. And that’s been with good reason because the handful of the tribute shows that I have been to (especially by desi bands) has bombed. The best tribute show  was about 3 years ago when Thermal and a Quarter did a Dire Straits tribute. But alas, going in with much expectation from the otherwise ‘tight on covers’ Galeej Gurus doing their tribute to U2, from last Thursday had me very disappointed.

Thank the lord for an inebriated audience with a terrible ear... or a more forgiving ear for music. The least one would expect when you’re playing to a somewhat full house of U2 fans, you’d at least get the names of the song right. I’m not even going to mention the somewhat slurring of lyrics because the vocalist (Nathan) was reading off his lyric sheets which made the timing go all over the place.(Oh wait, I did mention it).  While the second vocalist (Ananth Menon) took off on ‘when love comes to town’ (which was the only spot-on song of the evening in my opinion) the rest of the songs had me wondering why wasn't I home reading a good book listening to the original band on my laptop.

 The band clearly had not practiced enough. The fading into songs, the extremely low volume on the bass, the leads which did not match the original song and a whole host of other things made it a very unpleasant evening. I was more intrigued by the drunken girl in the next table who wanted to make out with the band’s drummer because she thought he was cute. She did eventually have to be dragged out because she was disappointed that the drummer had a girlfriend, and was too drunk to accept the fact. (Well that escalated quickly). The fact that I choose to write about this and not the band’s performance is an indication of what the evening was like.

Ananth Menon - When Love Comes to town

The biggest disappointing factor was that I've seen Galeej Gurus do covers before. And they've always been very tight with their performances. The timing, the lyrics, the improvised lead guitar are all normally in place. But this show is something that I wish I can forget easily. My friend who had come along has actually seen U2 live...she’s still in a state of shock.

No stars for Galeej Gurus this time.

Gig Review : 22 Years of Parikrama at HRC Blore

I’m normally very annoyed with the sound set up at the Hard Rock Café in Bangalore. When bands play, the sound bounces off the walls making a complete cacophony of drums, vocals and the typical lead guitarist who feels his volume is just not high enough. But clearly, 22 years of experience has its merits in ensuring such annoyances are fixed. And this might have been the difference when Parikrama played in Bangalore. So it’s clear that with a little bit of work, the acoustics of places like HRC can be conquered giving you top class sound.

Bangalore was part of the 5 city tour that Parikrama have been doing to commemorate their 22 years as a band in the Indian music scene. The band played to a packed house at HRC, where for once the tables had been moved aside allowing room for more people to come in. It also ensured the annoying ‘I will sit through a show’ types are not hogging up real-estate from people looking to dance, jump around and headbang to music.

Playing 'Am I Dreaming?'

The band kicked off their tight 90 minute set with ‘Am I dreaming’ which had the loyalist sing along right through. This was followed by their Donington Park classic ‘Vapourize’. And that was enough to get the packed house head banging and dancing. Parikrama even played some new material which they had written over the last few days; the songs ‘And it’s over now’ and ‘Where I lost the song’ were quite catchy and garnered some cheers from the crowd. The songs were not instantly memorable but had a very good Audioslave sort of groove to them.

A full house

The crowd were given a healthy dose of Parikrama classics that included ‘Xerox’,’But it Rained’,’Tears of the Wizard’ and ‘Open Skies’. I rather enjoyed the 2 covers they played, the first being The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riely’, which was recognized by only a handful of folks in the audience who sang along to the chorus. The second explosive cover was Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’ which began slowly with a violin intro and just morphed into a very Pantera type heavy groove. The crowd simply went nuts during the song.

Thinking," F**k he's loud..."

 The evening ended with the Parikrama classic ‘Whiskey Blues’ which has always been the song that shows off the bands musical prowess with everyone getting into a solo of some sort. If you thought that a tabla, a violin and a harmonica could never come together and do a killer blues song, you've not seen Parikrama.

Ain't no blues without a harmonica

The string section

Parikrama have always been a fantastic live act to watch, and this evening was not disappointing at all. Also, given the super sound setup at HRC this time around, the gig was probably one of the best gigs at this venue I've seen in quite some time. While the band will charge on, here’s hoping HRC can improve the sound they have for live acts.